iPad mini Gets Its First OLED Screen and First IP67 Rating — Apple's Smallest Tablet Starts at $699, Preorders Open October 28
It's the biggest change to the iPad mini since Apple introduced the current design in 2021 — a new screen technology, a new chip, and a feature the lineup has never had.
Apple announced a new iPad mini on October 26, 2026, and the headline change is the one this model has never had before: an OLED screen. The 8.5-inch Super Retina XDR display runs at 2316x1512 resolution with 1200 nits of peak brightness and as low as 1 nit at the dim end, a far wider range than the LCD panel it replaces, which struggled in both very bright and very dark rooms.
A20 Pro chip and a bigger camera upgrade than it sounds
Inside, the new iPad mini runs Apple's A20 Pro chip — a 5-core version on the 128GB and 256GB models, and a 6-core version on the 512GB model, a rare case of Apple differentiating CPU core count by storage tier rather than just offering more memory. The front camera moves to a 12MP Center Stage sensor in landscape orientation, matching the orientation most people actually hold a mini tablet in for video calls, while the rear 12MP Wide camera adds Smart HDR 4 and 4K60 video recording, both firsts for this specific model.
The tablet's first IP67 rating
The new iPad mini is also the first iPad mini — and one of the first iPads at all — to carry an IP67 water and dust resistance rating, meaning it can survive brief submersion in up to a meter of water. Previous iPad mini generations had no formal water resistance rating at all, so this closes a gap that had quietly persisted since the line launched in 2012. The chassis measures 195.3 by 132.6mm and 5.4mm thick, weighing 255 grams for Wi-Fi-only models and 263 grams with cellular.
Charging is faster too
Battery capacity is listed at 18.9Wh, and Apple says the new mini can reach 50% charge in 30 minutes using a 35W or higher USB-C charger — a meaningful jump for a tablet this size, where previous generations charged noticeably slower relative to their battery capacity than the larger iPad Air or iPad Pro.
Pricing and when you can actually buy one
The new iPad mini starts at $699 for Wi-Fi-only and $849 for Wi-Fi plus cellular. Preorders open October 28, 2026, with the device shipping and arriving in stores on November 6. Apple's announcement did not state the exact prior-generation starting price for direct comparison, so treat $699 as this generation's entry point rather than a stated percentage increase over the outgoing model.
Why this matters beyond the spec sheet
The iPad mini has historically been Apple's slowest-updated tablet, often going two to three years between meaningful hardware changes while the iPad Air and iPad Pro iterate annually. An OLED panel, a first-ever IP67 rating, and a storage-tier-dependent chip upgrade arriving in the same generation suggests Apple treated this refresh as catching the mini up on features the rest of the iPad lineup already had, rather than a routine spec bump — which is also why it's being positioned as the biggest update to the mini since the current design debuted in 2021.
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