Apple’s mini slate is overdue a refresh, so we might see an iPad Mini 5 soon.
Update: We may have seen the first photos of the iPad Mini 5, and they reveal a design that’s similar but not identical to the iPad Mini 4.
The iPad Mini 4 launched years ago, back in September 2015 in fact, so we’re long overdue a new model.
Despite that, rumors of the iPad Mini 5 (or iPad Pro Mini as it might be called) are thin on the ground. But we’re starting to hear whispers that it could finally be close to launch.
We’re also collecting all the news and rumors of what to expect, along with educated guesses based on what’s gone before.
Hottest leaks:
There have been a couple of recent release date rumors for the iPad Mini 4. For one, respected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has said that a new mini slate is in the works, and according to T3 it could land in early 2019.
That’s a bit vague, but Apple often makes announcements in March, so that’s a possibility.
We’ve also heard elsewhere that the iPad Mini 5 could land in the first half of 2019, which is even vaguer, but all the current rumors seem to suggest it’s coming fairly soon.
But that’s if the iPad Mini 5 is coming at all. The reason it has been so long since we’ve seen one and that there are so few rumors about the iPad Mini 5 could instead be because Apple’s killing the range off.
After all, with 6.5-inch handsets like the iPhone XS Max there’s arguably less need for a 7.9-inch slate. Maybe we’ll just never see an iPad Mini 5…
Hottest leaks:
There aren’t any price rumors yet, but we’d expect the iPad Mini 5 will start at less than the iPad 9.7 (2018), which itself starts at $329 / £319 / AU$469.
That said, the iPad Mini 4 currently starts at $399 / £399 / AU$579 (albeit for a hefty 128GB of storage, which is the only size it’s currently sold in), so there’s a chance the iPad Mini 5 will cost more than the new iPad (2018).
Hottest leaks:
There aren’t many iPad Mini 5 design rumors, but we have now seen photos that might show it from the rear.
Pictured below, you can see that the main difference to the iPad Mini 4 is that rather than having a big antenna block on the cellular model, there’s just a slim line. That improves the look, but might be the only change on the back.
Everything else looks similar, including a headphone port on the top edge, speakers on the bottom, and volume buttons on the right.
