Apple has replaced the iPad mini. The new model has an 8.5-inch OLED screen and the A20 Pro chip, and it goes on sale in the UK on 6 November from £699. That is £100 more than the model it replaces, and £200 more than the iPad mini cost when that model launched in October 2024.
For two years the mini Apple sold was the same A17 Pro machine at a rising price: £499 at launch, then £599 after Apple's June increase, with nothing inside it changed. This time the rise comes with new hardware, which makes it easier to defend. It also moves the mini further away from being the cheap small iPad.
Here is what the new one costs, what the extra money buys, and when the old one is still the better buy.
The iPad mini price in the UK, then and now
Apple put the old model's launch price in writing itself. Its UK newsroom announcement of 15 October 2024 says the A17 Pro iPad mini started at "£499 for the Wi-Fi model", with the cellular version at £649 and tablets in shops from 23 October.
This is what the new model costs on Apple's UK store, checked on 29 October 2026:
- 128GB Wi-Fi: £699
- 256GB Wi-Fi: £799
- 512GB Wi-Fi: £999
- 128GB Wi-Fi + Cellular: £849
- 256GB Wi-Fi + Cellular: £949
- 512GB Wi-Fi + Cellular: £1,149
My arithmetic: the new 128GB Wi-Fi model is £100 more than the A17 Pro model it replaces and £200 more than that model's 2024 launch price, a rise of 40.08% in two years. Every tier is £100 up on the old model. Nano-texture glass, new to the mini, adds £100 at 256GB and 512GB, and education pricing takes £50 off the 128GB and 256GB models and £100 off the 512GB.
Set that against the rest of the iPad range, and the mini sits in an awkward spot. The 11-inch iPad Air with the M4 is £749, only £50 more for a bigger screen, and the base iPad is £429.
What the extra £100 buys
Apple's list of changes is long, and most of it is real:
- An 8.5-inch OLED display, up from an 8.3-inch LCD, with 24 per cent thinner borders and up to 1,200 nits peak brightness
- The A20 Pro chip, which Apple says brings up to 60 per cent faster CPU performance and a GPU up to 2.7 times faster than the A17 Pro
- A body 14 per cent thinner and 13 per cent lighter, with water and dust resistance for the first time on a mini
- The 12MP front camera moved to the landscape edge, where it belongs for video calls
- Optional nano-texture glass to cut glare, from 256GB up
- Two colours, Midnight and Starlight, down from four
My take on that list: the OLED screen and the landscape camera are the changes you will notice every day. The chip matters less than Apple's numbers suggest, because the A17 Pro was not slow for anything people do on a small tablet. Water resistance is the quiet win for a device that lives in a bag.
The old iPad mini: only worth it well below £509
Apple no longer sells the A17 Pro model new. It is still in Apple's refurbished store, and retailers are selling off their remaining stock, so for a few weeks the old model will be around at several different prices. Apple's refurbished price is the one to beat.
Apple's refurbished A17 Pro iPad mini is still £509 for 128GB, £599 for 256GB and £769 for 512GB. On 29 September, before the new model was announced, the cheapest new, sealed equivalents on PriceSpy UK were £475.99, £549.00 and £699.00. Check the current figure before you buy: clearance can push those lower, but the popular colours sell out first.
My arithmetic on the three tiers, at 29 September prices:
- 128GB: Apple's refurb is £33.01 dearer than new, 6.93% more
- 256GB: £50.00 dearer, 9.11% more
- 512GB: £70.00 dearer, 10.01% more
The penalty grows as you climb the range, which is the opposite of how a used-stock discount is supposed to behave. Apple is not pricing its refurbs against the market. It is pricing them as a fixed percentage off its own list price, and the market has simply walked away from that list price.
To be fair to Apple, a refurbished iPad does come with a new outer shell, a new battery and the full one-year warranty, which I have gone through in detail in my guide to Apple Refurbished in the UK. That is worth real money on a Mac. It is not worth paying a premium over a factory-sealed box of the identical product.
The £150 cellular charge carries over
Apple charges exactly £150 for mobile data on the iPad mini, at every storage tier, and the new model keeps it. It is the same £150 on the entry-level iPad, which is £429 Wi-Fi and £579 with cellular. A flat number applied across the range like that is a pricing decision, not a reflection of what the modem costs.
On the old model, the open market was kinder. On 29 September the cheapest new 5G A17 Pro minis ran £594.00 for 128GB, £699.00 for 256GB and £799.00 for 512GB.
Against the new model that gap is wider still. £594.00 bought a 5G old mini; Apple now wants £699 for the Wi-Fi-only new one and £849 with cellular.
If you need mobile data on a small iPad and the OLED screen is not the point, the old model from a retailer is the cheap route for as long as stock lasts.
Apple charges 78.1p per gigabyte, exactly like the cheap iPad
Going from 128GB to 256GB costs £100 for 128 extra gigabytes. Going from 256GB to 512GB costs £200 for 256 extra gigabytes. My arithmetic: both steps land on 78.1p per gigabyte, on the new model exactly as on the old one.
That figure should look familiar if you read what I found on the 11th-generation iPad, where Apple charged 78.1p per gigabyte at both storage steps as well. Two different iPads, two different chips, two different price brackets, one identical rate. Apple's storage pricing is a formula, and it is not connected to what flash memory costs.
The open market did not follow the formula on the old model. At 29 September prices, going from £475.99 to £549.00 was £73.01 for 128GB, which by my maths is 57.0p per gigabyte. Going from £549.00 to £699.00 was £150 for 256GB, or 58.6p per gigabyte. That is 25% to 27% below Apple's rate.
The practical version: on 29 September, £549 bought a new 256GB A17 Pro mini on the open market, £50 less than Apple was then charging for a new 128GB one. Double the storage, a sealed box, less money.
Ignore the refurbished iPad mini 6
Apple still lists the 2021 iPad mini 6 in its refurbished store at £459 for 64GB and £539 for 256GB. On a page full of bigger numbers, £459 reads like the sensible budget option. It is the worst buy on the entire page.
My arithmetic: £459 for a refurbished 64GB mini 6, against £475.99 for a brand new A17 Pro mini with 128GB on 29 September. That is a difference of £16.99, or 3.70%, and for it you get two chip generations, double the storage, and a tablet nobody has opened before.
There is a harder line underneath the price, too. Apple Intelligence needs an A17 Pro or an M-series chip on iPad. The mini 6 runs an A15 with 4GB of memory and does not qualify. Buying it in late 2026 means buying out of every AI feature Apple has shipped so far and everything it ships next, for the sake of £17.
Old or new: which iPad mini to buy
The new mini is the better tablet on every count you will notice day to day: the screen, the camera position and the water resistance. The question is whether that is worth nearly £200 over Apple's refurbished price for the old one, and that depends on what the old one costs where you are buying it.
So, concretely:
- You want the best small iPad: buy the new one at £699, or £649 with education pricing. It goes on sale on 6 November.
- Price is the point: buy the old A17 Pro model new from a retailer, and only well below Apple's £509 refurbished price. At anything near £509, I would pay the extra for the new one.
- You need mobile data: the old model with cellular from a retailer is still far cheaper than Apple's £849 for the new one.
- You already own a mini 7: the OLED screen is the only real reason to upgrade. From a mini 6, the jump is big enough to be worth it.
iPad mini FAQ
How much is the new iPad mini in the UK?
Apple charges £699 for the 128GB Wi-Fi iPad mini, £799 for 256GB and £999 for 512GB, plus exactly £150 for mobile data at any tier. That is £100 more than the A17 Pro model it replaces at every tier. Education pricing starts at £649.
Is Apple's refurbished iPad mini worth buying?
Only if you want the old model and cannot find it cheaper new. Apple's refurbished A17 Pro mini is £509 for 128GB. On 29 September a brand new sealed one sold for £475.99 elsewhere, so the refurb cost 6.93% more than new. The warranty and new shell are genuinely worth something, but not a premium over an unopened box.
Is the new iPad mini worth £100 more?
For most people buying at Apple's prices, yes. The extra £100 buys an 8.5-inch OLED screen, the A20 Pro chip, water and dust resistance and a front camera on the landscape edge. The old model only wins on price, and only when a retailer sells it well below Apple's £509 refurbished price.
My take
The iPad mini is the best small tablet anyone makes, and I still use mine most evenings. For two years that made the pricing irritating: Apple added £100 to an unchanged tablet and priced its own refurbished stock above the open market. The new one at least gives you something for the money.
If you want a small iPad, the new one at £699 is the one I would buy from Apple. If you want a cheap small iPad, look for the old one new at a retailer while stock lasts, and walk away if it is not well under £509.
Source: iPad mini, Apple UK, and Apple introduces powerful new iPad mini built for Apple Intelligence, Apple Newsroom UK. Current prices checked on Apple's UK store on 29 October 2026; old-model market prices from PriceSpy UK on 29 September 2026.
The Lovelock Log
Monthly notes on the tech I actually use, the tools I am building, and what is working. No spam.