Today, thanks to its mid-range devices and good value for money, Xiaomi is one of the leaders in the smartphone market. On the other hand, when it comes to tablets, the Chinese brand is far behind number one: Apple.
In the past, Xiaomi has already offered tablets for Android. However, these did not really break through. But this year, Xiaomi could well launch a new offensive in order to gain share in this market. And in order to seduce the crowds, the brand would target the premium market, in order to position its products as direct competitors of the iPad.
Rumors have been circulating for a few weeks about Xiaomi’s upcoming tablets. And recently, our colleagues at XDA released new information. According to the site, the code e MIUI 12.5 (the version of Android developed by Xiaomi) includes many references to three tablets whose code names would be “nabu”, “enuma”, and “elish”. Besides this, XDA also suggests that Xiaomi has developed many features of MIUI in order to adapt the GUI to that of tablets.
A priori, the “enuma” and “elish” tablets would be two very similar models, while the “nabu” tablet would be very different from the other two. And only the “enuma” tablet would support 4G / LTE / 5G connections, as well as voice calls.
As for the specs, these three tablets would have screens with 2560 x 1600 pixels of resolution, as well as a refresh rate of 120 Hz. And while Xiaomi’s previous tablet used a mid-range processor, the new models would use high-end processors. The “enuma” and “elish” tablets would use the Snapdragon 865, 865+ or 870, while the “nabu” tablet would use the Snapdragon 855, 855+ or 860.
In essence, Xiaomi is probably hoping that with their more interesting datasheets, these new models can succeed where their predecessors failed.
For the moment, Xiaomi has not yet discussed its new plans for the tablet market. However, according to some sources, a presentation could not be made in July. In the meantime, other rumors, or official teasing from Xiaomi, could come out.
In any case, Xiaomi has every interest in positioning itself well on the tablet market. Previously, this seemed to be in decline. But since the start of the pandemic, there has been an increase in demand for this type of product.
An exploding demand
In 2020, tablet shipments worldwide increased by 13.6%. This increase is directly attributed to teleworking and distance education.
Apple was number one. Moreover, during the first three months of 2021, the Cupertino company still observed an increase in its sales of iPad. In fact, during this period, iPads generated $ 7.80 billion, an increase of 78.9% year-on-year.
Recently, Apple launched its new iPad Pro equipped with the M1 chip (the same chip as Macs), which should help boost sales further.