We have been witnessing Apple pushing the design of all its tablets to look like the iPad Pro range, for reference first the iPad Air 4 ditched the bezels and the traditional home button of older generations, and now possibly the iPad Mini 6 will use a similar design too.
The iPad Mini 6 did not debut last holiday season as many had expected, but it may arrive pretty soon. Despite spending that long on the iPad Mini 5, rumors suggest Apple’s not going to spend the same time developing iPad Mini 6.
Thanks to some reliable recent rumors, we’ve got a decent idea of not just when we’ll see the next Apple mini-tablet, but what reasons it might give us to upgrade. The rumored changes, as they’ve been seen so far, ranging from a powerful new processor to a surprising new high-end display technology and possibly a new design.
iPad Mini 6 processor and specs
A post at the Chinese tech site MyDrivers.com (after translation) suggests that the iPad mini 6 will feature an A13 processor, which makes sense as an upgrade from the A12 Bionic chips found in the iPad Mini 5.
That post also states that the iPad Mini 6 will continue the use of the Lightning port. This connector has been something of a quarrelsome point among Apple rumors as there’s a lot of speculation that Apple will kill the port completely in the iPhone 13, while the iPad Pro has got the universal USB-C port.
iPad Mini 6 design
Lately, there’s been a lot of folks out there speculating that the iPad Mini 6 could end up getting a design that looks more like the new iPad Pro than the iPad, with slimmer bezels and no traditional home button.
There’s no reason to see those thoughts as anything close to being real. This 8.5-inch iPad Mini doesn’t sound like a device that will undergo a thorough transformation. It’s not hard to contemplate why people want the iPad Pro’s design for the iPad Mini, it even makes the tablet eligible for supporting the magnetically-docking 2nd Gen iPad Pencil, which happens to be much better than the 1st Gen Pencil.
iPad Mini 6 release date and price
The expected release date for the Apple iPad Mini 6 lies somewhere around the last week of May depending on the region.
An analyst named Ming-Chi Kuo said that Apple plans to release the iPad Mini 6 in the first half of 2021. The iPad Mini 5 came out in March 2019, which would place about 2 years in between them. Moreover, a Korean blog named Naver, who doesn’t have any credible record for rumors and leaks, claims an iPad Mini Pro is coming out in the second half of 2021.
The iPad Mini 6 will likely keep the $399 (U.S. Dollars) price we see in its predecessor. Apple has usually kept its tablets at the same price over the years, and the iPad Mini starts with 64GB of storage, which gives it a better value proposal against the 32GB $329 iPad.
The 256GB iPad Mini costs $149 more, at $549, and that price-to-storage upgrade pattern also seems to continue.
Will iPad Mini 6 get a Pro version?
Just prior to the iPad Pro 2021 launch, when we expected (but didn’t get) an iPad Mini launch, rumors started rolling that an ‘iPad Mini Pro’ was coming too. There has not been much information made available about that tablet, but it seemed to be a Pro version of the iPad Mini – so, an iPad Mini with better specs. However, the latest information implies that the tablet could be the iPad Pro Mini or an iPad Pro with a smaller frame.
One question which immediately comes to mind is “if this tablet will be a member of the iPad Pro or iPad Mini line up”, this might influence its price among other things, as iPad Minis are far more affordable than their Pro versions.
It looks like one will have to wait to find out, as there haven’t been too many leaks about the subject. But stay tuned for finding more significant news when it surfaces. None can be certain if more new iPads, like the iPad Mini 6, could be on the way soon.
Whether the above rumors hold any value or not, is subjective to the perspective of the reader.