New rumor matches Apple roadmap: iPad mini 7 to arrive in 2026 with OLED display

The report even included a quote from an “industry insider” who said, “I understand that Samsung Display began developing samples for the OLED iPad mini last month at Apple’s request. After developing initial samples in the first half of this year, we will be able to enter the development stage for mass production within the year.” While using an OLED panel for the next iPhone mini model sounds promising, the display probably won’t use the tandem OLED tech that Apple employed on the recently released iPad Pro (2024) tablets.

The sixth-gen iPad mini was released in 2021 and the pricing started at $499 for a model with 64GB of storage. It’s likely that if Apple does switch to OLED for the seventh-gen version, it also starts the basic model with more storage. This will give Apple the opportunity to recoup some of the cost of switching displays by mixing a price hike in with additional storage capacity for the lowest-priced unit.