Apple gives iPad mini the Retina treatment, $399 for 16GB

The second-generation mini launches sometime in November.

Credit: Andrew Cunningham

Apple took the wraps off of its next-generation iPad mini tablet today during its media event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. The biggest change to Apple’s second 8-inch tablet is its 2048×1536 Retina display, which boosts the pixel density to an impressive 324 PPI and catches the screen up to the rest of the iOS product line, as well as competing tablets like the 2013 Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire HDX.

Apple will offer 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB versions of the new mini starting at $399. Adding cellular connectivity to any of those models will run you an extra $130. The new tablets will be available for pre-order today and will officially go on sale in November.

The outside of the new iPad mini is basically the same as it was last year, though the black version of the tablet has been replaced by a new “space gray” shell like the one that the iPhone 5S sports, and white has been replaced by silver. Other iPhone 5S additions, like the TouchID fingerprint reader and the gold shell, are absent. Apple rates the new iPad mini’s battery life at the same 10 hours as the old one.

On the inside, the old iPad mini’s A5 SoC has been replaced by a 64-bit dual-core A7 SoC. This pushes the mini’s hardware forward two generations in just one year, resulting in a substantial performance boost: the new chip offers roughly four times the CPU performance and eight times the GPU performance of the A5. This is a fitting increase, given that the mini’s new screen has four times the pixels as the old one.

Like the regular iPad, the iPad mini will get a bump to MIMO Wi-Fi connectivity as well as expanded LTE support. A 5MP camera is embedded in the back of the device, and a 720p FaceTime camera is in the front bezel.

Apple has updated the smart covers and cases it makes for both types of iPads, which will retail for $39 and $79, respectively.

Apple will also keep the previous-generation iPad mini in the lineup but ratchet the price down to a starting $299 for a 16GB model.