iPAD MINI (2021) IS NOW OFFICIAL

Apple announced the iPad mini 6 alongside the ninth generation iPad during an event on 14 September. The company made the new mini iPad available to order immediately. Apple's iPad mini may have been updated with new internals in 2019 for the fifth generation of the 7.9-inch tablet, but the design remained the same so it hasn't had a refresh in terms of its look for over six years.A new iPad mini is finally here though and it has recieved its long overdue redesign too.

This new 2021 iPad mini sports a slimmer design, upgraded performance, a new edge-to-edge screen, and Touch ID support like that found in the iPad Air.It's available in an array of new colors complemented by matching new Smart Folio cover accessories, and with the iPhone 13's A15 Bionic chip powering it.

FEATURES

• The iPad mini 6 features a new look,
• It supports the superior 2nd Gen Apple Pencil.
• The iPad mini 6 also features an A15 Bionic processor
• The iPad mini 6's front camera has Center Stage.

DESIGN AND DISPLAY

The iPad mini 6 sees the biggest design refresh on the line since 2013. Flatter edges put the smallest iPad in line with the iPhone 12 models, new iMac and iPad Pros - along with narrower bezels and a larger display within the same footprint. 

The iPad mini 6 also moves away from the Touch ID button at the bottom of the display and repositions it to within the power button at the top. It's also got softer rounded corners.The aluminium frame of the new iPad mini measures 195.4 x 134.8 x 6.3mm - which would make it a little shorter and slightly thicker the iPad mini 5 - and it comes in four colours: Space Gray, Pink, Purple and Starlight (gold). It also weighs under 300 grams, making it slightly lighter than the iPad mini 5. 

The iPad mini 6 features an 8.3-inch Liquid Retina display capable of achieving 500 nits of brightness. It also offers wide color support, TrueTone, and an antireflective coating. Plus, it now supports the 2nd generation Apple Pencil, and you can magnetically attach the Pencil to the iPad mini 6 to keep it charged and readily at hand.

POWERED BY A15 BIONIC CHIP 

The Apple iPad mini 6 is powered by the A15 Bionic chip which features a 6-core structure and also offers 5G connectivity.The new iPad mini delivers a 40% improvement in CPU performance and an 80% increase in GPU performance over its predecessor thanks to the A15 Bionic chip driving it. If that sounds familiar, it's because the A15 Bionic is the chip which powers the iPhone 13 lineup.the 2021 iPad mini now sports a USB-C port at the bottom edge rather than Apple's proprietary Lightning port, which should make the device easier to charge.

AUDIO 

The new smaller tablet features two speakers for stereo sound: one at the top edge, one at the bottom. These are stereo speakers on the tablet, which should be useful for people who play music or watch videos without headphones.

CAMERA 

Both the front and rear cameras on the new iPad feature a 12MP sensor, as is standard for Apple it seems. The rear one also comes with a dual-tone flash, to help take better photos in low light conditions. This is aided further by the new ISP and algorithms powered by the A15 Bionic processor. 

The front camera has seen the biggest boost. It features a wider sensor than previous FaceTime cameras on older iPad mini models, and that means Apple has been able to give the new smaller tablet Centre Stage support. 

Centre Stage is an Apple feature that allows the camera to "follow" you as you move around the frame. In essence it's essentially just using a cropping technique to ensure that you stay centre frame, but can also widen the shot if more people join the video call. It'll work for lots of popular video conferencing services too, not just FaceTime. 

5G SUPPORT 

Of course, that 5G support is limited to the Wi-Fi + Cellular version of the tablet, there is - as always - a Wi-Fi only model as well. If you want to use it as a cellular device you can use either a physical Nano-SIM or use

 STORAGE AND iPadOS 15

New iPad mini models below, in both the 64GB and 256GB storage sizes. Note that last time, the mini came in 32GB or 128GB options, so storage is doubled.The new iPad mini will come running iPadOS 15 software, which is Apple's iPad-centric spin on iOS 15.

 BATTERY LIFE

We've yet to find out how big the battery is, but Apple says the new iPad mini (2021) will offer "10 hours of surfing the web on Wi‑Fi or watching video", which is pretty vague. It's unlikely that we'll know much about what the battery can do until we try out the new tablet, but we do know charging is 20W using the USB-C port.

The iPad mini (2021) is a huge upgrade compared to the iPad mini (2019).It's much faster thanks to the A15 Bionic chipset, plus its front camera is much improved for video calls. The latter might not matter to you but you'll appreciate the speed boost.The iPad mini (2021)'s display is also a real winner for a tablet of this size. Cutting down on the bezels substantially makes a big difference and it should be a lot nicer to look at than before, and the slight screen size increase makes no difference to how portable it is.However, the iPad mini (2021) is speedy enough that it should be.