After several years of making Android tablets under its Mi Pad line, Xiaomi is set to launch its first Windows-on-ARM detachable 2-in-1.
Xiaomi is planning to launch a Windows tablet and it will be powered by an ARM chip. The Chinese manufacturer has been making Windows PCs for years now under its own Mi brand as well as its Redmi subsidiary. It has also been producing Android tablets since 2014. Notably, it also released a Windows tablet back in 2015.
After the launch of its second tablet, the Mi Pad 2, in November 2015, Xiaomi released another variant of the tablet with Windows 10 a few weeks later. The Android version ran Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box, and like the Windows variant, it was powered by an Intel processor, the Atom X5-Z8500. Since then, Xiaomi has only launched Android tablets, although that may be about to change.
A document filed in Europe has revealed details about Xiaomi’s upcoming “Book S 12.4” tablet. According to the EU Declaration of Conformity (DoC) document which has surfaced online, it can be deduced that the device will have a 12.4-inch display. The document also reveals it has the model number “MIT2205-AA” and it includes an image that appears to be from a certification agency since it appears similar to photos taken by the FCC. The said image shows the front of the tablet, and upon closer look, a set of pogo pins can be spotted at the bottom. These pins are believed to be for the detachable keyboard that allows it to be used as a laptop.
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While the document doesn’t reveal much about the upcoming tablet, the Italian publication, Xiaomi Today provides more details. It has been reported that the Xiaomi Book S will be a Windows 11 tablet and the display will be an OLED panel. Xiaomi will ship the device with an ARM chip, specifically the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 computer platform, paired with 8GB of RAM. The 7nm Qualcomm chip was announced in September 2020 for 2-in-1 laptops and appeared in a few devices including the Acer Spin 7 and the HP Elite Folio. It has four Cortex-A76 cores clocked at 3.15GHz and four Cortex-A55 cores clocked at 1.80GHz along with an Adreno 690 GPU. It also boasts support for Wi-Fi 6 and super fast 5G speeds.
Qualcomm already announced a successor called the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 back in December 2021, a more powerful solution that uses a combination of Cortex-X1 and Cortex-A78 cores. For reasons best known to Xiaomi, it isn’t the chip of choice for its upcoming Windows tablet. Nevertheless, when it launches, its closest rival will be Microsoft’s Surface Pro X which is powered by the SQ2, a variant of the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2. There are still several missing details about the Xiaomi Book S, but from the currently available information, it should go on sale in Europe when it launches.
