Apple's new iPad mini gets OLED and A20 Pro, no Egypt price yet

Apple has announced a new iPad mini, the biggest change to its smallest tablet in years, with an OLED screen, a new chip and a water-resistant body. Pre-orders open on Wednesday 28 October in 36 countries and regions, and the tablet reaches stores on Friday 6 November. Apple has not announced an Egyptian price or release date, and its Egypt website still shows the previous model this morning.

The headline change is the screen. The new iPad mini moves to an 8.5-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display, up from 8.3 inches, in the same outer size, because the borders are 24% thinner. Apple says it reaches 1,200 nits at its brightest, more than twice the previous model, and it can be ordered with a nano-texture glass that cuts glare. The body is 5.4 mm thin, lighter than before, and rated IP67 against water and dust, a first for the mini. It comes in two colours, a new midnight and starlight.

Inside is the A20 Pro chip, made on a 2-nanometre process. Apple says graphics are up to 2.7 times faster and AI tasks up to 4.5 times faster than the last iPad mini. There is a new speaker design that uses the display itself, a 12MP front camera on the long edge for video calls, and a 12MP back camera that films 4K at up to 60 frames a second. Apple's own N1 chip brings Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, and cellular models use its C2 modem with eSIM.

Storage starts at 128GB, with 256GB and 512GB options. In the US the Wi-Fi model costs $699 and the Wi-Fi and cellular model $849. Apple's new Siri, which arrives in beta with iPadOS 27.2, works in English, French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish for now, so Arabic speakers will not get it at launch. The tablet works with the Apple Pencil Pro and Apple Pencil (USB-C), and there is a new Smart Folio cover.

For readers in Egypt, there is nothing to book yet. Apple's online store does not sell directly in Egypt, so the new iPad mini will come through Apple's authorised resellers, which set the local price once stock is confirmed. Do not convert the US price: past Apple launches in Egypt have been priced locally by the resellers. The previous iPad mini stays on sale in the meantime. We will report the Egyptian price and on-sale date as soon as an authorised reseller publishes them.