Xiaomi Pad 9 Pro Max arrives with its own chip — but can it really rival the iPad Pro?
Xiaomi has launched the Pad 9 Pro Max in China, its most ambitious tablet yet and the first to run the company's own Xring O3 chip. Starting at around $715 (CNY 4,799), it undercuts Apple's iPad Pro 13 with M5 — which starts at $1,199 — by a significant margin. The catch: no US, UK, or broader international release has been announced.
The chip
The Xring O3 is a 10-core processor built entirely from high-performance cores, with two top cores clocked at 4.35 GHz. It pairs with a 16-core Mali-G2-Ultra GPU. Xiaomi claims overall CPU and GPU performance approaches Apple's M5, and the tablet posted over 14,000 points in Geekbench multi-core testing. That said, Gagadget EN flags a notable discrepancy: AnTuTu V11 scores of 5.25 million top every mobile chip on record, yet the Geekbench result tells a more modest story. Independent real-world testing — gaming, video editing, sustained workloads — will be needed before any M5 comparison holds up.
The Xiaomi Pad 9 Pro Max is available in three color options with a choice of standard glossy or nano-textured Soft Light Screen.
The specs
The Pad 9 Pro Max has a 13.3-inch LCD with a 3,408 × 2,272 resolution (3.4K), a 3:2 aspect ratio, 144 Hz refresh rate, and up to 1,000 nits peak brightness. Color accuracy is rated at ΔE ~0.47, which is sharp by tablet standards. The body is all-metal at 5.67 mm thin and 645 g.
Battery capacity is 12,000 mAh with 120 W wired fast charging. The USB-C port supports DisplayPort input — meaning you can plug a PC or handheld gaming console into the tablet and use it as a secondary monitor, a feature Apple's iPad Pro also offers. HyperOS 4 supports up to six apps in split-screen simultaneously.
The all-metal body measures 5.67 mm thick and weighs 645 g, housing a 12,000 mAh battery with 120 W fast charging.
The camera setup is unusually capable for a tablet: a 50 MP rear sensor and 32 MP front camera. Connectivity covers Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0, and USB-C 3.2 Gen 2. A stylus and keyboard accessory are supported.
USB-C DisplayPort input lets the Pad 9 Pro Max act as a secondary monitor for a PC or handheld console.
Price and availability
The base 8 GB / 256 GB model is priced at CNY 4,799 (~$715). The top-spec 16 GB / 1 TB configuration with Xiaomi's nano-textured Soft Light Screen reaches CNY 7,899 (~$1,176), per Notebookcheck. Pre-orders are open in China following the September 7 launch event.
Xiaomi Pad 9 Pro Max with optional keyboard accessory, targeting productivity users.
No pricing or release date has been confirmed for the US, UK, or any other market. If and when it does arrive internationally, import duties and VAT could push the real retail price noticeably higher than the converted yuan figures suggest. Worth watching — but not worth waiting on yet.