The iPad mini (2024) is the latest iteration of Apple’s small tablet, designed for users who prefer convenience. While it retains many familiar features, this model offers key upgrades, most notably the A17 Pro chip and support for Apple Intelligence. The iPad mini aims to strike a balance between compact design and powerful performance, to suit users who find larger tablets inconvenient.
Design
The iPad mini (2024) maintains a design similar to the previous generation, featuring a large piece of glass set in an aluminum frame with rounded corners and flat side edges. The design is simple yet high-quality. Dimensions are 7.69 x 5.30 x 0.25 inches (length x width x thickness), and it weighs 0.65 pounds, making it the most portable device. It is available in four colors: blue, purple, space gray, or starlight. The device features a built-in power/Touch ID button on one of the short edges. The design includes a USB-C port on the opposite short edge along with the speaker slot. The physical SIM tray has been removed in favor of eSIM. The camera module with a single lens, microphone, and flash is located in the upper left corner of the back panel.
Display
The iPad mini features an 8.3-inch Liquid Retina display with a resolution of 2266 x 1488 pixels, resulting in a pixel density of 326ppi. This is sharper than other iPad displays, which have a pixel density of 264ppi. The display includes advanced technologies such as P3 wide color, True Tone, and ultra-low reflectivity. The display is fully laminated and has anti-reflective coatings that are fingerprint-resistant. It has a brightness of 500 nits when displaying SDR content. The display has a standard 60Hz refresh rate, and does not have the variable ProMotion refresh rate found on the iPad Pro. Although the jelly scrolling issue from the previous model is still present, it is less severe.
Performance
The iPad mini 2024 is powered by the Apple A17 Pro processor, which is also used in the iPhone 15 Pro lineup. The A17 Pro uses a 3nm manufacturing process with a six-core architecture, including two performance cores and four efficiency cores. The top core clocks at 3.77GHz. It also includes a five-core GPU and a 16-core NPU (Neural Engine), which is crucial for Apple Intelligence. The iPad mini has been upgraded from 4GB to 8GB of storage. In the Geekbench 6 test, it achieved a single-core score of 2,972 and a multi-core score of 7,362. In the AnTuTu test, it scored 1,551,685. As for GPU performance, it reached 3,109 frames at 18.6fps in 3DMark. The tablet’s performance is an improvement over older models, making it suitable for web browsing, gaming, productivity, and media streaming.
iPad Gaming Performance
The A17 Pro chip delivers decent gaming performance, but it falls short of the M2 and M4 chips in the iPad Air and Pro, respectively. The 3DMark test showed the mini achieving 3,109 frames per second at 18.6 fps. While it can handle most games, it’s not the most powerful gaming tablet in Apple’s lineup.
Camera
The iPad mini has a 12-megapixel wide-angle rear camera with an f/1.8 aperture, 5x digital zoom, Smart HDR 4 processing, and True Tone flash. The front camera is a 12-megapixel ultra-wide camera with an f/2.4 aperture, 2x digital zoom, and Retina flash with True Tone. The rear camera supports video capture at up to 4K at 60 fps with 3x zoom, slow-mo, and time-lapse, while the front camera is limited to 1080p at 60 fps with cinematic video stabilization. The selfie camera remains centered on the short edge, which isn’t ideal for video calls when the device is held in landscape mode.
Camera advantages and disadvantages
Accurate colors, sharp focus, usable for general video capture. It has the best camera system of any 8-inch tablet. But the selfie camera is still on the short edge, which isn’t ideal for video chats in landscape mode. The front camera can make selfies look too sharp. Doesn’t support the Pro Res capabilities found on the iPad Pro.
Memory
The iPad mini is available in three storage options: 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB. All models have 8GB of RAM.
Connectivity
The iPad mini features several connectivity upgrades, including Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi 6E, and a 5G model with sub-6GHz support. In testing, the device reached 5G download speeds of 385Mbps and upload speeds of 128Mbps. For Wi-Fi, it recorded 564 Mbps download and 122 Mbps upload when near a 1 Gbps router. The device also has GPS/GNSS radios for location services.
Battery
Apple claims that the iPad mini offers up to 10 hours of web browsing or video playback over Wi-Fi. In tests, the tablet lasted 7 hours and 23 minutes streaming HD video over Wi-Fi with the screen set to maximum brightness. The device charges via USB-C and includes a 20W charger and a braided USB-C cable. A full charge from 0% to 100% using the included charger takes 1 hour and 50 minutes.
Audio
The iPad mini has stereo speakers on each short edge, which are most effective when the tablet is held in landscape mode. The sound is balanced, with clear highs and mids, but the bass may not have much depth. The device can reach 90.0 decibels, which is suitable for filling a small room.
Operating system and Apple Intelligence
The iPad mini ships with iPadOS 18 and must be updated to iPadOS 18.1 to access Apple Intelligence features. Key features of Apple Intelligence include writing tools for adjusting tone, summarizing, and smart replies, improved Siri, improvements to photos with object removal and natural language search, and changes to Apple Mail and Messages. These features are comparable to those found in the iPad Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. However, the iPad mini does not have the multitasking tool Stage Manager.
Apple Pencil
The iPad mini supports Apple Pencil Pro and Apple Pencil USB-C. This includes tap to select, barrel rotation to rotate the pen tips, haptic feedback, hover, Find My support, and free engraving. The iPad mini’s small size makes it ideal for note-taking, and the Apple Pencil enhances this functionality. There is no first-party keyboard accessory available.
Conclusion
The iPad mini (2024) is an ultra-rugged, ultra-portable tablet that takes great advantage of the A17 Pro chip and Apple Intelligence support. It’s an ideal travel companion and is suitable for note-taking and entertainment. However, it does suffer from some drawbacks, including the lack of a major design revision and the placement of the selfie camera. The standard iPad is a better option for casual users looking for a more affordable tablet, while students and creatives should consider the more powerful and productive iPad Air. The iPad mini remains a solid choice for those who prefer its compact size and features.
iPad Mini 2024 Price in 2025
US flag price in US dollars $ 500
Egypt flag price in Egypt 24,635 pounds
Saudi flag price in Saudi Arabia 1,875 riyals
UAE flag price in UAE 1,835 dirhams
Qatar flag price in Qatar 1,820 riyals
Kuwait flag price in Kuwait 150 dinars
Iraq flag price in Iraq 655,000 dinars
Algerian flag price in Algeria 66,500 dinars
Moroccan flag price in Morocco 4,940 dirhams
Jordan flag price in Jordan 350 dinars
