If you read on an iPad mini, the new OLED model won’t make text any crisper. Its 8.5-inch screen has 326 pixels per inch, the same density as the A17 Pro model it replaces. The reading gains are a screen that dims much further and a lighter body that survives a dunk. Apple announced it on October 26 at $699. Pre-orders open October 28, and the first deliveries arrive November 6.
The screen and the weight
Thinner bezels let the screen grow from 8.3 to 8.5 inches in the same footprint. OLED lights each pixel on its own, so the black around a comic panel or a dark-mode page stays black instead of glowing faintly.
Apple rates it at 600 nits for everyday content, up from 500 on the old mini. At the other end it dims to 1 nit, and Apple lists reading in bed among the uses. For reading with the lights off, that low end is the more useful of the two.
Look at one in an Apple Store before you buy if OLED phone screens give you eye strain at night. Apple doesn’t say whether the screen flickers at low brightness.
The Wi-Fi model weighs 255 g, 38 g less than the A17 Pro mini. The thin body (5.4 mm) helps more in a coat pocket than in the hand.
Water resistance and Apple’s warranty footnote
The new mini is rated IP67. Apple’s footnote spells that out as up to 1 meter of water for 30 minutes. The press release pictures someone reading by the pool, but the same footnote says the warranty doesn’t cover liquid damage. It also says the resistance can weaken with normal wear. Treat the rating as cover for a spilled drink or a slip into the bath, and don’t take the mini into the pool to read.
What $699 buys
The $699 model has 128 GB and Wi-Fi only. Cellular starts at $849.
The matte nano-texture glass cuts glare by a window or outdoors, but Apple’s store offers it only with 256 GB or more. It adds $100, so the cheapest matte iPad mini costs $899. The upgrade is worth it only if you read outdoors often, because the extra storage it forces on you does nothing for a library of e-books.
Most of the press release goes to the A20 Pro chip and its speed in AI tasks and games. For reading, we’d count none of that toward the price.
Apple’s store listed the 11-inch iPad at $449 on October 27. It has a bigger page for comics and PDFs and weighs 477 g. The mini costs $250 more and weighs just over half as much. Pay the difference if you read holding the tablet in one hand.
A Kindle Paperwhite at $199.99 is the better buy if novels are most of what you read. Amazon sells it as waterproof and rates it at up to 12 weeks a charge. Apple rates the mini at up to 10 hours of web browsing or video and gives no figure for reading.
If you own the A17 Pro mini
Keep it. The pixel density hasn’t changed, so a page of text looks the same. An upgrade gets you the dimmer floor, the lower weight and the water rating. Apple’s online store now lists only the new model, so anyone who wanted the cheaper A17 Pro version won’t find it there.
Our take
Pre-order on October 28 if you read comics or magazines in bed and want a tablet light enough for one hand. The base model already has the dim floor and the lighter body, so you only need the matte upgrade if you read in the sun. Anyone whose A17 Pro mini still holds a charge can skip this one.
