You’ve seen the headlines. "Apple's tiniest iPad gets a brain transplant." Or maybe the more cynical take: "The tablet that Apple forgot to actually change."
Honestly? Both are kinda true. The iPad mini gen 7 is a weirdly polarizing piece of glass and aluminum. It arrived in late 2024 with almost no fanfare—just a press release and a "hey, it's here" on the website. No fancy stage presentation. No Steve Jobs-style "one more thing." It just... appeared.
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But here is the thing. Most people looking at the spec sheet are missing the point. They see the same 8.3-inch screen and the same blocky edges and think it's just a recycled iPad mini 6. They aren't exactly wrong about the chassis, but they’re definitely wrong about how this thing feels in the hand.
The A17 Pro: Not Just a Number
Apple shoved the A17 Pro chip into this thing. That’s the same silicon that powered the iPhone 15 Pro. Why does that matter for a tablet? One word: RAM.
The previous mini was constantly gasping for air with 4GB of RAM. The iPad mini gen 7 jumps to 8GB. You might not care about "gigabytes" when you’re just reading a Kindle book, but you will care when you try to use Apple Intelligence. This tablet was built specifically to handle those on-device AI tasks—summarizing emails, cleaning up photos, and the revamped Siri that actually knows what’s happening on your screen.
If you try to do that on an older mini? Good luck. It’s basically a paperweight for the "Intelligence" era.
The Jelly Scrolling Drama
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. Jelly scrolling.
If you aren't a tech nerd, "jelly scrolling" is that annoying wobble where one side of the screen moves slightly faster than the other when you're in portrait mode. It drove people crazy on the 6th gen. Apple claims they "optimized" the display controller for the iPad mini gen 7.
Is it fixed? Sorta.
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I’ve spent hours staring at this screen. If you really hunt for it, you can still see a tiny bit of lag because it's still a 60Hz LCD panel. But in real-world use? It’s basically gone. It feels much more stable. Is it ProMotion 120Hz smooth? No. Don't lie to yourself. But it's no longer a dealbreaker.
Gaming and the "Small Screen" Paradox
There is a specific group of people who swear by the mini: gamers.
The iPad mini gen 7 is basically the best portable gaming console that isn't a Steam Deck. Because of that A17 Pro chip, it supports hardware-accelerated ray tracing. I loaded up Resident Evil Village and Assassin’s Creed Mirage. It’s wild seeing console-level lighting and shadows on a device that fits in a coat pocket.
- Storage starts at 128GB now. Thank god. 64GB was an insult in 2021; it would have been a crime in 2024.
- Wi-Fi 6E support. If you have a modern router, your downloads are going to fly.
- Apple Pencil Pro support. This is the big sleeper hit. The "Squeeze" gesture and haptic feedback make a massive difference if you use this for digital journaling or sketching.
But wait. There’s a catch.
The iPad mini gen 7 does not support the old Apple Pencil 2. If you’re upgrading from a mini 6, your old $129 stylus is now a very expensive stick. You have to buy the Pencil Pro or the cheap USB-C version. Classic Apple.
Real World Battery: The Truth
Apple likes to claim "all-day battery life." That usually translates to about 10 hours of web surfing.
In my testing, the iPad mini gen 7 hits that mark if you’re just browsing Reddit or checking email at 50% brightness. But if you start using the A17 Pro for what it was meant for—like editing 4K video in LumaFusion or playing Death Stranding—that battery percentage starts dropping like a stone. You’re looking at maybe 4 to 5 hours of heavy lifting.
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It’s a small device. It has a small battery. Physics is a jerk like that.
Who is this actually for?
If you have an iPad mini 6 and you don't care about AI, stay put. Honestly. Your tablet is fine.
But if you’re still rocking a mini 5 with the home button? Or if you’re a pilot using ForeFlight? Or a doctor carrying a tablet in a lab coat? The iPad mini gen 7 is a massive leap. The 10Gbps USB-C port alone makes moving files off a camera or external drive twice as fast as before.
It’s also the "value" pick for the first time in a while. Since the base storage doubled to 128GB while the price stayed at $499, you’re technically getting more for your money. That doesn't happen often in Cupertino.
Practical Next Steps
If you're on the fence about the iPad mini gen 7, do these three things:
- Check your current storage usage. If you’re pushing 50GB on your current device, the 128GB base model of the gen 7 will be a breath of fresh air.
- Go to a store and scroll. Seriously. Open Safari on a floor model and scroll fast in portrait mode. If you don't see the "jelly," you're good to go.
- Look at your Pencil. If you own a Pencil 2, factor in an extra $129 for the Pencil Pro, because your old one won't pair.
The iPad mini gen 7 isn't trying to be a laptop replacement. It’s not trying to be a "Pro" device. It's just the best version of the world's best small tablet, finally given enough RAM and power to survive the next five years of software updates.