Hiding in the shadows of Apple's iPad Air 2 announcement was the smaller iPad Mini 3, neglected, with the only improvement made to the year-old tablet being Touch ID.

Powerful and yet small tablet; High resolution 'retina display; Touch ID

Hardware is a year old; Expensive

Apple iPad Mini 3 Cellular is a 7.9 inch device running on iOS 8. It is packed with 1.3 GHz Cyclone Dual-core Apple A7, RAM 1 GB DDR3 and 16/64/128 GB Internal Memory. It is priced for ￡419 for 16GB model in UK. There are two new features of iPad mini 3, which is Touch ID and Apple SIM.

326 PPI; Good battery support; Excellent power; Good camera performance

Identical iPad Mini 2; Lack of NFC

IPAD if spoils after warranty (even after 1 day) is not repairable. Mine was just out of warranty for 20 days. I am at a loss. Apple is insisting I buy one more new one at 70% of the cost. Which is insane. It's like saying its an use and throw device.

Apple knows how to make a cracking tablet, and we loved the iPad mini 2 when it launched last year. It offered all the power of the Air in a smaller form factor, and while it wasn't cheap, it was awesome. But seeing it reproduced almost identically 12 months on doesn't pack the same punch.

Sleek design; Good app access; Touch ID for security

Too similar to mini 2; Pricey compared to last year; Not as powerful as Air 2

Highly Recommended! Storage is good for photos and less than an hour high definition video. If you like to take long duration videos, better opt-in for the higher memory capacity model.

Another Awesome Apple Product

Almost everything

A beautiful little Tablet.

Boring update brings TouchID, not much else.

I've previously owned two earlier generation iPads and an iPad Mini. They were all great, but the iPad Air 2 is the best so far. It's fast, light and has a great display. A multitude of top-notch apps that work gloriously on this tablet make it the best tablet under $1000.

Apple unveiled the new iPad mini 3 at a special event on 16 October, alongside the bigger iPad Air 2. We've spent some time with Apple's 7.9in tablet to bring you our iPad mini 3 review, which we'll update regularly over the next year as we spend more time with the tablet.

Gorgeous design; Touch ID fingerprint sensor; new gold colour option; more affordable 64GB model

Almost identical to the now £80 cheaper iPad mini 2; misses out on iPad Air 2's great processor & specs

Apple's iPad mini has always been a firm favourite tablet in the Wired.co.uk office. With the iPad mini 3 Apple has kept almost everything from the previous Retina display iPad mini 2 , but added a TouchID fingerprint sensor and now offers a gold finish.

Amazing display; excellent battery life; fast processor; great 3D graphics; easy to use; app store still number one for quality and variety

The addition of TouchID and gold colour option just doesn't seem to justify such a premium over the iPad mini 2; cameras and processor not improved in line with other iPads