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The redesigned iPad mini.
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The iPad mini comes in five colors: “black, white, dark cherry, English lavender and electric orange.”
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Color options can be complemented with new Smart Folio cases.
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Like the iPad Air 4, the new iPad mini hides a Touch ID sensor on the power button instead of including Face ID.
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The rear-facing camera is still just a lens without a LIDAR sensor, but its resolution increases to 12MP.
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After years of getting stuck with the same look and features, Apple’s iPad mini will finally get a major redesign similar to last year’s iPad Air update, the company announced today. The screen size of the tablet increases from 7.9 to 8.3 inches and includes a new A15 Bionic processor that Apple says is “up to 80% faster” than the A12 chip of the old iPad mini 5 But the redesign also includes a price hike — The new iPad mini starts at $ 499 for a Wi-Fi model with 64GB of storage, $ 100 more than the previous model.
Like other recent iPads and iPhones, the iPad mini releases the home button to give more space to the front of the device for a larger, almost end-to-end display. However, the device does not have facial identification like the iPad Pro. Instead, it follows the iPad Air 2020 with a TouchID fingerprint reader on the power button to authenticate. It also leaves behind Apple’s longtime proprietary lightning port in favor of the industry’s standard USB-C, a change that also came in other recent redesigns of the iPad. The flat edges of the tablet put the design of the new mini in line with the iPad Air 4 and iPad Pros after 2018. The design also allows for compatibility with Apple Pencil 2.
An overview of the features of the new iPad mini.
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Internally, the A15 chip combines a six-core CPU (which are two high-performance cores and four low-efficiency cores) that Apple says is 40% faster than the A12 and a 5-core GPU than the A12. company says it is 80% faster than the A12. Both the rear and front camera get important updates: the 8MP rear camera of the mini 5 reaches 12MP in the new model and the front camera gets a resolution of 12MP and supports the face and body – Monitoring the function “Central stage “from the iPad Pro 2021. Support for 5G and Wi-Fi 6 completes the connectivity features.
Like the iPad Air 4, the new iPad mini features a range of pastel-colored finishes: “black, white, dark cherry, English lavender, and electric orange” (Apple’s nomenclature, not ours). The new colors will be accompanied by redesigned $ 59 Smart Folio cases with matching color combinations.
The new iPad mini will be available for pre-order today and will be available on September 24th. The Wi-Fi + Cellular model starts at $ 649 for 64 GB and Apple will also offer a 256 GB upgrade option.
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Image from Apple’s listing