Since the iPhone 5 has been released and the excitement has subsided, analysts and fans alike have set their attentive gazes on another rumored Apple product, the iPad Mini. And just like in the past, the Internet has been lit ablaze with constant rumors of added features and potential internal hardware. Because of this, it can be difficult to decide what’s fact or fiction.
Here is what we do know for sure. The iPad Mini is definitely a reality, and it’s going to be released by Apple at some point. We also know that it’s going to be a smaller version of the iPad (hence the name), and that it will most likely make use of Apple’s new hardware advancements (retina display, A6 Chip, etc).
But there are still a lot of variables that are up in the air. Will it have cellular capabilities? What will it look like? We may now know the answer to at least one of those questions thanks to some videos of rumored mockups that have popped up on the web over the last few weeks.
This first video showed up approximately two weeks ago and comes from Giz-China.com, a tech website that reportedly got their hands on the iPad Mini mockup from a website named Taobao. They were said to have spent around USD $13.00 for the shell.
The mockup shows little visual difference between the original iPad and the iPad Mini, aside from size of course. You’ll notice that the edge between the screen and the sides of the iPad Mini is much slimmer than that of the original iPad (which the group used to compare the size difference). There is also a black strip located along the top of the back plate. Analysts suggest that this back plate piece is often used to signify the addition of cellular data hardware, which would suggest that the new iPad Mini could contain 3G or 4G support.
The second video comes from Mac Otakara, a Japanese-based Apple website. The video, which the site posted to Youtube, shows a very similar image to what we saw with the Giz-China mockup, which further validates the possibility that this is the “real deal.” However, we cannot rule out that both of these items came from the same source, and since we cannot validate that the source has an authentic mockup, we don’t know if this is legit or not. This second mockup shows no black back plate though, which may mean that it is a Wifi-only edition.
Hopefully we will be able to validate if this is fact in the coming weeks, but Apple may just beat us to the punch. Many will recall that the tech giant plans on having what analysts suspect is an iPad Mini “unveiling event” in October. So for now, all we can do is wait. Still, its pretty exciting to see the mockup, especially if it’s legitimate.
