iPad mini specs and price officially confirmed, starts at £269

+Lewis Curdie Oct. 23, 2012 at 20:30 More articles by Lewis Curdie

iPad mini specs and price officially confirmed, starts at £269 Apple unveiled a ton of new stuff over in California tonight, with the big surprise arguably being the fourth generation iPad.

One chap we were fully expecting to meet, on the other, was the iPad mini. Seemingly endless months of speculation are now over, and the “tweener” dream is finally a reality. Phew.

What’s the point in the iPad mini, you might ask? Well, you can hold it one hand, of course, allowing you to do, er, other stuff with your free hand.

Apple says its engineers thought long and hard before settling on a display size, and ultimately landed on 7.9in. That’s a whole – what? – twentieth of an inch bigger than expected.

In terms of portability, the iPad mini is 23% thinner than the third generation iPad, and 53% lighter.

Other iPad mini specs include LTE compatibility (using a nano-SIM, incidentally), a resolution of 1024 x 768 (same as the iPad 2) and PPI of 163, a 5MP rear camera with 1080p video recording, a FaceTime HD camera on the front, Apple’s dual-core A5 processor, and a promise of 10 hours battery life.

Interestingly, the iPad mini will also be compatible with Siri, joining the iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, and third and fourth generation iPads.

iPad mini prices? Check it:

iPad mini 16GB Wi-Fi - £269
iPad mini 32GB Wi-Fi - £349
iPad mini 64GB Wi-Fi - £429
iPad mini 16GB Wi-Fi and cellular - £369
iPad mini 32GB Wi-Fi and cellular - £449
iPad mini 64GB Wi-Fi and cellular - £529

As with the fourth generation iPad, you’ll be able to grab the Wi-Fi only iPad mini from November 2 (a week on Friday), with the cellular models following a couple of weeks later. Pre-orders open on Friday (October 26).

What do you think? Should Amazon and Google be scared? Is the end nigh for the Kindle Fire and Nexus 7? Or is the iPad mini an over-priced hunk of miniature nonsense?

I liked how Apple said the screen is 7.9" instead of 7" so you can fit more in. OK, but the resolution is worse than the Nexus 7 so it's not going to make a difference unless you've got below average eyesight...

So the ipad 2 can't have siri but this one gets it with mostly same spec.
Too wide to comfortably hold in one hand I think, they are obsessed by depth...

Too wide to comfortably hold in one hand I think, they are obsessed by depth...

Doesn't help that it's both 4:3 and bigger than the Nexus 7.

I have to admit, this interests me kinda like nothing. At all. Like all 7in-ish tabs.
The original iPad or some 10in Androids fill a gap between smartphone and laptop.
But 7in? Personally, I'd rather use my comfy phone instead.

PS: It's another 2012 launch that leaves me totally 'pfft'... I've been trying a Note 2 since Friday.
By trying I mean: I haven't. I did the setup, rooted it etc, and lost interest immediately.
I haven't spent a second thinking: how can I get my hands on an iPhone 5 just, you know, to try it...

The only the thing the iPad mini has over the nexus 7 is the apps

Anyone know off top of their head how the prices compare to ipad touch. Seems some owners of those could be disappointed though maybe not at these prices.
It is more of a ipod touch maxi than an ipad mini in several ways

The only the thing the iPad mini has over the nexus 7 is the apps

Except most will be aimed at iphone or ipad owners and ipad mini will be an afterthought with it's low def screen and old spec.

Getting more and more fragmented...

Last edited by Pondlife, Oct. 23, 2012 at 21:25

Who gives a ****? Only the simpletons amongst us do (and there are plenty of those).

It's too expensive for what it is. Get the Nexus 7 instead which can be had for £170 +/- £10.

Agree, rash - though, if one already bought loadsa iOS apps, this is the thing to buy over a Nexus 7 or kindle Fire...

You'd have to have bought a hell of a lot of them.. even then better to wait for mini 2, maybe in 7 months like the ipad3->3+ ?

Just get yourself a 64GB Blackberry Playbook....and side-load android apps....£129 from Currys and PCW....look for voucher codes and cashback deals too, I ended up paying £114.....Some of you may laugh at the thought of a playbook, but it's a lovely bit of kit and an absolute bargain....go on then, laugh ;O)

Last edited by sxxychocolate, Oct. 23, 2012 at 22:00

We always get ripped off £269 at current tourist rate would equate to $429! $100 over the USA rrp...

netflix working? sky go? any paid apps? isn't it better in theory at sideloading than in practice?
As a video player and web browser it's decent and probably worth the money, but it's limited elsewhere.
Am interested in what bb10 brings to it but it's £129 for a reason.

So much for when Steve Jobs said that any tablet under 10" is useless

I have a playbook and have always thought that it could do with being an extra inch in screen size. So I imagine 7.9inch will be spot on. However would I pay more than double for one of these? Personally no, but if I was recommending a device to someone else yes, if they were not very technical & were not too price sensitive or were invested in the apple eco system.

A bit cheaper and I'd be buying a few of these - one for me, one for the missus and one for both grandparents. As it is, I can't justify £369 x 4 (plus the cost of data subs). A real shame, because I can see it being a really nice device.

The upgrades are a rip off as per usual, but they feel a lot worse on the Mini because of the low starting point. The cellular hardware costs 37% of the price of the base tablet itself...

Last edited by satchef1, Oct. 23, 2012 at 23:10

£269 for that? No thanks! After I got a 4S I swore to myself I would never buy another Apple product but the thought of a mini iPad being priced reasonably interested me a little, but for that much with those specs?! Haha!

We always get ripped off £269 at current tourist rate would equate to $429! $100 over the USA rrp...

Well factoring in vat it's less of a rip off, nexus 7 did rather well on the exchange rate allowing for vat

Average US sales tax is only about 7% so adding that still only brings it to around $350.

Popular Phones

Active Discussions

Related News