The iPad mini price details were finally revealed at the Apple press conference in San Jose, California. Those who’ve been following the headlines closely may have noted that a previous rumor about the tablet arriving at a starting capacity of 8GB was merely riding on the fan interest in the device. Just goes to show why all unofficial word should be taken with a pinch of salt.
Coming to the new iOS 6 slab from Cupertino, it sports a 7.9-inch multi-touch IPS display that offers a resolution of 1024 x 768 in 163ppi sharpness. There’s a 1.2MP 720p FaceTime camera on the front and a 5MP iSight snapper with AF and 1080p HD video recording capability, on the back. As speculated earlier, a dual core A5 processor runs the show here and the regular 30-pin terminal has naturally made way for the Lightning connector.
The in-built 16.3-watt-hour rechargeable lithium-polymer battery is touted to deliver up to 10 of web surfing over Wi-Fi. Speaking of the connectivity specifications, Apple is selling the tablet in Wi-Fi as well as Wi-Fi and cellular flavors. The black and slate or white and silver colored iPad mini will be up for pre-order starting from October 26. The release date for the Wi-Fi one is set for November 2, a couple of weeks before the Wi-Fi + cellular model will be out.
AT&T, Verizon and Sprint are all geared up to bring on board the gadget. Those in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and New Zealand can reserve one starting from Friday. Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Korea, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland will also join the party this week.
The 16GB, 32GB and 64GB iPad mini Wi-Fi + cellular versions carry price labels of $459, $559 and $659, in that order. The plain Wi-Fi variants will sell at $329, $429 and $529 for the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB capacities, correspondingly.