Apple gives iPad mini its biggest update ever

Apple unveils the all-new iPad mini, featuring an OLED display in a thinner design, a leap in performance with A20 Pro, and water and dust resistance. Apple gives iPad mini its biggest update ever. PRESS RELEASE October 26, 2026 Apple gives iPad mini its biggest update ever Featuring a stunning OLED display in an even thinner and lighter design, a huge leap in performance, faster wireless connectivity, and water and dust resistance The new iPad mini offers the full iPad experience users can hold in the palm of their hand.

1 The larger 8.5-inch OLED display, also available with a nano-texture option, delivers higher contrast and more than 2x higher peak brightness than the previous-generation iPad mini for a brilliant and immersive viewing experience. 2 A20 Pro supercharges AI with Neural Accelerators in each GPU core and Dual 16-core Neural Engine. IPad mini now has a 12MP Center Stage front camera on the landscape edge that’s perfect for video calls, an innovative Acoustic Display for an even better audio experience, faster wireless and cellular connectivity, and fast-charge support.

3 With its incredible set of advanced features, it’s the most capable and versatile iPad mini ever. The new iPad mini is powered by iPadOS 27 with the next generation of Apple Intelligence and Siri AI, which can draw on a user’s personal context to help them find what they need, answer questions on virtually any topic with broad world knowledge, and understand what’s on their screen. 4 The combination of powerful features and game-changing iPadOS 27 capabilities makes the new iPad mini a compelling value.

Apple today announced the eighth-generation iPad mini, introducing a larger OLED display, a thinner and lighter design, the A20 Pro chip, and water and dust resistance, but how much does it differ from the previous model. The new ‌iPad mini‌ starts at $699 for the 128GB Wi-Fi model and $849 with cellular connectivity.

Apple unveiled its updated iPad mini model, which brings the first OLED display to the mini line. Alongside the expected display upgrade, Apple outfitted the new mini model with its latest Apple A20 Pro chip, though there is a catch.

The new tablet starts at $699. Apple updates the iPad mini with an A20 processor and OLED display.

With the prior generation now discontinued, buyers also face a choice between paying for the new features and finding a cheaper A17 Pro model. Both offer the same storage capacities, advertised battery life, Touch ID authentication, and USB-C transfer speeds, so the new model does not improve every aspect of the experience.

The 128GB and 256GB storage versions get a binned CPU featuring five CPU cores compared to six on the 512GB model. Per the specs page, the lower storage models are getting one less efficiency core and half the NPU power.

On Monday morning, the company announced the 2026 iPad mini. The new tablet has 8.5-inch OLED display, which Apple will allow customers to spec with its nano-texture coating.

Here are the key differences between the ‌iPad mini‌ with the A17 Pro chip from 2024 and the ‌iPad mini‌ with the A20 Pro chip from 2026: ‌iPad mini‌ (seventh generation, 2024) ‌iPad mini‌ (eighth generation, 2026) 8.3-inch display 8.5-inch display Liquid Retina display with LED backlighting and IPS technology Super Retina XDR ‌OLED‌ display with 1-nit minimum brightness and 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio 2266-by-1488 resolution 2316-by-1512 resolution Wider display borders 24% thinner display borders 500 nits maximum brightness 600 nits maximum SDR and full-screen HDR brightness; 1,200 nits peak HDR brightness Optional nano-texture display glass on 256GB and 512GB models for an additional $100, supplied with a polishing cloth Extended external display mode with iPadOS 27.2 IP67 water and dust resistance, rated for a maximum depth of 1 meter for up to 30 minutes A17 Pro chip A20 Pro chip, with CPU and Neural Engine configurations varying by storage capacity Portrait front camera Landscape front camera Center Stage front camera with ƒ/2.4 aperture Center Stage front camera with ƒ/2.0 aperture True Tone rear flash Adaptive True Tone rear flash Landscape stereo speakers with external speaker holes Acoustic Display with display-coupled woofers and concealed tweeters, without external speaker holes Third-party wireless module Apple N1 wireless networking chip Wi-Fi 6E connectivity Wi-Fi 7 connectivity Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity Bluetooth 6 connectivity Thread networking technology Qualcomm Snapdragon X70 5G modem (Cellular models only) Apple C2 5G modem; up to 50% faster cellular data speeds according to Apple (Cellular models only) U.S. Cellular model (A2995) supports 5G band n76 U.S.

The rest of the specs are identical. IPad mini (2026) brings binned A20 Pro chips for the 128GB and 256GB configs The new mini is…

On paper, the new panel is a substantial upgrade. According to Apple, it’s capable of reaching a peak brightness of 1,200 nits, or twice as bright as the 2024 iPad mini.

Cellular model (A3596) supports LTE band 106 UMTS/HSPA/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA cellular support UMTS/HSPA/HSPA+ cellular support 19.3Wh battery 18.9Wh battery Fast charging up to 50% in around 30 minutes with a 35W or higher USB-C power adapter Available in Space Gray, Starlight, Purple, and Blue Available in Midnight and Starlight Previous polyurethane Smart Folio design Redesigned two-panel TechWoven Smart Folio with adjustable viewing angles, available separately in Navy Blue and Taupe for $79 More than 25% recycled content overall 35% recycled content overall Originally started at $499 (Wi-Fi) or $649 (Wi-Fi + Cellular); Wi-Fi starting price later increased to $599; now discontinued Starts at $699 (Wi-Fi) or $849 (Wi-Fi + Cellular) A17 Pro vs. A20 Pro Unlike the previous model, the new ‌iPad mini‌’s chip hardware now varies according to storage capacity: ‌iPad mini‌ (seventh generation, 2024) ‌iPad mini‌ (eighth generation, 2026) Chip Apple A17 Pro Apple A20 Pro Manufacturing process 3-nanometer 2-nanometer CPU 6 cores 128GB and 256GB: 5 cores 512GB: 6 cores Higher-performance CPU cores 2 performance cores 2 super cores Efficiency CPU cores 4 cores 128GB and 256GB: 3 cores 512GB: 4 cores GPU 5 cores 7 cores GPU Neural Accelerators Dedicated Neural Accelerators in each GPU core Neural Engine 16 cores on all storage configurations 128GB and 256GB: 16 cores 512GB: Dual 16-core Neural Engine, totaling 32 cores Unified memory 8GB Increased capacity, according to Apple; exact amount not yet known Unified memory bandwidth 51.2 GB/s 115.2 GB/s Apple also claims that the new model has the following maximum improvements over the previous model with the A17 Pro chip: Up to 60% faster multithreaded CPU performance.

The OLED iPad mini is here with A20 Pro chip and acoustic display speakers. The OLED iPad mini is here with A20 Pro chip and acoustic display speakers – com news ADVERTISEMENT The OLED iPad mini is here with A20 Pro chip and acoustic display speakers Post your comment Comments (14) Michail 26 October 2026 Apple iPadOS Announcement Apple unveiled its updated iPad mini model, which brings the first OLED display to the mini line.