After conquering the smartphone market in key emerging markets such as China, Xiaomi’s venturing into the world of tablets with the Xiaomi Mi Pad.

While this year’s offerings by Xiaomi such as the Mi Note have followed an original design, last year’s products such as the Mi Pad bear a striking resemblance to Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) offerings, with Xiaomi clearly targeting the iPad mini with its first tablet. In broad strokes, both tablets share the same pixel density at 324 ppi, the same 4:3 ratio and are offered in a 7.9-inch form factor. That’s where the similarities end, however, as both products are aimed at entirely different buyers.

Design

The iPad mini features an all-metal chassis that feels great in-hand, with Xiaomi deciding to go with plastic on the Mi Pad. There are several Android-based tablets in the price segment Xiaomi is targeting, but by offering much better hardware than tablets priced significantly higher, the Chinese vendor is once again looking to punch above its weight.

The front of the Mi Pad is an unassuming slab, and features the Mi logo etched onto the top left corner. The top section also hosts the front camera sensor. At the bottom, you’ll find three capacitive buttons. The camera sensor at the back is on the top left corner, with the built-in microphone directly underneath. At the bottom, there are stereo speakers sitting below another Mi logo.

The volume rockers as well as the power buttons are on the left side of the tablet, and there’s a micro-USB charging port at the bottom and a 3.5mm audio jack at the top. The volume and power buttons have decent travel, which as it turns out is hard to get right as evidenced by HTC with the first few production runs of the Nexus 9. Xiaomi has however managed to get the tactile feedback right as far as the buttons on the Mi Pad are concerned.

The gentle sloping sides allows you to grip the Mi Pad with ease, with the tablet belying its size when held in-hand. The overall build quality of the tablet is top-notch, but the decision to go with a glossy plastic back wasn’t the best by Xiaomi as it makes the tablet quite slippery at times. The Mi Pad is available in several colorful configurations ranging from white, blue, pink, green and so forth, with the more colorful options distinctly reminding us of the iPhone 5c.

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After launching the Redmi 2 in Taiwan in February, Xiaomi is looking to bring the handset to India later this month, with March 12 cited as a possible launch date for the device in the country.

The Redmi 1S and Redmi Note got off to a great start in India, mainly due to their aggressive pricing and the stellar hardware on offer. Both devices were regularly sold out in under a minute during weekly flash sales, and formed the benchmark for affordable devices in the country. The hardware available with the Redmi Note in particular was far better than what was provided by other international vendors.

With Motorola launching an updated version of the Moto E in India on March 10, it makes sense for Xiaomi to do likewise since the Redmi 1S is now discontinued in the country. The Redmi 2 features better hardware from its predecessor in the form of a 4.7-inch 720p screen protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 2, 1GB RAM, quad-core Snapdragon 410 SoC, 8GB internal memory, microSD card slot, dual-SIM connectivity, 4G LTE, 8MP camera with BSI sensor, 2MP front shooter and a 2,200mAh battery.

In terms of software, the Redmi 2 features the latest iteration of MIUI, MIUI 6. There’s also a beefier version of the device that offers 2GB RAM and 16GB internal memory, but there is no word as yet if we’ll see that handset in India. Pricing of the device will be determined once it launches in the country, but it is believed to cost the same as the Redmi 1S, which retailed for $100. At that price, there won’t be a contender to the Redmi 2 that offers a similar set of features.

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Xiaomi is continuing to roll out handsets that offer incredible value for money, with the latest offering being the Redmi 2. The successor to the Redmi 1S, the Redmi 2 has been officially unveiled in China over the weekend, and features even better hardware.

The handset features a 4.7-inch 720p display, which is exactly the same as the first-generation model, but this time around the innards are powered by a 64-bit Snapdragon 410 SoC that contains four Cortex A53 cores clocked at 1.2 GHz and the Adreno 306 GPU. Also included is 2 GB RAM, 8 GB internal memory, microSD card slot up to 32 GB, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, A-GPS, GLONASS as well as Beidou. In terms of imaging, the device features an 8 MP camera sensor from OmniVision that offers a 28mm wide-angle lens and the ability to shoot full-HD video. The front shooter is a 2 MP variant. When it comes to software, the Redmi 2 is running Xiaomi’s latest MIUI 6.

A novel feature on the Redmi 2 is the dual-SIM LTE connectivity, with both SIM slots offering LTE. Not all variants have this feature, however, as the China Telecom edition limits the second SIM card slot to 2G connectivity. Part of Xiaomi’s strengths is that it is one of the few manufacturers that is keen on user feedback, and as such the Redmi 2 comes with settings to adjust the display’s color temperature.The microUSB 2.0 port comes with QuickCharge 1.0 support, which means that you can charge a certain percentage of the battery quickly.

The Redmi 2 is set to launch in China on January 9 to the equivalent of $110 (CNY 700). Currently, there is no word on when other countries will receive the handset. With the kind of momentum Xiaomi is witnessing in India, it should not be too long before the handset makes its way to the subcontinent. Xiaomi is also set to unveil its next-generation flagship this month, with rumors suggesting an official launch date of January 15.

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