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The mid-range and budget tablet segment is steadily gaining steam in the country. In fact, we recently reviewed the Realme Pad X (Review), Xiaomi Pad 5 (Review) and OPPO Pad Air (Review), which offers enticing features at wallet-friendly price points. Now, Redmi has decided to enter the segment with the Pad as well, which is priced very competitively at Rs. 14,999. While the tablet lacks 5G capabilities, it has a few hardware tricks up its sleeve that make it a compelling choice. So, if you have your eye on the device, read on as we highlight the pros and cons of the latest Redmi Pad.
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As for its construction, the Redmi Pad is as sturdy and solid as it gets. The metallic finish on the back of the tablet gives the device a very premium feel. Despite being just 7mm thick, there’s next to no flex on the chassis. The Redmi Pad is made for consuming content in landscape mode thanks to the screen’s 15:9 aspect ratio. For audio purposes, the tablet has a quad-speaker setup with two speakers on either side. However, the 3.5mm headphone jack is nowhere to be found, which may disappoint the few remaining wired audio fans. The tablet has a standard USB Type-C port on the bottom and a power button on the top. Volume controls are placed at the bottom with a microSD slot on the adjacent edge. Much to my dismay, the device lacks a fingerprint sensor, although the unit does have facial recognition technology.
Talking about the viewing experience, the tablet offers a 10.6-inch 2K panel that refreshes at 90Hz. These two features already cut the Redmi Pad above the rest in the budget market. The LCD panel has relatively trim bezels on the side and also has satisfactory viewing angles. At 400nits brightness, the Redmi Pad doesn’t Allow for the most comfortable viewing in sunny outdoor conditions. For general use, the tablet allows you to customize the color profile to suit your needs. OTT content can only be viewed in HD quality as HDR10 certification is not available for Netflix. The advantage of the 15:9 panel is that there are no borders around the displayed content, thus paving the way for a more immersive movie viewing experience. The icing on the cake is that the panel refreshes at 90Hz and as a result, offers responsive and fluid UI transitions and animations. Making things more interesting, the Redmi Pad is the only tablet at its price point that can push the refresh rate above 60Hz.
The device is powered by the recently unveiled MediaTek Helio G99 SoC. For the uninitiated, MediaTek’s latest chipset is reasonably powerful and the SoC is more than adept at handling user productivity and multimedia needs, such as using Google Docs or Sheets while browsing through social media and watching videos at the same time. The 90Hz functionality makes switching between apps smoother and the processor can do so without interrupting the experience. Gaming is fun on a large display BGMI Runs only at Ultra (45fps) frame rate and HD graphics.
The device is moderately warm to the touch, but only when subjected to hours of continuous gameplay. I ran the CPU Throttle benchmark to gauge the Redmi Pad’s ability to handle performance under sustained load. To wit, even when taxed with 20 threads for 30 minutes, the device retained 87 percent of its peak performance, which is pretty good. You get up to 6GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB of UFS 2.2 storage, both of which I think are among the best in the tablet space. Furthermore, the storage can be upgraded up to 1TB via microSD card.
Software-wise, the Redmi Pad runs Android 12-based MIUI 13.1, slightly tweaked for tablet needs. At the bottom, you have a dock for recent and utility apps. Navigation throughout the UI works well once you get used to the various gesture-based control methods. Surprisingly Xiaomi has cut down on the bloatware that persists in most of its smartphone offerings. Xiaomi has said that it will provide Android updates on the Redmi Pad for up to three years. Moving on, the quad-speakers on the Redmi Pad are tuned by Dolby Atmos and sound great. I especially enjoyed how loud the tablet was while keeping vocals clear, which many people appreciate for watching movies and TV shows.
There’s also an 8MP camera on the back, which by no means replaces your original smartphone camera, but can be used for some light photography. The selfie camera also has an 8MP sensor and its 105-degree FOV does a respectable job with video calling. Finally, the 8,000mAh battery housed inside is good enough to keep the tablet running for up to two days with moderate usage. My screen-on time ranges from 10 to 11 hours, during which I mostly consume video content. There is a 22.5W charger in the box, but the tablet can only be juiced up at 18W. However, it takes about three hours or more to fully charge the battery.
Final judgment
The Redmi Pad is undoubtedly one of the value-for-money offerings in the budget tablet market. And, the proof is in the pudding too and the device has a 90Hz 2K panel, a powerful SoC and quad-speakers tuned by Dolby Atmos. Now, I would like to see a fingerprint sensor and a headphone jack with the device. Furthermore, the tablet does not support 4G connectivity either. All that aside, the Redmi Pad starts at Rs. 14,999 which is highly competitive, making it the tablet to beat in the market.
Editor’s Rating: 4/5
Pros:
- Solid design
- Competitively priced
- Fluid 90Hz 2K display
- Long battery life
- Nice sounding speakers
Disadvantages:
- No fingerprint sensor
- No headphone jack
- Charging is slow