- A new rumor suggests the next iPad Mini can get an OLED screen
- This would make it the other iPad to get upgrade after iPad Pro
- Rumor is light on detail and Apple has not recognized it
When the iPad Pro M4 released in 2024, Apple made waves by equipping its leading high-end tablet with a fantastic OLED screen-the first on any iPad model.
Since then, we have been wondering which iPad will be the next one to make jumped from older LCD -Tech to the increased contrast and color accuracy of OLED – and a new rumor suggests that an unlikely candidate could be next time.
The noticed Tipster Digital Chat Station (via Gsmarena) made a post about Weibo that suggested that “iPad is evaluating small OLED” in connection with mainstream tech companies that produce 8.8-inch tablets.
Admittedly, it is not much to continue, but Digital Chat Station has a fairly decent record and is considered one of the more reliable tipsters that post on Chinese platforms.
The current gene iPad mini, released at the tail of 2024, Sports an 8.3-inch screen. The post is not clear enough to know if Digital Chat Station involves a screen size increase for the iPad Mini, as well as the new OLED tech.
Our iPad Mini (2025) review found the tablet very impressive in general, but an OLED screen upgrade would still be more than welcome.
The iPad Mini is the second-bound iPad model by starting price. For $ 499 / £ 499 / AU $ 799, it is only beaten by the basic model iPad, which is bells in at $ 329 / £ 329 / AU $ 599.
This would leave the LCD-equipped iPad air models that are wedged between the iPad Mini and the iPad Pro on Apple’s price ladder-though this may seem like a strange choice, I think this strategy could actually be a realistic.
Analysis: Why an OLED iPad Mini could make sense
Although the iPad Mini sits between the iPad and iPad Air on Apple’s tablet price ladder, it is not really accurate to consider it an intermediate option between the two.
It’s more realistic to think of iPad, iPad Air and iPad Pro, forming a coherent product line aimed at mainstream consumers, where the iPad Mini offers a similar experience as a niche market with small tablet fans.
The trend across all mobile devices in the last decade has been larger screens. IPhone has risen from 4.7 to 6.9 inches and iPad from 9.7 to a maximum of 13 inch screen size.
The iPad Mini is unique in that it is only increased very little in the same time period, from 7.9 to 8.3 inches, most of which can be attributed to the adoption of the modernized iPad design language on full screen.
It’s all to say that the people who buy an iPad Mini probably buy it because it has a small screen, not because they are looking to save money against an iPad Air or iPad Pro.
As such, it makes sense that Apple would start expanding some of these higher than features to the iPad Mini, as its target audience would probably never experience them otherwise.
And with the iPad Mini that enjoys popularity in certain professional and advanced leisure spaces-it is a well-known favorite among pilots, there is certainly opportunity for some function upgrades.
In addition to an OLED screen, I personally would love to see the iPad Mini get an M-Series chipset. It may seem as excessive for such a small device, but when you consider the M1 chips turning five years old this year, that’s not that big question.
At the moment, however, I think the addition of an OLED screen would be enough -a character from Apple that their small tablet is still a priority, despite being only 10% of iPad sales (as makrumors report).
The only real sticky point could be price. A review of Reddit suggests that there are plenty of relaxed users who love the iPad Mini for email, reading, webbrowsing standard daily things. I do not want to see these users saddled with larger price increases as a result of the iPad Mini coming closer to Pro.
Of course, the above is pretty much based on the rumor at this point, so we have a bit of a wait-and-seeing situation on our hands. For the time being, make sure you follow our iPad coverage and let us know what you would like to see, get to the iPad Mini in the comments below.
