Quick review
The good
The not-so-good
Priced from $799, the 2024 iPad Mini stands out by being both mighty and capable, even if it’s the last of the tiny tablets.
If there’s one thing tablets are known for, it’s the ability to take a big screen with you in a portable way.
Most tablets start at the 10 inch mark, and offer just that: a large-ish screen for you to take places. Grab your movies, your shows, your work and your play. Take it all with you in a sizeable device that gives you content consumption to go.
But not everyone wants a tablet that large. If you prefer something more book size, you typically look between the 7 and 8 inch mark, a space where very few tablet makers play. Now that phones are large and foldable phones are eroding this space, compact tablets are becoming less of a thing.
They’re not entirely gone, however, and this year Apple has updated one of the last of its kind. The new iPad Mini isn’t entirely new, but it could be new enough for folks looking for a compact to keep them going.
Design
Apple does tend to go through periods of design change at certain times, but 2024 is not one of them for the iPad Mini, as this year’s edition stays true to what was changed in the 2021 edition.
The adage may well be true: if it ain’t broke, you don’t need to fix it. And that’s exactly what Apple has done here.
Keeping everything largely the same aesthetically, you’ll find the top sports the power button with Touch ID inside, while volume buttons sit on the other side.
The whole design is glass and aluminium as you’d well expect, and it’s basically the same 2021 look and feel with an update on the inside for the processor and some magnets. Officially, Apple has moved a few magnets, much like it did with the iPad Pro this year, and even the most recent iPad Air.
The previous magnetic Apple Pencil is no longer a thing, replaced by the more premium Apple Pencil Pro, which leaves its magnets in a different location and therefore needs a change in devices.
You’d never realise it looking at the tablet, though. The 2024 iPad Mini looks exactly like the 2021 edition.
Features
The differences are on the inside, though they’re small.
Apple has updated the chip from the A15 to the A17 Pro, the WiFi from WiFi 6 to WiFi 6E, and changed the starting amount of storage from 64GB to double it at 128GB. But everything else appears to be the same.
That includes the 12 megapixel camera on the front with Centre Stage, the 12 megapixel camera on the back, the support for Bluetooth and WiFi (though the latter has changed), plus the Touch ID fingerprint sensor and the USB-C at the bottom.
You’ll still find two microphones and stereo speakers in the iPad Mini, all in a tablet weighing 297 grams and measuring 6.3mm thin.
Display
The screen also remains the same, complete with the same tech from last time: an 8.3 inch 2266×1488 display offering the P3 colour gamut and Apple’s True Tone white balancing technology.
Technically there’s one minor change: the Apple Pencil now supports a hover state for that screen. It’s minor, but it is a change.
Other than that, it’s the same compact lovely screen from before, and that’s not a bad thing.
In-use
Use one iPad, you’ve probably used them all, and that is for the most part a good thing. With iOS 18 on the iPad Mini, there are a few changes, though nothing so large that you’ll need to relearn how to use an iPad.
For instance, you now have a calculator on the iPad, and it’s one that can take actual instructions from maths problems written outside the calculator itself. You might want an Apple Pencil Pro for that, and the one catch there is that you will probably need a new Apple Pencil if you want to use that.
There are options, of course, including the USB-C Apple Pencil and third-party variations on a theme, but only the Apple Pencil Pro adheres to the side of the iPad Mini magnetically, not the older Apple Pencil model.
Because of those aforementioned magnet changes, the old magnetic Apple Pencil models don’t work on the 2024 iPad Mini, even if they worked on the model released in 2021.
Outside of the new Pencil, however, using this iPad is the same as using any iPad, only it’s a little bit smaller. Bigger than a phone, but not that much bigger.
Performance
Armed with the same hardware from the iPhone 15 Pro and the iPhone 15 Pro Max, you can expect a reasonable amount of grunt in this year’s iPad Mini.
Comparing generations, the 2024 model clearly has power over its 2021 sibling, but it goes deeper than that.
Glance at the benchmarks across the entire current iPad range as it stands right now — from the 10th-gen standard iPad to the M2 iPad Air and up to the M4 iPad Pro — and it becomes pretty clear this new iPad Mini has the hardware to compete.
We’re not surprised: the A17 Pro used on the 15 Pro/Pro Max models last year was designed to handle high-end games that the standard model iPhone 15s couldn’t do. It meant that last year, there was more reason to consider the Pro models over the standard 15, and not just because the camera and construction was better, either.
The same was true when Apple eventually announced Apple Intelligence, its approach to AI. That feature would only be made available to the iPhone models running the A17 Pro and higher, which basically meant the iPhone 15 Pro and above.
With the release of the 2024 iPad Mini, that feature is now available to almost every iPad variation, with the standard iPad now the only model that misses out. Our guess is that’ll change to either the same chip or the iPhone 16’s A18 by March next year, but for the moment, the iPad Mini is fast, and almost identical to the iPhone 15 Pro variants.
That’s great news because it means the 2024 iPad Mini can handle apps and games aplenty, and for some time, too.
High-end games such as Death Stranding previously announced for the A17 Pro and higher, as well as M1 and above, will work on the compact iPad, making it just that little bit more capable over time.
Battery
Battery life on the 2024 Mini does vary and will depend on what you use it for, but there’s up to roughly nine hours of battery life if you plan on watching video or surfing the web.
Slightly more taxing apps will see that battery life drop, enough for you to say that like your phone, you’ll probably charge the Mini at least once every day or two.
For instance, if you binge a few shows, you may find a nightly charge is preferable. Meanwhile, if you only user the iPad Mini sparingly through the course of a day — if it’s your compact entertainment gadget as you travel to and from work — you might get two or three days of use.
Like your phone, the battery life is very dependent on how you use it. But also like your phone, it doesn’t have as big of a battery to pull from as say larger models of tablet.
Value
The price is where things get a little sticky. It is a premium compact tablet, after all, and one Apple charges a pretty high price for.
In Australia, the iPad Mini starts from $799, making it one of the priciest compact tablets around.
There isn’t a heap of competition in the small tablet space anymore, either. Lenovo has compact budget Android models, while Samsung appears to have left the compact space with its latest range, the smallest being the 10 inch variants of the Galaxy Tab offerings. You might also find the odd option from Laser and Xiaomi, but that is about it.
So there really isn’t much in the way of competition, and Apple largely has the compact tablet space all to itself.
It should therefore come as little surprise to learn the iPad Mini is a premium compact tablet in a space where few other competitors really exist. Apple can really charge as much as it wants.
At $799, the iPad Mini has no equal, delivering more power than the $599 standard iPad, and all in a space designed to be smaller.
Even though the price is up there, it’s not so far up there that the pricing is impossible to understand.
What needs work?
Not much has changed in the iPad Mini, which is both a good and a bad thing.
On the one hand, it’s as compact as it ever was, and sports a faster process in a design that is just as slim and hand-friendly as it ever was.
And yet it still lacks water resistance and the only major change is the chip.
We already know what Apple would say to our “water resistance” commentary: iPhones have water resistance, but iPads don’t. Yep, we get it.
But hear us out: the iPad Mini is meant as a sort of compact content consumption device, much like an eBook reader, and there are plenty of eReaders with water resistance. That would be most of them that aren’t budget models.
Meanwhile, the entire iPhone range is also water resistant, and they’re compact content consumption devices and phones, as well.
We get why the standard iPad isn’t water resistant. We even get why the Air and iPad Pro aren’t. Larger tablets don’t need it.
But the 8.3 inch iPad Mini isn’t much bigger than the 6.9 inch iPhone 16 Pro Max, and the latter of these offers water resistance.
Ironically, Apple’s resistance to waterproofing the iPad Mini unfortunately doesn’t hold water.
Final thoughts (TLDR)
Omission aside, Apple’s compact premium tablet is still a lovely tiny tablet all the same. We wish it was ideal for the bath and pool, but that’s not going to stop us from enjoying our time with the iPad Mini.
Sure, improved durability would make the 2024 iPad Mini better, but it’s not a major issue.
What Apple has delivered in the iPad Mini is an update that will keep the tiny tablet going for some time to come. It has the hardware and grunt inside, even if you’d never know it. And it is lovely and small.
While the price is up there, the 2024 iPad Mini is pint-sized and premium, and about the most perfect little tablet around. Recommended.
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