The iPad mini 2 is almost certain to be unveiled later this year ? the first iPad mini may be immensely popular, but it?s behind the times. The tech it packs into its little body just isn't cutting edge enough. And Apple loves a yearly refresh.
Let?s take a look at what we should expect from the second-generation portable tablet.
iPad mini 2 - Release date
The next big Apple launch event will happen in September 2013 ? almost all the rumours agree at this point. However, whether that event will see the unveiling of the iPad mini 2 is another question.This September launch will see the iPhone 5S announced, but Apple generally doesn?t like its most important products to have to share a stage. For example, the iPad 3 wasn?t released alongside an iPhone.
There is some indication that the iPad mini 2, and its bigger brother the iPad 5, will be launched during the month after, October 2013. However, recent rumours from infamous DigiTimes suggest the tablet won?t be released until 2014, citing its usual unnamed sources. It has a long history of spurious rumours around Apple products, so we wouldn't put too much faith in its words.
iPad mini 2 ? Design
We don?t expect the look of the iPad mini 2 to be radically different from the current one. If anything, the first iPad mini is likely to become the blueprint for the next full-size iPad ? in that it has a very thin bezel area to each side of the screen. It makes the tablet look more attractive, and more stylish, than most Android tablets.
It also gives the iPad mini a very good size-to-screen-size ratio. ?
What is likely to change is that the iPad mini 2 may adopt colour rears, much like those of the current iPod touch. That was the first iPhone/iPad-shaped device to adopt colour, and its colourful nature became a key point of the iPod touch?s advertising. You couldn?t move in London without seeing a rainbow of iPod touches splashed across public transport.
Like the first iPad mini, the iPad mini 2 will use an aluminium case, giving it a higher-end feel than something like the Nexus 7.
iPad mini 2 Screen ? Retina or not?
The most important change in the iPad mini 2 will be in its screen. In order to keep up with the competition, and to avoid feeling thoroughly behind the times, the iPad mini 2 needs to adopt a higher-resolution screen.The current-generation model has a 7.9-inch 1,024 x 768 pixel display. Panel quality is fine, but this resolution is really quite low by today?s standards. It has a pixels-per-inch rating of 163, where the new Nexus 7 2 has a much higher pixel density of 323ppi.
Look close-up at all and you can see individual pixels in the first iPad mini. That?s really not on, especially when the full-size iPad has had a high pixel density screen since the iPad 3, released way back in early 2012.
Although rumours don?t universally agree that the iPad mini 2 will have a higher-end ?Retina? screen, recent reports from sources talking to the Wall Street Journal suggest the tablet will. It seems an obvious, and necessary, upgrade to us.
As Apple likes to keep its resolutions ?in scale?, doubling up on pixels to make app compatibility a cinch, the iPad mini 2 screen is likely to have a 2,048 x 1,536 pixel screen.
Looking deeper into the tech, there are obvious arguments against a high-resolution screen. Primarily, it would need more power, which would necessitate a larger battery ? which would likely make the iPad mini 2 chunkier and heavier. In an ultraportable tablet, these are not desirable attributes.
The antidote to this is IGZO, a Sharp screen type that is designed precisely to offer high pixel density screens that aren?t too power hungry. ?
iPad mini 2 - CPU
Alongside the low-resolution screen, the current iPad mini?s CPU/GPU combo is a weak area. It has a dual-core 1GHz CPU using the Apple A5 architecture.That?s two generations behind the CPU used in the iPad 4 ? which has an Apple A6x chip. It?s still dual-core and not clocked that much higher at 1.4GHz, but it is far more powerful. Mobileaks writes that the second iPad mini will use this same A6x chip, which makes a lot of sense given the two tablets use the same screen resolution. That is a major deciding factor when judging how much power a tablet needs.
RAM is also likely to double, from 512MB to 1GB. Again, the upping in screen resolution virtually necessitates this, not to mention that the new software ? iOS 7 ? is likely to be made primarily with devices of at least 1GB of RAM in mind.? 
iPad mini 2 ? Storage
What is unlikely to change much in the next-generation iPad mini is storage. The iPad mini 2 won?t have a memory card slot, and ? although it?s possible ? we don?t forsee Apple adding a 128GB iPad mini just yet.You can bet there will be 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions of the tablet, each with Wi-Fi-only and 3G/4G iterations. Apple launched a 128GB full-size iPad in February 2013, but it makes less sense in the mini, which is generally regarded as a lower-priced option.
iPad mini 2 ? Price
But will the iPad mini 2 retain its cheaper status? It?s possible that a high pixel density screen will make the tablet more expensive. However, as this would be the first time a significant price ramp-up has happened in an Apple mobile device, it seems unlikely.It didn?t happen when the full-size iPad ?went Retina?, so it probably won?t happen here either. The current iPad mini starts at ?269, for the Wi-Fi-only 16GB version. Expect similar pricing in the iPad mini 2.
iPad mini 2 ? Android Alternatives
If that sounds a little too expensive for your wallet, you might also want to consider one of the new Android tablets doing the rounds. The most notable new Android tablet is the Google Nexus 7 ?2?, made by Asus.It as a 7-inch screen that?s more widescreen than the iPad mini?s 4:3 display, but it too has a high-res screen (1920 x 1200 in this case) and a fast processor ? a quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro.
Next, read our comparison of the iPad mini and Nexus 7
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