Here’s what to expect for the OLED iPad mini

The iPad mini has always been Apple’s most compact iPad it offers, bringing such incredible performance and flagship features in a tablet that can easily be held in one hand. The iPad mini was last updated in October 2024, and it just passed its two-year mark. So it has been really overdue for an update; thankfully, after several months of rumors, it’s safe to say that we will see an update to the iPad mini before the end of this month. This time, this update will certainly bring big changes to this small form factor. Here’s everything we can expect for the 8th-generation iPad mini.

Note that some of these details have not been official yet; they’re just pure speculation based on current rumors and patterns from other Apple products.

Chip

The current iPad mini features the A17 Pro chip that was introduced on the iPhone 15 Pro models. For the next iPad mini, we could expect it to feature the latest and greatest A20 Pro chip. This would be the same chip that was introduced in this year’s flagship iPhone models: the iPhone 18 Pro, the iPhone 18 Pro Max, and the iPhone Duo. This will certainly be a huge leap in performance overall since the A20 Pro chip features a new 7-core GPU architecture with a Neural Accelerator in each core and a new Dual 16-core Neural Engine to handle AI tasks/features even faster, including the new Siri AI. Since the A20 Pro chip has 12GB of unified memory, which will be an improvement over the 8GB on the A17 Pro, the next iPad mini will support Apple’s most powerful on-device AI models for the first time, which enables more advanced Apple Intelligence features such as Siri Expressive Voices.

One thing you should keep in mind is that the A20 Pro chip may not be the same as on the iPhone 18 Pro or the iPhone Duo. If we take a look at the current iPad mini, it actually uses a binned A17 Pro with 5 GPU cores (vs. 6 GPU cores on the iPhone 15 Pro). As you could imagine, Apple has had leftover supplies of the A20 Pro chip that are flawed, so instead of throwing them out, Apple could disable at least one of the cores. This is known as chip-binning, and it would allow Apple to save production costs overall. Based on this, it’s likely that the next iPad mini will have the A20 Pro chip with at least one CPU or GPU core disabled.

Connectivity

The current iPad mini features both Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3, but after seeing several recent Apple products adopting the custom-designed N1 wireless networking chip, it’s safe to say that the next iPad mini will follow suit. This N1 chip will bring Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread support to the iPad mini for the very first time.

Recent iPhone and cellular iPad models have started to adopt Apple’s custom-designed cellular modems as well. Although it’s unclear which cellular modem Apple will use for the cellular models of the next iPad mini, I’m leaning more towards the C1X modem that’s found in the cellular models of the M4 iPad Air and the M5 iPad Pro. That way, it would still be comparable to the higher-end iPad models in terms of cellular connectivity. Otherwise, putting in the C2 modem that was introduced on the iPhone 18 Pro and the iPhone Duo would put the M5 iPad Pro in an odd spot.

For connecting to thousands of accessories, the current iPad mini features a USB-C port that supports “USB 3 Gen 2” speeds (up to 10Gb/s). Since the A20 Pro chip enables such USB 3 support on both the iPhone 18 Pro and the iPhone Duo, I’d expect the next iPad mini to continue featuring the same USB-C specification.

Design

Now, we’re moving to the bigger changes for the iPad mini, and that will be its all-new design that has been rumored for so long. It has been reported that the next iPad mini will finally get redesigned since the 6th-generation that was introduced in September 2021. The all-new redesign is expected to be water-resistant, which will be a first for an iPad. This would make the next iPad mini even more durable since you could have peace of mind when your iPad mini is next to either a spill or a splash.

How would Apple achieve this supposedly “water-resistant” design? A few weeks ago, MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris leaked the front side of the alleged iPad mini (8th generation), and if you look closely at the image above, you could see a redesigned speaker design that’s similar to an iPhone’s top speaker design. Apparently, the next iPad mini will feature front-firing landscape speakers that should sound great, if not better. This would allow for a more water-resistant design thanks to those finer grille holes instead of the slightly larger speaker holes along the side of the current iPad mini.

The iPad (10th generation) moved the front camera from the portrait side to the landscape side, so that video calls look more natural with your face really centered on the feed. Both the M2 iPad Air and the M4 iPad Pro in May 2024 followed suit, but the current iPad mini has yet to follow suit. Thankfully, based on the leaked image that we discussed, it’s certain that the next iPad mini will complete the transition to feature a landscape front camera.

Also, both the iPad (A16) and the iPad Air (M3) introduced in March 2025 don’t have the model name, the model number, or the serial number on the back (at least in the U.S.) – just the Apple logo; this would allow for a much cleaner look. This slight detail made its way to the iPad Pro (M5), so I’d expect the next iPad mini to follow suit. I’d also expect the next iPad mini to continue featuring Touch ID on the side button.

Display

The biggest change for the next iPad mini has to be the transition from LCD to OLED, and we’ve seen the benefits of OLED: superior contrast ratios, higher brightness levels, deeper blacks, and richer color accuracy. However, don’t expect this OLED display to be on par with the tandem OLED displays on the current iPad Pro. Instead, it’s expected to feature a single-stack OLED panel to reduce costs. It’s also rumored that the next iPad mini will feature a slightly larger display (up from 8.3 inches on the current model). With that said, this display will likely be marketed as a “Super Retina XDR” display, similar to that of the current iPhone models.

One feature that remains to be seen is the refresh rate of the display. The current iPad mini features a 60Hz display; actually, many of Apple’s lower-end and mid-tier products have had 60Hz displays for a really long time, and since ProMotion recently made its way to the standard iPhone 17 after being exclusive to the Pro models, 60Hz is really starting to get long in the tooth. Although a recent rumor from “yeux1122” suggested that the next iPad mini would continue to have a 60Hz display, Mark Gurman from Bloomberg actually reported in his podcast that Apple was testing 60Hz and 120Hz ProMotion displays for the next iPad mini. Although he hasn’t learned about Apple’s final decision, we can only hope that the next iPad mini will finally get ProMotion for the first time, which could justify the price even better. And that’s what we’re going to talk about now.

Pricing & Availability

When the current iPad mini was last updated, it started at $499 with 128GB of storage; however, after the price hike, it starts at $599. It’s offered in three storage tiers: 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB. Gurman also claimed that we could see another price hike for this upcoming iPad mini for as high as $799 as the starting price. Now, this may not come as a surprise, considering there has usually been a price increase when other Apple products move to OLED. I’d expect at least a $100 price increase at a minimum, but if it were to start at $799, I sure hope that it would start at 256GB. After all, Apple’s flagship iPhone and iPad Pro models recently bumped the starting storage to 256GB. Secondly, as mentioned earlier, bringing ProMotion and an OLED display should really justify the starting price even better; you’d essentially be paying more, but it should be worth it for the higher-end features. This would make the iPad Air, which now starts at $749 with 128GB of storage, an even worse value and potentially the odd-middle child in the line again.

In terms of accessories, I’d expect the next iPad mini to continue to work with both the Apple Pencil (USB-C) and the Apple Pencil Pro. Apple may offer a Smart Folio in different colors that’s designed specifically for this iPad mini, as suggested by a leak in the regulatory database.

Still, all of these features will certainly make the iPad mini more “Pro” than ever before. It’s expected to be announced within the next week, between October 26 and October 28, and pre-orders should open up by October 28. It should arrive to customers and in stores on November 6 alongside the other new Macs that we’re going to cover next.

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