Apple’s new iPad mini will get a bunch of upgrades, however they arrive at a price.
Apple would not replace its iPad mini yearly, which is why every new era normally will get an enormous efficiency increase. The brand new iPad mini is powered by the 5-core, 2nm A20 Professional SoC, which Apple says is as much as 2.7 occasions sooner in graphics efficiency and as much as 4.5 occasions sooner in AI workloads than the A17 Professional in its predecessor. It is available in the identical three storage configurations as final time, and the 512GB mannequin options an additional CPU core and a twin 16-core Neural Engine.
Whereas each fashions assist Apple Intelligence and Siri AI, the A20 Professional ought to be extra suited to demanding on-device AI duties. The outgoing iPad mini supplied 8GB of RAM, and whereas Apple would not formally listing how a lot reminiscence its telephones and tablets have, the brand new iPad mini doubtless has 12GB of RAM. Battery life claims have not modified, however the brand new iPad mini prices sooner (able to hitting 50 p.c in half-hour) with a appropriate adapter.
Sadly, coloration choices have been diminished to simply Midnight and Starlight. The worth has additionally elevated: the brand new iPad mini prices $200 extra, beginning at $699 for the 128GB mannequin. If spec’d with mobile connectivity and a nano-texture glass end, the 512GB iPad mini will set you again a whopping $1,249 — that is iPad Professional cash. We’ll allow you to resolve if it is value it; for now, let us take a look at the adjustments Apple has made to its compact pill providing this 12 months.
The iPad mini is lastly OLED
The large iPad mini improve this time is the OLED panel. That makes it the one different iPad in Apple’s lineup with an OLED show apart from the iPad Professional. It is roughly the identical decision as final time, however can get a lot brighter at as much as 1,200 nits of peak HDR brightness. OLED additionally brings different advantages: the brand new iPad mini is identical peak and almost the identical width, however is thinner at 5.4mm and lighter at 255 grams — doubtless due to the thinner OLED panel. As compared, the A17 Pro iPad mini maxes out at 500 nits of SDR brightness, weighs 293 grams and is sort of a complete millimeter thicker at 6.3mm.
The brand new iPad mini additionally includes a barely bigger 8.5-inch show, owing to the bezels that are actually 24 p.c thinner. The one main letdown is the dearth of ProMotion. Loads of customers on X have understandably expressed disappointment about Apple sticking with a 60Hz show on a $700 product in 2026. Nonetheless, in an interview with Christopher Lawley, Apple’s vp of {Hardware} Engineering, Dave Pakula, stated that the “show expertise is about greater than only a single spec” and that OLED’s sooner pixel response time “makes every little thing actually easy.”
In the event you’re coming from an older iPad mini, the show on the brand new one shall be an enormous improve, particularly for artistic workflows involving HDR content material. Apple Pencil Professional assist continues to be current, too, making the brand new iPad mini a compact, color-accurate canvas for artists and designers.
A handful of different adjustments
Regardless of its almost equivalent design, the brand new iPad mini is Apple’s first water resistant iPad. One of many methods it has achieved an IP67 ranking is by changing the speaker grilles with its new Acoustic Show system. This entails tweeters positioned between the glass and aluminum physique, with woofers firing via the show. The consequence, apparently, is punchier bass, clearer treble and extra quantity. It is much like the Huawei P30 Pro’s acoustic show, although that specific setup was largely designed to interchange the earpiece speaker for cellphone calls moderately than ship a full stereo speaker expertise just like the iPad mini.
Connectivity upgrades are additionally current, together with Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and Apple’s new C2 mobile modem system, which it claims ought to ship as much as 50 p.c sooner mobile information speeds. Authentication continues to be dealt with by the Contact ID-enabled energy button, and whereas the iPad mini’s optics appear largely unchanged, the front-facing digital camera is now positioned alongside the pill’s longer edge, making it higher suited to video calls in panorama orientation.
The brand new iPad mini runs iPadOS 27 and helps Apple’s strongest on-device AI mannequin with improved dictation and the choice to regulate Siri’s tempo and expressiveness. Whereas solely the 512GB variant will get the additional CPU and Neural Engine cores, the 5-core A20 Professional SoC within the lower-end storage variants nonetheless delivers a considerable efficiency increase over the A17 Professional. With so many good AAA titles like Management and Loss of life Stranding now accessible natively on the App Retailer, the brand new iPad mini is shaping as much as be a transportable powerhouse for avid gamers.
