Overview
- Apple announced the eighth-generation iPad mini on Monday with an 8.5-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display, a thinner 5.4mm body, and a repositioned 12MP Center Stage front camera for landscape calls.
- The tablet is powered by the A20 Pro built on TSMC’s 2nm process with Apple’s performance claims of up to 60% faster multithreaded CPU, up to 2.7× faster graphics, and up to 4.5× faster AI versus the prior mini.
- Storage tiers affect the chip configuration so the 128GB and 256GB models use a slightly lower core count while the 512GB model adds an extra CPU core and a dual 16-core Neural Engine for heavier on-device AI work.
- Apple added a sealed Acoustic Display speaker system that hides woofers and tweeters under the glass to enable an IP67 water‑resistance rating and an optional nano-texture anti‑glare screen on higher-capacity models.
- Pre-orders open Oct. 28 with retail deliveries and in-store availability on Nov. 6, U.S. pricing starts at $699 for the Wi‑Fi 128GB model, the device ships with iPadOS 27 and supports Apple Intelligence features including a Siri AI beta processed on-device and via Private Cloud Compute.