Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun told Richard Lai from Engadget around 2012 that he wasn't sure about making a tablet, but on 15 May 2015 he confessed that he had been quietly developing one this whole time.

[8] Mi Pad uses Corning Gorilla Glass 3 on its display and palm detection technology to prevent accidental taps while holding the tablet.

[12] With Richard Leadbetter from Eurogamer writing: We have the most powerful mobile chipset on the planet within an iPad mini form-factor, put together by one of the few true enthusiast-friendly OEMs working today.Vlad Savov from The Verge praised the device for its competitive pricing and for being the first device in market to use Nvidia Tegra K1 SoC which Nvidia claimed was more powerful than the Xbox 360 and PS3.

[15] Hugo Barra, (Vice President of Xiaomi at the time of Mi Pad's release) defended against the accusation of design similarities to Apple products, with Vlad Savov from The Verge quoting Barra: If you have two similarly skilled designers, it makes sense that they would reach the same conclusion, It doesn't matter if somebody else has reached the same conclusion" about, for example, a 4:3 screen ratio being preferable to the more cinematic 16:9 that most Android tablets offer.

"[16] Matt Burns from TechCrunch pointed to marketing strategy similarity between Xiaomi MiPad and Apple iPad & iPhone 5c.

[19] The initial 50,000 unit allocation sold-out mere moments after it went on sale – the mark of a highly desirable piece of technology.

[21] Xiaomi initially sold the Mi Pad only in China, but with an eye on international expansion it applied for an EU trademark in 2014.