- The comparison
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- iPad in trouble? Xiaomi's new Android tablet is likely to be released to the world soon
When the Xiaomi Mi Pad 5 and 5 Pro launched, they appeared to be well-specced and affordable rivals to the iPad Pro (Xiaomi's words, not ours, as the Chinese company kept benchmarking its new slates against members of the Apple team). The trap ? It seemed that the slates would only go on sale in China. This may not be the case, as a supply chain source who spoke to GizmoChina suggested that Xiaomi was preparing to launch its Mi Pad 5 in Europe in September. As with all rumors like this, take this with a pinch of salt, but GizmoChina can be pretty reliable for supply chain insights. Apparently there's no set release date yet, and we don't even know if both tablets will land or just the standard Mi Pad 5. But the launch of a new Android tablet is still exciting. The price of the Xiaomi Mi Pad 5 isn't known outside of China, but judging by the costs there, it could be a surprisingly cheap list.
Analysis: giving Apple a run for its money
As reported in our latest iPad mini news, fate conspired to give Apple a free pass with its late 2021 products. Competition from smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy Note 21, OnePlus 9T, and Huawei Mate 50 is confirmed or announced. will be cancelled, which means that the iPhone 13 series will not have many rivals. This also applies to the tablet space, with the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 launching in January or February, not August or September as we had planned. That would mean that the iPad mini 6 and the new entry-level iPad 10.2, if either or both were to launch, would have no new rivals - well, unless Xiaomi steps up. If the Xiaomi Mi Pad 5 launches in Europe in September, it will literally rival the new iPads by giving customers a cheaper, better-performing tablet to consider, and it might be the only tablet to do so. The Realme Pad has also been teased, but its availability or launch window is unknown. The Android tablet sphere has been on shaky ground for some time now, but the pandemic and the subsequent rise in work-from-home and home-learning have brought it back from the brink of death. This is why we see many brands start to come off the shelves, either for the first time (like Realme) or after many years (like Xiaomi). Now that we're at the end of the pandemic and the world is reopening, it's up to these brands to see if they can keep up the interest and follow Apple's lead by making their tablets early annual stables, or if these slates are just one-of-a-kind pieces. .