Apple has officially unveiled its fourth generation iPad tablet PC, along with a smaller version of the device – the iPad Mini.
iPad 4
The iPad 4 features a custom designed A6X chipset boasting up to twice the CPU and graphics compute performance of the A5X chipset, and a new Qualcomm LTE chip. The iPad 4 has the same 9.7-inch Retina display users are familiar with, an HD Facetime front-facing camera, Apple’s new Lightning connector, and a claimed 10-hour battery life.
The iPad 4 will be available at the same price points as its predecessor, with the Wi-Fi only models starting at $499 for 16GB and then going up to $599 for 32GB and $699 for 64GB. Models with cellular data capabilities cost $629 for 16GB, $729 for 32GB, and $829 for 64GB.
iPad Mini
Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, Phil Schiller, announced that the iPad Mini would be 7.2mm thick and weigh under 310g.
Schiller said that this makes it 23% thinner than the newly announced 4th generation iPad and as light as a notepad. Schiller joked that they wanted to say “as light as a book” but books are much heavier.
iPad Mini in hand
The device is to come in black and white, with the black model having the same anodisation as the iPhone 5.
According to Schiller the team worked really hard to determine what size of display to use. For this reason Apple opted for a 7.9-inch display that uses the exact same resolution as the iPad 2: 1,024×768.
The iPad Mini runs on a dual-core A5 processor, and sports a front FaceTime HD camera, and 5-megapixel iSight camera on the back capable of 1080p recording.
It also has support for LTE technology, Wi-Fi, and uses Apple’s new Lightning connector.
iPad pricing – Apple special announcement on 23 October 2012
As with its larger siblings, the iPad Mini comes in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB variants, with prices starting at $329.
US pricing for the Wi-Fi only models is $329 for 16GB, $429 for 32GB and $529 for 64GB.
Pricing for the Wi-Fi plus Cellular models is $459 for 16GB, $559 for 32GB, and $659 for 64GB.
Schiller said that pre-orders for the iPad Mini would open on 26 October 2012 and Wi-Fi only versions would ship on 2 November 2012.
Models that include a cellular data modem would start shipping two weeks after that, Schiller said.
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