The COVID-19 epidemic increased the demand for remote study and employment, which led to a rebound in tablet sales. Since 2021, a number of the nation’s smartphone manufacturers have been releasing budget-friendly and mid-range Android tablets, increasing competition in the market.
Xiaomi Pad 5 Design and construction
Xiaomi doesn’t do much wrong in terms of the Pad 5’s design. A 10.95-inch screen on the tablet makes it the ideal size. Moreover, it has a 6.85mm thickness and a 511-gramme weight. The tablet’s front has rather thin bezels, while its back sports a camera module that resembles the Mi 11 Lite (Review). Along with a Gorilla Glass 3 screen protector, the tablet also includes a plastic back. The aluminium frame and matte finish of the Xiaomi Pad 5 are additional features.
Display
The Xiaomi Pad 5 boasts one of the greatest screens in its market in terms of display. The tablet has a 10.95-inch WQHD+ LCD screen with a 1,600 x 2,560 pixel resolution. With a usual brightness of 500 nits and a pixel density of 275 PPI, the display is more than bright enough. The panel features DCI-P3 coverage and can display up to 1 billion colours. The screen offers a lovely 16:10 aspect ratio and excellent viewing angles. The display has a 120Hz refresh rate, which provides a lag-free, fluid navigating experience.
You may watch Dolby Vision material on Netflix using the panel’s Dolby Vision compatibility for a superb viewing experience. The LCD panel’s poor black performance in this case makes seeing darker scenes and images more challenging. Additionally, Xiaomi provides users with the choice of three predefined colour modes: vibrant, saturated, and standard. Additionally, the display offers a tonne of capabilities, including a dark mode and the ability to convert to a 60Hz refresh rate to extend battery life.
Performance
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 SoC, which was also found in the Poco X3 Pro from a year ago, powers the Xiaomi Pad 5’s performance. The chip supports up to 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage and up to 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM, however, there is no microSD card slot for additional storage. The tablet achieved single-core scores of 777 and multi-core scores of 2711 on our Geekbench test. The Xiaomi Pad 5’s chip scored a total of 2766 points in the Compute (OpenCL) test.
On the Xiaomi Pad 5, I also played Diablo Immortal, BGMI, Call of Duty: Mobile, and Raid: Shadow Legends. The most taxing game we played on the Xiaomi Pad 5 was Diablo, which ran at 30 frames per second on high settings, though you would need to play the game on medium settings to increase the frame rate to 60. While playing games, the tablet stayed reasonably cool. The Xiaomi Pad 5 is incomparable among Android tablets in its pricing range.
Audio
Audio is just as important to a device’s entertainment experience as visuals are, if not more so. To that end, the Xiaomi Pad 5’s speakers are incredible. The tablet has four Dolby Atmos speakers.
At higher settings, the speakers become fairly loud and crystal clear. When rotating between horizontal and vertical orientations, the speakers could also automatically map and adapt stereo sound. Although they lacked bass, I believe the sound quality is excellent given the pricing.
Cameras
Both the rear and front cameras on the Xiaomi Pad 5 are 13 MP. While the front camera supports 1080p video at 30 frames per second, the rear camera can record up to 4K footage. The back camera has a useful document mode and is generally respectable. Additionally, the rear camera has an LED flash and a night mode. For video calls, the front-facing 8 MP camera performed admirably.
On the other side, the photos weren’t terrific, with selfies appearing a little bit overexposed. For biometric security unlocks, the tablet also incorporates facial recognition technology. The Xiaomi Pad 5’s overall image quality was about average, comparable to a low-end smartphone. The camera performed ok in bright outside settings. The cameras on this tablet were pretty functional, as with other inexpensive tablets.
Battery
The Xiaomi Pad 5 chooses a sizable 8,720 mAh battery that, with moderate to intensive use, can last far into the second day. To extend the battery life of the tablet, you can adjust the refresh rate of the display to 60Hz. After 20 minutes of playing Diablo Immortal, the tablet’s battery was depleted by about 10%. A 22.5W power adaptor is also included in the box to charge the tablet’s battery. In a little less than two hours, the charger can fully charge the tablet. However, if you buy a separate adapter from Xiaomi, the Pad 5 enables 33W rapid charging.
Software
Regarding software, Android 11 and MIUI 13 for tablets are both presents on Xiaomi’s most recent tablet. This Android skin is comparatively uncluttered and contains very little bloatware, unlike the MIUI found on mobile devices. On the other hand, the interface has a tonne of customizations that are meant to simplify things. On the home screen, there is a dock and menu bar that do have some macOS-like features.
Accessories
A keyboard, keyboard cover, and stylus are included with the Xiaomi Pad 5. Xiaomi has only disclosed the cost of the Cover (Rs. 1,999) and the Smart Pen, though (Rs 5,999). You’ll need a desk to use the keyboard because it isn’t stable at all on the lap despite having chiclet-style keys and being rather comfy to text on. The keyboard also features some useful multitasking shortcuts with programmable Function keys. Given that the keyboard hasn’t yet been available, Xiaomi’s stylus, which was also released along with the Xiaomi Pad 5, is likely its greatest attachment.
Depending on the direction, the Smart Pen can be attached to the tablet’s top or sides. The Pen features 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity and takes around 20 minutes to fully charge. The Smart Pen will display a charging notification as soon as it is placed on top of the tablet. The stylus features two buttons that may be pressed to take screenshots or access the Xiaomi Notes app’s notes, and it has a pleasant feel to it. When utilising the stylus in conjunction with the tablet, which also supports palm rejection, there was no discernible input lag.
Conclusion
The starting pricing of the Xiaomi Pad 5 in India is Rs 26,999 for the base 6GB/128GB model and Rs 28,999 for the 8GB/256GB model. So, for this price, is the Xiaomi Pad 5 worth it? Yes is the obvious response. However, let’s go a little bit further. The Xiaomi Pad 5 excels in several areas, including well-built construction, long battery life, respectable camera performance, and dependable software.
Considering the cost of the tablet, the camera features are likewise somewhat limited. The Xiaomi Pad 5 stands out among Android tablets in its price range, especially when it comes to performance, where it outperforms its competition. Therefore, the Xiaomi Pad 5 should be a no-brainer if you’re looking for an Android tablet for Rs 30,000. Its only rival is the iPad Air (2021), which not only costs more for less storage but also lacks some essential features.
