New 12.5-inch Xiaomi tablet launches with Snapdragon 8 series SoC and 5.8mm-thin design

Xiaomi has launched two new tablets in China alongside the new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 series phones. Among them is the Pad 9 Pro, a scaled-down version of the recently released Pro Max but with a more affordable starting price.

The Pad 9 Pro packs the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5, a last-gen sub-flagship SoC that can tackle lightweight to moderately heavy loads with ease. Xiaomi has paired it with up to 256GB of storage and 16GB of RAM. Such a configuration makes the tablet good for PC game emulation as well.

On the front, the tablet features a 12.5-inch display, and even though it's not an OLED screen, the panel has a 1,000 nits peak brightness rating and a 144Hz refresh rate. With support for Dolby Vision and a six-speaker setup, the Pad 9 Pro stands as a good pick for entertainment needs.

Another highlight of the Pad 9 Pro is the thin and light design. Xiaomi says that it's as thin as 580mm and weighs 580 grams (about 1.27lbs), which means the tablet should be easy to carry around.

While it has a slim chassis and is lightweight, the Xiaomi Pad 9 Pro packs a relatively larger 11,000mAh battery. The company claims that it can offer up to 14.5 hours of playback runtime, and with support for 67W fast charging, recharging it shouldn't take long either (160W 3-port Anker Prime charger curr. $115.99 on Amazon).

There's support for productivity-forward accessories, including the Focus Stylus Pro with 16K pressure sensitivity support and the Focus Keyboard with a large trackpad. Xiaomi further highlights support for PC-level productivity apps, including WPS for Pad and CapCut Pro.

USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C port, 50MP rear camera, HyperOS 4 out of the box, and WiFi 7 are among the other highlights of the tablet. In China, Xiaomi is selling the Pad 9 Pro with a starting price of CNY 3,799, about $566, and the top-end config with maxed-out RAM and storage costs CNY 4,999, about $745.

This tablet, alongside the Xiaomi Pad 9, is expected to launch in the global market with the Xiaomi 18 Pro series. The company hasn't, however, shared anything concrete about the international release yet.