Yesterday, millions of people gazed online as Apple announced its new lineup of devices (just in time for the holidays). We got new full-sized iPads, Mac Mini, MacBook Pro and a new iMac. But, the star of the show was undoubtedly the iPad mini. It’s been the most rumored-about product since, well, the iPhone 5. The tiny tablet hosts a 7.9″ display with the same 1024 x 768 resolution as the iPad 2. It’s also equipped with a 5MP iSight camera and 720p HD front facing FaceTime camera and packs in a dual-core A5 processor.

Pricing was always a sticky point when it came to the speculation. Many predicted it would be under $300 to compete with the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire, while anyone with half a brain would realize that wasn’t likely. Both Amazon and Google lose money on their small tablets, Apple doesn’t do losing money. With the new iPod touch coming in at $299, a $249 iPad mini wasn’t ever on the cards. But, just how does the U.S. pricing compare with the UK? I decided to find out.

Using the most recent figures I could find, I calculated the exchange rate at £1 GBP = $1.598 USD. Also, using the average sales tax of 7.25% in the U.S. I calculated as close as I could, how much money Americans would actually have to part with to get an iPad mini.

First off, how much we British will pay (including the compulsory 20% VAT):

So, as you can see: when you convert our prices to U.S. dollars, it starts to look a little ridiculous. Would you pay $845 for an iPad mini (inc. taxes)? As a comparison, here’s what American citizens will be handing over for one of Apple’s tiny tablets:

So, even with the tax included, we Britons are still forking out almost $80 more than our friends across the pond, and that’s just the cheapest model. We’re paying almost $140 more for the 64GB 4G version. “But Cam, UK VAT is much higher than in the U.S.!” I know, I hear your cries. So, I created another chart with hypothetical prices. If the U.S. sales tax rate was 20%:

We’d still be paying more! Now, I’m not complaining. Our economies are different, and demand is lower over here due to the plainly obvious fact that there are fewer people living here. I found the comparison interesting, so I thought I’d share it with you. It could be worse, we could be in Norway.