Apple A17 Pro chip is the star of the first iPad mini update in three years

Refreshed tablet supports Apple Pencil Pro, starts at $499 for 128GB.

Apple quietly announced a new version of its iPad mini tablet via press release this morning, the tablet's first update since 2021.

The seventh-generation iPad mini looks mostly identical to the sixth-generation version, with a power-button-mounted Touch ID sensor and a slim-bezeled display. But Apple has swapped out the A15 Bionic chip for the Apple A17 Pro, the same processor it used in the iPhone 15 Pro last year.

The new iPad mini is available for preorder now and starts at $499 for 128GB (an upgrade over the previous base model's 64GB of storage). 256GB and 512GB versions are available for $599 and $799, and cellular connectivity is an additional $150 on top of any of those prices.

Apple says the A17 Pro's CPU performance is 30 percent faster than the A15's and that its GPU performance is 25 percent faster (in addition to supporting hardware-accelerated ray tracing). But the biggest improvement will be an increase in RAM—the A17 Pro comes with 8GB instead of the A15's 4GB, which appears to be Apple's floor for the new Apple Intelligence AI features. The new iPad mini will be the only iPad mini capable of supporting Apple Intelligence, which will begin rolling out with the iPadOS 18.1 update within the next few weeks.

Other hardware upgrades are more marginal. All models upgrade from Wi-Fi 6 to Wi-Fi 6E, and the USB-C port now supports 10Gbps data transfers instead of topping out at 5Gbps. The 12 MP rear camera is the same resolution as the previous model, though it should benefit from any marginal improvements to the image signal processor in the A17.

Like the iPad Pro and iPad Air refreshes earlier this year, the new iPad mini will only work with either the Apple Pencil Pro or the cheaper USB-C Apple Pencil, not the first- or second-generation Apple Pencils.

Reliable rumors indicate that this won't quite be Apple's last hardware refresh of the year—we're also due for the first wave of M4 Macs, which are said to be launching in early November following an announcement at the end of the month.

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