The Chinese tablet will compete head to head with the iPad mini with Retina Display

May 15, 2014 11:35 GMT  ·  By

Xiaomi’s mythical tablet strikes again, this time for real. After being rumored countless times and failing to make a real-life appearance some of us almost gave up hope the device was coming at all.

As of today, Xiaomi’s MiPad tablet is official and albeit thinking we knew what the tablet will bring in terms of specifications, we were proven wrong at the launch party.

So here we go, the MiPad is an iPad mini with Retina Display clone, coming with a 7.9-inch and boasting 2048 x 1536 pixel resolution.

Under the hood lies a surprise, in the form of NVIDIA’s latest Tegra K1 SoC processor clocked at 2.2GHz fitted with 2GB of RAM and backed up by 16GB of internal storage (expandable up to a 128GB). Paradoxically enough, NVIDIA’s rumored Mocha tablet won’t be the first slate to run the company’s Tegra K1 SoC.

The Xiaomi MiPad is a very light and probably easy to carry tablet, weighing just 360g / 0.79 lbs. Under the hood lies a 6,700 mAh battery that will keep your slate alive for a sensible amount of time. Other specifications include two cameras (8MP Sony rear camera and 5MP frontal camera).

Xiaomi hasn't said anything about its intentions of releasing a cellular-capable version of the tablet, but it might be in the cards at some point.

In terms of pricing, which is what we guess you were waiting for, the 16GB Wi-Fi will sell for $240 / €176 while the 64GB model can be grabbed for $275 / €201.

Anyway, the company said it would start the “open testing” of the MiPad in June, which means customers purchasing the Beta device will send Xiaomi feedback regarding their experience with the slate. The company will use this information to improve the product and produce a final version set to arrive by the end of the year.

In the meantime, Xiaomi has also provided some benchmarks, which compare their tablet against the performance of the iPad mini with Retina Display, showing us how awesome the MiPad is.

Last summer, Xiaomi has managed to lure away Google’s Hugo Barra, in an attempt to prove to the world they are capable of producing greater things than most Chinese copy-cat companies.

Nevertheless, it still seems to us that Xiaomi was heavily influenced by the iPhone 5c concept, which they stretched and turned into a colorful plastic-y tablet. Even so, the result seems pretty appealing and you won’t find many companies selling a Retina Display tablet for such a low rate.

Xiaomi's New MiPad Tablet and Benchmark Results (7 Images)

Xiaomi finally launches MiPad tablet
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