SAR 3,299 is the entry price of Apple's new iPad mini on its online store in Saudi Arabia, for the Wi-Fi model with 128GB, while the cellular version starts at SAR 3,999. Apple unveiled the tablet on Monday, 26 October, and customers in the Kingdom can place pre-orders from 8:10pm local time on Wednesday, 28 October. Deliveries and in-store availability begin on Friday, 6 November, according to Apple's announcement and its Saudi store page.
The screen carries most of the change. The iPad mini moves to OLED for the first time, and the panel grows from 8.3 to 8.5 inches without the body getting bigger, because the bezels are 24 percent thinner. Peak brightness reaches 1,200 nits, more than double the previous model, and buyers can now choose a nano-texture glass that cuts glare. One thing Apple's specifications leave out is ProMotion, so MacRumors expects the display to stay at 60Hz.
Inside is the A20 Pro, the 2-nanometre chip that arrived in the iPhone 18 Pro last month. Apple's own comparison with the previous iPad mini claims up to 60 percent faster CPU performance, 2.7 times the graphics speed and 4.5 times the AI performance, though only the 512GB model gets the six-core CPU and the dual Neural Engine. The tablet is now 5.4mm thick, down from 6.3mm, and for the first time it is rated IP67 against water and dust. The 12-megapixel front camera has moved to the long edge for landscape video calls, Apple's N1 chip adds Wi-Fi 7, and cellular models use the C2 modem, which Apple says is up to 50 percent faster.
Higher storage pushes the Saudi price up quickly: SAR 3,749 for 256GB and SAR 4,649 for 512GB on Wi-Fi, with nano-texture glass adding SAR 450 on those two sizes only, and the top cellular configuration reaching SAR 5,799. In the United States the starting price is $699, which is $200 above the previous model's 2024 launch price and the second increase this year, after Apple moved it to $599 in June. The new iPad mini comes in midnight and starlight only and ships with iPadOS 27, including the beta of the new Siri AI.
