Apple iPad Mini Gets A Powerful A17 Pro Upgrade For Apple Intelligence

Apple today unveiled its latest-generation iPad mini tablet, which is powered by the company's custom A17 Pro silicon. The burlier processor is key to Apple's claim that it's newest iPad mini is "built for Apple Intelligence," though it comes with a caveat—as with the recently launched iPhone 16 lineup (and the previous generation iPhone 15), key Apple Intelligence features will not be available until iOS 18.1 rolls out.

That quibble aside, the iPad mini gets its first real refresh in several years. And while Apple didn't see fit to include its M-series silicon into the newest model, the A17 Pro is a powerful chip—it features a 6-core CPU comprised of a pair of performance cores and four efficiency cores, which Apple says results in a 30% boost in CPU performance, and a 5-core GPU that purportedly improves graphics performance by 25% over the ...