iPad Mini adds a Retina Display: starts at $399, coming late November

 
There’s only two things, really, the original 2012 iPad Mini needed to become a perfect little tablet: a Retina display, and a better processor. (That Mini had a 1,024x768 screen and a 2011-era A5 processor.) With the newly announced iPad Mini with Retina Display, both those wishes have been answered. The new Mini does, indeed, pack an impressive 2,048x1,536 resolution into its 7.9-inch screen, and it’s got the latest, greatest Apple chips inside: the 64-bit A7 CPU, along with the M7 motion coprocessor.
In fact, you could easily call the iPad Mini with Retina Display a shrunken-down clone of the new iPad Air: it has exactly the same specs as its larger sibling.
The only catch is that the 2013 upgrades come at a price: $399 for the base 16GB configuration. That’s $70 more than when the Mini debuted last year (that 2012 model remains on sale, with a price cut to $299). And it's significantly more than rival tablets from Google and Amazon. On the other hand, it’s also $100 less than the base iPad Air model.
With the screen and spec caveats of last year's Mini, it presented a real compromise compared to the big iPad of the time. This year? There aren’t really any technology drawbacks at all compared to the full-size iPad. It’s literally down to a size preference, and value proposition. Do you want to pay $400 for a mid-size tablet -- or $500 for its big brother? Or are you more comfortable with Android and Amazon models that are considerably more affordable?
Specs:

• Manufacturer: Apple

Display

• Type 7.9 in
• Display Resolution 2048 x 1536

General

• Operating System Apple iOS

Processor

• Processor Apple

Memory

• Flash Memory 16 GB

Miscellaneous

• Color Dark gray
•  Front camera , Rear camera

Dimensions & Weight

• Width 5.3 in
• Depth 0.29 in
• Height 7.87 in
• Weight 0.73 lbs