On September 9th, Apple hosted their "Hey Siri" event at the Bill Graham auditorium in San Francisco, California. The event really unveiled a whole series of improvements to products like the update to the iPhone 6 with the iPhone 6S and the dramatic increase of this year's iPad with the iPad Pro. There were also other announcements like improvements to Apple TV, and some new Apple Watch bands, and it was probably easy to miss the announcement of the iPad Mini 4. This is everything you need to know about the iPad Mini 4 along with its release date, price, and specs.
It should first be known that the iPad Mini 4 is meant to completely replace the iPad Mini 3. So much so, that if one does a search for the iPad Mini 3, then the iPad Mini 4 specs will show up. The Apple iPad page completely skips the iPad mini 3 altogether.
CNET calls the iPad Mini 4 a "low-key but power addition to the family". Considering that it is just a newer model of last year's version that is probably an accurate description. The official slogan for it on the Apple website is "Mighty. Small." This is also an accurate description of this upgraded technology in a smaller package than the regular iPad, and definitely much smaller than the iPad Pro.
The Retina display is a 7.9 inch with 2048 x 1536 resolution. On the inside is an A8 chip with 64-bit architecture, which the same processor that can be found in the original iPad Air, boasting that it is a 30 percent faster CPU with 60 percent faster graphics. The iPad Mini 4 also prides itself with being 18 percent thinner at 6.1 mm, as well as being somewhat light at 0.65 lbs.
One enhancement is the Touch ID technology, turning the user's fingerprint into a password. This feature is already on most iPhones and iPads, so it stands to reason that it would be here.
There are also two cameras "cleverly disguised as an iPad". The rear camera is an 8 Megapixel iSight camera with autofocus, f/2.4 aperture, five-element lens, as well as a lot of other features. It is capable of video at 1080p HD (30 fps) and has improved face detection, video image stabilization, and video geotagging. As far as the front-facing camera is concerned, it has 1.2 Megpixels for photos and capable of 720p HD video recording. Included are dual microphones or calls, video recording, as well as audio recording.
As far as the price is concerned, you're looking at three finish choices of Silver, gold, or Space Gray. The price varies depending on storage as it is 16 GB for the $399 model, 64 GB for the $499 model, and 128 GB or the $599. The price will go up when adding 4G LTE to it, as the 16 GB costs $529, the 64 GB costs $629, and the 128 GB costs $729.
