Apple Announces New Fifth-Generation iPad Mini With Apple Pencil Support, Revamped Retina Display and A12 Bionic Chip

[MacRumors]

Apple today launched a new fifth-generation iPad mini, featuring an upgraded A12 Bionic processor, first-generation Apple Pencil support, a new advanced Retina display panel, and the same $399 price tag as the previous model.

Apple says that with the new A12 Bionic chip, the iPad mini now delivers three times the performance and nine times faster graphics. Meanwhile the advanced Retina display with True Tone technology and wide color support is 25 percent brighter and has the highest pixel density (3 million) of any iPad.

Elsewhere, an 8-megapixel rear camera brings improved low-light performance and HD video recording, while the front facing camera has been bumped up to 7 megapixels for better-quality selfies and FaceTime HD.

The new iPad also benefits from the same Wi-Fi performance and Gigabit-class LTE that's built into the latest iPad Pro models, and retains the headphone jack found in previous iPad mini models.

"iPad continues to provide magical new experiences for a growing range of uses where it is the absolute best device, from playing games in augmented reality to note-taking and drawing with Apple Pencil, from streaming HD movies and editing 4K films to learning to develop apps with Swift Playgrounds," said Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "Today the iPad family takes two big leaps forward with an all-new 10.5-inch iPad Air that brings high-end size, features and performance at a breakthrough price, and a major upgrade to the 7.9-inch iPad mini, which also brings Apple Pencil, Retina display and the A12 Bionic chip to the many customers that love its compact size."

Available in Silver, Space Gray, and Gold, and in 64 and 256GB storage capacities, the new iPad mini starts at $399 for the Wi-Fi model and $529 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model. An Apple Pencil (1st generation) is available for purchase separately for $99. Online orders for the new iPad mini begin today on the Apple website, with availability in Apple stores and select resellers starting next week.

The iPad mini 4 has been discontinued.

Article Link: Apple Announces New Fifth-Generation iPad Mini With Apple Pencil Support, Revamped Retina Display and A12 Bionic Chip

 

[balaplus]

Argh....
The price again!!

 

[MacFather]

Deleted.

 

[19SK91]

The off-center Home Button looks not very Apple-like. Can't unsee it.

Edit: some people pointed out that previous iPads had a misaligned Home Button as well. Doesn't make it better(-looking) though.

 

[ghostface147]

Rather expensive for the size. At least I think so.

 

[44267547]

Awesome they revived the mini . And they listened and added Apple Pencil support as well.

 

[Wig321]

Why did this require the store to be down?

 

[cmaier]

Mini costs too much. Base memory is too low to be a practical option even for my wife who is by no means a power user and has been hanging onto her mini forever.

 

[JosephAW]

What about the iPhone SE2?

 

[jtmarine73]

Almost tempting.... if it were $100 cheaper. But this proves just how overpriced the previous model has been for the past 2 years.

 

[StellarVixen]

A12 and same price tag? Well, it's rare for Apple to be this generous...

 

[4jasontv]

This is what happens when they don’t have enough time to refresh a model.

 

[jsmith189]

The off-center Home Button looks not very Apple-like. Can't unsee it.

Yeah, that's... off-putting

 

[gnomeisland]

If I hadn’t already bought a new iPad Pro I’d prob snap one of these up. Hoped for something be bezelless or cheaper but this update still looks great. I’m sure that screen is amazing.

 

[Keniutek]

New pricing policy... I guess not.

 

[TwoBytes]

Check out that chunka bezels.. is this a retro 90's concept?

 

[calisurfboy]

Just showed up on the military discount page. iPad mini at $359 and iPad Air at $449. Been waiting for ages for the iPad mini to go on sale since I use it extensive for work via military & nursing.
Its both exciting that the Mac mini and iPad mini were updated yet sad that it took this long and that Tim Cook neglects users so much.

 

[TechRemarker]

Argh....
The price again!!

Yeah crazy that they would increase the screen and power and all the other upgrades but not increase the price. Thank goodness.

 

[Paultmaine]

Disappointed not to see charging pad and new EarPods

 

[Rocketman]

The executive summary is, "The A12 Bionic chip with Neural Engine, Retina display with True Tone, support for Apple Pencil."

For bezel whiners, this still has the home button thus the camera in the traditional configuration.

Some day they will update it with iPhoneXR features, but expect a price increase too.

 

[recoil80]

Really happy for the mini but it's quite expensive, so is the new Air

 

[sracer]

My response: a "reserved"... Nice! I'll need to wait and see some of the details, but so far sounds exactly like what many of us were hoping for. Price doesn't bother me since I never pay full retail.

 

[scrapesleon]

Well that was fast

 

[Ballis]

A12 is most recent, right? Same AS XR/XS?

 

[maflynn]

Rather expensive for the size. At least I think so.

That's the apple way these days it seems¯\_(ツ)_/¯