iPad mini (A17 Pro) Review: Small iPad, smaller upgrade

I’m at a crossroads with the new iPad mini. There isn’t much bad to say about it, but I can’t help feeling a little disappointed that the new A17 iPad mini didn’t get many of the upgrades I was hoping this generation would deliver. A new screen with better lamination and an M-series chip would have gone a long way toward justifying the tablet’s $679 price tag.

Instead, we got a new chip that’s capable of Apple Intelligence, and without a doubt, runs iPadOS smoother than the old model. There’s also a faster Wi-Fi modem that makes downloads much snappier, and that’s about it. There are some subtle upgrades, but most of it is pretty unnoticeable when the new and old minis are side-by-side.

I don’t want to be misconstrued, there’s nothing wrong with the new iPad mini. I use my 2021 mini a ton, and I love it. But the mini’s price tag and how it stacks up to the other iPads in the lineup feel strangely like Apple is pushing people away from buying it, even though, in my experience, it’s the iPad people want the most. As a secondary computer, the mini form factor is pretty much perfect. But the fact that it’s so small and so expensive compared to the regular iPad makes me wish that Apple would either bump it up a few notches in quality and make it a small iPad Air, or bump its price down to make it a tiny regular iPad.

All of that said, since 2021 the iPad mini is the one I use the most. I travel with it everywhere because it’s super portable and perfect for reading or watching movies. It may not be substantially larger than the iPhone 16 Pro Max, but it’s big enough that watching movies is possible without holding it close to your face, and it allows webpages to load much larger, so it doesn’t feel like you’re using a big phone, instead, it feels more like a small computer in a great way. There have even been some work events that didn’t let me bring a bag or a computer, but being able to shove the iPad mini in my back pocket and use it to write on instead of my phone was wonderful. I assume I’ll use this new one just as much, but for my purposes, since the screen is the same, I have no real reason to upgrade.

What’s new

Undoubtedly, the A17 Pro chip is faster than the 2021 iPad mini’s A13 Bionic. It runs all the iPad tasks I need with ease from photo editing to web browsing, it’s quick and powerful. I even found that while the refresh rate of the screen didn’t go up, the more powerful chip system helps the tablet stay at a more consistent 60Hz, which helps it feel a little smoother than the old model. That said, it’s so subtle that for most, it will be unnoticeable, and the screen is still not tuned very tightly, so there is more ghosting than there should be for a tablet in this price range. It also only goes up to 500 nits, which is fine for most situations, but since it’s so little, I find myself using it outside more, and in the sun, a few hundred more nits would be pretty helpful.

The new chip runs most iPad games and heavy-duty apps with ease, but it struggles to play AAA games like Assassin’s Creed Mirage and Resident Evil 4. Admittedly, this is pretty niche, but if Apple is only going to upgrade the iPad mini every three years, it’s pretty disappointing that this model can barely play big-name games. When I was trying to play AC, it was freezing and dropping frames constantly, which mirrors my experience using the A17 Pro chip with my iPhone 15 Pro.

The other limitation of the chip being from an iPhone means that you can’t connect your iPad to a monitor and use it with Stage Manager. This is also a niche thing, but it would be nice to be able to use the mini as a computer as well as a tablet. It has the power, but only iPads with M-chips get the privilege of being a “desktop computer” for lack of a better descriptor. The new Wi-Fi 6E modem is really great, and when I was downloading movies to it for my vacation, it was blazing fast, but I never found the 2021 iPad mini to be too slow, so I wouldn’t call this upgrade worth buying a new iPad for.

The A17 Pro mini also works with Apple’s newer styluses, the Pencil Pro and the USB-C Pencil, but since it hasn’t changed the design or moved the front-facing camera, it’s again disappointing that the mini won’t work with the Apple Pencil 2, meaning anyone that’s upgrading from the 2021 mini and uses a stylus will need a new one. I understand that, Apple is moving all the iPads over to its two latest pencils, but they still sell all four pencils in the store, and even the employees are confused about which one works with which. A friend called me a few days ago asking why his new pencil doesn’t work with his new iPad. He bought an M4 iPad Pro, and the Apple Store employee sold him an Apple Pencil 2 to go with it. Then, when he called support, they told him the pencil must be broken and sent him another Apple Pencil 2 to replace it. What he actually needed was a Pencil Pro or USB-C Pencil, but he shouldn’t have to call a professional reviewer to figure that out.

When I tested the mini with my Pencil Pro, it worked well and supported the hover functionality. However, I still dislike the USB-C Pencil because you have to plug it in so often, which really removes some of the magic of the Pencil 2. I’m also skeptical that many people will need the power of the Pencil Pro on this tablet since most artists will likely have a larger iPad to draw on anyway.

Conclusion

Overall, it’s a good iPad. As an iPad user, I love it. It’s my favourite Apple tablet because I like portable tablets and I only use them for light work and watching movies. It’s a great little content machine, but the price-to-performance ratio is not what I want to see as a reviewer. At this budget it should have a better screen, it’s a fine display, but next to the iPad Air or a modern iPhone, it feels like Apple should have worked harder to make this model a little better.

I also wish Apple would start making iPads with an IP water resistance rating. I would love to use the mini to read in a pool or have it up in my canoe as a map when I go camping. But since the water will kill it, I have to keep it packed in my waterproof bag, and it only comes out at night if I want to watch a movie. To rub salt in the wound, Apple removed the SIM card slot, which you would think would lend itself to helping the device be waterproof.

It is nice that the company upgraded it enough to support Apple Intelligence, but since most people use the mini for pretty targeted tasks, there is a lot there that will likely go unnoticed. And like the iPhone 16 series, most of the AI software isn’t out yet and won’t come to Canada for another month after the U.S. (unless you change your device’s region to USA English).

I can’t hate this iPad mini that much. I easily used my old one enough over the last three years to justify its price tag, but it would have been nice for Apple to upgrade the screen more since that’s the main aspect people interact with.

The A17 Pro iPad mini costs $679 and now starts with 128GB of storage.