Apple’s iPad Air that was launched in 2020 was a game changer for the Apple iPad. It marked a shift for Apple’s product direction. It is Apple’s first mobile based device that features a USB Type-C port instead of the regular Lightning port.
The move to USB Type-C is a welcome change for users. It is also another door for whole new possibilities for the Apple iPad ecosystem. The availability of USB Type-C now allows Apple to develop even faster charging devices too for the Apple iPad ecosystem. But before the Apple event launch yesterday, the only Apple mobile device that sports the USB Type-C port is only the Apple iPad Air.
There is a new USB Type-C device in Apple’s stables though. The new iPad mini is finally refreshed and is a lot more powerful than before. It features the highly requested USB Type-C port.
The iPad mini share plenty of similarities to the iPad Air launched in 2020 though. It is void of any physical button on the display plane, for example. The Touch ID button is now integrated with its power button on the top right corner of the device. That also allows the display to occupy a larger real estate on the device.
The 8.3-inch display is a Liquid Retina panel that boasts 500 nits in brightness. It is also a highly accurate display with P3 wide colour gamut coverage. To ensure that you get the best experience in any lighting conditions, True Tone technology on the display will adjust its colour profile based on the lighting conditions in your environment.
The Apple iPad mini now supports Apple’s 2nd generation Pencil which attaches to the iPad Mini magnetically. At the same time, the Apple Pencil will be wirelessly charged while attached to the iPad mini. Of course, with the 2nd generation Apple Pencil, the iPad Mini becomes a completely different workhorse.
Power comes in the form of Apple’s latest A15 Bionic chip, the same one you find on the Apple iPhone 13 Pro. That also means you get a combination of two high-performance cores and four low-power cores for a total of six cores from the 5nm system on a Chip (SoC). With five dedicated GPU cores, the new A15 Bionic delivers 80% more graphical performance compared to the older iPad mini the 2021 variant replaces. At the same time, the dedicated 16-core Neural Engine and new Machine Learning (ML) accelerators offers twice the ML performance of the older iPad mini. That also means that Siri on the Apple iPad mini is more powerful than ever.
The rear camera is now a 12-Megapixel sensor. No, it ends there. There is only one camera out the back of the iPad mini that is paired to a True Tone LED flash. Clearly the iPad mini is not made for photography.
It is made to be a productive machine that you can work remotely with though. The compact iPad features a 12-Megapixel ultra-wide sensor out the front of the device. That allows Apple to inherit the Center Stage technology from the iPad Pro devices. The ultra-wide sensor allows for a larger frame, but at the same time, with the clever AI engine on the A15 Bionic SoC, the camera can cleverly focus on you, zoom in and out of scenes to include more users to be in the frame, and even for users to scale in and out of video calls. The feature is also now supported on Zoom, BlueJeans, and Cisco’s Webex apps.
The iPadOS 15 powered Apple iPad mini for 2021 will be available in 28 countries, including the United States (US) from 24th September 2021. The iPad mini for 2021/2022 should be available in Malaysia October 2021 onward. it will be available in two storage options – 64GB and 256GB options. You can choose between Space Grey, Pink, Purple, and Starlight colour options. The Apple iPad mini will set you back US$ 499 (MYR 2,299*) onward for the WiFi only version and US$ 649 (MYR 2,949*) onward for the WiFi + Cellular variant. More on the Apple iPad mini for 2021/2022 can be found on their website.
* Approximately based on exchange rate of US$ 1 = MYR 4.16 on xe.com as of 16/09/2021