The current Apple roadmap we confirmed you a few week and a half in the past made it fairly clear. The subsequent iPad mini, the seventh-generation mannequin, won’t arrive later this yr and even subsequent yr as all of us thought. The roadmap stated as clearly as might be that an 8.4-inch iPad mini would arrive in 2026 and would function an OLED display screen. So we actually should not be too shocked to see a report out of Korea from Naver (by way of Wccftech) that claims Samsung has began improvement of an OLED panel in the 8-inch vary that might be used for the seventh-gen iPad mini.
The report even included a quote from an “business insider” who stated, “I perceive that Samsung Display started growing samples for the OLED iPad mini final month at Apple’s request. (*7*) growing preliminary samples in the primary half of this yr, we will probably be ready to enter the event stage for mass manufacturing throughout the yr.” While utilizing an OLED panel for the following iPhone mini mannequin sounds promising, the display in all probability will not use the tandem OLED tech that Apple employed on the not too long ago launched iPad Pro (2024) tablets.
Using two layers of OLED makes the iPad Pro (2024) display a lot brighter, and likewise offers it further sturdiness. However, it additionally could be very costly to use such shows and whereas Apple might get away with a worth hike for its top-of-the-line tablets, that method would not look like such an awesome concept for the iPad mini. Apple raised the worth of the lowest-priced 13-inch iPad Pro (2024) by $200 to $1,299 in order to cowl a number of the further prices to produce the OLED display. The tech big would not have as a lot room to maneuver on the iPad mini.
The sixth-gen iPad mini was launched in 2021 and the pricing began at $499 for a mannequin with 64GB of storage. It’s doubtless that if Apple does swap to OLED for the seventh-gen model, it additionally begins the essential mannequin with extra storage. This will give Apple the chance to recoup a number of the price of switching shows by mixing a worth hike in with further storage capability for the lowest-priced unit.
