New Apple iPad Mini Looks To AI, With ‘Apple Intelligence’

Apple continues to add artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to its device portfolio, with the launch of its new generation of the iPad mini that includes AI writing tools and an improved Siri assistant.

The long-awaited replacement for Apple’s smallest tablet was announced on Tuesday, and is being touted as delivering “powerful performance, incredible value, and the full iPad experience in an ultraportable design.”

Of course Apple is stating the new iPad mini as being built for ‘Apple Intelligence’, the tech giant’s name for its AI move announced in June that seeks to bring OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot to devices including iPads, iPhones, Vision Pro headsets and Macs later in the year.

Apple iPad mini

The first devices to be Apple Intelligence compatible are the iPhone 15 Pro models, as well as iPhone 16 handsets – although this will only arrive with the iOS 18 update.

Now Apple has said the new iPad mini has been built for Apple Intelligence. The next generation tablet comes with the powerful A17 Pro chip, as well as support for the Apple Pencil Pro.

On the surface, the new iPad mini is available in four finishes, including a new blue and purple, and features a 8.3-inch Liquid Retina display.

Under the hood, Apple says the “A17 Pro delivers a huge performance boost for even the most demanding tasks, with a faster CPU and GPU, a 2x faster Neural Engine than the previous-generation iPad mini, and support for Apple Intelligence.”

The previous iPad mini featured a A15 Bionic processor, but the A17 Pro is a 6-core CPU – two performance cores and four efficiency cores – which allows the A17 Pro to deliver a claimed 30 percent boost in CPU performance.

Apple also says the A17 Pro also brings a boost in graphics performance with a 5-core GPU, delivering a 25 percent jump over the previous generation.

Other features include a 12MP wide back camera that “supports Smart HDR 4 for natural-looking photos with increased dynamic range, and uses machine learning to detect and scan documents right in the Camera app.”

There is also a 12MP Ultra Wide front-facing camera in portrait orientation, with support for Centre Stage.

“There is no other device in the world like iPad mini, beloved for its combination of powerful performance and versatility in our most ultraportable design,” said Bob Borchers, Apple’s VP of Worldwide Product Marketing.

“iPad mini appeals to a wide range of users and has been built for Apple Intelligence, delivering intelligent new features that are powerful, personal, and private,” said Borchers. “With the powerful A17 Pro chip, faster connectivity, and support for Apple Pencil Pro, the new iPad mini delivers the full iPad experience in our most portable design at an incredible value.”

The new iPad mini supports Wi-Fi 6E, while the Wi-Fi + 5G cellular models are geared for those users on the go. Cellular models are activated with eSIM.

Apple claims that the new iPad mini features all-day battery life, with prices starting at just £499 for 128GB (double the storage of the previous generation).

The new iPad mini is also available in 256GB and 512GB storage configurations.

Customers can pre-order the new iPad mini today, with availability beginning Wednesday, 23 October.

AI capabilities

The tech giant said that the first set of Apple Intelligence features will be available in US English this month through a free software update with iPadOS 18.1, and available for iPad with A17 Pro or M1 and later.

The Writing Tools will allow users to refine their words by rewriting, proofreading, and summarising text nearly everywhere they write, including Mail, Notes, Pages, and third-party apps.

Meanwhile Siri is to be more deeply integrated into the system experience and gets a new design with an glowing light that wraps around the edge of the screen when active on iPad. It will offer richer language-understanding capabilities, so that communicating with Siri is more natural and flexible.

Indeed, Apple says that Siri can follow along when users stumble over their words, can maintain context from one request to the next, and now, users can type to Siri.

Siri also has extensive product knowledge to answer questions about features on iPad and other Apple devices.

Apple has also integrated AI with In Photos, so that the Memories feature now enables users to create the movies they want to see by simply typing a description, and with the new Clean Up tool, they can identify and remove distracting objects in the background of a photo – without accidentally altering the subject.

Additional Apple Intelligence features will be rolling out over the next several months, said the tech giant.