California, Gizmologi – The most awaited annual event by tech fans and Apple fanboys is finally here! Yes, the Apple Event September 2021 just started at midnight Indonesian time. And one of the biggest announcements for the smallest of products is the most surprising, is the 2021 iPad mini.
Why is it surprising? The reason is that in the last two years, Apple has never updated its smallest tablet series. The last generation available on the market is the 2019 iPad mini, which has thick bezels and an outdated chipset. So that consumers’ choice to enjoy the best user experience is only available on the iPad Pro and iPad Air.
But the end of this year will be different from the 2021 iPad mini. The improvements presented are very comprehensive, starting from the design, performance, connectivity to front and rear cameras. Looks modern, now the front bezel has been made to resemble the most expensive iPad, without the home button on the front. The Touch ID fingerprint sensor has been moved to the side like the new iPad Air.
“With an ultra-portable design and a wide range of uses from everyday tasks to apps for creators and organizational levels, there’s nothing like the 2021 iPad mini,” said Greg Joswiak, Senior VP, Worldwide Marketing, Apple. Comes in four attractive color options—pink, starlight, purple & space gray.
iPad mini 2021 Has New Design & Thin Bezels
The screen dimensions of the 2021 iPad mini are 8.3 inches, with Retina Display, the maximum brightness of 500 nits and DCI-P3 color coverage. This upgraded screen is also paired with stereo speakers, to make it more convenient for multimedia consumption and other entertainment. And for illustrators, there is also support for the second-generation Apple Pencil stylus.
The stylus can be magnetically ‘attached’ to the side body of the 2021 iPad mini, while simultaneously connecting and charging. And to present a much faster performance, this device already uses a chipset that is equivalent to the iPhone 13 series, namely the Apple A15 Bionic. Bring up to 40% CPU & 80% graphics boost over the previous generation.
With this chipset, the 2021 iPad mini also supports not only LTE connectivity but up to 5G with a maximum download speed of 3.5Gbps. To connect other accessories, the port used is also USB-C, leaving the Lightning port which is still used on the latest basic version of the iPad.
While on the camera side, both the rear and front camera sensors are now both 12MP resolution. But what’s special is the front camera, where the 2021 iPad mini uses the same sensor as the iPad Pro M1.
This means that the sensor has an extra-wide viewing angle and supports Center Stage. It can automatically follow human subjects and perform framing automatically. From the start, this device will also run the iPadOS 15 operating system.
iPad mini 2021 Prices
With so many improvements, the 2021 iPad mini is priced at the cheapest price of USD 649, aka around Rp. 9.2 million, for the 64GB Wi-Fi only variant. The storage capacity is only two, with the largest size at 256GB.
Pre-orders have already started from the launch date, while live availability begins on September 24 in 28 countries and territories. Let’s just look forward to its official presence in the country!
The Indonesian version of this article can be read in Gizmologi.ID
