iPad Mini 8 Review Claims Battery Life is Way Better Than Apple Says

Tuesday November 3, 2026 9:22 am PST by Joe Rossignol

Tom's Guide ran the new iPad mini through its standard battery test, which involves continuous web browsing over Wi-Fi with the display set to 150 nits of brightness, and the device achieved much better battery life than Apple advertises.

According to the review, the iPad mini 8 lasted for 14 hours and 24 minutes in this test, up from 10 hours and 36 minutes for the iPad mini 7.

Tom's Guide said it typically performs the battery test three times to get an average time, but it only had time for a single run for this review. However, their review said they suspect the final results will be similar to the first run.

This is an interesting finding, as Apple does not advertise longer battery life for the new iPad mini, with its tech specs showing "up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi" for both the iPad mini 7 and iPad mini 8. The new model does have Apple's more power efficient C2 modem for cellular connectivity, but Tom's Guide's test used Wi-Fi.

We will have to see if further tests support this finding, but longer battery life may be an unadvertised benefit of the new iPad mini. The new model actually has a slightly smaller battery compared to the previous model, but power efficiency gains could come from the A20 Pro chip and the OLED display when showing darker content.

The new iPad mini launches on Friday, with U.S. pricing starting at $699. Earlier today, we shared our own hands-on look at the device.

Related Forum: iPad

Popular Stories

Apple Announces New iPad Mini With 8.5-Inch OLED Display, A20 Pro Chip, and More

Apple today announced a new iPad mini with a larger 8.5-inch OLED display, a nano-texture display option, a thinner and lighter design, an A20 Pro chip, a new Acoustic Display audio system that eliminates speaker holes, IP67-rated water and dust resistance, a landscape front camera, Apple's N1 chip with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 support, and more. Altogether, Apple says this amounts to the iPad...

Apple to Launch Touchscreen OLED MacBook Pro and OLED iPad mini on October 27

Thursday October 8, 2026 1:31 pm PDT by Juli Clover

Apple will introduce new OLED touchscreen MacBook Pro models and an OLED iPad mini "on or around" Tuesday, October 27, reports Bloomberg. The launch will also include an M6 14-inch MacBook Pro and an M6 iMac. The October 27 follows Apple's October 13 debut of a new smart home hub, a revamped Apple TV 4K, and a refreshed HomePod mini. Earlier this month, MacRumors reported that Apple would do ...

Apple Now Inviting Media to October 28 'Launch Experience'

Apple has begun inviting selected members of the media to a product launch experience in Los Angeles on Wednesday, October 28, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In a post on X, Gurman described the gathering as an "all-day product launch experience" for touchscreen MacBooks, a new iPad mini, and Macs equipped with M6 chips. Gurman previously reported that Apple would introduce the...