Apple leak reveals a new iPad mini could be coming at last

Apple recently held its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in June but unlike the last couple of years, there was no hardware revealed at the event. Instead, we saw a new iPad Air and iPad Pro announced a matter of weeks prior to the conference.

WWDC was then free to focus on Apple Intelligence, along with the upcoming software updates for iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch, Mac and Vision Pro.

It looks like it won't be the end of the hardware story for iPad this year however, and the software announced during WWDC could have not one, but at least two fresh iPads to present itself on before the year is out. 

A recent leak on X from @aaronp613 – the same source who suggested there would be four iPhone 16 models all arriving on the same A18 chip – has highlighted identifiers suggesting three new iPads are in the works, including a new iPad mini... at last! 

The iPad mini was last updated in 2021 and it currently runs on the A15 Bionic chip, which is the same as what you will find under the hood of the iPhone 13 devices. It remains a perfectly capable tablet, but it won't support Apple Intelligence when that arrives later this year.

A power upgrade to support Apple's AI efforts would therefore make complete sense – and it's something that has been suggested previously too. 

According to the leak, which was picked up by iMore, the new iPad mini will come in Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi and Cellular models as it does now, and it is said to be running on the A17 Bionic processor.

It is not clear if that's the A17 Pro chip that is currently under the hood of the Apple iPhone 15 Pro, but if it is, Apple Intelligence should be supported.

No further information was offered about the iPad mini in the leak, though there were also references to an 11th generation iPad running the A16 Bionic chip, along with a new iPad Pro with an M5 chip. The latter is quite surprising given the iPad Pro (M4) isn't even three months old, but there's nothing to say that model is happening this year. 

The next Apple event is likely to be in September where iPhone and Apple Watch are typically refreshed, and that has occasionally been followed by an October event where Mac and iPad get some love.

We would therefore expect the iPad mini 7 and iPad 11 to arrive towards the end of the year rather than imminently, but hey, you never know. As far as a new iPad mini goes though, we are all for this.