Kyle Wagner - 

Now that the iPhone 5 is out, there’s just one more thing for Apple nerds to freak out over: The iPad Mini. Rumours have been cropping up like crazy the past few weeks—enough to start putting together what we’ll actually see from a 7-inch Apple tablet.

So let’s talk iPads. Small iPads.

 

What Will It Look Like?

If the accuracy of the iPhone 5 leaks is anything to go by, we’ve probably got a pretty good jump on what the new tablet will look like. What we’ve seen so far jibes with previous thoughts that the bezel on the smaller iPad will be thinner than it is on the full sized version, due to ergonomics.

Here’s the first photo we’ve seen of a purported iPad Mini actually working:

iPad Mini Rumor Roundup: Everything We Think We Know

We’ve also seen similar a similar model lined up next to a Kindle Fire HD and the Nexus 7.

 

Guts

Chances are, an iPad Mini would look a lot like an iPad 2 on the inside. That means using the die-shrunk 32nm A5 processor, and probably 512MB of RAM. The only big internal departure from the iPad 2, in fact, would probably be the inclusion of a Lightning port instead of a 30-pin connector. And for what it’s worth, all of the cases and mockups we’ve seen have had rear-facing camera.

Stuffing the iPad 2′s guts into a smaller iPad Mini makes even more sense after Apple outed the new A5-powered iPod touch. Tim Cook’s Apple is all about supply chain efficiency. And having sunk some cash into shrinking down the A5 fairly recently for the upgraded iPad 2 and now the iPod touch, it would make total sense for an iPad Mini to squeeze as much out of that component as possible.

 

Display

Early on, it was assumed that a small iPad might not have a retina display. As a value proposition—added cost and battery consumption—it just didn’t seem to add up. But the Kindle Fire HD’s gorgeous 216PPI screen changed that calculus, as did the possible availability of battery-friendly Sharp Izgo displays.

Our friend Dr. Raymond Soneira at DisplayMate wrote a quick brief about what sort of aspect ratio to expect:

Some photos and measurements (supposedly) of the iPad Mini seem to indicate that it doesn’t have an Aspect Ratio of 4:3 like the full size iPads (see link below). Note that Apple just increased the Aspect Ratio of the iPhone 5 up to 1.78 from 1.50 for the iPhone 4, so it isn’t unreasonable to assume that the same thing could happen with the iPad Mini, especially if it is positioned for selling TV content, which has 16:9. An Aspect Ratio of 4:3 is great for reading because it has the same Aspect Ratio as content on 8.5×11 inch documents, but a smaller 7 to 8 inch screen with a 4:3 Aspect Ratio will be noticeably Letterboxed with 16:9 content, with reduced image size.

Keeping the 768 pixel height will allow Apps expecting 1024×768 to be displayed with Letterbox borders in the same way as on the iPhone 5.

Here are the possibilities:
1024×768 is 4:3 = 1.33
1152×768 is 4.5:3 = 1.50  <— Most Likely based on photo
1228×768 is 16:10 = 1.60
1366×768 is 16:9 = 1.78

The Kindle Fire HD’s gorgeous screen really holds Apple over the coals to nail the display on an iPad Mini. Especially if the latter costs as much as we think it might.

 

Price

There haven’t been too many rumours about the price of a small iPad, but the biggest clue might come from Apple itself. The new iPod Touch starts at £249. It would be kind of nuts if Apple started selling a 7.85-inch tablet for the same price as its iPod, or for less. This year’s iPad starts at £399, and the iPad 2 at £329. So the Mini will have to dance around those price points as well. Whatever it ends up costing, though, it seems like it will be a good deal more expensive than its sub-£200 competitors the Kindle Fire and Nexus 7.

 

Network

There are a few rumours floating around that the Mini will have 3G, but there’s nothing overly convincing either way. We would note, though, that both the 7-inch Kindle Fire HD and the Nexus 7 only come in Wi-Fi only. And that there may not be enough room in that 7.85-inch frame to squeeze a battery that can handle data suckage with any competence.

 

Name

While we’re all using “iPad Mini” as a working title, it doesn’t seem to be based on anything in particular. So it could be called anything.

 

Release Date

Right now, the best rumour we have for a release date says the invitations will go out October 10th. That would probably mean an October 17th event. Apple typically releases products one or two Fridays after its keynotes.