Original iPad Mini From 2012 Now Considered 'Vintage' by Apple

Apple today updated its list of Vintage and Obsolete products to add the original 7.9-inch iPad mini, which was first released in 2012.

ipadmini2
Apple's vintage products list includes devices that have not been sold for more than five and less than seven years ago, while the obsolete list includes products whose sales were discontinued more than seven years ago.

Devices on the vintage list are able to continue to receive hardware service from Apple and Apple service providers, subject to the availability of repair components and where required by law. Obsolete products, meanwhile, have no hardware service available with no exceptions.

The first ‌iPad mini‌, Apple's smallest tablet released to date, was replaced in 2013 when the second-generation ‌iPad mini‌ was released, but Apple continued to sell it until 2015. Since then, there have been third, fourth, and fifth-generation ‌iPad mini‌ models made available, with a sixth-generation version with a mini-LED display said to be coming in the not too distant future.

Apple's original ‌iPad mini‌ featured an A5 chip, 512MB RAM, up to 64GB of storage, and a 1024 x 768 display, which was not considered Retina. The ‌iPad mini‌ has not seen many design changes since it was launched, and the current release version continues to feature thick bezels and a Touch ID Home button.

In addition to adding the original ‌iPad mini‌ to the vintage list, Apple today also added the late 2011 21.5-inch iMac to its obsolete list.

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in Three Months With These 12 New Features

Saturday June 14, 2025 5:45 pm PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of June 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14 Pro have a...
iPadOS 26 App Windowing

Apple Explains Why iPads Don't Just Run macOS

Friday June 13, 2025 7:46 am PDT by
iPadOS 26 allows iPads to function much more like Macs, with a new app windowing system, a swipe-down menu bar at the top of the screen, and more. However, Apple has stopped short of allowing iPads to run macOS, and it has now explained why. In an interview this week with Swiss tech journalist Rafael Zeier, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi said that iPadOS 26's new Mac-like ...
Logitech Logo Feature

Logitech Announces Two New Accessories for WWDC

Friday June 13, 2025 7:22 am PDT by
Alongside WWDC this week, Logitech announced notable new accessories for the iPad and Apple Vision Pro. The Logitech Muse is a spatially-tracked stylus developed for use with the Apple Vision Pro. Introduced during the WWDC 2025 keynote address, Muse is intended to support the next generation of spatial computing workflows enabled by visionOS 26. The device incorporates six degrees of...
iphone 16 pro models 1

17 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 17

Thursday June 12, 2025 8:58 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you skipped the iPhone...
iOS 26 Feature

Apple Seeds Revised iOS 26 Developer Beta to Fix Battery Issue

Friday June 13, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple today provided developers with a revised version of the first iOS 26 beta for testing purposes. The update is only available for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 models, so if you're running iOS 26 on an iPhone 14 or earlier, you won't see the revised beta. Registered developers can download the new beta software through the Settings app on each device. The revised beta addresses an...
Mac Studio Feature

Apple Begins Selling Refurbished Mac Studio With M4 Max and M3 Ultra Chips at a Discount

Thursday June 12, 2025 10:14 am PDT by
Apple today added Mac Studio models with M4 Max and M3 Ultra chips to its online certified refurbished store in the United States, Canada, Japan, Singapore, and many European countries, for the first time since they were released in March. As usual for refurbished Macs, prices are discounted by approximately 15% compared to the equivalent new models on Apple's online store. Note that Apple's ...
m4 macbook air pink

Apple Now Selling Refurbished M4 MacBook Air Models

Friday June 13, 2025 3:34 pm PDT by
Apple today added M4 MacBook Air models to its refurbished store in the United States, making the latest MacBook Air devices available at a discounted price for the first time since they launched earlier this year. Both 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air models are available, with Apple offering multiple capacities and configurations. The refurbished devices are discounted by approximately 15...

Top Rated Comments

TheAustrianGuy Avatar
64 months ago
512GB RAM? Wow!
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MacFather Avatar
64 months ago
Still using the original mini with iOS 6.1.3 on it, mainly for Spotify. The old UI is so much better than the current one.

Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ignatius345 Avatar
64 months ago

It was unofficially classified as ‘useless’ a long time ago.
Except by all the people in this very thread who have listed specific uses for it.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
FSMBP Avatar
64 months ago

512GB RAM? Wow!
Yeah, you could have 299 tabs in Safari open at once (kind like my grandma inadvertently keeps doing) :P
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MacFather Avatar
64 months ago
The original iPad mini from 2012 has slimmer top and bottom bezels than the 2019 5th Generation. What a shame.

Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ignatius345 Avatar
64 months ago

The iPad mini has not seen many design changes since it was launched, and the current release version continues to feature thick bezels and a Touch ID Home button.

Jesus, calm down about the bezels. It's a tablet. You need somewhere to hold onto it that isn't an active touch surface.

TouchID still works quite nicely, thanks, in the dark and at any device orientation. And if it contributes to a lower cost for the device in question, I'm all for it.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)