Xiaomi’s Mi Pad lineup was quite popular a few years ago, but tablets as a category were on a downward trajectory, leading Mi to halt further development. With half of 2021 over, it looks like Xiaomi is ready to end its hiatus with the launch of the Mi Pad 5.
Xiaomi’s last tablet, the Mi Pad 4, came out in 2018. The tablet market was quite slow after that, till the Covid-19 pandemic happened. With renewed interest and a much bigger market available, Xiaomi is reported to unveil the Mi Pad 5 as early as next month, taking on heavyweights such as the iPad Pro and Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 series.
As per Chinese media outlet MyDrivers, the Xiaomi Mi Pad 5 will be unveiled in mid or late August starting with its homecountry. Apart from the aforementioned competitors, it will take on the Huawei MatePad 11, which has similar specifications.
The leak also mentions that there will be multiple models in the Mi Pad 5 family, with the top variant being powered by the Snapdragon 870 chipset — making it one of the most powerful Android tablets currently available. Moreover, the screen might be the star of the show as it is expected to sport an 11-inch LCD panel with a 144Hz refresh rate and 480Hz touch sampling rate. We wouldn’t be surprised if Xiaomi calls it a gaming device. Stylus functionality is also expected to make the cut.
An interesting bit of the report is that the Xiaomi Mi Pad 5 will run a special version of MIUI for large-screen devices such as tablets. It will include desktop-like elements such as a control centre, taskbar, floating windows and more. It’s unclear if that will be the only interface available, or if it can be toggled, like Samsung’s DeX.