You may have already given up hope Apple would ever revitalize its super-small iPad. Buck up, tablet fans. Apple’s iPad mini may finally receive its long-awaited revamp with a new screen that may actually make you care about tiny tablets again.
The details about the supposed iPad mini upgrade come from a Thursday report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. According to anonymous sources, the next 8.4-inch iPad will receive an OLED display. That means it will share the same organic light-emitting diode screen technology with iPhones, claiming better contrast and those touted “inky” blacks. It could be a landmark change, as the iPad mini hasn’t seen a big overhaul since 2021.
Based on the report, the next-gen iPad mini won’t share the same high brightness spec as Apple’s top-end iPad Pro with the tandem OLED display. The nitty-gritty details surrounding the new screen may dampen your expectations. This week, MacRumors cited the semi-reliable Korean-language leaker yeux1122, who claimed the iPad mini’s OLED display would max out at a 60Hz refresh rate. That’s a slower screen than what you get with the modern iPhone 17 that finally supports between 10Hz and 120Hz with ProMotion.
That screen limitation would come as a disappointment, but it may be Apple’s way of keeping the iPad mini relatively affordable. The two-year-old, 8.3-inch iPad originally cost $500 at launch, though now the tablet starts at $600 for its base spec of 128GB of storage after recent price hikes. Take these specific screen specs with a grain of salt, either way. We’ll also have to wait and see how powerful the smaller iPad may be at launch. We suspect Apple may stick it with an A18 Pro chip first created for the iPhone 17 Pro.
Gurman said we’ll see this new iPad sometime this fall, after Apple launches its upcoming iPhone 18 Pro and folding iPhone (a device that may stretch nearly as big as an iPad mini) sometime in September. In addition, Bloomberg suggested Apple plans to update to the base iPad and iPad Air models with new chips. Both tablets may see the light of day early next year, though they’ll likely be mere refreshes compared to the iPad mini. Apple’s next-gen iPad Pro may similarly seem tame when it hits the scene early in 2027.
This leaves Apple’s smallest tablet as the one worth talking about. I personally prefer the 2024 iPad mini above a regular iPad or an iPad Air for daily tasks. The small size means it fits easier in my oft-overloaded backpack. Apple only needed to beef up the Apple Pencil’s magnetic attachment point to keep the stylus stable and include a better screen to make it my perfect tablet for notetaking or secondary screen duties.
Still, switching to OLED may demand a higher price. At a cost of more than $700, an iPad mini would seem even less worth the cost, considering an iPhone 17 with its 6.3-inch OLED display costs $800. And Apple may continue its nickel-and-diming scheme with tablet upgrades for the near future. When you start including the costs of 5G connectivity (an added $150 on the 2024 iPad mini) and more storage, the 8.3-inch OLED display may make little sense compared to a now-$750 base 11-inch M4 iPad Air.
