OLED iPad mini Announcement Could Come In ‘Third or Fourth Quarter’ of 2026, Report Says

Ryan Christoffel reported for 9to5 Mac this week Apple’s likely to launch an OLED-equipped iPad mini during the third or fourth quarter of 2026 “at the earliest.” The speculative release timing comes from a series of posts on Weibo by a leaker in China.

Mark Gurman has said the OLED iPad mini could come “as early as next year.”

“The last couple of iPad mini models have been released in October and September, respectively,” Christoffel wrote on Wednesday. “So a fall launch for the new OLED model would be consistent with [the purported release timeframe].”

As someone who’s (a) used to OLED on nearly every screen sans my Retina 4K iMac; and (b) who’s itching to downsize from my current M4 13” iPad Pro, news of an OLED iPad mini is damn exciting. I still have the A17 Pro iPad mini that I reviewed last year, which I’ve been dallying with again recently as my “couch computer” and have enjoyed the rekindled experience very much. To reiterate a sentiment I shared a little over a year ago in my aforementioned review, the mini, in my mind, “represents the purest expression of Jobs’ original conceit for the tablet,” adding “the reality is iPad mini truly is a nigh-perfect device for doing the things Jobs said tablets excelled at.” Since an OLED iPad mini doesn’t exist right now, the next best thing would be an 11” M5 iPad Pro, which is tempting too—but the fact remains, as I also said last year, an iPad mini with an OLED screen is the Platonic ideal for me when it comes to my day-to-day tablet usage.