Apple unveils all-new iPad mini with OLED display and A20 Pro

Apple today unveiled the all-new iPad mini, featuring a stunning OLED display, an even thinner and lighter design, a huge leap in performance with A20 Pro, and water and dust resistance. The tablet is powered by iPadOS 27 with the next generation of Apple Intelligence and Siri AI. Customers can pre-order it starting Wednesday, October 28, with availability beginning Friday, November 6.

Design and display

At 5.4 mm thin, the new iPad mini is more portable than ever and comes in two finishes: a new midnight and a beautiful starlight. It has an IP67 rating to protect against water and dust. The larger 8.5-inch OLED display maintains the same footprint as the previous mini thanks to 24 percent thinner bezels. The Super Retina XDR display uses OLED technology for pixel-level lighting control, deeper blacks, and support for the P3 wide color gamut. Peak brightness reaches up to 1200 nits, more than twice the previous generation, with 600 nits full-screen brightness and a 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio. A new nano-texture display option reduces glare in bright environments.

Performance

A20 Pro delivers a giant leap in performance, significantly boosting graphics and AI-intensive tasks. It is built using Apple's latest 2-nanometer process technology and a new package inspired by M-series chips. The chip has a 7-core GPU with Neural Accelerators in each GPU core, delivering up to 4.5 times faster AI performance than the previous generation. Graphics performance jumps by up to 2.7 times with dynamic caching, hardware-accelerated mesh shading, and ray tracing. A20 Pro also features up to a 6-core CPU for up to 60 percent faster multithreaded performance. The 512GB configuration includes a Dual 16-core Neural Engine that offers double the processing power of the previous generation, and A20 Pro brings over a 2x increase in unified memory bandwidth.

Cameras, audio and connectivity

The new iPad mini features an innovative Acoustic Display, with specially designed woofers paired through the display for punchier bass and more volume and custom tweeters hidden between the glass and aluminum enclosure for clearer highs. The 12MP Center Stage front camera is now on the landscape edge, suited to FaceTime calls, video conferencing, and collaboration. The 12MP Wide back camera captures photos with Smart HDR 4 and 4K video at up to 60 fps, and an Adaptive True Tone flash improves photos and document scanning. An Apple-designed N1 chip brings Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and Thread, while cellular models use Apple's new C2 modem for up to 50 percent faster cellular data.

Software, accessories and availability

Powered by iPadOS 27, the new iPad mini supports the next generation of Apple Intelligence and Siri AI, which can draw on personal context, use onscreen awareness, and answer questions on virtually any topic. Siri AI is rolling out in beta with iPadOS 27. Apple Intelligence adds upgraded photo editing tools, a new Image Playground app, and Notify Me in Safari. iPadOS 27 also brings resizable windows and window tiling. The new Smart Folio is available for $79. iPad mini supports Apple Pencil (USB-C) and Apple Pencil Pro. It will be available in midnight and starlight with 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB configurations. Pricing starts at $699 for the Wi-Fi model and $849 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model, with education savings starting at $649. Pre-orders begin October 28 and availability begins November 6 in 36 countries and regions, including the U.S.

Sources: apple.com