The new iPads: What you need to know

24.10.2012
Between Apples presentation at its Tuesday press event, the press releases and spec sheets that followed, and our all-too-brief hands-on session, weve been able to get a pretty good first impression of the new iPad mini and, to a lesser extent, the fourth-generation iPad. So while we wait for our review units to arrive, heres what we know so far.

The iPad mini is 7.9 inches tall, 5.3 inches wide, and 0.28 inch thick. For comparison, note that the new fourth-generation iPad measures 9.5 by 7.3 by 0.37 inches. The iPad minis volume is less than half of the big ones. Obviously, the iPad mini is lighter, too, weighing 312 grams (11.0 ounces) versus 662 grams (23.4 ounces). For the sake of further comparison, Googles is roughly 7.8 by 4.7 by 0.4 inches and weighs 340 grams (12.0 ounces), so the iPad mini is a bit smaller.

The iPad minis screen is 7.9 inches on the diagonal, compared with 9.7 inches for the full-size iPad. Although its smaller than the regular iPads display, its diagonal measurement is twice that of the iPod touch (4 inches).