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Apple Raised the iPad Mini 40% in Two Years. Wait for Reviews.
The A20 Pro iPad mini starts at $699, and the touchscreen MacBook Pro at $2,899, both on sale November 6. What each one replaces decides who should wait.
If you’re choosing between a small tablet and a laptop upgrade this month, Apple just made both options more expensive and gave you the same ship date to think it over. The OLED iPad mini starts at $699, which is 40% above the $499 the last one launched at in October 2024. The touchscreen MacBook Pro starts at $2,899. Pre-orders opened on October 28, and both go on sale on November 6.
I’m not pre-ordering either, and the price is only half of the reason.
iPad Mini OLED Price: How $499 Became $699
Apple announced the new iPad mini on October 26 with an 8.5-inch OLED display, the A20 Pro chip, and IP67 water and dust resistance. It starts at $699 for 128GB, $200 above the $499 the A17 Pro model launched at in 2024.
It wasn’t one jump, though. Bloomberg, as relayed by Quartz, had the outgoing model at $599 because Apple raised iPad and Mac prices in June when memory costs started eating its margin. I tracked that squeeze in A 32GB RAM Kit Was $72 Last Year. It…
