New iPad mini (2021) release date, price, specs and news

The new iPad mini (2021) has showed up today (September 14) at Apple’s iPhone 13 launch event.

What’s new with the mini? A liquid retina 8.3-inch display up to 500 nits of brightness, Touch ID in the lock button, an A13 Bionic chipset, 40% better CPU and 80% GPU upgrade, and a USB-C port. And, of course, 5G connectivity, making the iPad mini look more like a tiny iPad Air.

Back camera has been upgraded to 12MP f/1.8 camera and can record in 4K, while the front-facing camera has been upgraded to the 12MP ultrawide (122 degree field of view) with Center Stage found on iPad Pro and new iPad.

Watch our September 14 launch live blog to read all the action as it unfolds, or check back later to see how it happened in real-time.

Cut to the chase

• What is it? Apple’s next tiny iPad
• When is it out? Announced September 14, out next week
• How much will it cost? Starts at $499

New iPad mini 2021 release date and price

The iPad mini 6 was revealed during the iPhone 13 reveal event on September 14, and it’ll be on sale around the world of September 24.

We only know the price in the US for now, which starts at $499. We’ve yet to learn any details about how much larger storage variants will cost.

Design and display

The iPad mini is the smallest iPad in the company’s range, but it does have a larger screen than previous iterations in this series. The screen is 8.3-inches, and it’s a liquid retina display. It features 500 nits of brightness, too.

You’ll have the option of a purple, a pink, space gray or a cream-like color that Apple is calling Starlight.

There’s a Touch ID fingerprint sensor inside the top button of the device.

Specs and performance

We’ve yet to find out what chipset is inside the iPad mini 2021, but the company has said it’ll include a 40% faster CPU and an 80% faster GPU than previous iterations of the device.

We’ve yet to find out how big the battery is, but Apple says it’ll offer “all-day battery life”. It’s unlikely we’ll know much about what the battery can do until we try out the new tablet.

iPadOS 15 software will come running on the device from the beginning, too.

Camera

The new iPad mini comes with a 12MP camera with an f/1.9 aperture, true tone flash and smart HDR features.

The big upgrades come on the front, which is a 12MP ultra-wide camera with 122 degree field of view. The Center Stage feature from iPad Pro 2021 – that’s the camera that follows you around – is also available here.

The rest of the article is from older information – please pardon our dust as we clean it up post-release!