Apple‘s highly anticipated special event in San Francisco certainly had “lots to cover,” as the tech giant unraveled the new flagship 10-inch iPad Air, new MacBook Pros with Intel Haswell chips, the cool Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks and a slew of other software releases. One of the highlights, however, is the new iPad mini, now upgraded with Retina Display and the same 64-bit Apple A7 chip that powers the iPad Air and iPhone 5s.
The iPad mini now houses a 7.9-inch Retina Display bearing 2048×1536 @ 326PPI, a huge leap in display quality and pixel density from its predecessor.
The new mini tablet will be available in November for USD$399 (approx. RM1,399), slightly higher than the original iPad mini when it debuted. Apple is retaining the previous generation iPad mini in the line-up, reducing its price down to US$299 (approx. RM1,099).
The iPad mini with Retina Display is available in white-silver or space gray-black.
Apple has also added a new 128GB storage option that will set consumers back US$699 (approx. RM2,449) for the Wi-Fi version, or US$829 (approx. RM2,999) for the 4G LTE version. A lot of money to pay for a 8-inch tablet, but for consumers who need more storage, this could be the ultimate setup.
Together with the hardware line-up, Apple is also bringing new Smart Covers for US$39 (approx. RM129).
So, an impressive, expanded line-up of iPads from Apple, although not much of a surprise in the end. Apple however decided to not integrate TouchID into the new iPads, and the inclusion of the now slow-poke iPad 2 (US$399) is an oddball move.
The iPad mini comes naturally with the latest iOS 7, and open to the plethora of 475,000 made-for-iPad apps in the Apple App Store.
So, the iPad mini or iPad Air?
