Apple Unveil iPad Mini With 4G LTE Support
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Apple unveiled the widely anticipated iPad Mini yesterday at a press event in California and as expected it comes with a 7.9 inch touch-screen display.
The new smaller display runs at a resolution of 1024*768 pixels , which is the same ratio as the iPad 2. The display features the same LED backlight present in the full iPad ensuring it's viewable even in the worst lighting conditions.
The iPad Mini is just 7.2mm thick making it 23 per cent thinner than the "New iPad" or as Apple puts it as thin as a pencil. Additionally, the iPad Mini weighs just 308 grams making it a whopping 53 per cent lighter than the fully fledged iPad.
Apple are claiming that the iPad Mini is equal to or better than the iPad 2 in every way and we can't really argue with them. The iPad Mini has a dual-core A5 processor, which we presume runs at 1 GHz with Apple reporting you'll get up to 10 hours of battery life from a single charge !
Apple's iPad Mini features two cameras with a front-facing Facetime camera for video calling and a rear-facing iSight camera. The former is a 1.3 mega-pixel snapper capable of recording 720p HD video, while the latter is a 5 mega-pixel snapper capable of recording full 1080p HD video.
The big news is that the iPad Mini will come in two different versions with one supporting dual-band WiFi (802.11n 2.4GHz and 5GHz) and the other supporting both WiFi and 4G LTE. It looks like the iPad Mini will be available to buy from EE in the UK where it'll support super-speed 4G !
As you might have expected it also features the new smaller "Lightning" dock connector, while all current iPad applications will automatically work on the new smaller version of Apple's tablet.
So what about the price ? Well, the iPad comes with a choice of 16, 32 or 64GB of onboard memory with the WiFi-only version priced at £269, £349 and £429 respectively. The cellular version supporting 3G and 4G LTE will cost £369, £449 and £529 for the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models.
Significantly, these prices are well above both Google's Nexus 7 and Amazon's Kindle Fire which are both priced signficantly under £200. But how does it stack up ? Well 3G hope to compare Apple's new iPad Mini with its rivals very soon so keep posted !
The iPad Mini will launch in the UK on November 2nd and will be available in a choice of Black & Slate or White & Silver.
By Simon Thomas on 24th October, 2012