There have been plenty of rumors that popular Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi would be branching out into manufacturing tablets, and now the company has delivered. Xiaomi CEO and co-founder Lei Jun took to the stage at an event in Beijing today to unveil the Mi Pad. The device is 7.9-inches, available in six colors, and it looks very much like an Apple iPad. The Mi Pad sports a 2048 x 1536 screen – from Sharp and Youda — and is powered by a 2.2 Ghz Tegra K1 processor, making it the first tablet to use the Nvidia processor. The device includes 2GB RAM, a 16GB ROM, and will support up to 128GB via a memory expansion card. It is equipped with an eight-megapixel camera on the back and a five-megapixel camera on the front. The Mi Pad will be retailing from 1499 yuan ($240) for a Wifi-only 16 GB version, while the 64GB is 1699 yuan (around $273). Xiaomi did not mention a cellular (or 4G) version of the tablet, and neither did the company confirm a hard launch date for the device. The company will begin ‘open testing’ of the device in June, as it has done with other hardware products. That essentially means that it will make a beta version of the device available for sale. Initial customer feedback will help shape a full launch for the product, although Lei Jun did not specify when that might be. Lei Jun told the audience of reporters that tablets are not easy to make, and that Xiaomi has spent as long as four years planning its first entry into the space. He claims that the Mi Pad has specs that will be equivalent to the best PC gaming experience, which gives an interesting insight into its design and development. Read more here: