Apple today announced an update to the iPad mini, one of my favorite iPads. The new mini features an 8.5-inch OLED display, a landscape Center Stage camera, and many other updates throughout. This is a big update, so let’s dig into the details.
The revised iPad mini has a similar, but slightly smaller, overall footprint at 5.4mm thin, but the bezels around the screen are 24% thinner, allowing for the larger 8.5-inch Super Retina XDR screen. That enables a peak brightness of 1200 nits with 600 nits full-screen brightness, which is brigher than the model it replaces. The display is also capable of as little as 1 nit of brightness, supports P3 wide color, and can be ordered with an optional nano-texture finish on the 256GB and 512GB models. However, the new mini’s display is not a 120Hz ProMotion display.
The chip that drives the new mini is from the A20 Pro line, which is the same chip family that powers the iPhone 18 Pro. The mini also has an N1 networking chip that supports Wi-Fi 7 and a C2 modem chip for users who order the cellular model. The mini also features up to six CPU cores, a 7-core GPU with Neural Accelerators for each core, and a Dual 16-core Neural Engine in the 512GB model.
The 12MP Center Stage front-facing camera is on the long edge of the iPad mini. The rear camera is a 12MP Wide camera that includes Smart HDR 4 and Adaptive True Tone flash and can shoot 4K video at up to 60 fps.
Other details include IP67 water and dust resistance, a new TechWoven Smart Folio case, and continued support for both the Apple Pencil Pro and Apple Pencil (USB-C).
Among Apple’s speed claims are:
- up to 4.5x faster AI performance,
- up to 2.7x faster graphics performance,
- up to 60% faster multithreaded CPU performance,
- 2x Neural Engine processing power on the 512GB model,
- more than a 2x increase in unified memory bandwidth,
- up to 50% faster cellular data speeds, and
- more than 2x higher peak brightness.
The new iPad mini comes in Midnight and Starlight colors (fewer than before) and starts at $699, which is less than some rumors suggested, and can be configured up to $1,249 before accessories. Apple also packs a polishing cloth in the box for the polishing fans out there.
This looks like an excellent update. I’m a huge fan of the iPad mini for writing, other lightweight productivity tasks, reading, watching videos, and playing games. Based on the specs, the new mini should be more capable than ever. I’m looking forward to trying it myself.
