iPad mini with retina being built this year, report says
The tablet will apparently feature the same-sized chassis as the current mini, but will pump up the screen's pixels.
Apple is going to build an iPad mini with a retina display before the end of the year, according to fresh rumours concerning the company's tiny tablet.
Mass production of a high-res iPad mini -- with a screen built by Samsung -- will kick off in the last three months of the year, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing "people familiar with the matter".
If production doesn't kick off until towards the end of the year, it could be that we don't see this mythical, pixel-packing product until 2014, something that would chime with earlier rumours.
The current iPad mini came out in November, and Apple is fond of sticking to annual product updates. 9to5Mac writes that Apple is testing an iPad mini without a retina display that features a more powerful A6 processor, so it could be that we have to endure one more mini that has a low pixel count before the high-resolution version is revealed.
We'll probably know within a month or two, as Apple has promised that new devices will be unveiled in the autumn. On the top of the likely suspects list is a new iPhone, dubbed the iPhone 5C, that's expected to be made of plastic and cost much less than the current crop.
The iPad mini is a decent tablet, but two factors stopped us from loving it completely. The first is the price, which -- at £269 -- is much pricier than Google's Nexus 7. The second is the non-retina display, which looks a tad fuzzy compared with its bigger brother's ludicrously sharp panel.
Would you buy an iPad mini with a retina display, or would you need it to be cheaper first? Let me know in the comments, or on our Facebook wall.
