<div>Typical Xiaomi. the Chinese company that stuck its tongue out at the dominant players in the mobile market and pole-vaulted to the third place, has brought its little 7.9-inch MiPad tablet to India. Audaciously as usual, the tablet has overtones of Apple-ness to it and is quite a match for Samsung’s tablets, which in turn are facing competition from iBall and others in the Indian market.<br /><br />The MiPad, unlike other “cheap” tablets, gives an immediate impression of being value for money. It’s actually heavy for its size. While that makes it feel nice and substantial, it’s ever so slightly tiring to hold it for a long time, say, while you read, and its slippery back makes it a prime candidate for a slip to the floor. Using it, I noticed that my grip would slide, slide, slide until in a few minutes, I’d have to readjust. But well, that sort of thing may not bother many who will find the benefits outweigh the ergonomics. You see, the MiPad has a really nice screen. If you’ve been watching screen resolutions over multiple reviews here you’ll know that 2048 x 1536 is nice and high. Pixel density is good at 324 ppi. More than that, the screen looks good. It’s a bit warm looking, like a Samsung screen, but just right for a tablet. And Xiaomi has put a few live widgets right on top, making sure you immediately get an eyeful of that screen. Only problem is that every app and game may not scale to fit the screen quite that well, but I didn’t have a problem with it.<br /><br />Neither did I notice any lag. The MiPad, in fact, has a 2.2GHz Nvidia Tegra K1 processor powering it, not the typical Qualcomm, Mediatek and Intel. Nvidia makes chips that are popular with gamers. The tablet has 2GB of RAM to play with, and onboard storage of 16GB with an SD card slot. Its 6700mAh battery keeps it going for the day, with fast charging support if you’re a heavy user of the device.<br /><br />The MiPad’s cameras are 8 and 5MP, on the better side for tablets right now. The camera application is very barebones but does have a handful of average looking filters to use. There’s not much by way of controls but the assumption is that tablets are unlikely to be the preferred device for shooting much, only a second device. Sound on the MiPad is very nice. Not as nice as say, the HTC phones, but better than many tablets I’ve seen.<br /><br />You get Android 4.4 on the MiPad, with Xiaomi’s much talked about MiUi interface, well known for doing away with the app drawer and giving you a bunch of themes and other goodies for customisation. Overrated, in my opinion.<br /><br />All of this costs just Rs 12,999 which isn’t much for a device that looks good and performs well. The catch? There’s no calling ability, 2G, 3G or any G. It’s a Wi-Fi only tablet. If it’s an at-home device, that’s just fine, but tablets were supposed to be mobile and we don’t have free Wi-Fi everywhere. Or even anywhere for that matter, so this upsets the applecart for many. <br /><br />(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 20-04-2015)</div>
BW Reporters
Mala Bhargava has been writing on technology well before the advent of internet in Indians and before CDs made their way into computers. Mala writes on technology, social media, startups and fitness. A trained psychologist, she claims that her understanding of psychology helps her understand the human side of technology.
