Apple iPad Mini (2026) Review: A Dream Device, but Who Is It For?

Extremely sharp OLED display is gorgeous. 12 GB of memory. Finally waterproof. Nano-texture screen is a must for outdoor use. It’s smaller and lighter—perfect for one-handed use. Landscape webcam is better for video calls.

Too expensive for a small tablet, even if it’s premium. Still no Face ID. No ProMotion 120-Hz refresh rate. OLED could be brighter.

Some thought it might be dead. Some thought it had no place in an iPhone Duo world. But the iPad Mini isn’t being put out to pasture—it’s getting a massive glow-up.

Apple’s smallest tablet has been refreshed—now in its eighth generation—and with it, nearly every aspect of the device has been upgraded. It now has an OLED screen, a faster chip, a thinner chassis, more memory, waterproofing, and much more. That all comes with a higher price, though, and raises the question of just who the iPad Mini is really for among the other choices in the iPad lineup.

A Small OLED

I’ll come straight out with it: I love this little tablet. I’ve been using it for about a week, and I happened to take it on a short trip. The perfect time for it to really shine—and shine, it did. It was the perfect companion for long Lyft rides to the airport and wait times at my gate.

The star attraction of the new iPad Mini is its 8.5-inch display. That’s a slightly larger screen than the previous generation, yet the overall dimensions are barely bigger. But the change from IPS to OLED is what matters. It’s a Tandem OLED Super Retina XDR display, based on the same technology as the iPad Pro—though it doesn’t have the 120-Hz refresh rate. Nor is it quite as bright: It can reach 600 nits in SDR and 1,200 nits in HDR, which is 400 nits less than the iPad Pro. It’s more or less similar to the M6 MacBook Pro, though. Not the OLED MacBook Pro, but the Mini-LED model.

The iPad Mini OLED’s brightness is sufficient for most uses, even in bright lighting conditions. But you can take it to the next level by opting for a nano-texture display, which is totally worth the extra $100 it costs. (It’s the model I tested.) It’s not an antireflective coating or a matte layer; it’s actually etched into the glass. The result is a surface that almost entirely diffuses outside light without reducing the screen’s perceived brightness. Reading outside with the iPad Mini is particularly enjoyable, as the nano-texture display not only resists reflections but even gives it a paperlike crispness. This option is also available on the MacBook Pro and iPad Pro, and there’s really nothing else like it.

The iPad Mini one-ups its siblings in sharpness. Its smaller size gives it 19 percent higher pixel density than every other iPad. And yes, it really does look incredibly clear and sharp.

There’s more to it than the display. Part of the magic is how lightweight it is—barely over half a pound, and it doesn’t feel much heavier than my phone in my hand. One-handed use feels completely natural. That’s always been true of the iPad Mini, but this latest version emphasizes that even more.

Lastly, the color options have been pared down from four to just two. The lighter goldish Starlight is still available, but now there’s the introduction of the blackish, navy-blue Midnight. This is a finish carried over from the MacBook Air. The more playful Blue and Purple color options are both gone, as is Space Gray. More options are always better, but for a device that costs $700, I can see why these more professional colors make sense.

Meant for the Road

Apple has also completely redesigned the iPad Mini’s four-speaker sound system, and a couple of interesting changes are happening. As part of its process of making the device IP67 water-resistant, Apple removed the speaker grille from the sides to create a completely sealed enclosure. Instead, the tweeters sit behind two small slits on the edges of the display glass. And then bass drivers are built directly into the display. Apple calls it an Acoustic Display.

The stereo image sounds fullest when you hold the device in portrait, as long as you keep your fingers away from the display. The vibration caused by the location of the speakers isn’t terribly noticeable unless you have the volume on full blast. Overall, the audio sounds decent for a device this size, but it won’t compare well to larger devices like an iPad Air or MacBook Air. But for watching videos or the occasional movie, it suffices.

The water resistance is a first for any iPad, which is significant. You might still worry about bringing your $700 tablet poolside, but the IP67 rating means it can handle submersion for 30 minutes in about three feet of water. In comparison, iPhones have had an IP68 rating for the past eight years, meaning they can handle twice that depth for 30 minutes.

As always, it has to be said that iPads are not really designed for taking photos. That’s a bit less true with the iPad Mini, if only because it’s so easy to use one-handed. Still, I doubt you’ll use the 12-megapixel rear camera all that much, outside of the occasional document or QR code scan. It’s decent but hasn’t been changed from the previous generation. The front-facing camera, however, got a big upgrade. It’s still a 12-megapixel camera, but it has moved to the side bezel instead of the top. That location makes video calls feel more natural.

One thing the iPad Mini is still missing is Face ID. While it’s a standard iPhone feature, Apple appears to really be reserving it for only the iPad Pro. That’s a shame. This does have Touch ID built into the power button.

A number of other iPad features still apply here, though, that make the iPad Mini feel like something you could work on. It supports extended display mode, letting you connect it to an external monitor without forcing it to mirror the screen. iPadOS also now has windowing and proper cursor support. Without a keyboard, I can’t imagine you’ll use these features as much. On the other hand, the iPad Mini’s size makes it possible to type with your thumbs (like you would on a phone).

More Memory, More Power

Clearly, the 2026 iPad Mini seems to have its sights set on more than just reading books and playing games. As if the OLED display and price tag weren’t already enough to give that away. Most of the demos Apple has been using to show off with the iPad Mini were more creator-focused than I expected. We’re talking running on-device AI models or creative applications.

There are three storage configurations available: 128 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB. All come with 12 GB of unified memory, four more than the previous iPad Mini and matching the current iPad Air. You’d never know that from Apple’s own spec sheets, though, since it’s never mentioned. Regardless, it’s part of what makes the iPad Mini a more capable little tablet, whether in heavier multitasking or for on-device AI. It’s kind of absurd that this little tablet has 12 GB of memory while the MacBook Neo is stuck at 8.

The iPad Mini’s A20 Pro chip is also more powerful than the MacBook Neo’s. This is the same silicon as in the iPhone Duo, iPhone 18 Pro, and iPhone 18 Pro Max—with one caveat. For the first time, the storage options dictate which version of the A20 Pro chip you get. Only the 512-GB model gets the full six-core CPU and dual 16-core Neural Engines. I tested this six-core model, but the other configurations have nerfed performance, with one fewer CPU efficiency core and only a single Neural Engine.

Performance is really solid. The A20 Pro handles games quite well, and I tested several, including Oceanhorn 3, Fortnite, No Man’s Sky, and Assassin’s Creed Mirage. None of these games looked particularly nice here, with textures and effects turned down, but the iPad Mini played them smoothly at 60 frames per second. Visually, the most impressive was No Man’s Sky, which came to iOS and iPadOS just last week. It still feels amazing to play a game this dense on a mere iPad Mini. Of course, the iPad Pro with the M5 will be a substantial upgrade for gaming performance, but if you connect a mobile controller (we like the Backbone One), you’ll have a good time.

I also tried out some local AI in LM Studio. With 12 GB of onboard memory, you’re limited in what models you can use. LM Studio recommended the 4-billion parameter version of Qwen 3.5. This isn’t the kind of model that’s going to blow anyone away, but for simple tasks, it’s nice to run a text model completely locally. This is all GPU-dependent, so performance should be identical without the second Neural Engine that comes exclusively on the 512-GB model. Of course, Siri AI is now a significant part of this platform, and the iPad Mini can run all the advanced features, including the more expressive Siri voices and on-the-fly dictation.

Who’s This For?

The previous iPad Mini cost $499 when it came out (before the price increases), and that at least felt reasonable. At this new price of $699, it’s a little harder to justify. The iPad Mini has always been a luxe but niche device. It’s sized for reading books, watching movies, and playing games. It doesn’t have the same high-stakes use case as a phone or laptop, which makes that higher premium price harder to swallow.

If you want the most powerful iPad Mini as a professional tool, you’ll probably spend at least $999. Or $1,099 with the nano-texture display. That’s the same price as the MacBook Air! I get it: The iPad Mini is an entirely different device. But I’m wondering whether real professionals would at least prefer a larger display—not only for the extra screen real estate but also for keyboard support.

I will say: The iPad Mini does work remarkably well with the Apple Pencil. If I had to choose an iPad specifically for note-taking, it’d be the iPad Mini. On the other hand, illustrators will likely prefer a larger screen. Like previous versions of the iPad Mini, it’s only compatible with the Apple Pencil Pro and USB-C Apple Pencil. Even for those who use tablets in the workplace as a point-of-sale system or for specialized use cases, the higher price seems hard to justify.

Is it all just a plainly disguised way of justifying the higher prices Apple is paying for memory on the backend? The cynic in me says yes. It’s not unlike the direction Apple is heading with its OLED MacBook Pro. But putting the cynicism aside, there’s real quality-of-life value being added here, especially in the form of the OLED screen, waterproofing, and extra memory. For the right person, the iPad Mini will be the perfect product. It’s a dream device for casual use, whether it’s gaming, reading, or browsing. But I’m guessing that demographic has shrunk quite a bit with this increased price.

I’m a little perplexed why Apple isn’t at least offering an 8-GB RAM model that would bring the price down more. I know it goes against the focus on Siri AI, which needs at least 12 GB, but it would at least keep the core audience that would buy an iPad Mini in the first place. It would also help create some more separation between this and the iPad Air. The iPad Mini is $150 cheaper than the iPad Air despite having an OLED screen. The iPad Air, meanwhile, has a larger 11-inch screen and is big enough to use with the Magic Keyboard. You’ll have to weigh a number of trade-offs when choosing between these two.

And with the iPhone Duo’s arrival, the iPad Mini’s size feels even less unique. Sure, the Duo costs $2,000, but it solves the iPad Mini’s main problem: convenience. As your phone, the Duo fits in your pocket, goes with you everywhere, and is far more versatile as a pocket computer. The iPad Mini is less flexible and easier to forget and leave at home. And at $699, you may wonder whether you really need that fancy OLED screen and 12 GB of RAM.