For a device with such a straightforward name, the iPad Mini has had many lives over its 14 years. Yes, it’s always been a small iPad. But at various times, it’s also been a cheap iPad with a lesser display, an iPad as technologically sophisticated as any you could buy, and a midrange iPad.
Last week, Apple announced a new iPad—one of the remarkably large number of products the company introduced during what may have been its most productive October ever. It remains a small iPad. But the new version replaces the LCD screen of past versions with OLED, a technology previously available only in the iPad Pro. That’s one of several upgrades that take the new Mini to a tier of its own—not quite on the level of the iPad Pro, but in some respects above the iPad Air models the previous Mini closely resembled.
The new iPad Mini also costs $100 more than its predecessor. That version went up $100 itself in June, when Apple raised many of its prices in reaction to the AI-induced RAM shortage . Now the Mini starts at an imposing $699 for the Wi-Fi version with 128 GB of storage, a 40% increase in a little over four months, and just $50 less than the cheapest iPad Air. (The basic, entry-level iPad also went up $100, but I still consider it a bargain at $449.)
Even if the iPad Mini is no longer an impulse item for most of us, it remains the present-day iPad that reminds me most of Steve Jobs’s keynote introduction of the original 2010 iPad . In it, he outlined the need for the device and did much of his demo from the comfort of a cushy chair. That niche—bigger than a phone, more intimate than a laptop—is alive, well, and still evolving in the new Mini.
[Photo: Apple]
The Mini’s roomy screen lets it do many things well that an iPhone can’t, unless it’s an iPhone Duo . Unlike its larger iPad siblings, however, it’s not trying to encroach on the traditional territory of a MacBook or other PCs. It’s a tablet in the category’s purest sense. (I am aware that third-party manufacturers have long made keyboard cases for iPad Minis and will surely offer ones for this model—I just can’t envision even that setup replacing anyone’s laptop.)
Since the beginning, the Mini has been all about size, weight, and the pleasure of spending time with a device that you can hold for extended periods—in one hand, even—without it seeming to grow mysteriously heavier over time. It’s also been the easiest iPad to grab and take almost anywhere, maybe in a jacket pocket.
After all these years, Apple is still finding ways to wring heft out of the new Mini’s design. Compared to the previous version, the most striking improvements are the 16% reduction in thickness and (for the Wi-Fi model) 13.8% reduction in weight. But Apple also shrank the display’s border by 25%, which allowed it to increase the screen size from 8.3 inches to 8.5 inches, even though the new model is slightly narrower. It’s about 45% lighter than the 11-inch iPad Air and 59% lighter than the 13-inch Air.
Consequently, this tablet is a delight for tasks where more display real estate than a (non-folding) phone is desirable, but 11 or 13 inches may be overkill—long-form reading on the web or in an e-reader app, gaming, viewing and wrangling photos, lightweight productivity such as email triage. It’s also an extremely pleasant way to watch video, assuming you’re not trying to re-create the experience of watching a blockbuster movie in the theater. And its support for Apple Pencil Pro makes it a beguiling digital sketchbook when you’re out and about and lugging a larger iPad would feel like a burden.
As for the new OLED screen, it delivers on the technology’s promise by providing deep blacks, rich colors, and peak brightness of 1,200 nits, compared to 500 nits for the previous model. Some people— such as Multicore ’s Sam Byford —regret that the display doesn’t include Apple’s ProMotion technology, which uses a variable refresh rate to make scrolling and input smoother and more responsive. I don’t find its omission glaring. (The 256 GB and 512 GB versions do offer Apple’s glare-reducing nano-texture screen—previously exclusive to the iPad Pro—as a $100 option.)
The new Mini is the first iPad to incorporate an audio system called Acoustic Display, which moves the speakers behind the screen. The resulting output sounds crisper to me than what I’m used to on my 13-inch iPad Pro. Just as notable, the new location allowed Apple to seal up the tablet, making it the first iPad ever to achieve an IP67 rating for water and dust resistance. It should be able to withstand being immersed in 3 feet of water for 30 minutes—a feature that makes sense considering it’s the iPad you’re most likely to take to the beach or pool, or use in a bathtub.
Another change brings the iPad Mini in line with other current iPads: Its front-facing camera is on the tablet’s landscape edge rather than the portrait one. If you’re using a larger iPad in a keyboard case, that’s unquestionably the proper spot, since it centers the camera above the screen rather than putting it on the side, which can leave you looking shifty-eyed on video calls.
I have always used iPad Minis mostly in portrait mode, so I’m not as sure the camera relocation is an improvement in this case. But it’s not an issue as long as you remember to rotate the tablet into landscape mode for FaceTime, Zoom, and the like.
Despite the new Mini’s more upscale feel, Apple has stuck with a Touch ID sensor rather than equipping it with Face ID, which remains exclusive to iPhones and the iPad Pro. It’s built into the power button and, in my experience, works close to 100% of the time. But it requires more thought to use than Face ID, especially since the sensor’s location depends on how you’re holding the Mini. It’s the one area where using the Mini feels like less than a first-class experience.
[Photo: Apple]
Then there’s the Mini’s processor, which I haven’t mentioned until now because so many of the tasks this tablet is well suited to don’t cry out for raw performance. (Fancy 3D games and on-device AI are exceptions.)
Apple didn’t skimp: It chose the A20 Pro chip, a processor that is itself new, having debuted in September with the iPhone 18 Pro. The company touts benchmark numbers such as up to 60% faster CPU performance and up to 270% faster GPU performance than the previous Mini. That version used the A17 Pro, a chip that wasn’t new even when that tablet was released two years ago.
Even if you don’t care how much faster a new iPad is than its predecessor, the fact that the tablet has Apple’s latest chip is a boon. It will extend the tablet’s useful life before it struggles to run new apps or is no longer supported by iPadOS updates. That may be more important for iPads than other devices: Anecdotally, at least, people tend to hold on to them for years.
One other thing about the new iPad Mini is worth mentioning—not because it’s changed, but because it hasn’t. The tablet runs iPadOS 27, the latest version of the iPad’s operating system. That sports the same multitasking interface introduced in iPadOS 26—a Mac-esque world with floating windows, menus, and traffic-light-like buttons for expanding, minimizing, and closing windows. Even on the iPad Pro I use as a work computer for hours a day, I am not enthralled with the clutter and complexity it brings . On a Mini, actually trying to use these features feels like suffocating overkill.
When setting up a new iPad Mini, you can avoid this experience altogether by choosing the “Full Screen Apps” option. That limits you to one on-screen app at a time, just like the iPads of yore. That, I suspect, will be plenty for a high percentage of users. If you expect to be one of them, you can stop reading now.
Still, there is value in letting a Mini-size device do a certain amount of multitasking, particularly when you’re holding it in landscape orientation and performing tasks that involve multiple apps. As it happens, Apple just took a fresh shot at creating an interface tuned to this scenario.
That would be the one offered by the iPhone Duo , whose 7.6-inch interior display is close enough in size to the iPad Mini that many people instinctively talk about the Duo as if it were a Mini you could fold up and put in your pocket . It offers far fewer options than iPad multitasking, but provides a more intuitive, foolproof way to perform the one form of multitasking that’s most useful on a small tablet: putting two apps side by side without letting them overlap or float.
Now, the iPhone Duo is definitely an iPhone . It’s obvious why it doesn’t borrow iPadOS 26/27-style multitasking, which would be bizarre on a device so many people use for quick hits of information when they’re walking around. The fact that the Duo can’t run iPad apps may even be a stance on the company’s part: An iPhone with an iPad Mini-like interior screen size isn’t that close a relative of the iPad Mini after all.
I do hope, however, that Apple is open to the possibility of the Duo’s influence rubbing off on future versions of iPadOS. The new iPad Mini’s hardware proves that the Mini is as relevant as ever. It’s still getting better at fulfilling the iPad’s original vision. The same should be true of the software it runs.
