XiaoMi Tablet – MiPad (Looks like an iPad) Announced!
Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Tech announced its first tablet at a product launch event in Beijing on Thursday, expanding its product lineup in a potential challenge to Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Apple Inc.
The tablet would be called the MiPad and looks somewhat if Apple were to launch a budget version of the iPad Mini (similar to the iPhone 5C and 5S). The MiPad specs are impressive, although support might be better if it used a Snapdragon chipset instead. It is one of the few 4:3 format and 8″ size Android tablet, pretty similar specs and dimensions to the iPad Mini.
The Tegra K1 has a quad-core Cortex A15 processor here (plus a low-power companion core), and the real crazy feature is the 192-core Kepler GPU. Yep, you read that right, the desktop-grade Kepler graphics are coming in a mobile form, whether you need that much pixel-pushing for Android games, or not.
The Adreno 330 GPU in Snapdragon 801, however, runs on 578 MHz, while the Kepler GPU in Tegra K1 is clocked at 950 MHz, so there might be issues with power consumption and heat. Nvidia claims that, while K1 outperforms both the Xbox 360 and the PS3, it consumes much less energy. The power consumption might still need work when it comes to mobile devices, though, as the reference kit was reportedly running at the whopping 35 to 40 watts. Nvidia said it will be able to shoehorn the K1 into the sub-2W category under non-peak loads, which should put it on a fairly equal footage with Snapdragon 801.
Xiaomi is the world’s sixth largest smartphone manufacturer and looks set to climb the list pretty fast.
At only 200 RMB difference between the 16 and 64 gb model, the choice is clear. It may not be the cheapest tablet you can find, and prices are probably closer to the Google Nexus 7 range tablets. But the higher resolution, new processor, and the reputation that Xiaomi or Mi have built up, I wouldn’t bet against this MiPad.
Doubt XiaoMi would bring this to Singapore soon, although we can only hope. If they maintain the competitive pricing, it could be another strong success.
