iPad mini with retina display surprise release

In a quick turn of events Apple has announced that the iPad mini with retina display is now available to purchase. But, it is only available through Apple’s online store and not retail stores due to limited supplies.

This next generation of the iPad mini was announced last month in San Francisco along with the larger iPad Air. Although the iPad Air went on sale in early November to a lot of fanfare the next generation mini was not released and held back with speculation that “they didn’t have the volumes to support a full launch.”

Apple representatives are optimistic about this launch and have come out to say, “The response to iPad Air has been incredible, and we’re excited for customers to experience the new iPad mini with Retina display,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice-president of worldwide marketing.

“We think customers will love both of these thin, light, powerful new iPads, and we’re working hard to get as many as we can in the hands of our customers.”

So what are the best bits about this new iPad mini:

The screen

It has the Retina Display, which means a more vivid 2048×1536 resolution with 326 pixels-per-inch. So expect text to be sharper and images more defined than ever before.

The power

The iPad Mini has the same A7 chip found in the iPhone 5S for strong processing power.

MIMO

This stands for Multiple Input Multiple Output and means that it allows multiple wi-fi streams so internet speed has the potential to reach a claimed 300Mbps. Almost three times the NBN performance potential.

More memory

It comes with storage size options ranging from 16GB through to 32GB, 64GB and a huge 128GB.

Prices for the new iPad mini start at $479 for a 16-gigabyte (GB) Wi-Fi model and go up to $949 for a 128-GB unit with mobile data connectivity.

Are you excited by the release of this new iPad mini?