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10 Months With The Xiaomi MiPad - How Has It Held Up? User Experience Review

I got the Xiaomi MiPad in July 2014, soon after it was launched in China. I live in Singapore, and Xiaomi sells its products here. But it didn't launch the MiPad in Singapore until February of this year. Yes, a full seven months after its initial release in China. Needless to say, having gotten it soon following its launch in China, my set is a Chinese set and it came without Google Framework Services installed. 

Installing it myself was a breeze and after the MiPad's release in Singapore, I flashed the Global version of the MIUI 6 tablet software, overriding the Chinese version of MIUI which the tablet came preloaded with, out of the box. 

For this review, I'm not going to dive very deep into the technical aspects, but rather, the overall user experience because that is the most important thing. 

What I Like

Price-to-Performance Ratio

The MiPad definitely punches well above its weight. That is, if you were to look at the price-to-performance ratio, this product compares very favourably to other products in its price range. In China, the MiPad costs RMB 1,499 (US$243) for the 16GB model and RMB 1,699 (USD$276) for the 64GB model. The MiPad still compares very favourably against other competing products price-wise, even today. 

Good Screen Quality (For the Most Part) 

The screen is pretty good, though my unit and many others suffer from light bleeding. I find it to be tolerable. As far as I can tell, the screen is fully laminated, which means there's no air gap, which is definitely a win over Apple's iPad Mini line, with which it directly competes with. 

Decent Battery Life 

Battery life is pretty good, if you don't turn on the "Performance Mode". Battery life drains pretty quickly though, when running intensive tasks, no doubt due in part to overheating(more on that later). 

What I Don't Like

It's an Android tablet 

There's no getting around it: The MiPad is an Android-running tablet. The app situation on the Android tablet front has improved over the years, but it is still severely lacking when compared to the iPad. Unlike on Apple's iPad, Android tablets still suffer from a dearth of apps that are tailored for a larger screen canvas and that take full advantage of a tablet's larger display. Often times, in place of a tablet-optimised app, users are left with a "stretch-out" smartphone app, on a tablet display, which translates to a horrible experience. 

This is even more apparent to me as I use an iPad as well. There's always this sense that I should put down the MiPad while I'm using it and grab the iPad cos the experience with apps is so much better on the iPad. I really don't mean to knock the Android ecosystem, but it is what it is. 

Here are a few app comparison photos I took: 

The comparison is with apps on the iPad Air, which has a larger display. However, this is still a valid comparison, as apps on the iPad Mini(same size display as MiPad), are as well-optimised as on the iPad Air, unlike Android apps on the MiPad.  

ChannelNewsAsia app on iPad Air(Left) and MiPad(Right)

BusinessInsider app on iPad Air(Left) and MiPad(Right)

One can clearly see how iPad apps are tailored for a larger canvas, are optimised to display more information in a more visually appealing manner. Hopefully Android tablet apps will keep improving overtime. 

Also, as the MiPad runs Android, it suffers from app incompatibility issues. So, users might not be able to run some apps which are on the Google Play store, a problem I ran into pretty often. 

One of the many apps I couldn't install on the MiPad

Inconsistent Performance/Occasional Sluggishness

The tablet also tends to get very hot when running CPU and/or GPU intensive tasks. 
I also found that the NVIDIA K1 CPU takes quite some time to "get up to speed". Let me explain. If my MiPad was sitting on my coffee table, and in standby mode and I pick it up, wake it from standby and launch a game such as Asphault 8, it would stutter like crazy. It takes awhile(about a minute, give or take) before it stabilises and after that, the game runs pretty smoothly. 

My guess: Since I just woke it from standby, the CPU had to take some time to "accelerate/throttle up", thus it stutters in the beginning and the stuttering stops after awhile when the CPU has "gotten up to speed". 

I also noticed that the home page takes a while to load most of the time, when returning from an app to the home screen, very often when I have a few apps running. I find that MIUI on both smartphones and tablets to be pretty RAM-hungry, so this could be the cause. 

MiPad telling me "Just a sec" while loading the home page

Conclusion - Should You Get It?

Do I think the Xiaomi MiPad is worth getting now? 

Well, that depends on a few things. 

1. Are you absolutely dead set on a non-iOS tablet? 

3. If you don't mind the lack of LTE connectivity or don't need LTE connectivity at all 

2. Can you get it for cheap? If you can, it's a good buy. But I doubt it, since unless you live in specific countries where Xiaomi sells it's products, you probably need to import and pay the relevant fees, and it will all add up to a bloated cost. 

All in all, I found that when it was first launched close to a year ago, the MiPad offered plenty of value. I just wish Xiaomi gave customers an Wifi+LTE option and that the Android app ecosystem wasn't so sparse. 

For non-power users who just want a small tablet for couch surfing and basic tasks, the MiPad is worth a look. I also think the MiPad is also suitable for those that live outside of Apple's ecosystem. That is, if you own other Android device(s), are invested in the Android ecosystem and do not have any investment in Apple's ecosystem. 

If however you are a demanding user and big on apps and are particular about app quality, look elsewhere. The MiPad's day-to-day performance, app quality and the Android tablet ecosystem still can't match the it's main competitor - the iPad Mini. 

2015 iPod Touch Refresh - Why It's Not All That Unlikely

Earlier in April, AppleInsider reported that Apple's iPod Touch, long due for a major update, might finally see an update this year. 

Some would shoot down this rumour and say an iPod Touch refresh is unlikely, given its reduced prominence in recent years, as well as how iPods themselves represent a very small percentage of Apple's sales. 

But I would say the biggest hint that Apple hasn't given up on the iPod Touch came from Apple CEO Tim Cook himself, when he was interviewed at WSJD Live in late 2014. I caught this hint back when the interview first got uploaded on Youtube in late 2014 and with the recent rumours of an iPod Touch refresh due later this year, I thought I'd revisit this and flesh it out to those that didn't catch the hint. 

I have attached the video below. 

When questioned by a member of the audience regarding the discontinuation of the iPod Classic with its massive 160gb storage (Video time stamp:29:00), Tim Cook said, "We had the choice the choice of either doing a total redesign, a total new project, or trying to get people to go to the iPod Touch if they wanted a dedicated music device... And we are shipping a lot of flash(storage) in it(iPod Touch) now." More importantly, he added, "And so, you can get almost all the ones that can go on the Classic. Not quite yet, over time that might change."

So, Tim Cook basically said that he feels the current iPod Touch with 64gb configuration is enough for most users and over time, there might be an iPod Touch with a larger storage configuration for those storage-hungry users. 

I take this to mean that Apple has an iPod Touch update in the pipeline. Why else would Tim say, "over time that might change"? 

iPod Touch 128gb anyone? 

The Inevitability of OLED Displays on iPhones and iPads and Why You Should Care

First off, let me refer to this quote from a The New Yorker profile of Jony Ive from a few months back:

The Apple Watch is designed to remain dark until a wearer raises his or her arm. In the prototypes worn around the Cupertino campus at the end of last year, this feature was still glitchy. For Marc Newson, it took three attempts—an escalation of acting styles, from naturalism to melodrama—before his screen came to life. Under normal circumstances, the screen will then show one of nine watch faces, each customizable. One will show the time alongside a brightly lit flower, butterfly, or jellyfish; these will be in motion, against a black background. This imagery had dominated the launch, and Ive now explained his enthusiasm for it. He picked up his iPhone 6 and pressed the home button. “The whole of the display comes on,” he said. “That, to me, feels very, very old.” (The iPhone 6 reached stores two weeks later.) He went on to explain that an Apple Watch uses a new display technology whose blacks are blacker than those in an iPhone’s L.E.D. display. This makes it easier to mask the point where, beneath a glass surface, a display ends and its frame begins. An Apple Watch jellyfish swims in deep space, and becomes, Ive said, as much an attribute of the watch as an image. On a current iPhone screen, a jellyfish would be pinned against dark gray, and framed in black, and, Ive said, have “much less magic.”

One can infer from this quote that Jony Ive has a newly acquired affinity for OLED displays and he clearly views LCD displays as being slightly outdated. 

I believe iPhones and iPads, and possibly MacBooks will eventually feature OLED displays. And quite possibly, Samsung-made "Super AMOLED" displays. 

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge and Apple iPhone 6 Plus
Which display do you prefer? 

I used to have a disdain for OLED displays as they featured inaccurate colours. Tim Cook, and I assume the guys at Apple thought so as well. Cook had this to say in early 2013 about OLED displays, "If you ever buy anything online and really want to know what he color is, as many people do, you should really think twice before you depend on the color from an OLED display." He added, "There are many attributes to the display, and what Apple does is sweat every detail." I think he was right. Displays on Apple devices have been known to be extremely colour accurate, with accurate White Point and right colour temperature. Simply put, displays on Apple devices are very well calibrated. You can refer to Displaymate's detailed analysis of the display on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. 

For years, other phone makers have tried to win over consumers with displays that feature oversaturated colours, with colours that appear "punchy". Sure, it looks attractive to some consumers but I have always preferred natural-looking colours. Even today, some phone makers are still oversaturating colours on even LCD displays - you just have to take a look at the LG G4's display. They are artificially enhancing colours on LCD displays to mimick those on an OLED/AMOLED display, even though LCD displays themselves tend to exhibit natural looking colours. 

It's important to note that OLED, AMOLED displays are a newer technology than LCD displays(what is currently being used in Apple devices, except Apple Watch), and for years, they were known to exhibit inaccurate colours. 

But OLED technology has improved through the years and with this advancement, one phone maker has recently started giving consumers the option of having accurate colours on their AMOLED displays and that phone maker is Samsung. Out of the box, Samsung's recent flagships(Galaxy S5, Note 4, S6) have come with the "Basic Mode", a screen mode for users that want accurate, natural-looking colours. Yes, OLED/AMOLED displays have advanced in a few short years and are now as capable of accurate colours as LCD displays. It is up to the phone maker to decide how they want to calibrate the display. In Anandtech's review of the Samsung Galaxy S6, Joshua Ho wrote, "with this generation, I suspect Samsung is either meeting or exceeding the best LCDs in quality and with the next generation of AMOLED it's highly likely that high end smartphones will have to migrate to AMOLED to stay competitive."

Couple this with Jony Ive's recent affinity with OLED displays, it seems obvious that future iPhones, iPads and possibly MacBooks will feature OLED/AMOLED displays. OLED/AMOLED displays will eventually eclipse LCDs in quality and if Apple intends to stay competitive, they have to equip their products with this newer display technology. And you can be sure that the OLED/AMOLED displays featured in Apple devices will have the same characteristics as the LCDs that are currently in use - well-calibrated, good viewing angles, natural-looking and sRGB accurate colours, at the same time combined with the benefits that OLED displays are known for. 

Question is: How soon can we see those displays on Apple mobile devices? The 2016 iPhone series(7, 7 Plus) perhaps? 

Xiaomi CEO reaffirms commitment to tablets

Xiaomi CEO, Lei Jun took to Weibo to reaffirm his company's commitment to tablets, denying rumours that the company is exiting the tough tablet market. More crucially, he was quick to add that he finds large tablets to be the best-suited device type for reading, watching movies and playing games. 

No word on a follow-up to the Xiaomi Mi Pad that was launched early last year though. 

My own take on this: Wow. This guy feels the same way I do regarding tablets. I assume he meant 9-10 inch tablets when he said "large tablets", and maybe ones even larger than that, like one that Apple is working on. I still find tablets to provide immense value to the end user, especially in certain key tasks where a notebook or smartphone can't come close to providing as good an experience. 
Based on his comments, I'd think the eventual follow-up to the Mi Pad will be a bigger tablet, with a screen size bigger than the 7.9" screen that the Mi Pad has. 

Lei Jun and by extension, Xiaomi, has always struck me as one of the few guys playing in the Android space that "get it". They sell their products here in Singapore and I follow them very closely. 
I bought the Xiaomi Mi Pad in July 2014, soon after it was first launched in China and have been using it on a regular basis ever since. I will be following up soon with a post about my experience with the Mi Pad, after using it close to a year. Stay tuned. 

You can read my previous two posts on negative iPad sales growth and my thoughts on tablet devices as a whole here and here.

The "iPad Decline" - Part 1

iPad seeing negative sales growth 

For many quarters now, Apple's iPad line, first launched in 2010, has seen negative sales growth. 

That's not to say that the iPad isn't a terrific device. It is, and I'm not the only one that thinks that. Just ask tech reviewers and millions of iPad users. iPad user satisfaction rates(%) are constantly in the high 90s.

So why are iPad sales in decline? Well, I think there are a couple of main factors at play here:

Longer Upgrade Cycles

People are generally happy with their iPads and don’t see the need to upgrade their iPad as often as they do their phones. I think the typical upgrade cycle for most people tend to stretch beyond 2 years. I still see tons of people carrying the iPad 2 around, and that was launched in early 2011. iPads tend to be very well built, last long and they are often able to support the latest software; case in point: iPad 2 can still run iOS 8. 

Apple CEO Tim Cook had this to say about iPad upgrade cycles, "It's longer than an iPhone, probably between an iPhone and a PC. We haven't been in the business long enough to say that with certainty, but that's what we think."

Cannibalisation

 

The iPad is in a strange place right now. It is sitting right in between the MacBook Airs/new MacBook, and the iPhone 6 Plus.  Tim Cook noted it himself when he said during the Q4 2014 earnings call:

"There are obvious cannibalisation things that are occurring. I'm sure that some people looked at the Mac and iPad and decided on a Mac. I don't have research to demonstrate that, but I'm sure that will be just by looking at the numbers and I am fine with that by the way." 

He added, "I am sure some people will look at an iPad and an iPhone and decide just to get an iPhone and I''m fine with that as well. But over the long arc of time, my own judgement is that iPad has a great future, healthy individual 90-day clicks workout, I don't know. But I'm very bullish on where we can take iPad over time and so we're continuing to invest in the product pipeline." 

Apple has always embraced self-cannibalisation. If you don't cannibalise your own products, someone else will. As an innovator, you can't fear cannibalisation. Apple knew the iPhone would cannibalise the iPod, yet it launched the iPhone anyway. 

Having said that, the landscape has changed. The lines between the iPad and large-screen phones are blurring and the same is happening between the iPad and MacBooks, made even more so with the recent introduction of the new MacBook.

A different landscape 

I feel the topic of cannibalisation should be discussed in tandem with that of a different landscape that Apple now faces, and for which it is partly responsible. These two factors are closely related. 

Consider this: In 2010, when Apple introduced the iPad, iPhone and most phone displays were relatively small. Most laptops were bulky and cumbersome to carry around. The iPad had a stronger use case, or "iPad advantage" if you will, back then. 

Now in 2015: iPhone and most phones have large displays, and MacBooks and Windows Ultrabooks are constantly getting thinner, lighter and more refined. As mentioned in my previous point: The lines between the iPad and devices of other form factors are blurring and there is obvious cannibalisation going on. 

Carrier subsidies

This is a smaller factor to consider: Some people buy their tablets without a carrier plan, especially so for Wifi-only tablets. Without carrier subsidies, there is less incentive to upgrade, as the up-front cost of a tablet is higher.

Why the situation isn't as bad as it looks 

Tim Cook appears to be pretty optimistic about the iPad's longer term prospects. "At some point it will stabilise," he said. "I'm not sure precisely when, but I'm pretty confident that it will... I believe the iPad is an extremely good business over the longer term."

Daring Fireball 's John Gruber pointed out that the iPad's cumulative shipments by months since launch is still, for now, doing better than the iPhone's. The iPad has seen much faster mass adoption than the iPhone since it's launch. 

It's important to note that, for the first three months of 2015, Apple sold 12.6 million iPad units. That is still a huge business for Apple, just not as huge as the iPhone business. Any other company would kill to sell 12.6 million units of a single product line. 

As John so eloquently put it, "I think the iPad is sort of like a young phenom in sports. It came on so fast, so strong, that many keen observers - including me - expected it to eclipse the iPhone. That isn't panning out. But I think we, collectively, are now judging the iPad's actual sales and success not for what they are but for what we expected they were going to be. It's a good, popular, much-used family of products that continues to sell really well. Not iPhone-well, but well. Being only the second-fastest selling product in Apple history, instead of the first, is nothing to sneeze at." 

Like Cook, I think the iPad is here to stay. I have an iPad Air and I use it everyday. It's just better than my phone and MacBook Pro for certain tasks. Tasks like reading an ebook, comics, web browsing, games. Apps tailored for the iPad just makes that experience all the more better. It's just more accessible and compelling than my MacBook for certain tasks. A large part of it comes down to convenience, where you can just pick it up and dive right in, wherever you are. You can't really use a laptop while walking around, can you?

Steve Jobs introduced the iPad as the "in between" device that's "far better" at some key tasks 

Therefore, I can relax, kick back and lounge around anywhere I want with my iPad in hand, something I can't do with my MacBook Pro. The MacBook also isn't as ideal for reading ebooks, as I often place it on a desk, as I am sure most people do, and I have to bend over to read.

Similarly, the iPad's screen is much more enjoyable for prolonged reading sessions than my phone, since it's so much bigger. I don't want to read a graphic novel on my phone, the experience just isn't as good. 

In Part 2, I will talk about how we should change the way we see the iPad and Apple's current product offerings. 

Opinion Piece: Why Portable Game Consoles Need To And Will Eventually Die - Part 1

Nintendo Finally Making Mobile Games 

Recently, during it's financial results presentation, Nintendo announced that they are going to release five games on mobile(iOS/Android) by March 2017. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata stressed that the games wouldn't be simply ports of existing titles that are currently on or in-development for 3DS and Wii U. Instead, they would be original games, tailored for mobile devices(smartphones, tablets). 

He was quoted saying, "You may think it is a small number, but when we aim to make each title a hit, and because we want to thoroughly operate every one of them for a significant amount of time after their releases, this is not a small number at all and should demonstrate our serious commitment to the smart device business."

So, we are not going to see the likes of Zelda, Mario and Pokemon on our iPhones and iPads. That's what Nintendo is saying. Those games will still be exclusive to its own consoles. 
But you know what? It's inevitable that first-party Nintendo IP(Mario, Zelda, etc) will eventually appear on smartphones and tablets. I predict, over time, even more of Nintendo's revenue will come from software, given how hardware sales are dwindling and it's recently announced push into mobile. 

The Current State of Portable and Mobile Gaming 

Credit: CNET.com

I thought this was a good time to zoom out and give you guys my thoughts on the current state of portable gaming, or at least my perspective and my predictions going forward. 

It's no secret that dedicated portable gaming consoles have been going through a sharp decline, notably starting with the Nintendo 3DS and Sony Playstation Vita. Much has been said about this. Portable games that you can carry around with you, are now dominated by casual, "flick, drag and swipe" games, a majority of them on smartphones and tablets. People just don't want to carry an additional device that just plays games. Casual games on smartphones and tablets are "good enough" for most folks and should they need a more traditional, complete and hardcore gaming experience, they can always turn to home consoles and PC gaming. It is because of this that I believe that the rise of smartphone gaming hasn't had that much an impact on home console and PC gaming. 

Games on dedicated portable consoles are much better than their counterparts on smartphones and tablets. They are more sophisticated, and have the added advantage of physical, traditional input methods(analog sticks, shoulder triggers, direction buttons, etc). But it doesn't matter for most people. When we look at the big picture, the dedicated portable console market is a niche market catering to a small audience. 

Although the current home console domination might change with a potential new Apple TV set-top box with a dedicated game/app store and support for third-party MFi(Made for iPhone) controllers, which will no doubt pave the way for newer, richer, deeper, more sophisticated games and attract even more developer support. I believe a new Apple TV with a dedicated app store and increased focus on gaming will upend traditional home console gaming. 

But that's a conversation for another day. Back to the topic at hand. 

I own a 3DS and Vita, and I find the user interface on both to be extremely poor and the user experience leaving much to be desired. For example, I have to jump through so many hoops just to get a game from the Nintendo eShop and the GUI is just not intuitive at all. I have probably been spoiled by the "seamless" user experience that Apple has been providing, and I bet many others feel the same way as I do. The ways in which the user interacts with the 3DS/Vita, outside of gaming, are extremely archaic.  

Some would argue that the 3DS and Vita are gaming machines first and foremost and all it matters is the gaming experience. But the technology landscape has changed so much in a few years and most people's perceptions have been altered by devices like the iPhone. It's no longer enough to just be good at gaming. The core gaming experience has to be extended,  and it has to be easy for users to for example, buy a game from the online store. 
Granted, Sony did try to keep up with the times with features like Near on the PS Vita, whereby you'd be able to see who's in your local area and what they are playing. But such features have never really taken off, and I suspect it all comes down to the user experience. Both Nintendo and Sony have also made games available as digital copies, but I find that the purchase experience that the eShop and PS Store provide to be sorely lacking. Too many hoops to jump through, too cumbersome. And it's pretty fragmented, in that some games are available in certain regions, adding to the headache that a lot of gamers experience. 

Major Game Publishers Are Already Making The Transition To Mobile, This Is The Beginning of The End  

Konami's president recently came out and said that his company would "pursue mobile games aggressively... our main platform will be mobile[translated]." And Konami isn't the only one. Geek.com reported that "using the 2007 release of the original iPhone as a point of reference, Square Enix has been involved with the release of over 70 mobile games in North America alone, and that number greatly increases if you count titles only released in Japan, as well as those released before the iPhone. In a new financial report, Square Enix has revealed that the company experienced  a 49% growth in profit in the year ending on March 31, 2015, even though it released fewer console games during that period. The growth was mainly attributed to Square Enix's mobile catalog and its MMOs." More importantly, Square noted that it feels "that the gaming industry is changing as smartphones and tablets become more prevalent. Meanwhile, it claims the console industry is becoming "increasingly competitive" and "oligopolistic", or dominated by just a few companies." You can read the full article here. Of course, publishers like Konami and Square are not abandoning home and portable consoles entirely. They are just making the transition to mobile and focusing more resources on that front."