iPad mini fans are in for a BIG treat!

The iPad mini is probably the most genuine iPad there is!

Well, if you’re an iPad mini fan and have been waiting patiently for news of the 8th-gen mini, the wait, it seems, is all but over! It should be with us very soon, and it looks like it’ll be packed with goodness!

With a combination of some pretty special new hardware and tweaks to iPadOS 27, the next iPad mini should be pretty juicy. Overall, it should be a better experience for both work & play.

The iPad mini has always been the go-to casual, sofa-friendly iPad, but now it can just as easily double up as a pretty serious work tool as well. iPadOS at long last lets us genuinely multitask to our hearts’ content – not that I think that’s where the mini is best suited, though.

Although Apple groups iPad sales together and in general is pretty cagey about releasing any sales figures, consumer research companies estimate that the mini accounts for around 16% of iPad sales. And given how many you see being used, I wouldn’t argue with those numbers.

I started this story by saying that the mini is the most genuine iPad around, and part of its appeal is that it doesn’t try to be something it’s not. It has to be the most honest iteration of an iPad there is.

Surely, this is what the iPad was always meant to be.

The iPad lineup is pretty straightforward these days.

The heavy hitters have either the iPad Pro or Air to satisfy their needs, whilst the more basic users have the iPad to keep them happy. But for most of us, the iPad mini is the sweet spot. The iPad mini somehow manages to straddle the line and almost has a foot in each camp, which is what makes it so perfectly positioned.

Although the A16 iPad is the cheapest, starting from £429, it’s not Apple Intelligence-ready, so it isn’t future-proofed. As it stands, its days are numbered, and when it does get a better chip, I’m guessing the price will also go up.

The iPad Air currently comes with the M4 chip and starts at £749, with the M5 iPad Pro opening up at £1199. But one of the reasons that the iPad mini is so desirable is because of the price, and part of the reason it can hold its £600 starting price tag is that the mini uses an A-series chip.

But before discounting those A-series chips as only being a phone chip, let’s remember that a phone chip is now good enough to power the amazing MacBook Neo.

So, if an A18 Pro phone chip is good enough for the Neo, then I’m sure the rumoured A20 Pro chip that the 8th-gen mini is due to get will sure as heck be good enough for the mini!

Apple are all over its numbers, and they know that the iPad mini is a winner, and with this next round of improvements the iPad mini is about to become an even more attractive proposition to an even wider audience.

A few key improvements are coming to the next-gen mini – starting with the display.

iPad mini goes OLED

Samsung began mass production of OLED displays for Apple earlier this year – that was our first clue that something was going on.

Apple is keen to roll out OLED across as many of its devices as possible as quicklyas possible. First, it was used on the Apple Watch and iPhones; then it was the iPad Pro, which got an OLED display a few years back.

The iPad mini will be next in line to get OLED and then presumably the new MacBook Pro later this year.

Once you’ve used an OLED display, it’s obvious why Apple is so keen to get it on as many devices as they can.

It’s another level.

Among the benefits of OLED displays are that they offer much better power efficiency, richer blacks, better contrast and deeper colours. Few moan about the iPad mini’s current display, but if it gets an OLED panel, it’ll take an already good display up another notch.

It’s approaching two years since the mini last had an update, so we’re due one, and an OLED display alone may well be enough to convince quite a few people to trade up. Apple is well aware of the appeal of OLED displays!

Adding it would also be a great way to soften the blow of the price increase, which must be inevitable.

A price increase is never good news, but it’s way sexier to blame it on an OLED display that you can see rather than the rising cost of boring storage, isn’t it?

And I can’t imagine Apple putting an OLED display in the next mini and it not being a 120Hz high-refresh-rate panel too. It stands to reason that if the base iPhone 17 now has a 120Hz panel, then so too would the next-generation iPad mini.

OLED and 120Hz surely go hand-in-hand, don’t they?

And before rounding out on the display news – it seems as if it’s likely to be bigger as well, jumping from 8.3 inches to 8.7 inches, making it a decent amount larger than the iPhone Duo’s open-flat inner screen size of 7.6 inches.

But the improvements we’re promised are more than just a new display.

Power on

The fact that Apple has decided to use the A20 Pro chip from this year’s Pro model iPhones is great news for those in line for a new iPad mini.

iPadOS 27 is more demanding on the processor because of the deeper integration of Apple Intelligence & the new system-wide style Siri, so the more powerful A20 Pro chip is a welcome bump.

Apple knows that because the mini is so portable, it’s used in many different situations, including bathrooms, kitchens, planes and even beaches. That’s why they want to improve its water resistance by updating the design of the iPad mini 8. There’s only one way to do that, of course, and that’s by making the whole thing more watertight.

It’s long been rumoured that Apple was intending to bring an all-new vibration-based speaker system to the iPad mini in an effort to make it more water-resistant, and it looks like that rumour is about to come true.

It’s not new technology, I know, as Sony has used it on their TVs in the past and LG on its G8 ThinQ phone as far back as 2019…but it is a first for Apple.

If Apple is successful in bringing it to the next mini, then it could mean it’s the first iPad to get an official IP rating and would also pave the way to make other iPads water-resistant as well.

Recent information from Apple’s own code tells us that the front-facing camera will move to the long edge, meaning that all iPads will now have the camera in the ‘right’ place.

The volume buttons are still in the same place, but there’s now a small groove cut-out at the top of the display, similar to an iPhone, which presumably is for the speaker.

Whereas it’s often hard to justify upgrading with some of Apple’s recent new devices, if we do end up getting a larger, 120Hz OLED display and this vibration-based speaker system, then I’d say that makes buying an iPad mini 8 almost a no-brainer.

iPad mini – is it safe?

With the release of the iPhone Duo, it’s a reasonable question to ask if the iPad mini remains safe in Apple’s lineup.

Clearly, when open, the Duo and the iPad mini are pretty closely matched, but realistically, the similarities stop there.

Even if the iPad mini 8th-gen gets a whopping £200 increase, it would still cost less than half the price of an iPhone Duo.

I’m well aware that the Duo is a phone, has more cameras and is possibly even more portable than the iPad mini, but in essence, the real case for buying a Duo is to be able to work on it, watch content on it, oh, and use a pencil with it.

Am I missing something – but can’t you do all that with the iPad mini?

The iPad mini is a tried-and-tested bit of kit, whereas the Duo is new technology, meaning it may well come with teething problems. The Duo is there to scratch an itch and plug a niche hole in Apple’s lineup, but I reckon it’s safe to say that the iPad mini’s place remains safe for a good while to come.

The iPad mini’s battery is already good, and with the improvements that will come from the A20 Pro chip and that OLED panel, it should get even better. As for the Duo, we don’t know how that will hold up in real-world use.

The fact that we are likely getting a new iPad mini just after the release of the iPhone Duo would suggest that Apple is as behind the iPad mini as ever. I think we can all breathe easy about its future.

These improvements, in particular that high-refresh-rate larger OLED display, will give the iPad mini a new lease of life – the shot in the arm it needed. I wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t become one of the most popular iPads of all time and become a future classic.

So if you are an iPad mini fan, it looks as if all your Christmas has come early!