The new iPad mini is faster and ready for Apple Intelligence

Apple is updating the iPad Mini today, with a fresh new model that’s faster and prepared for Apple Intelligence. 

The iPad Mini (7th gen) is available to pre-order today, with units available in-store and online from next Wednesday. The tablet is priced at A$799 for the Wi-Fi model, and A$1,049 for the 5G model. 

The main addition to the iPad Mini for this 7th gen is the update to the A17 processor, which lays the groundwork for Apple Intelligence – which is set to roll out in Australia in December. The A17 processor brings a faster CPU and GPU Apple says, which includes a 2x faster Neural Engine than the previous-generation iPad mini. 

The tablet will also support the Apple Pencil Pro, which will work with Image Wand, their generative AI app that can transform a rough sketch into a polished image.

The iPad Mini has the same 8.3” Liquid Retina Display as the previous model with the same 12MP UltraWide camera above and 12MP camera on the rear. 

Apple has bumped some specs aside from the processor, including the USB C port, which is two times faster, and the wifi has been beefed up to tri-band Wi-Fi 6E and it now has more baseline storage which now starts at 128GB, but you can also get it with 256GB or 512GB of storage.

Apple has essentially kept the same design for this update to the iPad Mini, though has introduced blue, purple and starlight colourways in addition to the usual space grey.

You can pre-order the iPad Mini through the Apple online store now,