Apple today revealed the highly anticipated iPad mini, and an updated fourth-generation of its iPad at the San Jose California Theatre. Phil Schiller, Apple senior vice president of worldwide marketing, took to the stage during the keynote, which was streamed across the globe on the company’s website, to reveal the new smaller tablet.
iPad mini Pricing & Availability
iPad mini with Wi-Fi models will be available on Friday, November 2, for a suggested retail price of £269 for the 16GB model, £349 for the 32GB model and £429 for the 64GB model.
The iPad mini tech specs
The iPad mini has a 7.9in display, sitting between Apple’s iPhone and the 9.7in iPad, but slightly larger than rival tablets from the likes of Amazon, Google and Samsung. The device will retail from $329 for a 16GB model (UK pricing TBA).
Pre-orders start this Friday. Wi-Fi will ship on November 2nd in the US, and then two weeks later around the world.
Phil Schiller described the iPad mini as “Incredibly thin, beautiful… as thin as a pencil and light as a pad of paper”.
The iPad mini sports an A5 processor, the same found in the iPad 2 and Apple promises the 10-hour battery life found on other iPad models. The front of the iPad mini has a FaceTime HD camera, while the rear has a 5-Megapixel camera (the same as the new iPod touch).
The iPad mini is 7.2mm thick and like the iPhone 5 the new iPad mini comes in two models: white with silver backing and black with a slate reverse models.
It also sports the 4G LTE connection found on the iPhone 5 and fourth-generation iPad as well as WiFi N networking models.
Like the iPad 2 and new iPad it works with a Smart Cover.
Phil Schiller said “It’s every inch an iPad”. “It’s the lowest priced iPad yet” said Phil Schiller, although it is notably more expensive than the Google Nexus 7 and Android Fire devices, which retail for £159 and £129 respectively in the UK.
The fourth-generation iPad
The new fourth-generartion iPad has a new generation of image signal processor for face recognition and image stabilization and the same 10 hour battery life of the original iPad. Apple claims that the new chip doubles the graphics performance.
The fourth-generation iPad also has 2x faster Wi-Fi, 802.11 a/b/g/n (2.4GHz and 5GHz).
It also has an expande 4G LTE chip which has greater carrier coverage, this is expected to include the 1800 band that is being used by EE in the UK.
The fourth-generation iPad costs the same amount as the current iPad, with pricing starting at £399 in the UK.
Both the iPad mini and fourth-generation iPad ship with the Lightning connector.
The fourth-generation iPad pricing and availability
The fourth generation iPad with Wi-Fi models will also be available on Friday, November 2, in black or white for a suggested retail price of £399 inc VAT (£332.50 ex VAT) for the 16GB model, £479 inc VAT (£399.17 ex VAT) for the 32GB model and £559 inc VAT (£465.83 ex VAT) for the 64GB model.
Tim Cook also announced that Apple has sold it’s 100 millionth iPad. Noting that people also “love their iPads” and use them more than Apple’s competitors devices. He also noted that the iPad has been extremely succesful in business, with over 94% of Fortune 500 companies either testing or deploying the iPad.
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Author: Ashleigh Macro, Head of Affiliate
Ashleigh is Tech Advisor's Head of Affiliate. Providing expert buying advice you can trust is her forte, helping you to find the most reputable consumer tech products and services, and ensuring you don't spend a penny more than you should.