7.9-inch Xiaomi MiPad unveiled: World's first Nvidia Tegra K1 device aimed at Retina iPad mini

Chinese electronics brand Xiaomi has released a tablet to go along with its colourful high-end, but low-cost smartphones. At an event in Beijing, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun announced the MiPad, a 7.9-inch tablet, that’s aimed directly against Apple’s iPad mini. Even the names of the tablets are similar, but the design makes the MiPad look identical to colourful iPad minis.   The Xiaomi MiPad is quite the bargain device, starting from around $240 (Rs 14,000) for the 16GB base model with Wi-Fi only. The other option is a 64GB Wi-Fi-only model priced at around $270 (Rs 16,000). For that price you are getting some impressive specs. Exact release date is unknown, but Xiaomi plans to float out an open testing phase, like a beta, for some early adopters this June.   The MiPad is the first device in the world to sport an Nvidia Tegra K1 SoC with its four ARM Cortex A-15 cores clocked at 2.2GHz, a companion core for non-intensive operation or idling, and a 192-core Kepler GPU. So you can expect some blazing performance, great battery life, and **sumptuous high-resolution gaming on this tablet.**   Speaking of high-resolution, the MiPad has a 7.9-inch Sharp display with an eye-popping resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels, and a pixel density of 324 ppi. This is identical to the new iPad mini with Retina display. There’s 2GB of RAM on board, if all that processing power somehow lets you down. Internal storage is either 16 or 64GB, as mentioned above, but there’s a microSD card slot for up to 128GB.   The slate gets a Sony-made 8-megapixel main camera and a 5-megapixel, f/2.0 shooter on the front. Lastly, there’s an ample-sounding 6700 mAh LG Chem battery and a set of stereo speakers on the back. Not much word on what kind of software its running, though it’s likely to be a slightly modified MIUI with capacitive buttons on the tablet.