­Apple has shown off the long expected smaller variant of its iPad, with a 7.9 inch screen size. Apple today also announced the fourth generation iPad featuring a 9.7-inch Retina display, new Apple-designed A6X chip, FaceTime HD camera and LTE connectivity.

Both iPad mini and fourth generation iPad come with iOS 6.

"iPad mini is every inch an iPad. With its gorgeous 7.9-inch display, iPad mini features the same number of pixels as the original iPad and iPad 2, so you can run more than 275,000 apps designed specifically for iPad," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "iPad mini is as thin as a pencil and as light as a pad of paper, yet packs a fast A5 chip, FaceTime HD and 5 megapixel iSight cameras and ultrafast wireless--all while delivering up to 10 hours of battery life."

iPad mini comes in a new aluminum and glass design that is just 7.2 mm thin and weighs only 0.68 pounds. The dual-core A5 chip delivers responsive graphics and a fast, fluid Multi-Touch experience, while still providing all-day battery life.

iPad mini features a front-facing FaceTime HD camera and a 5 megapixel iSight camera on the back with advanced optics for taking sharp still pictures and recording full 1080p HD video. The iSight camera includes video image stabilization and both cameras feature backside illumination to let users capture great pictures in low light.

The new fourth generation iPad features the 9.7-inch Retina display and includes a new Apple-designed A6X chip that delivers up to twice the CPU performance and up to twice the graphics performance of the A5X chip. Other new features include a FaceTime HD camera, twice the Wi-Fi performance when compared to previous iPad models and support for additional LTE networks worldwide.