While the iPad is the most popular tablet of the moment, it has a couple of potential quirks: it's big, with its 9.7 inch screen and it's expensive, starting at $399.
That's why Apple decided to launch the iPad Mini, which should be released in October 2012 and will be both more compact and more affordable than the iPads we know today.
Now, based on what we know right now, the iPad Mini is going to come with a 7.85 inch screen, keeping the 4:3 aspect ratio we've had on the other iPads. The screen will feature of course and IPS panel but we don't know for sure if we're talking about a retina display or not. Some rumors talk about a 330 ppi screen on the iPad Mini, which would indeed suggest a retina display with 2048 x 1536 px resolution. But since the Mini iPad is supposed to be affordable, it might well only feature the 1024 x 768 px screen, like on the iPad 2 and the first Apple tablet.
Besides that, we know that the iPad Mini will have a metallic body and it's going to sport a thin form-factor, mainly because the bezel of the screen is going to be quite thin. Thus, the iPad Mini might in fact be as compact as the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD, despite those packing smaller 7 inch displays. And it will also be thinner, as rumors talk about a 7-8 mm thickness for the iPad Mini, based on the leaked images and cases we've seen around.
Besides that, the iPad Mini will feature two cameras, a Facetime one on the front and a slightly better one of the back, the standard volume rocker, screen-lock latch and power button, plus that new Lightning charging port that was released with the iPhone 5.
In terms of hardware, rumors talk about an Apple A5 processor, the 32 nm version we have on the 2012 iPad 2 as well. However, if the Mini is going to sport a Retina display, Apple might decide to pack their newer A6 CPU on their compact tablet.
That might however have a massive impact on prices and the iPad Mini is scheduled to start at $299 or maybe as low as $249, covering the lower price ranges targeted by the Google Nexus 7 and Amazon Kindle Fire HD tablets and out of reach for the 9.7 inch iPads available today.
That's about it for now, but I'll keep an eye on the new iPad Mini and add updates on its features, prices or potential release date as soon as I find anything new. So stay tuned.
Mike is an everyday iPad user and is planning to upgrade to the new iPad as soon as it's going to be available. In the meantime, he blogs about it on http://www.bestipadminicases.com.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7300425
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