The iPad mini and its price information are the subject of wild guesses and speculations no more. Apple had come clean on these and some other interesting details at the press event hosted in San Jose, California.
For years, there have been stories about Cupertino slapping renders of a smaller version of its famed tablet onto the drawing board. And as companies like Google, Amazon and Samsung entered the fray, Apple could hardly stand aside and let things be. So here we have the iPad mini, not exactly a 7-inch slate, considering that it has a 7.9-inch screen, but a worthy competitor just by brand reputation.
Apart from the 1024 x 768 IPS multi-touch screen, the front also shares space with a 1.2MP FaceTime HD camera for calling over Wi-Fi and cellular networks. The Lightning connector at the base has a speaker guarding either side of it and there’s a 5MP AF iSight sensor with 1080p recording capability on the back panel. Running iOS 6, the slab has a dual core A5 processor, 16.3-watt-hour rechargeable lithium-polymer battery for roughly 10 hours of web browsing and Siri, of course.
The Wi-Fi model of the device will see a November 2 release date, while its Wi-Fi + cellular sibling will begin shipping a couple of weeks later. Fans in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, Singapore, France, Germany, Hong Kong, New Zealand and 16 other nations will be able to pre-order it starting from October 26. At present, there’s no word on when the tablet will reach India.
According to the given price details, the Wi-Fi only iPad mini will be chalked at $329 (approx. Rs. 17,680), $429 (approx. Rs. 23,050) and $529 (approx. Rs. 28,430) for the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB variants, correspondingly. The 16GB, 32GB and 64GB Wi-Fi + cellular ones will cost $459 (approx. Rs. 24,665), $559 (approx. Rs. 30,000) and $659 (approx. Rs. 35,400), respectively.
