The first OLED iPad mini reviews are out ahead of the November 6 release, and critics praise the display and the A20 Pro chip while faulting the 60Hz refresh rate. The $699 starting price is $100 above the previous model, and Engadget, HardwareZone and The Verge all flag it.
Reviewers split on speaker quality and battery life. Macworld and HardwareZone tell owners of the older iPad mini to upgrade, and Engadget and TechRadar say the five-core chip in the lower storage tiers is enough for most buyers.
OLED iPad Mini Reviews Agree on the Screen and the 60Hz Complaint
Engadget, Tom’s Guide, TechRadar, Macworld and HardwareZone all name the OLED panel as the biggest change from the previous model. It is rated at 600 nits for standard content and 1,200 nits for HDR, which Engadget says is twice the previous HDR peak.
All eight reviews bring up the 60Hz refresh rate, and HardwareZone calls it a serious flaw. Engadget and Macworld both point out that the iPhone 17 already has ProMotion, while Gizmodo argues most people will not notice 120Hz and The Verge says you feel the difference even in basic swiping.
Face ID is the other miss, since the OLED iPad mini unlocks with Touch ID in the power button, which TechRadar says works quickly. Engadget, TechRadar and Gizmodo also wish for more than Midnight and Starlight.
Speakers, Nano-Texture Glass and Battery Life Split the Reviews
Engadget, Tom’s Guide, TechRadar and Gizmodo like the new Acoustic Display speakers, and Tom’s Guide calls the iPad mini one of the best-sounding tablets it has tested. Macworld and The Verge heard little difference from the old model, and HardwareZone says the sound turns shouty at maximum volume.
Engadget and TechRadar praise the nano-texture glass for cutting glare, while Gizmodo says it dulled the OLED’s deep colors and would skip it. HardwareZone notes the finish costs some vibrancy and sharpness but suits outdoor use and long reading sessions.
Battery life depends on the test each outlet ran, and the results span a wide range. Tom’s Guide and TechRadar recorded 14 hours and 24 minutes of web surfing over Wi-Fi, while Macworld’s video loop lasted 10 hours and 10 minutes and The Verge puts everyday use near nine hours. Engadget got five to six hours of heavy gaming, and HardwareZone says the battery is 2 percent smaller than the previous model’s with the rating still at 10 hours.
Only the 512GB OLED iPad Mini Gets the Full A20 Pro
The 128GB and 256GB models have a five-core CPU and a 16-core Neural Engine, while the 512GB model has six CPU cores and dual 16-core Neural Engines. All three have a seven-core GPU, and Engadget, TechRadar and HardwareZone expect the lower tiers to feel the same in daily use.
The OLED iPad mini costs $699 for 128GB, $799 for 256GB and $999 for 512GB, and nano-texture glass adds $100 on the 256GB and 512GB models. Wi-Fi + Cellular adds $150 on every model, and the previous model sold for $599 after Apple’s 2026 price increases.
Tests Show the A20 Pro Beating the iPad Air With M4 on Graphics
Engadget gave the OLED iPad mini 8.5 out of 10 and The Verge gave it an 8, while Tom’s Guide awarded it Editor’s Choice and TechRadar its Recommended badge. Tom’s Guide’s 3DMark run and Gizmodo’s Geekbench 7 Metal test both put the A20 Pro ahead of the iPad Air with M4 on graphics.
Engadget Rates the OLED iPad Mini 8.5 out of 10
Engadget’s Nathan Ingraham gave the OLED iPad mini 8.5 out of 10 and called the 5.4mm body, the larger screen and the new speakers welcome upgrades. Games like Control and No Man’s Sky ran without hitches, and Lightroom applied edits to a library of RAW photos almost instantly.
Fast charging took the battery from 29 percent to 74 percent in 30 minutes. He thinks the $100 increase is reasonable for the screen, chip and design, but it is fair to wonder whether Apple is misreading what people want from an iPad mini.
Tom’s Guide Gives the OLED iPad Mini Its Editor’s Choice Award
Tom’s Guide measured 4,720 in Geekbench 6 single-core and 12,697 multi-core, against 2,883 and 7,213 for the previous model. The iPad Air with M4 led multi-core at 13,342 but trailed on the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme test, 6,730 to 9,119.
Its HDR test hit 1,032 nits, short of the 1,200 nits Apple claims but still more than double the previous model’s 492. Resident Evil 4 Remake ran at a steady 30 frames per second.
TechRadar Recommends the OLED iPad Mini Despite the 60Hz Screen
TechRadar’s Jacob Krol gave the OLED iPad mini its Recommended badge and called it an absolute joy to use. He said the OLED panel makes a world of difference even without ProMotion, and he liked the IP67 rating as a durability upgrade.
The N1 chip adds Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and Thread, and the Wi-Fi + Cellular model gets the C2 modem. In Geekbench 7 it scored 3,998 single-core and 11,485 multi-core, and he found apps open quickly and photo edits run without a hitch.
Gizmodo Finds the A20 Pro Beating the iPad Air With M4 on Graphics
Gizmodo’s Adriano Contreras found the A20 Pro about 15 percent ahead of the iPad Air with M4 in the Geekbench 7 Metal GPU test, while the iPad Air trailed by nearly 25 percent on 3DMark Steel Nomad Lite. A nine-inch RedMagic Astra 2 gaming tablet scored 40 percent lower on Geekbench 7 multi-core.
Scores dropped with the Smart Folio attached, and Gizmodo has asked Apple about it. The screen fits two windows side by side at most, and some apps are not tuned to the aspect ratio.
Macworld Measures a 51 Percent Single-Core Gain Over the A17 Pro
Macworld measured a 51 percent single-core and 50 percent multi-core gain over the A17 Pro iPad mini, plus a 180 percent jump in GPU performance. Its video loop at 200 nits ran 10 hours and 10 minutes, almost exactly what Apple claims.
It tells owners of the sixth-generation iPad mini or older to upgrade for Apple Intelligence. If screen size does not matter, it says the $749 iPad Air with M4 has the stronger chip.
The Verge Gives the OLED iPad Mini an 8 and Calls the Price Too High
The Verge’s David Pierce gave the OLED iPad mini an 8 out of 10 and called it the best iPad mini yet, but says the $699 starting price feels at least $100 too high. He points out that the $749 iPad Air with M4 costs only $50 more.
He argues refresh rates matter, with the Apple Pencil feeling juddery and scrolling text turning blurry at 60Hz. The IP67 rating changed how he uses the iPad mini, from the kitchen to the shower, while the new speakers sound about the same as the old ones.
Benchmarks put the A20 Pro about 50 percent ahead of the 2024 model on CPU and about three times faster on graphics. Battery life stays around nine hours.
HardwareZone Says 128GB Is Not Enough for Heavy Users
HardwareZone says the OLED iPad mini is 14 percent thinner and 13 percent lighter than the previous model, and that the jelly scrolling effect from earlier iPad minis is gone. It credits the missing speaker grilles for the IP67 dust and water resistance, which is a first for any iPad.
HardwareZone advises keeping the volume at 85 to 90 percent, because the speakers sound shouty and echoey at maximum. It also puts iPadOS and system data at about 18GB, so heavy users should skip the 128GB model for 256GB.
Man of Many Weighs the OLED iPad Mini Against the iPhone Duo
Man of Many’s Ben McKimm says the OLED iPad mini makes the iPhone Duo hard to justify for anyone who wants a digital notebook or a field tablet. At 255 grams it is also far lighter than the 11-inch iPad Air, which he puts at 462 grams.
His mixed-use battery test ran 9.5 to 10 hours on Wi-Fi and about 8.5 hours on 5G. He notes there is no Magic Keyboard option for the iPad mini, so desktop typing depends on third-party Bluetooth keyboards.
Our Take
I think 256GB is the sensible starting point. HardwareZone puts iPadOS and system data at about 18GB, which takes a visible bite out of 128GB, and the $100 step up to 256GB also makes nano-texture glass available.
The five-core chip in that tier is enough for most people, as Engadget and TechRadar say. The 60Hz screen is the one thing I would look at in person first if you use an iPhone 17 or newer with ProMotion.
