Tablet sales are dwindling every year but some manufacturers still manage to push out a couple of new models in the hope that those who want to upgrade their old tablets still have a list to choose from. Xiaomi which is known for its mobile phones already has two tablets under its belt: the Mi Pad which launched with an Nvidia Tegra K1 chip back in 2014 and the Mi Pad 2 with its Intel Atom processor released in November, 2015. It is over a year since the Mi Pad 2 was released, and there has been no news of a Mi Pad 3 until today.
It is important to mention that Xiaomi has not released any statement about a new tablet launch, so please take this with a pinch of salt.
The Mi Pad 3 news comes in form of a leaked presentation. The new tablet is bigger than the previous ones, as it now sports a 9.7” retina display (2048 x 1536) compared to the 7.9” screen size of previous generations.
The body of the Mi Pad 3 is still an all-metal device but is now thinner at 6.08mm. However, it weighs more (380g) due to the large screen and bigger battery which has been bumped up to 8290mAh and has quick charge 3.0 support. There is a USB Type-C port on the bottom which is flanked by speaker grilles on both sides.
Xiaomi is still working with Intel on this one and have equipped the Mi Pad 3 with a 7th Gen Core M processor (m3-7Y30) and an integrated Intel HD Graphics 615 GPU. The document also says the RAM has received a massive bump to 8GB and users will be able to choose either 128GB or 256GB of storage. The Mi Pad 3 will also come with a fingerprint scanner.
While a tablet is not really the device you might want to pull out to take a picture, that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t have a good camera for those moments when you have no other device nearby. Xiaomi’s Mi Pad 3 is getting hooked up with a 16MP rear camera with dual-tone flash and an 8MP front facing camera for video calls and selfies.
The Xiaomi Mi Pad 3 is expected to launch with Windows 10 and come pre-installed with the MS Office Suite and Cortana. It will also have an additional keyboard dock in case you need to use it for serious work. There is no mention of an android version and we are not going to be surprised if there isn’t one on the long run. Since Microsoft is Xiaomi’s new best friend, we guess the decision to make this a windows only device stems from the recent partnership between both companies.
READ MORE: Xiaomi Launches Second Gen Wi-Fi Amplifier for ¥49 ($7)
Pricing for the Mi Pad 3 according to the document will start at ¥1999 (~$289) for the 128GB version and ¥2299 (~$333) for the 256GB version. The additional keyboard dock will cost just ¥99 (~$14).
The Mi Pad 3 is expected to be released on the 30th of December.
What do you think about the new Mi Pad 3? Let’s read your opinion in the comment box.
