Jalen Sigh Tech

Verdict

There isn’t a better small tablet on the market than the iPad Mini 7. Apple’s latest dinky slate might not be a huge upgrade if you picked up the previous model, but its fast internals and support for the forthcoming Apple intelligence still make it a worthy buy.

Introduction

Released without much fanfare, the iPad Mini 7 brings Apple Intelligence to the brand’s smallest tablet.

Well, perhaps I should rephrase that – it will bring Apple Intelligence to the brand’s smallest tablet when Apple’s first attempt at AI finally gets its full release later this year.

Even without the shiny new addition, is this the best small tablet around? Or is your money better spent on the cheaper iPad 10, or slightly pricier iPad Air M2?

I have reviewed the iPad Mini 7 without the IOS 18.1 update as this remains in developer beta and will not be available to everyone when this tablet is released. Once Apple Intelligence and the iOS 18.1 update are out, I will update this review.

Design

• Colourful options
• Very light and portable

If you were hoping the iPad Mini 7 would come with a hefty redesign, perhaps taking cues from the ridiculously thin Pro models or the recent best iPhones, then prepare to be disappointed. This is very much the same tablet as before, just with a few new colour options.

Those new colour options include blue, which you can see in the images in this review, and a rejigged purple – both of which are pastel hues that are very much on the light side. I like the blue, but it would be nice if it had more punch like the colour options for the iPhone 16. Starlight and Space Grey remain too.

New colours have been added for the Smart Folio case too, although there’s still no official keyboard case from Apple. The cases come in blue, sage green, grey or purple and sell for £59/$59. The folio cases Apple sold for the iPad Mini 6 will fit too, as the magnet structure around the back remains the same.

The dimensions are exactly the same and the weight is unchanged too: 293g for the Wi-Fi version and 297g for the cellular. It really is as dinky and as portable as a tablet can be and it’s light enough to hold for long reading sessions without feeling any ache in the arm.

This is a perfect tablet to keep in a bag for commutes, or to use as a reading device – reading magazines on this is ideal – as any added weight is barely noticeable and, at least for me, can be used comfortably in one hand.

Apple’s iPad Mini design remains smart, even without a noticeable redesign. I like the flat edges and back, while the lack of plastic – often seen on smaller tablets – gives it a high-end feel. Apple has decided against moving the front camera from the short side to the long side, a change it has made on all of its bigger tablets.

I somewhat understand this decision, as you’re more likely to be using this device in portrait mode and less likely to have it docked in a keyboard stand. The TouchID sensor remains embedded inside the power key on the top and it’s a fast way of getting into the tablet and authenticating payments.

Screen

• 8.3-inch LCD panel
• No ProMotion
• Great for video playback

The iPad Mini 7 is the smallest iPad in Apple’s range, with its 8.3-inch display being a lot smaller than the 10.9-inch panel on the iPad 10.

It’s the same display that was used in the outgoing model, so you’re looking at an IPS panel with P3 colour support, True Tone and a 2266 x 1488 resolution. It has some extras you won’t find on the iPad 10 too, like a fully laminated screen and a good anti-reflective coating.

It’s a solid screen, great in certain instances. It’s great for video, delivering excellent detail and colours that, for LCD, pop nicely. Text is rendered crisply in books, and the brightness can hit around 500 nits – more than enough for comfortable viewing in sunnier situations.

Previous versions of the Mini have been criticised for ‘jelly scroll’ issues, whereby different portions of the screen would refresh at different speeds giving off an odd look. I haven’t noticed this during the review process of the Mini 7, although I will update this review if it becomes an issue.

My only criticism of the display is that Apple has shown how much better its screens can be. OLED and 120Hz ProMotion are common across the iPhone range and Pro iPads; and the inky blacks, superior contrast, smooth scrolling and proper HDR playback available with this panel type can often make it hard to look elsewhere. 

The iPad Mini 7 might have a bigger screen than the iPhone 16 Pro Max, but the visual representation is better on the latter.

Performance

• The A17 Pro chip is mostly the same as found on the iPhone 15 Pro
• 8GB, up from 4GB previously
• 128GB starting storage

The most obvious upgrade for the iPad Mini 7 is the addition of the A17 Pro chipset that powers the small tablet. This is (mostly) the same as the chip found in the iPhone 15 Pro series, and along with offering some extra grunt in performance metrics, it also enables the Apple Intelligence features arriving with iOS 18.1.

The use of an iPhone chip isn’t necessarily new for an iPad, however it’s not something Apple has tended to do recently. The last few iPad upgrades have seen M-series chips used, including the M4 in the recent iPad Pro and M2 in the Air. I had expected Apple to use the M1 here, although considering the previous model used the A15 Bionic it probably should come as no surprise really.

There are numerous benefits to the A17 Pro and it’s a smart chip to use. Not only will it be compatible with Apple Intelligence – these features won’t make their way to the older MIni, or the base iPad – it also supports higher-end gaming features, like ray tracing, and as a result it can play titles like Assassin’s Creed Mirage and Resident Evil Village.

Performance inside these titles, and games in general, is on par with the iPhone 15 Pro – even if the GPU used here has one less core. This is a great little gaming machine, especially when paired with a Bluetooth controller.

General performance is excellent too, as you’d probably expect. Compared to the iPad Mini 6, there’s extra zip when scrolling, apps launch more quickly (although you’ll only notice this if the two devices are side-by-side) and there’s a wider scope to utilise more powerful apps for editing videos and photos.

In our usual suite of benchmarking tests, my real world experiences were confirmed. The iPad Mini 7 scored impressively, matching and outperforming far pricier Android slates in single and multi core tests.

Apple has doubled the RAM too, moving it from 4GB to 8GB. This is the same amount as the base Air and Pro models and is another requirement for Apple intelligence support. The 64GB storage tier has been ditched too, meaning you’ll go straight in at 128GB – with 256GB and 512GB options available too.

Bumping up that internal storage remains pricey though. It’s an extra £100/$100 to move from 128GB to 256GB, and £300/$300 to hit 512GB. Paying £799/$799 for this dinky tablet feels slightly ridiculous, although the option is there if you must have plenty of room for offline content. If you want cellular connectivity, the iPad Mini 7 can cost up to £949/$949.

Another benefit of the new chip is Wi-Fi 6E for those with newer routers, up from Wi-Fi 6 in the previous iPad Mini.

On the back there’s a single 12MP camera with a flash, and around the front there’s another 12MP sensor. The rear camera is fine, although the phone in your pocket is probably better for actual photos. I mainly use the iPad camera for scanning documents to sign and when prompted in AR games.

The front camera performs better, and it’s good for video calls with nice facial detail. The Centre Stage feature is here too, which keeps you in frame as you move around.

Another additional accessory is the Apple Pencil, a stalwart of the iPad series. Two Apple Pencil models are supported here, including the cheaper Apple Pencil USB-C and the pricier Apple Pencil Pro. If you’re upgrading from the previous Mini, or a recent Air, and had an Apple Pencil 2 there, that won’t work. That’s a shame, but it’s a result of the tweaked internal requirements for the Pro stylus.

If you’ve never had an Apple Pencil before, this won’t be an issue as the Apple Pencil Pro and the older Apple Pencil 2 retail for the same £129/$129 price.

I’ve been testing the iPad Mini 7 with the Apple Pencil Pro and it’s the version I’d plump for. You can squeeze the tip to bring up brush options, there’s a haptic response when you press, and even palm rejection to boot. The Apple Pencil USB-C is adequate if all you want to do is write, but it lacks many of the better drawing features.

This small tablet pairs so naturally with a stylus, turning it into a fantastic little notebook or sketchbook. 

Software

• Apple Intelligence features supported
• No Stage Manager
• Years of updates

The big sell for the iPad Mini 7, like the iPhone 16 Pro before it, is Apple Intelligence. Apple’s foray into AI-assisted computing is a massive deal for the company, and there’s clearly been a focus on updating as many products as possible to support it.

The problem is, at the time of writing, Apple Intelligence is only available in developer beta form. If you buy this iPad on release day, the iOS 18.1 software required to run the new features won’t be available, and even when it does arrive (a release date is expected release towards the end of October) it’ll only be in US English (until December at the earliest) and missing many of the tentpole features. If you’re in the EU, a release date could still be a long way off.

Until Apple Intelligence arrives on the iPad and I have been able to test it, I can’t really judge. Instead, I can only really run through what’s coming. Initial Apple Intelligence features include numerous writing tools, including the ability to proofread copy, rewrite it in different tones and summarise it. All nice tools for certain people, although hardly groundbreaking.

Notifications can be summarised into handy bite-sized paragraphs and you can summarise emails too. Again, a neat trick but not one that’ll change how the device is used.

Coming in future updates are improvements to Siri, including its ability to analyse what’s on your screen, and various image creation tools with Image Playground. These latter two aren’t even in beta yet.

What you do get on the iPad Mini 7 is iOS 18, and this remains an excellent OS for smaller tablets like this one. The app selection is great, you can use two apps side-by-side and everything is a little more customisable now. Icons, for instance, can be tweaked to display in various colours and you’re not so rigidly stuck to having pages of icons in a grid.

There’s still no support for Stage Manager and its desktop-like view with resizeable windows, which is still restricted to larger iPads sporting bigger displays. I’d say the 8.3-inch screen is too small for Stage Manager to work well, so even though the chip could probably handle it, it’s a smart omission.

Apple doesn’t promise how many updates any of its devices will get, although considering the iPad Mini 5 – released in 2017 – can handle the iOS 18 update, it’s fair to say the Mini 7 will be supported for years to come.

Battery Life

• Charges via USB-C
• No charger included (in certain regions)
• A full charge in around two hours

I have been reviewing iPads for the past decade, and something very familiar across many of them is battery life. Apple seems to have decided on a number for each model, be it Pro, Air or Mini, and rarely focuses on improving that.

For the Mini, that number is 10 hours of web browsing on Wi-Fi or watching video. Throughout my time testing the iPad Mini 7, this claim has seemed accurate. 

In a video playback test, it lasted closer to 11 hours, although it’s slightly less than 10 if the brightness is on full blast. My use of the smaller Mini varied to that of the larger Pro, as I was less inclined to use it as a laptop replacement so during the review period I didn’t feel like I was ever reaching for the charger at inopportune moments.

Charging is done via USB-C, and you get a nice braided USB-C to USB-C cable in the box. In certain regions, like the UK, there’s no plug adapter included, although this isn’t the case in the USA. It does seem a bit stingy to not include at least a 20w plug, though if you’re upgrading from another USB-C iPad then that plug will work just fine.

Charging speeds have stayed very much the same as before, with a full charge taking just under two hours.

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