Apple prepping a new version of the iPad mini with a larger 8.4-inch display and slimmer bezels, Japanese site Mac Otakara reports, citing Chinese supply chain sources.
Apple’s current iPad mini features a 7.9-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit Multi-Touch, 2048-by-1536 resolution at 326 pixels per inch (ppi), Wide color (P3), True Tone, Fully laminated display with 500 nits brightness.
The upcoming iPad mini is said to have an 8.4-inch display, up from the current 7.9-inch screen size. It will have slimmer bezels and will look similar to the iPad Air 3, a design language that Mac Otakara said Apple would also be using for the ninth-generation low-cost iPad.
The iPad mini 6 will have a design that’s unified with the upcoming low-cost iPad, and will continue to feature a Touch ID Home button with top and bottom bezels and a Lightning port.
Mac Otakara believes that the refreshed iPad mini will see a March launch…
MacDailyNews Take: Will this next-gen iPad mini’s 8.4-inch display will be Mini LED? The timing seems right.
Mini LED display are LED-backlit LCD with Mini LED–based backlighting supporting over a thousand of Full array local dimming (FALD) zones. This allows deeper blacks and a higher contrast ratio.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
So the mini pad, will be a maxi pad. Nice.
I think the new iPad mini will have same “footprint” as the previous iPad mini models. iPad mini is often purchased in bulk and deployed by customers who used them in enterprise and education. It’s advantageous for those customers to continue using the same accessories, such as cases and charging stands. Allows use with more than one model of iPad mini and smoothly transition the fleet between models. Having Touch ID on a Home button is also important, to retain same processes and not have to change to using Face ID (especially right now with masks).
So this rumor makes sense. Screen is larger, but it still fits inside existing outline. With room at top and bottom to retain Home button and “handles” to make it easier to hold horizontally (even with one hand). Maybe button will use haptics (instead of mechanical movement) to convey a press, like on iPhone 8 and SE.
I’ll buy one, and keep using the same excellent case I bought with iPad mini 4.
It will not fit your accessories Ken, Apple has kept the same footprint for the Mini long enough. They love to even just slightly change the dimensions of their products or locations of buttons to periodically pump case and peripheral sales. Keeping the same dimensions for them make sense when releasing something like the latest iPad Air so it can work with the Magic Keyboard, I do expect the price to remain the same though. Rule of thumb is if it benefits Apple’s bottom line it will happen, if it benefits the customer more than they’ve been trained to expect, it won’t.
See below for reply.
Really….? Your first sentences contradicts the rest of your comment. Apple has kept same footprint “long enough”? So you’re saying Apple DOES care about keeping long-term continuity when it doesn’t affect product functionality. If this rumor is accurate about only slightly bigger screen and presence of Touch ID home button, history suggests same dimensions. When iPad mini gets edge-to-edge screen with no home button, dimensions are more likely to change (affects functionality).
Other history that contradicts your comment. iPhone 7, 8, and new SE (same case fits). iMac’s shape has been same for long time. Mac mini for longer, even after losing optical drive and now going to M1. New MacBook Pro with M1 is virtually identical to the one with Intel. iPod touch looks the same since it used A5. The list goes on…