Apple is giving the iPad mini its most significant update in five years, swapping the LCD for an OLED display and introducing a water-resistant chassis that ditches traditional speaker grilles. The redesigned tablet, code-named J510, is on track to launch by October, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. It marks the first time Apple's compact tablet will feature an OLED screen, bringing the richer colors and true blacks that have been standard on iPhones since 2017 and the iPad Pro since 2024.
Mass production of the OLED panels is already underway at a Samsung Display facility in Cheonan, South Korea, Korean outlet ETNews reported in late June. The display is expected to measure 8.4 inches (up from 8.3 inches) and use a single-stack LTPS panel rather than the more advanced two-stack LTPO OLED found in the iPad Pro, according to supply chain reports.
One feature likely missing: 120Hz ProMotion. A supply chain leak from Naver leaker yeux1122 indicates the OLED iPad mini will stick with a 60Hz refresh rate, even as the base iPhone 17 shifted to 120Hz this year.
Under the hood, Apple is expected to use the A19 Pro chip that debuted in the iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro, built on TSMC's third-generation 3-nanometer N3P process. The chip features a 16-core Neural Engine and an upgraded GPU architecture that Apple claims delivers up to three times the peak compute performance of the prior generation.
Some speculation points to the A20 Pro as an alternative, but the A19 Pro is considered more likely given Apple's history of not always fitting the iPad mini with its newest silicon. The chassis redesign is equally noteworthy. Apple is developing a vibration-based speaker system that eliminates traditional speaker holes, using sound-emitting surfaces to produce audio.
This would allow for a fully sealed enclosure with an official IP water resistance rating, something no iPad mini has ever carried. The approach echoes a 2014 Apple patent for a "mechanically actuated panel acoustic system" that vibrates flat surfaces to generate sound.
Pricing remains a key question. The current iPad mini 7 starts at $499, but the OLED upgrade, rising memory costs, and the water-resistant design could push that higher.
Gurman has previously suggested Apple could charge up to $100 more for the OLED model. In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Apple CEO Tim Cook said "price increases are unavoidable" due to rising component costs driven by AI data center demand, though he did not specify which products would be affected.
Apple's iPad roadmap extends beyond the mini. According to Gurman. The company is planning updates to the iPad Air and entry-level iPad in 2027, suggesting a staggered OLED transition across the lineup. The iPad Air, which received an M4 refresh in March, is expected to adopt OLED in early 2027, while the base iPad will likely follow later that year.
