Today, as expected, at it’s “We’ve got a little more to show you,” Apple rolled out the iPad mini, a new iPad design that’s 23% thinner and 53% lighter than the third generation iPad.
The new iPad mini features a 7.9-inch Multi-Touch display, FaceTime HD and iSight cameras, wireless performance and an 10 hours of battery life.
“The iPad mini is every inch an iPad. With its gorgeous 7.9-inch display, iPad mini features the same number of pixels as the original iPad and iPad 2, so you can run more than 275,000 apps designed specifically for iPad,” says Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.
The iPad mini comes in an aluminum and glass design that’s 7.2 mm thin and weighs only 0.68 pounds. The 7.9-inch Multi-Touch display delivers the same iPad experience users have come to expect, in a design that has 35% more screen real estate than 7-inch tablets and up to an astonishing 67% more usable viewing area when browsing the web, says Schiller.
The smaller tablet features a front-facing FaceTime HD camera and a 5-megapixel iSight camera on the back with advanced optics for taking sharp still pictures and recording full 1080p HD video. The iSight camera includes video image stabilization and both cameras feature backside illumination to let users capture great pictures in low light. The iPad mini also allows easy sharing of photos with friends and family using iCloud’s Shared Photo Streams.
It features dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi support for speeds up to 150 Mbps, which is twice the Wi-Fi performance compared to previous iPad models. The iPad mini is available in Wi-Fi + Cellular models which are world-ready with built-in support for ultrafast wireless standards, including LTE1 and DC-HSDPA. The Personal Hotspot feature means you can share a cellular data connection via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or USB with up to five other devices such as MacBook Pro, iPod touch or another iPad.
The iPad mini sports a Lightning connector that Apple says is smaller, smarter and more durable than the 30-pin connector. Lightning connector accessories are available to support cameras, SD cards and VGA or HDMI digital video. Smart Covers custom-designed for iPad mini are available in pink, green, blue, light gray, dark gray and (PRODUCT) RED for US$39.
iPad mini with Wi-Fi models will be available in black & slate or white & silver on Friday, Nov. 2, for a suggested retail price of US$329 for the 16GB model, $429 (US) for the 32GB model and $529 for the 64GB model. The fourth generation iPad with Wi-Fi models will also be available on Nov. 2, in black or white for a suggested retail price of $499for the 16GB model, $599 for the 32GB model and $699 for the 64GB model. i
The iPad mini with Wi-Fi + Cellular and fourth generation iPad with Wi-Fi + Cellular will start shipping a couple of weeks after the Wi-Fi models, beginning in the US on AT&T, Sprint and Verizon. iPad mini with Wi-Fi + Cellular will be offered for a suggested retail price of $459 for the 16GB model, $559 for the 32GB model and $659 for the 64GB model.