Apple today announced the first OLED iPad mini, and it carries a pretty hefty price increase compared to just a few years ago. The new model starts at $699, up $100 (or 17%) from the $599 starting price of the previous generation model.
It's hard to believe now, but the previous-generation iPad mini kept its $499 price in 2024 even when Apple doubled base storage to 128GB. But then earlier this year, Apple increased the starting price to $599 as part of sweeping price increases across its product line owing to memory and chip shortages.
The new model starts with the same 128GB of storage, so the $100 increase since June isn't offset by a capacity bump – but you do get an OLED display instead of LCD. Wi-Fi + Cellular models rise by the same $100, from $749 to $849, and education pricing starts at $649.
All that being said, the price hike is less than expectations from earlier this month, when the OLED iPad mini was rumored to cost $200 more than the current model.
The higher price accompanies the mini's biggest update in years, featuring that 8.5-inch OLED display, an A20 Pro chip, IP67 water and dust resistance, a new Acoustic Display speaker system, Apple's N1 wireless chip, as well as the C2 modem on cellular models. The color range though has narrowed from four finishes to two: Midnight and Starlight.
There's also a new TechWoven Smart Folio that costs $79, up from $59 for the previous Smart Folio. Pre-orders for the new iPad mini open Wednesday, October 28, with availability starting Friday, November 6.
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