The iPad mini has always been an awkward member of the iPad family. Its form factor and price have made it hard to recommend. It’s also gone through periods of apparent neglect by Apple.
In 2021, however, the iPad mini entered a new era with a fresh design and a bigger 8.3-inch screen.
Now, it looks like the iPad mini is about to enter its next era … and Apple could fix its biggest problem.
My iPad mini problem
The iPad mini form factor has always appealed to me. It’s small and borderline pocketable depending on your outfit.
Despite that, I’ve struggled to find a spot for it in my life, mainly because of the display quality.
When Apple revitalized the iPad mini in 2021, the one thing it didn’t change was the screen’s quality. The screen got bigger, going from 7.9 inches to 8.3 inches, but it still used an LCD panel with a 60Hz refresh rate.
Apple boosted the iPad mini’s performance last year, but the screen remains unchanged. There were improvements to the infamous “jelly scrolling” problem, but it’s still not fully resolved.
By modern standards, the display just doesn’t cut it for me. If I’m choosing between using my iPhone and iPad mini, I’m going to pick my iPhone every time because of the better display. Even though the iPad mini has a larger screen, that benefit is canceled out by the lackluster display quality.
Basically, what I want from Apple is an iPad mini with a pro-level display. I don’t care about having an M-series chip. I just want the small iPad form factor as we know it today, but with a better screen.
The good news is that Apple is apparently working on exactly that.
The new rumors
According to Bloomberg, Apple is developing a new iPad mini with an OLED screen. This change alone has me excited. The LCD screen pales in comparison to Apple’s OLED screens on iPhone and iPad.
Every iPhone sold by Apple today has an OLED screen. It’s time for that same treatment to come to the iPad.
Now, my one lingering concern is whether the new iPad mini will also have a ProMotion display. Bloomberg’s report doesn’t mention that detail one way or another.
Seeing as the base model iPhone 17 offers ProMotion support this year, I’m optimistic about the iPad mini. It’d be weird, but not unprecedented, for Apple to update a product with an OLED screen but not add ProMotion.
All of this is made even more exciting by iPadOS 26, which introduced a powerful new multitasking interface. Surprisingly, despite its smaller screen, that new multitasking system is fully supported on the iPad mini.
An iPad mini with OLED, ProMotion, and powerful multitasking sounds like the dream, and I hope it becomes a reality sooner rather than later.
My favorite iPad accessories:
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