This Xiaomi tablet is playing the iPad mini at its own game – but there's a catch

Alongside Xiaomi’s new phone announcements for the Xiaomi 15T and 15T Pro, it has revealed a new tablet, and surprisingly, it's on the smaller side. The new Xiaomi Pad Mini is an 8.8-inch tablet that can be held in one hand, pitching it squarely against devices such as the new ReMarkable Paper Pro Move and the Apple iPad mini.

The small tablet market is an interesting one, as phones (particularly folding ones) continue to grow in size. Still, there’s definitely a fan base of users who want something smaller than their laptops to watch films, make notes or get creative on. They are also an excellent choice for watching films on cramped economy plane seats or on the train.

The spec of the Xiaomi Pad Mini shows it’s serious about those creative users too. Not only does this device feature a 3K (3008 x 1880 pixel) display with a 165Hz max refresh rate, it also supports the Xiaomi Focus Pen 4 to provide ultra-low-latency drawing or sketching abilities on the tablet.

There’s plenty of power too, thanks to the MediaTek Dimensity 9400+ chip. This chip is also used in the Oppo Find X8 Pro, so has plenty of power for gaming, photography and crucially, AI. The Xiaomi Pad Mini runs the Xiaomi Hyper AI suite of services, powered by the HyperOS platform. This allows for AI writing tools, speech recognition, translation and art functions, as well as Google Gemini assistant and Circle to Search abilities.

On the rear, there’s a 13MP camera capable of 4K video at 30fps, and on the front, it offers an 8MP camera for video calls and selfies. There’s also dual stereo speakers, with support for Hi-Res audio and Dolby Atmos for movies.

The Xiaomi Pad Mini, as revealed at launch, will be priced at $420. However, it will only be available in the Middle East and Asia. So, those of us in the UK and Europe won't be able to buy it.