JOIN USRealme Pad mini review: Noteworthy budget tablet
Within a span of two years, Realme has made huge progress in the smartphone business and has reached the top three spot beating established players--Vivo and Oppo.
Now, the company has plans to expand to other verticals in consumer electronics such as tablets, smartwatches and hearables.
EdTech-driven online learning becoming the new norm in the country, and tablets are the go-to gadgets. They come with a big display and promise long battery life.
Realme has three tablet versions-- standard Pad, smaller Pad mini, and the latest Pad X --to cater to different budget segments.
I used the Pad mini for more than a week and here are my thoughts on Realme's most affordable Android tablet.
Design, build quality, and display
Realme Pad mini features a metal enclosure. It is sturdy and easy to hold on to the device and also the metal exudes a premium hand-feel experience. Our review unit is grey and thanks to the matte finish, it does a decent job resisting fingerprint smudges.
The button-- power and volume rockers-- are tactile and respond fast. Also, the speakers placed -- one on the top and the other at the base are aptly placed to stereo effect. They are loud and the sound remains crisp even when the volume is put at maximum.
If you like to keep the sound to yourself, the device a features 3.5mm jack port for wired earphones. Here too, the audio quality was good.
The device also comes with a mic and Type-C port for charging and data transfer at the base. On the left, you will find the tray slot to insert SIM (only in LTE cellular model) and also a microSD card for additional storage space.
Though the device looks slim with just 7.6 mm thickness, it is a bit heavy. It weighs more than 370g. This is understandable given the fact that the device sports a metal body and packs a 6,400mAh battery.
However, there is one downside though. It doesn't feature a fingerprint sensor. I tried the face unlock. It takes a 2D photo via the front camera. I am happy to note that it is very swift in recognizing the face and unlocking the screen without wasting any time.
As far as display is concerned, it flaunts an 8.7-inch WXGA+ LCD screen with 81.5 per cent screen-to-body ratio. It has a 1340×800p resolution and pixel density of 179 ppi (pixels per inch).
The readability of the content and news articles on the display outdoors is decent, but I had a better viewing experience consuming multimedia content indoors.
Also, it has three display modes-- reading, eye comfort, and dark mode. With the reading mode, the brightness is tweaked to offer book's page like colour on the display.
With the eye comfort mode on, the screen's blue light emission is controlled to ensure the eyes don't get strained while reading or operating the device during night time and low light conditions.
And with dark mode, the user interface and app drawer (which has a white background by default) turn black and the app icons look more colorful and vibrant.
Performance
Realme Pad mini is powered by 12nm class 2GHz UNISOC T616 octa-core with Mali-G57 GPU.
The company offers two configurations-- 3GB RAM +32GB storage and 4GB RAM + 64GB storage options. Both the models support microSD and users can expand the storage by an extra 1TB.
Our review unit comes with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage. It performed fine in terms of app loading, switching between multiple apps, and consuming multi-media content for long hours without any pressing issues.
Though I don't recommend playing graphics-rich games on tablets, there is niche population of consumers who do. For them, the Realme Pad mini won't be an ideal choice. Not just this, any branded Android tablet under Rs 20,000 or even some models in the sub-Rs 25,000. They are likely to disappoint you.
If you love playing top-end games, better for Realme Pad X or Samsung Galaxy Tab S series models. If you are okay with Apple products, any of the iPad models will serve you well in this aspect.
However, if you play small games such as Ball Sort - Color Puzzle Game. If you are old school like me, you can try Angry Birds or the Temple Run series.
There are also Google's Kids Space and YouTube Kids apps pre-loaded on the Realme Pad mini. They offer rigid parental controls (via the Google Family Link feature) and are also pre-loaded with age-appropriate apps, games, books, and videos.
Realme Pad mini runs two-year-old Android 11-based Realme UI for Pad. But, it offers a clean interface and no bloatware. All are Google apps only and no third-party duplicates in the device.
The tablet features an 8MP back camera and a 5MP 105-degree wide-angle sensor on the front.
The primary 8MP sensor is decent at best and most people don't run around with tablets to take photos. The device takes fine pictures of notes on the book and that is more than enough to convert them to PDF or other formats using apps.
On the front, 5MP wide-angle camera covers a wide area around the face to have nice video chatting. It can easily accommodate three people in the frame and the video quality is good too.
With a 6,400mAh battery, it promises to deliver 18 hours of video playback. But, very few go for such long binge-watching sessions. On average, the device offers a full day's battery life.
Also, children who are into online classes can easily attend for several hours on a stretch without any anxiety of battery draining out.
The company offers with 18W fast charger with a retail box and it takes more than two and half hours to fully charge from zero to 100 per cent capacity. Also, it supports reverse charging too. This adds value to the Realme Pad mini as a power bank to juice up the companion smartphone.
Final Verdict
With such low pricing, Realme Pad mini is a compelling option for e-learning for children. Even for adults, it is a good medium to shop on e-commerce apps and also consume OTT content for long hours.
Pros
Sturdy and premium build quality
Good display for multimedia consumption indoors
Long battery life and supports reverse charging
Cons
Doesn't come with a fingerprint. Have to do with face unlock and pattern/numeric code lock
Runs 2020's Android 11 OS. It would be great if Realme rolls out Android 12, which will further visually enhance the user interface of the device for good
The 3GB RAM + 32GB storage model will be available in Wi-Fi and LTE variants-- for Rs. 10,999 and Rs 12,999, respectively. There is also 4GB + 64GB model in --Wi-Fi version and LTE-- for Rs 12,999 and Rs 14,999, respectively.
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