Apple watchers predicted something like this: The company is ending October with a triple-whammy of new products, starting with its newly introduced iPad mini with OLED display. The rest of the week is expected to feature new Macs, specifically an M6 MacBook Pro and iMac and Apple’s first touchscreen MacBook Pro.
There’s no disputing how popular the iPad mini has become among some business users. Professionals use it as a digital notebook, many use it as a second display for their Mac, and some industries, particularly logistics, hospitality and field services, make extensive use of these things.
If you want something smaller and lighter than a full-weight iPad, the iPad mini fills the gap, though its high build-quality means it comes at a price — starting at $699 with 128GB storage. That’s up from the $599 price tag on the previous model. Thanks to RAMaggedon, it’s the second price hike so far this year: two years ago, the device held a $499 starting price.
The new 256GB model costs $799, while the 512GB iteration sets you back $999. A fully specified 512GB iPad mini with Wi-Fi, cellular, and nano-texture glass costs $1,249.
What’s new in the iPad mini?
Apple has focused deeply on making the new iPad mini thinner and lighter than before. (Here’s what I I thought about the previous model when I reviewed it.) The new iteration is 5.4mm thick, compared to 6.3mm, and weighs 0.58 pounds, in contrast to the previous model’s 0.66 pounds.
It has a large 8.5 inch Super Retina XDR display (up from 8.3 inches), but this fits in the same footprint thanks to thinner bezels. The move to OLED means it delivers higher contrast and more than 2x higher peak brightness than the previous generation. Apple promises pixel-level lighting control for much deeper blacks and support for the P3 wide color gamut for more vivid and accurate images.
The display also weaves in some additional tech: Apple calls it an “Acoustic Display” because it has placed specially designed woofers and tweeters underneath. The company says this delivers better sound clarity and volume.
As expected, the new iPad mini hosts the 2-nanometer A20 chip, with Neural Accelerators in each GPU core and Dual 16-core Neural Engine — which means it should be pretty good at running AI. It also offers double the unified memory bandwidth. You should see performance boosts across the board; Apple promises it’s up to 60% faster for photo editing or working across apps.
The product is highly water- and dust-resistant with an IP67 rating, which means it can handle being under up to one meter of water for up to 30 minutes. This makes the iPad mini an even better fit for logistics and field services, while also being the iPad you’ll use by the pool. (The new iPhone Duo has an even stronger IP68 rating.)
Additional features include:
- 12MP Center Stage front camera on the landscape edge.
- 12MP Wide back camera.
- 1,200 nits peak brightness, 1 nit minimum.
- Weighs 255 grams, down from 293 grams.
- Nano-texture display option is available.
- Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread thanks to Apple’s N1 chip.
- Cellular models use Apple’s C2 chip, which Apple says provides up to 50% faster cellular data speeds compared to the previous generation of iPad mini.
- eSIM support.
- Available in Midnight and Starlight finishes.
What Apple said
“iPad mini is beloved for its fantastic portability, performance, and display by a wide range of users, from creators and small business owners to doctors, field service workers, and gamers,” said Dave Pakula, Apple’s vice president of Hardware Engineering.
iPad Mini users are extremely loyal and with Duo now on the market they are getting apps that will feel more custom than in the past. The updates are also a good reminder that iPad Mini is a size choice not a price one https://t.co/n1iMipsWJY
— Carolina Milanesi (@caro_milanesi) October 26, 2026
What the critics are saying
The main criticism currently being leveled against the new iPad mini is the lack of a 120Hz refresh rate — though Apple has not confirmed this. Others note that while the device does support fast charging, you must buy a 35-watt adapter to use it — though you do get a polishing cloth.
“One key detail worth noting is that the new iPad mini uses a binned A20 Pro chip in all but the high-end 512GB model. Not only does the binned chip have only 5 CPU cores rather than 6, it also lacks the Dual 16-core Neural Engine. Instead, you get the standard 16-core Neural Engine,” noted 9to5Mac.
My take?
A significant upgrade, which when used with Apple Intelligence and Siri AI make the system an incredibly flexible companion device. However, the price will inevitably dampen demand.
All the same, if I were to get one of these for Christmas, I’d be pretty happy. There aren’t enough Duos to go round, and this has a bigger display. Available for pre-orders from October 28 to ship November 6.
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