Competition for iPad mini.
By Dileep Thekkethil
BENGALURU: Xiaomi’s Mi Pad, released in China last May, has finally reached India and like most other Xiaomi devices, it comes with impressive specifications packed in a budget price tag.
Like all other Xiaomi devices, the new Mi Pad also goes on sales via Flipkart, but this time buyers won’t have to race against time nor do they have to register in advance. They can start buying the new Mi Pad starting from March 24th for Rs. 12,999 ($208).
There are also reports that the Chinese makers are planning to launch an updated version of Mi Pad sometime during the first half of this year.
Mi Pad is a feature rich tablet powered by 32-bit by a ‘4+1’-core Nvidia Tegra K1 SoC ARM Cortex-A15 processor with a clock speed of 2.2Gzh that is found on Nexus 9 which costs almost double the price of Xiaomi’s tablet. The device also has an excellent 7.9-inch display with a resolution of 2048×1536 pixels. The device is powered by a long-lasting 6700Mah battery that boasts of a backup time of 11 hours while watching videos, 86 hours of music and around 17 hours of continuous reading.
The device is also facilitated with a rear and selfie camera of 8MP nad 5MP, respectively. Unfortunately, the rear camera lacks a LED flash which is common in tablets. But still the 2GB RAM and 16 GB internal storage capacity of the device makes it a beast among tablets that are currently available in India. Adding to these Xiaomi is also offering an expandable storage of 128 GB, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity and above all it runs on the MiUI 6 on top of Android KitKat.
The launch of Mi Pad in India could affect the sales of iPad mini as the device has a resolution of 1536×2048 – the same as the second- and third-generation iPad mini tablets. Adding to this, the overall design of the Mi Pad resembles a lot to iPad Mini though the finishing is not as great. But still a larger number of new tablet users who are not loyal to any brand will find Mi Pad a better option than iPad Mini which costs a lot of money.