The Xiaomi Mi Pad, which was announced recently, will be launched on 24th of this month. At Rs. 12,999, the tablet fits perfectly in the budget segment, but we couldn't help but in typical Xiaomi fashion, the Mi Pad offers a lot more than any other tablet in its price segment. So, we compared it with the Nexus 9 and the Apple iPad Mini 3, afterall, the tablet does share attributes from these two.
Design & Build
The Mi Pad is a budget tablet and it feels like one as well. The build quality is inferior to the Nexus 9 and the iPad Mini 3, but then again the other two are not budget tablets either.
As far as weight is concerned iPad is the lightest one here. Even with its all metal body, the smallest tablet from Apple is a fair 29 grams lighter than the Mi Pad and a whopping 94g lighter than the Nexus 9 by HTC.
Display
The screen size on the Nexus 9 is 8.9-inches, whereas the other two tablets have a 7.9-inch display. However the resolution on the three is exactly the same — 2048 x 1536 pixels. All three tablets here offer an IPS LCD panel, which gives all of them great viewing angles. The sunlight legibility differs though. We feel the display on the Mi Pad is much too dim when compared to the other two. Dim displays have been something we've noticed in every Xiaomi device so far.
Performance
Performance is top notch and relatively comparable on the Nexus 9 and the Mi Pad since both tablets run on the Nvidia’s Tegra K1 SoC. The performance on the Mi Pad is slightly different due to the fact that Nexus 9 is running on a 64-bit Tegra K1 SoC along with Android Lollipop, while the Mi Pad runs on the 32-bit version of the Tegra K1 alongside KitKat layered with MiUI 6. The Apple iPad Mini 3 is no slouch but it performs way below the other two with its dual-core Apple A7 SoC, even though Apple's SoC has proven itself to be a formidable performer.
GeekBench 3
Nexus 9 - 3470
Mi Pad - 3276
iPad Mini 3 - 2486
OS
The Nexus 9 and the Mi Pad are running on Android, but the UX is fairly different since the Nexus 9 is running stock Android Lollipop and the Mi Pad is running MIUI6 with Android underneath. The UI Experience on the Mi Pad looks and feels more like the iOS. Also, to point out the obvious, iOS still feels more polished.
Storage
The Nexus 9 and the iPad Mini 3 have limited storage, which cannot be upgraded, whereas the Mi Pad comes with a micro-SD card slot. It supports storage of upto 128GB.
Battery
What good would a tablet be if you had to charge too often. All the tablets hold fairly large batteries, with the Nexus 9 and Mi Pad tying at 6700mAh. The iPad Mini 3 sports a slightly smaller battery of 6470mAh. That said, all three tablets claim around 10 hours of battery life. Since the Mi Pad and the Nexus 9 are gaming oriented tablets, the battery life may differ when gaming.
Sound
Sound is an important aspect for tablets, thanks to the entertainment angle associated with them. All three tablets feature stereo speaker, but the Nexus 9 has done it right, placing the stereo speakers on either side of the display making it perfect to watch videos in landscape mode. Whereas the iPad Mini and the Mi Pad come with the speakers at the bottom, which is less favourable, if only slightly.
Camera
Camera is always counted as a extra feature on a tablet and all three tablets have decent cameras. While the Mi Pad and the Nexus 9 sport 8MP cameras at the back, the iPad makes do with a 5MP iSight rear camera. However, the Mi Pad offers a much better 5MP camera on the front, while the Nexus 9 and iPad Mini 3 have 1.2MP and 1.6MP cameras respectively.
Pricing
At Rs. 12,999, the Mi Pad offers amazing value, unlike any other in its price segment. In fact, this is the first time since the Mi3 that Xiaomi has brought such a product to India. The Mi Pad is a very good buy for anyone and everyone.