The smallest tablet in Apple‘s lineup is no longer the neglected middle child. After years of incremental bumps, the iPad mini has finally received the overhaul we’ve been waiting for, swapping its aging LCD for a vibrant 8.5-inch OLED screen, squeezing in the A20 Pro chip, and adding water resistance for the very first time.

It is a big leap forward for anyone who wants uncompromised portability without sacrificing top-tier performance. The tablet goes up for preorder in the U.S. and other key markets tomorrow, Oct. 28, ahead of its official release. In the Philippines, we are still waiting for local preorder and retail rollout dates, but here is how the official pricing stacks up across both markets:

• iPad mini (A20 Pro) Wi-Fi only: Starts at $699 / ₱49,990 (128GB)
• iPad mini (A20 Pro) Wi-Fi only with Nano-texture glass: Starts at $899 / ₱63,990 (256GB)
• iPad mini (A20 Pro) Wi-Fi + Cellular: Starts at $949 / ₱73,990 (256GB)
• iPad mini (A20 Pro) Wi-Fi + Cellular with Nano-texture glass: Starts at $1,049 / ₱73,990

A proper screen and a poolside-ready design

For years, the Apple iPad mini has been the definitive couch companion and travel tablet, but its screen always lagged a step behind its Pro siblings. That changes now. The jump from an 8.3-inch panel to an 8.5-inch Super Retina XDR display brings the deep blacks, wide P3 color support, and punchy contrast of OLED to a form factor you can comfortably hold in one hand. Apple also shaved down the chassis, bringing the thickness to only 5.4mm and dropping the weight to just 255 grams.

For creatives and digital nomads who regularly work out of coffee shops or under harsh sunlight, the Nano-texture glass option is a significant quality-of-life upgrade. More impressively, this is the first iPad to ever carry an IP67 water and dust resistance rating. You can theoretically read by the pool or accidentally spill your coffee on it without instantly ruining your day. To seal the device without muffling the sound, Apple engineered an Acoustic Display system that pushes audio directly through the screen assembly — a clever engineering workaround that keeps the internals dry while preserving full stereo separation.

Desktop-class power in a pocketable tablet

Under the hood, the 2026 iPad mini borrows the silicon that powers Apple’s most demanding hardware. It’s the exact same powerhouse silicon found in the latest iPhone 18 Pro models. Built on a 2-nanometer process, the A20 Pro chip delivers a 60% boost in multithreaded CPU tasks and nearly triple the graphics performance of the old A17 Pro. Whether you are batch-editing high-resolution photos, playing hardware-accelerated games with ray tracing, or managing heavy mobile workflows, this tablet is built to punch far above its weight class.

The new iPad mini is also entirely future-proofed for the AI era. Launching with iPadOS 27, the tablet is heavily optimized for the next generation of Apple Intelligence. A redesigned Siri can finally parse on-screen context in real time, while a dual 16-core Neural Engine natively and securely handles local machine learning tasks.

Apple likewise fixed one of the most frustrating design quirks by moving the 12-megapixel front camera to the landscape edge, so you will no longer look like you are staring off into space during video calls. Add in Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and a new N1 wireless networking chip, and the latest iPad mini feels less like a companion device and more like a primary workstation shrunk down to the size of a notebook.

Official product video

2026 Apple iPad mini specs

• 8.5-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display (with optional Nano-texture glass)
• 2nm Apple A20 Pro processor (up to 6-core CPU, 7-core GPU)
• Dual 16-core Neural Engine
• 12-megapixel f/2.0 Center Stage front-facing camera (landscape orientation)
• 12-megapixel f/1.8 wide rear camera with 5x digital zoom and AF
• Acoustic Display stereo audio with dual microphones
• N1 wireless networking chip, Bluetooth 6, Wi-Fi 7
• Apple C2 cellular modem and eSIM (for Wi-Fi + Cellular models)
• Touch ID
• IP67 water and dust resistance
• 195.3 x 132.6 x 5.4mm
• 255 grams (Wi-Fi only), 263 grams (Wi-Fi + Cellular)
• Midnight and starlight colorways

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