A smaller version of the iPad will be less expensive and it will have less storage than Apple’s full-sized model, but will have the same resolution, according to a report.
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Such a device is very much in the works and will come in around the $200 to $250 price range. On the lower end, that’s less than half the price of Apple’s current iPad model, and $150 to $200 less than the 16GB second-generation model that Apple still sells. That would also overlap with the pricing of Apple’s iPod Touchline, which starts out at $199 and reaches at $399 for the 64GB model.
iMore’s report adds two other interesting news. The first is that the device will only have 8GB of memory. That’s half the memory of the entry-level iPad, which has kept the same three storage configurations (16GB, 32GB, 64GB) since the first-generation model. Second, is that the screen will sport the same resolution as Apple’s latest iPad ,that is, 2,048 by 1,536 pixels.
This gives us idea that Apple would want to keep in step with”Retina Displays” on its iOS devices. These are displays where the pixels are so closely packed together that you cannot pick them out from one another when viewing the screen.
As iMore notes, a 2,048 by 1,536 pixel screen at 7 inches would give the smaller iPad a 326 pixels per inch display, up considerably from the 264 pixels per inch on Apple’s latest iPad.
However, that screen resolution combined with smaller storage could cause a problem. 8GB on an iPad would fill up mighty fast with HD content, and media-rich games. For instance, many 1,080p movies on iTunes go beyond 4GB a pop. There are also games, some of which have stretched in size in the jump to the new iPad.