New Photos of ‘iPad Mini’ Rear Shell Leak Out Of China

A new set of photos of the iPad Mini parts have been leaked offering detailed close-ups to the internals of the Apple tablet, including how the inside is designed to attach to the rest of the tablet. The alleged part includes is a rear shell leaked from an OEM manufacturer located in Shenzhen, China.

As evident from the leaked spy-shots, there is an enhanced version of speaker and microphone configuration at the bottom and an iPhone 5 like new smaller dock connector. The flipped over repair part shows a rear camera hole and the area where the display and front panel will be attached. We’re not sure if the camera will be as powerful as iPad 2 or “The New iPad”, but it could leapfrog other tablet cameras.

After looking at the leaked chassis, the 7.85-inch screen iPad Mini will likely have the same height and length as the Nexus 7 but with thinner and lighter profile – should be around 7.5mm thick and 270 grams. The Nexus 7 on the other hand is 10.5mm thick and weighs 340 grams and Amazon’s Kindle Fire is 11.4mm and 413 grams – almost 30 per cent thinner. The leaked iPad Mini shell is a Wi-Fi model, given that there is no SIM card slot and no open section for the plastic cellular antennas.

The leaked iPad Mini shell photos square perfectly with the past leak showing little tapering compared to the full-size iPad, instead carrying a rounded, and almost partial bull nose profile along the sides. At this point, I wouldn’t be too surprised if the leaked Mini iPad specifications floating around come true.

Even few weeks back, flex cable component part was leaked online showing Apple’s smaller dock connector and the home button connector with the relocated headphone jack. And most recently, Instapaper developer spotted two new identifiers in his developer logs - iPad2,5 and iPad2,6, likely indicating that Apple employees are testing new iPad models – possibly Mini iPad.

WSJ has already claimed that the 7.8-inch iPad featuring a 1024×768 display will be launched in a separate event in October this year. Now that iPhone 5 Media event has been announced, we can expect Apple to announce a separate media event for October to introduce the iPad mini.