Apple's new iPad mini gets its first OLED display and the A20 Pro chip

Apple on Sunday unveiled a new iPad mini featuring the company’s first OLED display on the small-form-factor tablet, alongside the A20 Pro chip that debuted earlier this year in the iPhone lineup. The device goes up for preorder on October 28 and ships November 6, starting at $699 for the Wi-Fi model and $849 for Wi-Fi plus cellular, as reported by TechCrunch.

The 8.5-inch Super Retina XDR OLED panel is the headline upgrade. It delivers peak brightness of 1,200 nits—more than double the previous model—a 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio, and P3 wide color gamut. Apple has also brought the nano-texture display option to the mini for the first time; it was previously available only on iPad Pro. The new panel keeps the display at 5.4 mm thick, making this the thinnest iPad mini Apple has shipped.

Inside, the A20 Pro chip runs a 6-core CPU that Apple says is up to 60% faster in multithreaded tasks than its predecessor. The 7-core GPU includes a Neural Accelerator in each core, yielding what Apple claims is 4.5 times faster AI performance versus the previous generation. That extra AI headroom is meant to support the next generation of Apple Intelligence features and an updated Siri that can use personal context to understand what’s on screen.

Apple has added what it calls an “Acoustic Display”—integrated woofers behind the screen—for deeper bass and higher maximum volume. A 12-megapixel Center Stage front camera rounds out the specification update. The upgrade cycle for iPad mini has historically been long, with the last revision arriving roughly two years ago; the jump to OLED and A20 Pro represents the most significant generational leap the line has seen since it switched to an all-screen design.