Alongside a new iPad Air, Apple has today unveiled a new version of its iPad mini. But unlike it’s larger sibling, the mini does not receive a performance bump courtesy of the new A8X chip, the 8MP iSight camera or many of the other improvements.
As you can see in the image above, the tablet retains its 7.9-inch display and 5MP iSight camera. On the other hand, it does gain the faster 802.11n with MIMO and a Touch ID-enabled Home button. Apple didn’t mention the name of its processor.
Like last year, the mini announcement felt a bit like an afterthought. After spending 15+ minutes talking about the Air, Phil Schiller said “and we’ve also got an update for the iPad mini,” posted the above slide for a few seconds, and then moved passed it.
At any rate, if you’re interested, you can pick up the new iPad mini 3 starting at the same price as last year, $399 for the 16GB model. As with iPhones, Apple has dropped the 32GB option, forcing you to choose between 16GB or the more expensive 64GB option.
Like the iPad Air 2, the iPad mini 3 will come in gold, and be available for pre-order beginning tomorrow. Apple is keeping both the iPad mini 2 (with Retina display) and original iPad mini in the lineup, with prices starting at $249 and $299 respectively.