Prolific Apple analyst and insider Ming-Chi Kuo says Apple is planning a new iPad mini for the end of 2023 or the first half of 2024 that will see a new processor feature as its main upgrade.
In a new leak posted Tuesday, Kuo first took time to quell any rumors that a new foldable iPad would be a replacement for the iPad mini in 2025, stating the price of a folding iPad would be "significantly higher" than the iPad mini.
Kuo then went on to tease a new upgrade for the iPad mini coming at the end of next year.
2023/24 iPad mini
"Apple is currently developing a new iPad mini (the main selling point is to be equipped with a new processor), which is expected to ship in large quantities by the end of 2023 or 1H24," Kuo stated in a tweet on Tuesday.
This seems to indicate we can expect a fairly long wait before Apple's next iPad mini. Apple's current iPad mini was unveiled in September 2021 alongside the iPhone 13. It remains one of the best iPads for portability and ease of use thanks to its size and low price.
In terms of a processor upgrade, the iPad mini currently sports an A15 Bionic chip with a 6-core CPU with 2 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores, a 5-core GPU, and 16-core Neural Engine.
Possible upgrades could include the A16 from the iPhone 14 Pro, or the M1 or M2 chip from Apple's Mac line that has more recently been pushed to both the iPad Pro and the iPad Air.
Given Kuo's timeframe, it seems most likely this iPad could debut in Apple's fall event lineup in 2023, or perhaps at the early spring event in 2024, given the wide range given by Kuo this definitely doesn't seem locked in at this point.
Given a new processor is the "main selling point" of the new iPad mini, it seems unlikely this version will herald any major design changes or groundbreaking new features.
