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Apple’s iPad mini gets its biggest upgrade yet with a thinner, lighter design and a vibrant 8.5-inch tandem OLED display — the first for the mini line. Powered by the A20 Pro chip, it delivers strong performance, over 14 hours of battery life in testing, and punchy sound, though it still lacks Face ID and a 120Hz refresh rate. Starting at $699, it’s a portable powerhouse for media, reading, and light work.

Tony Polanco for Tom’s Guide:
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The iPad mini 8 ($699 to start) is a huge upgrade to Apple’s smallest tablet. It’s not only the thinnest and lightest iPad mini ever, but it also packs a stunning OLED panel — a first for the line. The option to upgrade to a nearly glare-free nano-texture display also makes viewing more enjoyable.

The upgrades don’t stop with the design. Thanks to the powerful A20 Pro chip inside, this tiny tablet punches above its weight. This efficient processor also gives the iPad mini 8 astonishing battery life, lasting over 14 hours in our testing. Audio also gets an upgrade, thanks to Audio Display technology, which delivers punchy sound right through the panel.

Though the iPad mini 8 lacks Face ID for easier unlocking and has a 60Hz display, there’s no denying it’s one of the best iPads you can buy. It’s a superb tablet for watching movies, reading books, and even for some light work. I’ve found it a delight to use, and I’m sure you will too…

In the Tom’s Guide battery test, which involves continuous web-surfing over Wi-Fi with the display set to 150 nits of brightness, the iPad mini 8 lasted for an astonishing 14 hours and 24 minutes! That’s nearly four hours longer than the previous model and Apple’s claims…

The iPad mini 8 is a phenomenal little tablet that I can’t get enough of using. And that’s saying a lot considering how the iPad Pro is my usual daily driver. I just love how vivid and sharp videos and books look on the tandem OLED panel. Holding the iPad is also nice thanks to its thinner, lighter design.

Even if the iPad mini 8 is now pricier than before, it’s a worthwhile purchase. You won’t find a tablet this small offering the same rich features and delightful experience.

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That’s a big, strong review for Apple’s smallest tablet!

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Source link: https://macdailynews.com/2026/11/03/ipad-mini-8-outperforms-apples-claims-delivers-more-than-all-day-battery-life-toms-guide/

Apple’s first foldable smartphone, the iPhone Duo, is generating strong early demand according to a new analysis from market research firm TrendForce.⁠

Less than a week after preorders opened, Apple’s website showed delivery windows extending into January 2027 for some orders, underscoring pent-up interest in the book-style inward-folding device. Initial user feedback has been mixed. Owners have praised the expanded viewing area and split-screen multitaskingy.⁠

TrendForce projects that global foldable smartphone shipments will rise just 0.5% in 2026. Against that largely flat backdrop, the firm estimates the iPhone Duo will ship approximately 5 million units this year, accounting for about 24.8% of the market. That share would place Apple in a virtual tie with Huawei for second place behind Samsung (projected at roughly 35.1% on about 7.1 million units), while Android brands excluding Apple are expected to see combined shipments fall more than 20% year-over-year amid rising component costs. Apple’s entry is therefore accelerating a realignment of market share even as overall volume stays nearly stagnant.⁠

One of the Duo’s most discussed hardware features is its barely visible display crease. Foldable OLED panels consist of multiple layers — cover materials, adhesives, display elements, and encapsulation — that experience differing tensile, compressive, and shear stresses when bent. Apple has optimized the bending radius, layer thicknesses, elastic moduli, and controlled slippage through the adhesive stack to reduce strain and improve recovery when the phone is opened. Nanoscale surface textures further scatter reflected light so the residual fold band is less noticeable. The teardrop hinge is equally critical: it keeps the display flat and stable for touch input when open and creates the necessary clearance for the intended fold curvature when closed.⁠

On the software side, the larger workspace is intended to support simultaneous document reading, AI-generated summaries, and content editing. Realizing that potential requires apps to adapt layouts dynamically as the device opens and closes while preserving state. Some applications still display black borders or under-utilize the available screen real estate, indicating that developer optimization has not yet fully matched the hardware’s capabilities. The bigger display also raises power-management demands: even static white-background content continues to consume energy for OLED emission, independent of refresh-rate reductions. Balancing multitasking, AI workloads, and battery life will depend on more efficient emissive materials, optical structures, and adaptive driving technologies.⁠

TrendForce notes that Apple’s core advantage remains its vertical integration of silicon, operating system, and developer ecosystem. As app compatibility improves and hardware reliability issues are addressed, the Duo is expected to expand the practical value of foldable displays and shift competitive focus from pure form-factor novelty toward multitasking efficiency. Secondary coverage of TrendForce’s outlook has further projected that Apple’s share could rise to nearly 30% (around 29.8%) in 2027 as the overall foldable market rebounds, though those longer-term figures remain forecasts contingent on execution.⁠

For a category that has grown only modestly in recent years, Apple’s debut is already reshaping – and is poised to dominate – the foldable smartphone market.

If and when Apple debuts a foldable iPhone, they’ll be showing the world how it should be done and what to copy going forward. As usual. — MacDailyNews, February 27, 2019

As with fingerprint and facial recognition, when Apple debuts a foldable iPhone, then foldable smartphones will have been done right. — MacDailyNews, January 17, 2019

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Source link: https://macdailynews.com/2026/11/03/apples-iphone-duo-to-grab-significant-share-foldable-smartphone-market-trendforce/