Apple launches £269 iPad Mini and iPad 4th Generation

Apple has finally unveiled the worst kept secret in tech - the iPad Mini.

Apple's Vice president of marketing, Phil Schiller, said the new tablet was "as thin as a pencil and weighs the same as a pad of notepaper".

Read more: Apple news | Tablet reviews

It is 7.2mm thick and measures 7.9in across the diagonal. It is half the weight of the current iPad at 308g and includes a five-megapixel camera.

Schiller said the thinner bezel gives 35% more display space than comparable Android tablets, giving 50% more browser space in portrait and 67% more space in landscape, once the space taken up by browser tabs and other browser features were taken into account.

The display has a resolution of 1024x768 pixels – the same as the original iPad, which means there will be no problem running apps designed for the iPad.

It will be available in the UK from 2 November. The 16GB Wi-Fi model will cost £269, with a price tag of £349 for 32GB and £429 for the 64GB version.

The mobile broadband-compatible product starts at £369, going on to £449 and £529 for the 32GB and 64GB versions.

Apple also introduced the new version of the larger tablet – the iPad 4th Generation. The new tablet has an A6X processor that doubles performance compared with iPad 3 and, like the iPad Mini, has 720p Facetime capability.

Available in black or white, the iPad 4th Generation starts at $499 for the 16GB Wifi product up to $829 for the 64GB device with Wifi and 4G.

Apple said Wifi on the iPad 4th Generation and iPad Mini would be twice as fast on networks that support 802.11N at 2.6GHz and 5GHz.