Realme seems to be on a launching spree. The young smartphone brand is gearing up for the launch of its flagship GT 2 Pro along with a budget Android phone and a few other gadgets in India which will be followed by the announcement of the GT Neo 3 phone.
At the same time, the company is busy preparing for the launch of its second tablet Realme Tab Mini in the Philippines. The mini slate arrives on April 4 and we can expect the company to follow it up by launching the tablet in India soon, probably alongside the Realme GT Neo 3.
The Realme Tab Mini is a pocketable version of the original Realme Tab and comes with a smaller display, a smaller battery pack as well as a slightly less powerful SoC.
Ahead of the launch, the Tab Mini was found listed on Lazada.com, a leading Phillipino e-commerce store, revealing its key specifications. The listing also shows the pricing as PHP 99,990 – which translated to approximately Rs. 147,000. This for sure is a placeholder pricing and the Tab Mini is expected to be the cheapest tablet from any of the BBK companies.
In terms of specifications, the Realme Tab Mini will come equipped with an 8.7-inch LCD display boasting a 1340x800 pixels resolution. It might be light in weight and is expected to weigh around 370 grams.
Powering the tablet could be a UniSoc T616 SoC coupled with 3GB/4GB of RAM and 32GB/64GB of onboard storage. The Lazada listing shows that the slate will have a 6400 mAh battery which will support 18W fast charging.
It will have a single 8MP setup at the back and a 5MP selfie camera. The Realme Tab Mini will come with support for 4G connectivity via a SIM card as well as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
Is it too late already?
Looking at the recent announcements, it seems like the Chinese brands are eyeing to compete with the likes of Samsung and Apple. We’ve seen a tablet from Realme and Oppo each while Vivo and OnePlus are about to launch theirs. Even Xiaomi seems to be planning to bring its Mi Pad 5 to international markets soon.
However, is there enough demand for tablets in the market? While pandemic induced lockdown did force everyone to stay indoors and rely on their computers, mobiles, and tablets for e-learning, entertainment, and remote work.
However, as things normalize, people are looking for ways to cut down screen time and thus the dependency on these devices will decrease gradually. This raises a question - aren't these brands late already?
While there is no straightforward answer to this, however, tablets were always required but Android slates failed because of the lack of a dedicated OS for large screens.
With the arrival of foldable, things are changing, we have a new and dedicated OS for large screen devices which might give tablets a new lease of life.
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