Home Apple annouces new iPad Mini prepped for the future of AI

Apple annouces new iPad Mini prepped for the future of AI

TLDR

  • Apple has announced the new iPad Mini, featuring an A17 Pro chip .
  • Available for pre-order starting today, the updated iPad Mini begins at $499 for 128GB.
  • Apple Intelligence features include Writing Tools for refining text, improved Siri integration, and AI-driven photo enhancement.

Apple’s newly-announced iPad Mini is well-prepared to grow with AI, featuring an A17 Pro chip and support for the company’s new Apple Intelligence system.

Geared towards AI and portability, Apple has now announced the next generation of the iPad Mini, complete with a new chip and integration with Apple Intelligence. Despite boosting its AI performance, it stays compact with an 8.3-inch design.

The new model will be available in four colors, including new-to-Apple blue and purple options. The updated iPad Mini starts from $499 for 128GB of storage (double the minimum storage of the previous generation) and with Wi-Fi and $649 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model, coming in both 256GB and 512GB configurations.

Pre-orders begin today, with availability starting October 23. A new Smart Folio, available in charcoal gray, light violet, denim, and sage, is also available for $59.

The chip upgrade results in a 30% boost in CPU performance 25% increase in GPU performance when compared to the generation before.

As well as integrating with Apple Intelligence, the iPad Mini also has wider support across other Apple tools, including the Pencil Pro, as well as Wi-Fi 6E support, faster USB-C data transfer, and an upgraded 12MP wide camera with Smart HDR 4.

The pencil support means pressure sensitivity, haptic feedback, and gesture controls but also means the latest Apple Intelligence features, like improved writing tools, image generation, and task automation, will be available on the next generation of iPad Mini.

What is Apple Intelligence?

The first wave of Apple Intelligence features will be available from October onwards with a gradual rollout in US English via the software update, iPadOS 18.1.

Some of the initial features include Writing Tools, where users can refine their writing across Apple apps like Mail, Notes, Pages, and some third-party apps, a more integrated Siri across internal systems (with richer language-understanding capabilities), and tools in Photos like Memories, where users can create movies with text-based prompts, and the new Clean Up tool, where people can identify and remove distracting objects in the background of a photo.

Future plans for Apple Intelligence include integration with ChatGPT, Image Wand, where the Pencil can transform a rough sketch into a polished image, and Siri able to draw on a user’s personal history to better inform its responses.

Featured image: Apple

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Rachael Davies
Tech Journalist

Rachael Davies has spent six years reporting on tech and entertainment, writing for publications like the Evening Standard, Huffington Post, Dazed, and more. From niche topics like the latest gaming mods to consumer-faced guides on the latest tech, she puts her MA in Convergent Journalism to work, following avenues guided by a variety of interests. As well as writing, she also has experience in editing as the UK Editor of The Mary Sue , as well as speaking on the important of SEO in journalism at the Student Press Association National Conference. You can find her full portfolio over on…

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