Apple’s new iPad mini starts at $699 for the Wi-Fi model and reaches customers and stores on Friday 6 November 2026, with an 8.5-inch OLED screen, the A20 Pro chip and an IP67 rating for water and dust, according to Apple’s press release of 26 October 2026.

The Wi-Fi + Cellular model costs $849, and pre-orders opened on Wednesday 28 October 2026.

Apple calls the release the iPad mini’s biggest update ever. The company says the 8.5-inch Super Retina XDR panel keeps the same footprint as the previous mini because the bezels are 24 per cent thinner, and a nano-texture option is available to cut glare in bright light.

“iPad mini is beloved for its fantastic portability, performance, and display by a wide range of users, from creators and small business owners to doctors, field service workers, and gamers,” said Dave Pakula, Apple’s vice president of Hardware Engineering.

The tablet is 5.4 mm thick and comes in midnight and starlight.

Screen and chip

Apple puts peak brightness at up to 1200 nits, which it says is more than twice the previous generation, with 600 nits of full-screen brightness for SDR and HDR content and a 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio. The minimum brightness is 1 nit, which Apple says suits dim rooms.

The A20 Pro chip is built on a 2-nanometer process, with a 7-core GPU and up to a 6-core CPU.

Apple’s comparison figures, all against the previous iPad mini, are up to 4.5x faster AI performance, up to 2.7x faster graphics and up to 60 per cent faster multithreaded CPU performance. The 512GB model gets a Dual 16-core Neural Engine, which Apple says offers double the processing power of the previous generation.

The front camera is a 12MP Center Stage unit on the landscape edge. The 12MP Wide rear camera records 4K video at up to 60 fps and gains an Adaptive True Tone flash.

Wireless, water and accessories

The N1 networking chip, which Apple says comes to the iPad mini for the first time, handles Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and Thread, and cellular models use Apple’s C2 modem, which the company says gives up to 50 per cent faster cellular data than the previous iPad mini.

Apple says a sealed Acoustic Display enclosure helps the tablet reach its IP67 rating.

The tablet ships with iPadOS 27, and Siri AI rolls out in beta with that release.

Storage options are 128GB, 256GB and 512GB. A Smart Folio in TechWoven fabric, in navy blue or taupe, costs $79. The tablet works with Apple Pencil Pro at $129 and Apple Pencil (USB-C) at $79. With education savings the iPad mini starts at $649.

Pre-orders run through apple.com and the Apple Store app in 36 countries and regions, including the US.

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