Apple announced a thinner, lighter iPad mini on 26 October with an 8.5-inch OLED screen and A20 Pro chip, starting at $699, with preorders on 28 October and availability from 6 November.
Apple on Monday, 26 October 2026, announced a new iPad mini built around a larger 8.5-inch Super Retina XDR display that uses OLED technology for the first time on the line. The tablet is thinner and lighter than its predecessor, at 5.4 mm thick, and comes in two colours. It starts at $699 for the Wi-Fi model and $849 for the Wi-Fi and cellular version, according to TechCrunch's report of the announcement, which came just days before Apple's "Pro and Tell" event scheduled for Wednesday.
The OLED panel reaches up to 1,200 nits of peak brightness, more than twice the previous generation, with 600 nits of full-screen brightness for SDR and HDR content and a 2 million:1 contrast ratio. Apple is also offering an optional nano-texture glass to reduce glare, a feature already available on the iPad Pro. Other additions include a 12-megapixel Center Stage front camera, faster wireless and cellular connectivity, fast charging and an "Acoustic Display" with woofers integrated into the screen for deeper bass. Apple's official video also highlights IP67 spill, splash and dust resistance and Apple Pencil Pro compatibility.
Inside, the A20 Pro chip has a 6-core CPU that Apple says is up to 60% faster in multithreaded tasks, and a 7-core GPU with Neural Accelerators in each core that it claims delivers up to 4.5 times faster AI performance than the previous model. The iPad mini launches with the next generation of Apple Intelligence and Siri AI, which can use personal context to find information and understand what is on screen. Preorders open on 28 October, with availability beginning on 6 November. The performance figures are Apple's own claims and have not been independently benchmarked.
