The new iPad mini is good. It'll be great with a software update

Apple's latest product goes on sale today and while it's almost an identical twin to its predecessor on the outside, under the skin the core reason for Apple's update becomes clear - artificial intelligence, or AI.

You won't hear Apple talk about AI because they've set out to own the concept on their devices, calling it Apple Intelligence.

Sadly, while I can tell you I've done some testing of Apple Intelligence in its beta stage, the full system won't be released to Australians until December.

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So, essentially, the product you can buy today is good, but it becomes great down the track with a software update.

Apple's own specifications show very little difference between the previous generation iPad mini and this one; in fact, all we can spot is better support for the Apple Pencil, a tweak to HDR in photographs, upgraded WiFi (to 6E from 6), the Apple Intelligence compatibility and the lack of a NanoSIM card slot - replaced by exclusively eSIM options from this model on.

The Apple Pencil Pro does more than its standard counterpart, with squeeze controls, twist control and a hover function for on-screen controls.

That alone might convince some people to buy it - artists, people who love to sketch and those who like to handwrite notes.

But it's not really a reason to upgrade.

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This is all about performance, and the leap forward from several generations ago is enormous.

The leap forward from just the last generation is impressive.

Putting an iPad with A17 Pro chip in 2024 up against the previous sixth-generation model on some benchmark tests shows that.

For the GPU, it's up from 19,833 to 25,333 GPU Metal Score.

The CPU while the same number of cores jumps to 2709 from 2008 in single-core mode and 6813 from 4890 in multi-core Geekbench testing.

AI compute scores are equally impressive - the Quantised Geekbench AI score leaps from 1074 to 5435.

Bottom line, it's quick.

And all that goes to allow those who love the smaller iPad to get the advantage of Apple Intelligence within their mail, writing and other key apps where Apple Intelligence will shine.

iPad mini with A17 Pro starts at $799 and is $1049 with the 4G/5G option.

Importantly, the base-level memory configuration is higher up from 64GB to 128GB, and there's now a 512GB option also.

It goes on sale today.