Waiting for the new iPad mini? You might have to wait until 2025

Apple last week announced a flurry of iPads during the Let Loose event, adding the M4 chip and an OLED display to the iPad Pro and an M2 chip and all-new 13-inch display size to the iPad Air. But there was no mention of updating the iPad mini and the beloved mature tablet hasn't received any attention since it was last refreshed in 2021. That will surely change soon enough, but how soon that will happen is a matter for debate. Now, a new report suggests that while a new iPad mini is indeed part of Apple's plans, we shouldn't expect it to debut any time soon.

Writing in the paywalled version of the Power On newsletter that was reported by MacRumors, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman noted that the updated iPad mini isn't something that is likely to be announced within the next couple of months. In fact, the way Gurman was speaking, it seems possible that the new iPad mini might not arrive until 2025 although there remains hope it could debut before then.

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When answering a reader's question about when the new iPad mini would debut, Gurman said that they would likely have to wait until the end of this year at the earliest, perhaps hinting that Apple could choose to hang fire on the new launch until 2025. It's absolutely clear that there won't be any iPad mini news at the WWDC event that is set to take place on June 10, however.

The current 2021 iPad mini features an 8.3-inch display which many believe to be the perfect size for such a tablet. However, it has its issues. The tablet suffers from what some people call jelly scrolling, an issue that causes one side of the display to appear to scroll at a different rate to the other. It's an unfortunate byproduct of the display technology used here, and it's thought Apple may switch that out during the next update.

Another aspect of the iPad mini that makes it ready for a refresh is the use of the A15 Bionic chip. With Apple having now moved the iPad Pro to then new M4 chips, it's surely possible for the company to put an M1 or M2 into the iPad mini without it negatively impacting price or battery performance.

Whatever Apple ultimately chooses to do, we're going to have to wait before we get our answers. Hopefully those answers won't come in 2025 but rather towards the end of 2024. Time, as always, will tell.