Apple’s next iPad mini is looking increasingly likely to be more than a routine refresh, with the redesigned tablet now expected to appear alongside Apple’s late-October Mac launches in Los Angeles.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says Apple is inviting selected media to an all-day product launch experience on October 28 for touchscreen MacBooks, a new iPad mini and M6 Macs.
The iPad mini could quietly be one of the most substantial products in that lineup. Apple’s smallest tablet is reportedly moving to an OLED display, which would mark one of the biggest visual upgrades in the product’s history and bring the mini closer to the premium display technology already used elsewhere in the iPad family.
The Apple Post previously reported that the new iPad mini is expected to move from LCD to OLED, alongside a newer processor and broader hardware changes. More recent reporting has pointed to the A20 Pro chip as the likely choice.
The redesign is also expected to extend beyond the display. Apple is reportedly repositioning the front-facing camera for landscape use and reworking the speaker system, changes that would make the iPad mini better suited to video calls, media and horizontal use. Those camera and speaker changes were detailed earlier this week.
Price could be the biggest surprise. Gurman has said the redesigned model may be considerably more expensive than the current iPad mini, with pricing potentially approaching $799 in the United States. That would reposition the iPad mini as a much more premium compact tablet rather than a smaller alternative to Apple’s larger iPads.
Improved water resistance has also been reported, while the overall design is expected to remain compact. Taken together, the changes suggest Apple may be preparing a more ambitious overhaul than the incremental processor updates that have characterized some previous iPad mini generations.
The October 28 media experience makes the launch feel increasingly close. Apple has not announced the new iPad mini publicly, but inviting media to spend an entire day with the upcoming hardware would give the company an opportunity to demonstrate the OLED display and other physical changes in person.
The iPad mini is expected to appear alongside Apple’s first touchscreen MacBooks and new M6-powered Macs, giving the late-October launch a broader focus than the Mac alone. Here is everything else Apple is still expected to announce before October ends.
For the latest iPad and Mac coverage as Apple’s October launches continue, download The Apple Post app on iPhone and iPad.