Emerging consumer electronics manufacturer, Xiaomi Inc., recently unleashed its very first tablet called the Mi Pad. Reports state the Beijing-based company explicitly announced the Mi Pad is an iPad Mini knockoff. With that being said, let's take a closer look at the "Apple of China's" tablet said to stand against tech giant Apple's tablet.

Design and Price

As Xiaomi has been very transparent on its claims of mimicking Apple when it comes to its market strategies, as well as in the development of its devices, it is not surprising to see the Mi Pad resembling the iPad Mini. The Chinese tablet measures 202.10 x 135.40 x 8.50 mm, while the high-end tablet iPad Mini 2 measures 200 x 134.7 x 7.5 mm. The Xiaomi Mi Pad is the plastic version of the iPad Mini 2 which boasts of an aluminium body material. The plastic material used for the Mi Pad's body is similar to one of Apple's smartphones, the iPhone 5C.

Both handheld devices share the same multi-touch screen display size which is 7.9 inches, similar pixel density and resolution of 324 ppi and 2,048 x 1,536 pixels, respectively.The only notable difference perhaps would be iPad's add-on display feature, the oleophobic coating.

With regards to the price, during the advent of the Mini 2 last year, its retail price was U.S.$829 (about AU$880), while the Chinese tablet's 16 GB model is only U.S.$240 (about AU$255) and the 64 GB model is priced at US$275 (about AU$290)

Hardware and Camera

The Xiaomi Mi Pad has the Nvidia Tegra K1 chipset, a quad-core ARM Cortex A-15 CPU running at speeds of up to 2,200 MHz, 2 GB system memory and a Kepler GPU . The iPad Mini 2, on the other hand, has Apple A7 system chip, 1 GB RAM, PowerVR G6430 graphic processor and a dual-core CPU with speeds of up to 1,300 MHz. For its built-in storage, the iPad Mini 2's 128 GB storage capacity is hard to beat, as the Mi Pad only has the 16 and 64 GB capacity.

However, the Mi Pad has an edge over the iPad Mini 2 when it comes to camera resolution. Xiaomi's flagship tablet has an 8-MP back camera and a 5-MP front camera. The Apple tablet, in comparison, only has a 5-MP rear camera and a front-facing snapper with 1.2 MP resolution.

At the end of it all, it would still be up to the market to decide which tablet will work for them. Will it be China's Xiaomi Mi Pad or still the iPad Mini 2 that will capture their distinctive taste?