Xiaomi rumored to launch an affordable tablet in 2015, said to perform super-smooth

Xiaomi certainly made some ripples in the industry this year, as its flagship-class, yet affordable, handsets launched it to the top spot for smartphones shipped in China, surpassing Apple's and Samsung's sales in the region, and made it the third biggest smartphone manufacturer in the world. Quite the accomplishment for a company, which started off with nothing but its custom MIUI Android skin.

Well, latest rumors suggest that Xiaomi is about to hit Apple and Samsung in another spot – the tablet market. Website Business Korea cites reports, which claim that The Mi is prepping a 9.2-inch slate, which will cost around $100. The rumored tablet will sport a 1.2 GHz, quad-core Snapdragon 410, an Adreno 306 GPU, 1 GB of RAM, and 8 GB of internal storage. The display will be illuminated by 720 x 1280 pixels, which brings our expectations for the PPI density of the screen to be around 159 – not quite sharp.

The sources claim that the tablet's performance will be akin to the iPad Mini's and is expected to become a widely popular choice, thanks to its low price. According to the reports, Xiaomi will be launching its new slate early next year. There is no word on international availability, but seeing as Xiaomi is striving to go global, we'd wager there will be a way to at least order the tablet from the manufacturer's website, if not through a dealer.