Apple's iPad Mini Available For Pre-Order This Week

As anticipated, Apple unveiled their latest gadget today. The handheld iPad mini will be available for pre-order later this week, arriving just in time to give Microsoft's new Surface tablet a healthy dose of competition. Of course, the Surface is a full-size tablet and the big draw of the mini, besides the reduced price by comparison to the iPad, is the size.

Below is a photo of Apple's new iPad mini, which as you can see, fits in the palm of your hand (or some hands) and according to what Apple has on their site, will be available for pre-order October 26, with the starting price set at $329 (for the 16 GB wi-fi model). It's $459 for the 16 GB Wi-Fi + Cellular model.

$329 is a touch pricier than the Kindle Fire HD 8.9" model, but it puts the device within range of what Amazon's offering in the tablet department, anyway.

"There is inherent loss in just reducing a product in size," Senior Vice President, Design, Jony Ive said in the video at Apple's site. "What we did was, we went back to the very beginning and we took the time to design a product that was a concentration of - not a reduction of - the original."

As for what the iPad mini has to offer, the wi-fi-only model weighs .68 pounds (iPad 2 weighs 1.33 lbs, iPad 3 is 1.44 lbs). And the display is 7.9 inches, down from the iPad 2 & 3's 9.7 inch display. You might also notice in the photo that the display takes up more of the surface space, with a substantially smaller border by comparison to full-size iPads. The mini uses the same chip as the iPad 2 (Dual-core A5) and the same camera as the iPad 3 (1.2 MP photos, 720p HD video, FaceTime video calling over, Face detection, Backside illumination, and iSight camera with all the features of the iPad 3). Carriers for the cellular service are AT&T, Sprint and Verizon. It uses the Lightning connector (as opposed to the iPad 2's 30-pin connector) and boasts a battery life of up to 10 hours of surfing the web, which is what Apple lists for the full-size iPads as well. You'll also find Siri on there, which is another feature the device shares with the iPad 3.

The gadget-lover in me wants one, if only to introduce it to my family of Apple devices. The size and design have their benefits over the full-size tablet, and as i'm an iPad 2 owner, I'd love to have the upgraded camera features. The iPad 2 camera is subpar, to put it mildly. It'll be interesting to see how the reviews look for the mini, once people get their hands on it. In the meantime, check out more details on the iPad mini here