Hot on the heels of yesterday’s Nexus 9 announcement, Apple has formally unveiled its latest sub-size tablet: the iPad mini 3 enters the realms of reality.
A direct replacement to last year’s iPad mini with Retina Display, the new tablet has launched alongside a new big brother, the heavily tipped iPad Air 2.
“iPad is a magical piece of glass that runs more than 675,000 apps specifically designed for it, and is thin and light enough that you can comfortably hold it all day,” Phil Schiller, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Marketing, said in unveiling the device.
New iPad mini Features
Retaining its predecessor’s 7.9-inch Retina display with a 2048 x 1536 resolution, the new iPad mini offers crisp images thanks to a 326 pixels-per-inch image density.
Although maintaining the same, 7.5mm-thick brushed metal design as the second-gen model, the new tablet introduces an additional colour scheme. Like with the iPhone lines, Apple’s tablet will now pair traditional silver and space grey colour schemes with a golden-hued option.
The new tablet does have one key design difference, however. The metal ring now encompassing the device’s physical home button points to the inclusion of Apple’s TouchID fingerprint sensor.
Schiller described the iPad mini 3’s newly acquired TouchID as “Perhaps the most requested feature from consumers.”
Bringing biometric security measures to its tablet line for the first time, the TouchID sensor will allow users to not only more securely lock their devices, but make App Store purchases with a single swipe of their finger.
With a 5-megapixel iSight camera on the rear and a 1.2-megapixel FaceTime HD snapper up front, the new iPad mini’s imaging options are unchanged.
Memory is not expandable, but there are a variety of storage capacities on offer. Appeasing all consumer groups, the tablet will be available in 16GB, 64GB and 128GB flavours.
New iPad mini Release Date and Price
Those of you tempted by the third-generation iPad mini won’t have too long to wait to get your hands on one. Apple has confirmed the iPad mini release date will be next week.
For those who just can’t wait that long to splash their cash, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 challenger will be made available for pre-order tomorrow, October 17.
Prices will start at £319 for the 16GB Wi-Fi only model, rising to a hefty £579 for 128GB Wi-Fi plus 4G option.
PREVIEW: iPad mini 3 hands-on
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
