We've heard rumblings about a new iPad mini coming from Apple for quite a while. The company dropped a news release revealing the next generation of its more portable tablet. Forget the pomp and circumstance of a big event, like the Glowtime one event where the firm unveiled the iPhone 16 series, as Apple chose a quieter method for this one.
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iPad mini (2024) price and availability
Apple elected to drop the iPad mini from seemingly out of nowhere today (October 15), and it's already available for pre-order. If you choose to pre-order the latest smaller Apple tablet, it will be delivered on Wednesday, October 23. It's available in four colors — Blue, Purple, Starlight and Space Gray.
As far as the price, Apple elected to keep the cost the same as 2021's iPad mini, with the most affordable storage options coming in at $499. However, instead of offering the cheapest model with 64GB, Apple has doubled the starting storage to 128GB, which is an excellent value.
If you're looking for a model with cellular, the starting price is quite a bit higher at $649.
iPad mini (2024) specs
The new iPad mini has some respectable specs for a $499 tablet. Apple included an 8.3-inch Liquid Retina display with a 2266 x 1488 resolution. Because the screen is smaller, the pixel density is high at 326 ppi. The screen supports Apple Pencil Pro and Apple Pencil (USB-C) with the Apple Pencil hover feature.
Apple included a respectable A17 Pro chip, which first launched with the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. It's the first widely available SoC built on a 3nm process, but the iPad mini version isn't quite as powerful as the original from the iPhones. It won't rival the iPad Air and Pro with their M-series chips, but it's more than powerful enough for most iPad apps to run smoothly.
For those who don't like using their face to unlock their tablet, Apple included Touch ID.
The battery offers up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi‑Fi or watching video, which is solid for a small device. We'll need to get the iPad mini into the lab to test the battery for ourselves, but 10 hours sounds about right, considering we saw 10:29 on the previous iPad mini.
iPad mini cameras
While tablets are hardly camera-focused devices, the iPad mini makes much more sense as a camera with smaller dimensions.
On the back of the new iPad mini, you'll find a simple 12MP wide camera with an ƒ/1.8 aperture. You can capture 4K video at 24 fps, 25 fps, 30 fps, or 60 fps. Slo-mo video is available at up to 240fps as well.
Flipping to the front, you'll find a 12MP ultra-wide camera with an ƒ/2.4 aperture.
