Although it was rumored, not everyone was expecing Apple to launch an iPad refresh today, but in addition to the iPad Mini the press gathered in San Jose was also treated to the 4th generation iPad.

Based around the same high-resolution Retina screen, the "new" iPad is a hardware refresh and this time around Apple managed to squeeze its new A6X dual-core CPU with quad-core graphics into the revamped iPad. Apple claims that the A6X brings double the performance when compared to the previous A5X chip.

The new iPad also gets dual-band 802.11abgn WiFi, LTE (compatible with Sprint in the USA and EE in the UK), 720p FaceTime front camera with the new image processor and of course, the new unavoidable Lighting port.

Also schedule to show up for pre-order on Friday, October 26th and ship out on November 2nd, the new iPad will cost the same as the previous version. It starts off at US $499 for the 16GB model while the LTE one starts at US $629 for the 16GB model.