Redmi Pad review: 'Note'worthy budget tablet
Xiaomi subsidiary Redmi earlier in the month unveiled the company's first-ever Redmi Pad series in India.
On paper, it has one of the best price-to-specification ratios. But, does it really live up to the hype? Yes, as mentioned in the headline, it managed to impress me in several aspects. Read our full review.
Design, build quality, and display
Redmi Pad has a minimalistic uni-body design language with a metallic finish. When held in hand, you can feel the high quality of the aluminum. It has a very smooth case on the back, and the flat edge offers a really good grip for the fingers to hold onto the tablet. Also, the curved corners and uniform bezel of the frame add value to the overall aesthetics of the tablet.
On the back, it has just a lone primary camera in the top left corner and at the base, you find the Redmi brand engraving. Our review unit is graphite gray and looks great in the sunlight.
The company also offers two other colour options-- moonlight silver and mint green. The latter is touted to be the best-looking variant among the three.
Though it has a slightly thick bezel, it has enough space between the edge and the working display panel for the fingers to hold the tablet without any obstruction to viewing content.
Also, the quad speakers are well placed in two ends (landscape mode) to deliver punchy sound output. It really excels in offering an immersive experience while playing a movie or playing games without earphones. The speakers are tuned with the Dolby Atmos system and they produce well-balanced sound with less distortion at high volumes.
Though the company has used copious amounts of metal, it weighs less than 500g and it is well-designed to read and watch multimedia content for long hours.
It sports a 10.61-inch LCD display. As said in my first impression story, the screen size is perfect, not too big or small. Also, the bright 2K display with 2000x1200p resolution and 90Hz refresh range, is great for multimedia consumption.
It has a pixel density of 221 PPI (pixels per inch) and offers a peak brightness of 400 nits, which is good enough to read the content even outdoors in the shade. Under the direct sunlight, I was able to read emails without having to squint my eyes too hard.
Indoors, the Redmi Pad is perfect to read e-books, shopping on e-commerce apps, and watching video blogs. It should be noted that the device has in-built SGS eye protection and TUV Rheinland certification, which are tested to offer a comfortable viewing experience and lessen the strain on the eyes for reading or consuming content on it for long hours.
It also features a small front camera that is uniquely placed in landscape position compared to peers which are usually placed in vertically aligned portrait mode. There is a really good advantage to this value-added change (more on this in the performance section).
Performance
The company has incorporated a 6nm class 2.2Ghz MediaTek Helio G99 octa-core chipset inside the Redmi Pad. It is backed by an ARM G57MC2 graphics processor and runs on the Android 12-based MIUI 13 out-of-the-box.
Xiaomi has done an excellent job with the MIUI user experience for the Redmi Pad. It works smoothly and customization such as a full-screen gesture-based interface, floating windows, and multi-window panel to operate three apps at a time.
During the entire testing phase, our review unit (6GB RAM + 128GB storage), worked like a well-greased machine without any issues, even while playing games.
FYI, the device comes in three RAM+Configurations-- 3GB RAM + 64GB storage, 4GB RAM + 6GB RAM + 128GB storage. Also, Redmi Pad is guaranteed to get two Android OS updates (Android 13 and 14) and three years of security software support.
With a massive 8,000mAh battery onboard, you will never face any anxiety about the Redmi Pad giving up on you, be it while binge-watching movies or setting a target to finish a season (average 10-12 episodes of 45-50 minutes) season of your favourite TV series on a stretch.
Also, with the Wi-Fi on, you can attend several hours of the video conference. Like the Note series phones, Redmi Pad is well-optimized to last really long.
And, it comes with an 18W charger in-box and takes more than 90 minutes. It's quite good compared to rival brands, which come with 15W adaptors or even less.
As far as the imaging hardware is concerned, it houses a decent 8MP primary camera on the back and a 5MP snapper on the front.
The cameras on a tablet are rarely used to take photos around the home or any landmark locations. There are always phones to take care of such scenarios. Here, I was more interested in how well it can take photos of the books and be able to convert them into digital documents. In good light condition, the primary camera on the back does a great job of taking snaps of pages. Rest assured, Redmi Pad got your back to take snaps of your friends' notes written on the day you didn't go to school. They're a good number of free apps to convert digital photos to PDF or docs and use them when the exams are near.
The front camera is also good too. It can record full HD video and with a good Wi-Fi network, you can have great video conference sessions. It boasts the FocusFrame feature, which adjusts the frame according to the user's movement. It can even widen the field of view up to 105-degree to accommodate more people in the frame.
Final thoughts
The new Redmi Pad has the best hardware in its class and importantly, performs as advertised. It has a solid premium metallic case, IP52 water splash-resistant rating, boasts a really good display, the performance is smooth, and delivers a long-lasting battery life.
Many will surely mistake the Redmi Pad for being an expensive tablet costing more than Rs 30,000 but will be surprised to know, it can be bought almost for half of it. It is not only good-looking, but it exudes a premium feel and is also durable too.
The only limitation of the design and cost-cutting measures taken for the device is the ditching of the 3.5mm audio jack and fingerprint sensor. Still, I am fine with the facial recognition feature and also number /pattern-based security. And, there are affordable TWS earphones to try and the company would probably like you to try the Redmi Buds 2 Lite.
Read more | Redmi Buds 3 Lite review: Decent earbuds
To sum up, Xiaomi has a winner with a value-for-money Redmi Pad. I am sure, it will disrupt the tablet product category just like the popular Redmi Note series has been doing in the budget phone segment since its launch in 2014.
The Redmi Pad is available in three variants-- 3GB RAM + 64GB storage, 4GB RAM + 128GB storage, and 6GB RAM + 128GB storage-- with an introductory prices of Rs 15,001, Rs 16,999 and Rs 19,999, respectively.
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