Xiaomi Mi Pad 2 is now official. Thinner, lighter and gets an all metal body.

Apart from the metal clad Redmi Note 3, Xiaomi has also released its latest flagship tablet – the Mi Pad 2. Offering the same compact 7.9″ size, the new tablet gets an all metal body which is a huge leap over the plasticky predecessor.

Compared to the previous version, the new Mi Pad 2 is 18% thinner at 6.95mm (Mi Pad: 8.5mm) and it is 11% lighter at 322g (Mi Pad: 360g). The Mi Pad 2 is also narrower and shorter as well, thanks to its reduced bezel design.

The front 7.9″ display is pretty much retained with a 2048×1536 resolution that pushes a pixel density of 326 ppi. This is the same resolution as the current iPad mini 4. Some of the new improvements include a Reading Mode which cuts down on harmful blue light and a button lock feature which deactivates the capacitive home, menu and back buttons when the tablet is held in landscape.

While the old Mi Pad runs on Nvidia’s Tegra K1 chipset, the Mi Pad 2 is Xiaomi’s first Intel-powered device with a 14nm 64-bit Atom X5-8500 processor with 2GB of RAM.

Storage wise it receives the same options of either 16GB or 64GB of storage. This time round, it appears that it lacks a microSD expansion slot, which isn’t good news for those wanting to store loads of TV shows on their tablet.

The cameras combination appears unchanged with a 8MP f/2.0 camera capable of shooting full HD videos at the rear while the front gets a 5MP f/2.0 shooter. The twin speaker grilles are still placed at the back, which could have been better placed at the front or at least on the sides.

Powering the tablet is a smaller 6,190mAh battery that claims to push 100 hours of music playback or 12.5 hours of video streaming. It uses the new USB Type C connector to charge and it supports a typical 5V/2A fast charging standard. In terms of connectivity, it supports Bluetooth 4.1 and high speed 802.11ac WiFi. Like the predecessor, there’s no cellular 4G LTE version available.

Out of the box, the Mi Pad 2 runs on MIUI 7 OS that’s based on Android. The 16GB Mi Pad 2 goes for 999 CNY (about RM662) while the 64GB version is priced at 1,299 CNY (about RM861), which is pretty decently priced for the hardware and build quality it offers.

If you’re looking for something different, Xiaomi is also releasing a Windows 10 64GB edition as well for the same price of 1,299 CNY. It offers a full Windows experience, supporting your popular Microsoft office apps for greater productivity in a compact form factor.

For more info, head over to the Xiaomi Mi Pad 2 product page.