Apple debuts US$699 water-resistant iPad Mini with OLED screen

• Apple launched a new US$699 iPad mini with an 8.5-inch OLED screen, water resistance and the faster A20 Pro chip. It is the first iPad with an IP67 rating.
• Pre-orders start on Oct 28 and sales begin on Nov 6. The tablet comes in new storage options, colour choices and a top price of US$1,099.
• The launch starts a week of Apple product reveals, including a new iMac, 14-inch MacBook Pro and touch-screen MacBook Pro. Bloomberg News first reported the iPad mini in 2025.

Apple on Oct 26 unveiled a revamped iPad mini with an OLED display, water-resistant design and faster chip, kicking off a week of product launches.

The new tablet, priced at US$699 (S$895), features an 8.5-inch OLED, or organic light-emitting diode, screen that delivers deeper blacks, brighter whites and improved contrast. The redesigned device also includes a revamped audio system that places the speakers beneath the display, making it the first iPad with an IP67 water and dust-resistance rating.

The new model also features the A20 Pro chip, an upgrade from the A17 Pro processor in the previous iPad mini, which started at US$599. It comes in both standard and nano-texture display options and storage configurations ranging from 128 gigabytes to half a terabyte.

The latest iPad mini kicks off a series of late-October product introductions from Apple. Later this week, the company plans to unveil a new iMac and 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M6 chip, before closing out the week with its first touch-screen MacBook Pro.

Pre-orders for the new iPad mini begin on Oct 28 and it goes on sale on Nov 6. The new model comes in midnight and starlight colour options. A version with 512 gigabytes of storage and the matte display tops out at US$1,099. The cellular versions include Apple’s in-house C2 chip, a first for an iPad. 

The new iPad splits its A20 Pro chip into two versions: the 128- and 256-gigabyte models include five CPU, or main processing cores, while the higher-end configuration has six cores. Both use seven graphics cores. The higher-end version also has a dual 16-core Neural Engine for enhanced AI processing. 

Apple is holding a launch event on Oct 28 in Los Angeles, where members of the press and content creators will get hands-on time with the new devices. The introductions cap a busy year of product releases for Apple, including the Oct 23 launch of the iPhone Duo, its first foldable smartphone.

Bloomberg News first reported on the new iPad mini in 2025. The company is also working on a new low-end iPad, OLED iPad Air and refreshed iPad Pro for the first half of 2027. BLOOMBERG