Xiaomi Redmi Pad - 4+128GB - Graphite Gray -X

Product Information

My issue with the Snapdragon 680, at least within this context, is that it struggles to do even the basics smoothly. Whether you’re waking the tablet from sleep, hopping between apps, or simply scrolling through web content, there’s a noticeable lag to everything, with frequent micro-stutters breaking the sense that you’re dealing with a reasonably classy tablet. A direct competitor from Samsung is the 2022 Edition of the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite. The S Pen is included for a similar price and the tablet has 4 GB of RAM as a standard. The graphics performance is a bit weaker in benchmarks, but you will hardly notice a difference in real-world use. In return, you get good software features like Samsung Notes and Samsung DeX. I think there is no technical reason for this. Xiaomi probably just wants you to spend more money on the 4GB RAM version. After all, I have YouTube Premium and when I browse in Chrome, the picture-in-picture feature works fine. So it should run well when both are displayed the same size right next to each other. The faster refresh rate makes animations look smoother, and some games can take advantage of that as well. You can also select 60Hz in the settings to save some battery, or set a variable frequency. The tablet then decides how fast the screen is updated. For instance, when reading an e-book, you do not need 90 Hz.

Xiaomi does everything right with the design. It looks like a typical tablet with a metal case, because that’s what it is. They add their own touch with a large rectangular camera module. It feels premium built, but the transition from display to the body is not as premium as on premium devices. The front of the tablet looks even more generic, of course, with nothing but a uniform bezel running around an 11-inch display. Those bezels are relatively slim, with the Redmi Pad SE boasting an 84.4% screen-to-body ratio, which pips the Oppo by a single percentage point. This is quite a shame, because a bit of multitasking is usually something even weak tablets can manage. It shouldn’t be a problem to have Microsoft Word and Chrome open at the same time. But that is not possible here. Basemark GPU 1.2: Vulkan Medium Native | 1920x1080 Vulkan Medium Offscreen | OpenGL Medium Native | 1920x1080 OpenGL Medium Offscreen 3DMark / Wild Life Extreme Unlimited

Connectivity - 3 Memory Configurations

Just like the Oppo Pad Air, the Xiaomi Redmi Pad SE runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 680. Just like that rival, it’s not quite enough to provide a sufficiently fluid experience. While the Xiaomi Redmi Pad is a good tablet in the sub-300-USD category, the price is still slightly too high for us to recommend it unequivocally. Meanwhile, the in-house competitor Xiaomi Pad 5 comes with significantly better features, while not being substantially more expensive. These cheap full-sized tablets are very much intended to be portable media players, of course, so it’s appropriate that we bring audio into the conversation here. The Redmi Pad SE gives you a strong quad-speaker set-up that supports Dolby Atmos output, and it provides impressively loud, punchy sound for the price. The Xiaomi Redmi Pad has an 8-MP selfie camera on the longest edge of the tablet. It covers a 105° field of view, captures videos at up to 1080p with 30 frames per second, and comes with the FocusFrame feature, which is supposed to enhance group video calls. The Redmi Pad runs Android 12 with Xiaomi's own MIUI user interface version 13.1. The manufacturer does not include a lot in terms of extra software. Aside from the Google applications and a small collection of Xiaomi tools, only the two third-party apps WPS Office and Netflix - both of which can be removed - come preinstalled. Thanks to DRM Widevine L1 support, the tablet can be used to stream HD-quality content.

In real life, the graphics performance is very solid. Games like PUBG Mobile run great when you set the graphics to HD. You cannot select higher settings. Sadly Fortnite is not supported.

We recommend going for the larger 4/128GB memory configuration, since the price premium over the entry-level 64/3GB model is only 10 USD. The latter is just marginally cheaper and does not offer split view for simultaneously running two apps next to each other. It’s a good job the stamina is so strong, because the Redmi Pad SE only supports up to 10W wired charging. For such a large battery, that’s awful, and pretty much necessitates an overnight charge. So, is the Redmi Pad a tablet for you? I think it’s great that for 300 dollars we get a 90Hz display that is quite bright and looks nice. The speakers are solid and the battery life is particularly long, which makes it a good entertainment tablet. What’s also really cool is that Xiaomi promises us two major Android updates.

If you are looking for a good mid-range tablet, the Xiaomi Redmi Pad may be the device for you. Starting from 240 USD, the 10.6-inch model has a lot to offer. There is no WWAN option for the Xiaomi tablet. Similarly, the Wi-Fi module is limited in its capabilities and restricted to Wi-Fi 5 support. There are limitations when using the Redmi Tab as a family tablet as well, since neither pen inputs nor multiple user accounts are supported. And now we get to the big weakness of the Redmi Pad. Single apps like Chrome, YouTube, Microsoft Office and even Adobe Lightroom run pretty well. However, multitasking is a disaster. In fact, you cannot even open two apps side-by-side on the 3GB RAM version. That’s right, Xiaomi has disabled the multi-window mode on this variant. Just like with the Oppo Pad Air, you have to suspect that a cleaner approach to software might have helped with the Redmi Pad SE’s performance struggles. It runs on MIUI 14, which is the latest in a long line of famously flabby (if reasonably functional and customisable) Android UIs from Xiaomi. We got the Mint Green colour and the top-of-the-line variant with 6GB RAM + 128GB storage. The colour offers a matte finish which means you won't have to struggle with cleaning fingerprints or smudges. Xiaomi is also offering the tablet in Graphite Grey and Moonlight Silver colour options.

Benchmarks like Geekbench 5 show that it is significantly more powerful than entry-level devices like the realme Pad and Nokia T20. The graphics performance is also better than the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite 2022, which is a direct competitor from the mid-range. However, the Xiaomi Pad 5 up to the iPad 9 and iPad 10 are stronger. The results also look the same in the 3D Mark Wild Life test, which only tests the graphics performance. The performance is good for this price range and it’s a solid lower-mid-range gaming tablet. Overall, it is a great tablet as long as two things don’t bother you. Wild Life Extreme Unlimited | Wild Life Extreme | Wild Life Unlimited Score | Wild Life Score | 2560x1440 Sling Shot OpenGL ES 3.0 Unlimited | 2560x1440 Sling Shot OpenGL ES 3.0 Unlimited Graphics | 2560x1440 Sling Shot OpenGL ES 3.0 Unlimited Physics | 2560x1440 Sling Shot Extreme (ES 3.1) Unlimited | 2560x1440 Sling Shot Extreme (ES 3.1) Unlimited Graphics | 2560x1440 Sling Shot Extreme (ES 3.1) Unlimited Physics | 2560x1440 Sling Shot Extreme (Vulkan) Unlimited | 2560x1440 Sling Shot Extreme (Vulkan) Unlimited Graphics | 2560x1440 Sling Shot Extreme (Vulkan) Unlimited Physics | 2560x1440 Sling Shot Extreme (ES 3.1) | 2560x1440 Sling Shot Extreme (ES 3.1) Graphics | 2560x1440 Sling Shot Extreme (ES 3.1) Physics | 2560x1440 Sling Shot OpenGL ES 3.0 | 2560x1440 Sling Shot OpenGL ES 3.0 Graphics | 2560x1440 Sling Shot OpenGL ES 3.0 Physics