Apple’s newest iPad mini brings substantial changes over the A17 Pro model, led by an OLED display and a new A20 Pro processor. The upgrade also makes the tablet thinner and lighter, adds water resistance and updates its wireless connectivity. Prices start at $699 for 128GB, $200 above the previous model’s starting price.
The 8.5-inch OLED screen is slightly larger than before, with bezels that are 24 percent thinner. It retains roughly the same resolution but reaches up to 1,200 nits of peak HDR brightness, compared with 500 nits of SDR brightness on the outgoing model. The new tablet measures 5.4mm thick and weighs 255 grams; its predecessor is 6.3mm thick and weighs 293 grams.
The display’s main omission is ProMotion: the panel remains at 60Hz. Apple hardware engineering vice president Dave Pakula told Christopher Lawley that the display experience involves more than a single specification, adding that OLED’s faster pixel response helps make motion feel smooth. Apple Pencil Pro support also remains, while the brighter HDR screen could benefit creative work.
The five-core, 2nm A20 Pro is the other major upgrade. Apple says it delivers up to 2.7 times the graphics performance and up to 4.5 times the AI performance of the A17 Pro. Both generations support Apple Intelligence and Siri AI, while Apple says the new model can run its most powerful on-device AI model. The 512GB version adds a CPU core and a dual 16-core Neural Engine; memory is not officially specified, though the source reports it may be 12GB, compared with 8GB in the previous model.
Apple has also made the iPad mini its first water-resistant iPad, with an IP67 rating. Its new Acoustic Display system replaces speaker grilles with tweeters between the glass and aluminum body and woofers that fire through the display. The company’s other updates include Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and a C2 cellular modem, which Apple says can provide up to 50 percent faster cellular data speeds. The front camera has moved to the tablet’s longer edge for landscape video calls, while Touch ID remains built into the power button.
Battery-life claims are unchanged, but Apple says the tablet can charge to 50 percent in 30 minutes with a compatible adapter. Color choices have narrowed to Midnight and Starlight. A 512GB model with cellular connectivity and nano-texture glass costs $1,249.
The new iPad mini runs iPadOS 27 and adds dictation improvements and options to adjust Siri’s pace and expressiveness. Storage configurations remain the same as before, and the lower-capacity versions still receive the A20 Pro’s performance gains, without the extra cores included in the 512GB model.
Sources: Engadget.