Apple has just launched its latest iPad mini with a notable set of upgrades, including an OLED screen, improved speakers, and a more resilient build. It also gets a new chip, and the whole package costs $200 more than its predecessor. But if you look closely at Apple’s online store, you’ll realize that $699 isn’t enough to get you the most powerful version of the A20 Pro chip inside this tablet. In fact, even if you pay $800 for the 256GB model, you still won’t get the beefiest variant. Only when you jump to the 512GB trim, which costs an absurd $999, do you get the most powerful flavor of the A20 Pro.
The $999 model gets more than extra storage
The 128GB and 256GB models get an A20 Pro with a 5-core CPU, a 7-core GPU, and a 16-core Neural Engine. The 512GB model adds one extra CPU core, so you get a 6-core CPU, a 7-core GPU, and not one but two 16-core Neural Engine units, supposedly for faster on-device AI processing. And that’s just the Wi-Fi-only version. If you want all the bells and whistles, you’ll have to pay an extra $100 for nano-texture glass and a steep $250 for cellular connectivity. That brings the bill for the top-end iPad mini to $1,250. For that price, you could get an iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil, or an iPad Air with a Magic Keyboard.
Apple has played this game before
This won’t be the first time Apple has reserved the most powerful version of a chip for pricier configurations. It has done the same with the iPad Pro and, more notably, with its Macs. Take the baseline MacBook Air with the M5 chip, which comes in two versions. The entry-level model, which starts at $1,299, gets you a 10-core CPU and an 8-core GPU. Spend an extra $100, and you get the more powerful version with a 10-core GPU. And that’s before you even factor in the cost of upgrading the RAM and storage.
