While last year’s Apple iPad mini 3 was seen as an incremental update to the previous model, adding only a new gold color option and Touch ID, this year’s iPad mini – dubbed the ‘iPad mini 4’ by many – may be getting a significant performance boost in addition to a slimmer body.

According to 9to5Mac’s Mark Gurman, the iPad mini 4 might get improved hardware to handle the new split-view feature coming in iOS 9. The assumption is based on developer Hamza Sood’s discovery of support for the feature on an iPad mini 3 in the beta for Mac OS X El Capitan, Apple’s next iteration of its Mac operating system.

The beta is also said to contain a tool that allows developers to test split-screen website designs in Safari running on an iPad mini 3.

For those not in the know, split-screen view in iOS 9 is one of the new multitasking features Apple introduced at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in June and will allow iPad users to view two apps side by side on the same screen and interact with both apps as per normal.

Since the iPad mini 3’s A7 chip does not allow it to support split-screen mode, Gurman and Sood thinks Apple has a new iPad mini (the iPad mini 4) in the works that will have the necessary hardware to support the feature.

Currently the only iPad that will support split-screen mode when iOS 9 rolls out in September is the iPad Air 2 with its more powerful A8x chip and 2GB of RAM.

Considering the requirements set by the iPad Air 2, the iPad mini 4 may also feature Apple’s A8x chip with 2GB of RAM.

In addition to a more powerful processor and increased RAM, the iPad mini 4 is rumored to come with an 8 megapixel iSight camera, a thinner design equivalent to the iPad Air 2 at just 6.1 millimeters, a fully laminated gapless screen with anti-reflective coating.

Should these rumors prove accurate, the iPad mini 4 will truly be a smaller-screen version of the iPad Air 2 – something its predecessor, the iPad mini 3, failed to deliver on.

Rumors suggest Apple’s annual fall launch event will take place on September 9 and we may see the company announce new iPads alongside this year’s new iPhones, the rumored iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.

Image via Apple.com