Xiaomi Pad 5 hands-on review

Up close and personal with Xiaomi’s premium tablet

from ₹ 26,999

With hybrid work culture here to stay, gone are the days when working meant being chained to a desk. This shift has brought a rather dormant category of devices back under the spotlight – tablets. They are ultra-portable and have enough power on board to get most office work done.

Cashing in on this trend is Xiaomi, which took the wraps off its Xiaomi Pad 5 at an event yesterday. This is only the second tablet brought to our shores by the brand, with the Mi Pad launching nearly seven years ago. We’ve spent some time fiddling and working on this Android tab, and here are our initial thoughts.

Design and display

The Xiaomi Pad 5 is sleek, good to hold, and looks more premium than its price tag suggests. That said, the overall design with the square-off edges does remind you of tablets from a particular brand.

The 11in WQHD+ display with 16:10 aspect ratio and 120Hz ratio is sharp and bright enough for work and watching your favourite OTT content on the move. Aiding this experience is a set of four speakers on all the corners with support for Dolby Atmos.

Spec sheet

The tab is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 860 processor paired with 6GB of RAM. In the little time we've spent with the tab, performance seemed smooth. It easily handles basic office work, multitasking, video streaming, and a bit of gaming as well. In the coming days, we will be putting the tab under a bit more stress to see how it handles it.

On paper, the 8,720mAh battery should last an entire day even with heavy usage. When it’s time to charge, there’s support for 22.5W fast charging. And yes, there’s a charger bundled with the tab.

There are two cameras on board – a 13MP rear cam, and an 8MP front cam. While these aren’t meant for photography, the rear cam gets a built-in scanning feature, which should come in handy. Interestingly, Xiaomi has only launched the Wi-Fi variant in India with no word yet on whether there are plans for an LTE variant launch.

Xiaomi has also launched two accessories aimed to boost the tab’s productivity quotient. First is the Xiaomi Smart Pen, which can be used to take quick notes, doodle or navigate. Low latency and multiple pressure sensitivity make it a really useful accessory to have. The Pen magnetically attaches to the top of the tab, where it sits pretty and also charges itself.

The Xiaomi Pad Keyboard is, well, a keyboard and folio stand that magnetically attaches to the tab. It’s quite helpful to keep the tab propped up on surfaces when working, and the keyboard is good to type on. We’ve typed this article on the tab, and it’s not taken a long time to get used to it. It misses out on a trackpad though, so you either need to use the pen, your hand, or connect a Bluetooth mouse for quick navigation. Prices for both the accessories are yet unknown.

Software

Xiaomi announced an optimised UI for the Pad 5, which is called ‘MIUI for Pad’. It is essentially a tweaked version of MIUI 13 with features meant for tablets.

Gestures have been improved to suit tablets, and the biggest change is the support for split-screen. This is quite useful when working on multiple apps. So instead of switching between them, you can simply have both open side-by-side.

Enabling split-screen is as easy as going to the Recents menu, long-pressing on an app to see if it supports split-screen, and then tapping on the split-screen button.

Alternatively, you can also have an app open as a floating window, which can be easily dragged around to any corner of the screen.

Initial impressions

It’s hard to find any fault on a tablet that has all these features, and yet is priced on the right side of ₹30,000. The form factor is perfect for working or watching videos on cramped airline seats.

For far too long many have waited for a capable Android tablet that doesn’t cost as much as a full-fledged laptop. While our first impressions are quite positive, we will reserve our judgements till we’ve put the Xiaomi Pad 5 through its paces in the coming days. Stay tuned for our detailed review.

Specifications

Display:	11in WQHD+ 120Hz
Chip:	Snapdragon 860
Memory:	6GB RAM / up to 256GB storage
Cameras:	13MP (rear) / 8MP (front)
Battery:	8,720mAh
Software:	MIUI for Pad
Dimensions:	254.69 x 166.25 x 6.85 mm
Weight:	511 grams