New iPad mini Reviews Are In: Better Battery Than Apple Claims, and Does the 60Hz Screen Matter?

The first reviews of Apple's new iPad mini have arrived ahead of its launch this Friday, and they bring a pleasant surprise on battery life along with one complaint about the screen. If you're wondering whether it would make a good Christmas present, or whether an older or cheaper iPad would do the job just as well, here's what the reviewers found and what I think it means for you.

What Apple has confirmed

This is the biggest change to the iPad mini in years, and these are the details from Apple's own specifications, which you can find on Apple's UK iPad mini page:

• An OLED screen. This is the first iPad outside the Pro range to use OLED, a type of screen where each tiny dot of light switches off completely to show true black, so you get richer colours and much better contrast than the older LCD screens.
• A slightly bigger screen. It's now 8.5 inches, up from 8.3 inches, because the borders around the screen are thinner, while the overall size of the iPad is much the same.
• Brighter. Up to 600 nits for everyday use, up from 500 nits, and up to 1,200 nits for HDR films and photos. Nits are simply a measure of brightness.
• Thinner and lighter. It's 5.4mm thick, down from 6.3mm, and weighs 255 grams, down from 293 grams.
• Water and dust resistance. It's rated IP67, which means it can survive being dunked in a metre of fresh water for up to 30 minutes. It's the first iPad with an official water resistance rating.
• A new A20 Pro chip, the same family of chip as in the iPhone 18 Pro, so there's plenty of power for years to come.
• New speakers, which Apple calls the Acoustic Display, where the screen itself vibrates to help produce sound.
• An optional nano-texture screen on the 256GB and 512GB models, which is a special glass finish that cuts down glare and reflections.
• A 60Hz screen. It doesn't have ProMotion, Apple's name for its smoother 120Hz screens, and there's still no Face ID.

Apple's specs quote up to 10 hours of web browsing on Wi-Fi, which is exactly the same figure it gives for the previous model. It goes on sale this Friday, and in the US it starts at $699 with 128GB of storage. That's the second price rise for the iPad mini this year, because it started 2026 at $499 and went up to $599 in June. For the UK price, it's worth checking Apple's UK iPad mini page.

What the first reviews say

Battery life. Tom's Guide ran its usual battery test, which keeps the iPad browsing websites over Wi-Fi at a fairly dim brightness until it runs out, and the new iPad mini lasted 14 hours and 24 minutes. The previous model managed 10 hours and 36 minutes in the same test. Tom's Guide is a well established review site with a consistent testing method, but it's worth knowing that it normally runs the test three times and takes an average, and this time it only had time for one run, although it expects the final result to be similar. As MacRumors points out, the new model actually has a slightly smaller battery, so any gains would be down to the more efficient chip and the OLED screen, which uses less power when showing darker content. So it looks promising, but I'd treat it as an early result until more tests back it up.

The screen. Reviewers love the OLED upgrade, but some are disappointed it's stuck at 60Hz, which means the picture refreshes 60 times a second rather than 120. Apple's argument is that OLED responds much faster than the old LCD screen, which reduces blur when things move. The Verge's David Pierce doesn't fully accept that, saying the Apple Pencil feels more juddery and text blurs more when scrolling compared with a 120Hz screen, although he doesn't see it as a dealbreaker and calls the OLED screen a big upgrade overall. 9to5Mac's Chance Miller found scrolling and animations noticeably smoother than before, but not as smooth as Apple's ProMotion screens, and he was also disappointed that the base model still has only 128GB of storage.

Does the 60Hz screen matter for you?

For the way most of my customers use their iPads, reading, email, FaceTime and browsing the web, I don't think it does. The ProMotion screens on the iPad Pro do feel more luxurious, even when you're just scrolling around, but they don't run at 120Hz all the time. When you watch a film or TV programme, the screen drops right down to match the video, which is usually filmed at only 24 or 30 frames a second, and it also lowers itself to save battery. So for reading, FaceTime calls and browsing, I don't think the difference is massive, and the switch to OLED is going to be a significant upgrade on what the iPad mini had before.

Who is it for?

With its new price, it's actually quite hard to say exactly who the iPad mini is for, because historically it has been a good deal cheaper than this. I think people who love their iPad mini from the last couple of generations will find it a nice upgrade, and photographers should enjoy it too, because it's a small device you can plug your camera into and see your photos straight away. But it's definitely a device with a fairly niche audience, so if you're buying a Christmas present, it's worth thinking about whether the person really needs the small size or would be just as happy with a larger iPad.

Should you upgrade?

If you already have an older iPad mini that's working fine, my advice is to go and see the new one in person first so you can compare them side by side. I think the OLED screen, the thinner design and how light it is will make this a really attractive iPad for a lot of people, but you can only really know whether it's worth it for you once you've held it and seen that screen with your own eyes. There's no rush either, because your current iPad mini isn't going to stop working on Friday.

If you'd like a hand deciding which iPad suits you or the person you're buying for, you can ask iHelp AI a quick question at /chat, or book a session with us, either remotely from anywhere in the UK or in person across Dorset, and we'll help you set it up and get the most from it.

Alex