The other night I was reading “The Justice Society Files: Atom Smasher” a comic tie-in for the Black Adam movie on the Redmi Pad when I noticed that there was already a bit of sunlight peeping through our bedroom window. I had already watched the movie Barbarian (which was great) and 28 Days Haunted on Netflix (terrible series, skip it) and I totally lost track of time.
The screen of the Redmi Pad was just soo good (I also used the Redmi Buds 4 Pro to watch the movies) its easy to forget you need to do other things like sleep.
Following the success of the Xiaomi Pad 5, the brand offers another practical tablet for students and young professionals looking for a bigger screen (than their smartphones) they can bring anywhere.
The Redmi Pad highlights a 10.61-inch 2K IPS display, a choice of either 4GB/6GB +128GB storage combo, 4x stereo speakers, and 8,000mAh battery and is priced below Php15k
Should you add the Redmi Pad to your Christmas wishlist?
PROS AND “KUNGS”
PROS:
Premium design
Sturdy build
Clear 90hz 2k display
Quad speakers are loud
Long Battery life
KUNGS: (our wishlist)
A headphone jack would be nice
Fingerprint sensor for security
Official case/folio availability
Fast charging
What’s in the box? The Redmi Pad comes in a simple white box with just a render of the tablet on front.
Inside you have the tablet, a USB-C charging cable, paper documents and SIM Tray ejector tool.
BUILD AND DESIGN:
AS you would expect from a brand like Xiaomi, the Redmi Pad is as sturdy and as solid as it gets and the overall design is neat and tidy. The metal unibody with a matte finish makes it look even more classy. It is available in three colors Graphite Gray, Moonlight Silver, and Mint Green, and you can’t go wrong with any of them.
This one is a big but sexy tablet measuring 158mm tall 250mm wide, yet only 7.1mm thin. Despite its huge size, it is still relatively light and easy to hold, weighing in at only 465g. It has flat edges with round corners making it comfortable to hold even for hours as the weight is evenly distributed across its chassis.
The bezels in front are uniform on each side with the selfie camera positioned at the center when held horizontally. The camera panel on the back is also neatly done and it doesn’t protrude too much to make the table wobble on your table.
Exploring the rest of the ports and buttons, holding it horizontally the power button will be located on the left side whiled the USB Type-C port will be on the right. The volume rocker is on top just beside the SIM card tray. It has four speakers with two located on each side. Perhaps as a way to keep the price down it doesn’t have a fingerprint sensor, and you have to rely on face recognition or passwords.
DISPLAY AND AUDIO
One advantage of this tablet is its 10.6-inch 2K panel with 2,000×1,200 pixels resolution, a 90Hz refresh rate, and 400 nits of peak brightness. The icing on the cake is that the 90hz display rate makes everything feel responsive while transitions and animations look more fluid.
This makes it perfect for watching videos, or even reading your ebooks/comic because everything looks crisp, sharp, and with vivid colors. Split screen on the big screen is just that much better; clearly see all your information in one place. With screen split, you can quickly drag and drop apps without switching screens.
You also have less to worry about using the tablet for long periods of time because of the TÜV Rheinland-certified low blue light display that protects your eyes at all times. Redmi Pad is also the first tablet in the world to receive SGS low visual fatigue certification.
The Redmi Pad also makes good use of its four Dolby Atmos speakers. The four speakers give you extraordinary surround sound in landscape and portrait display formats. The speakers deliver powerful sound and a direct impact, giving you a cinema-like sound experience even if you are just watching YouTube videos. This tablet has one of the loudest and clearest speakers at this price point.
CAMERAS:
The cameras on any tablet isn’t actually meant for serious photography so you really shouldn’t rely on them unless you really need to. The Redmi Pad has an 8MP shooter on the back, which is good enough for light photography meaning you need to take a photo and don’t want to reach for your smartphone and you don’t mind the quality.
Regardless, the camera of the Redmi Pad can take okay photos. The selfie camera on the other hand is very useful for those video calls, zoom meetings and the like.
Check out some of our test photos:
The centered 105° ultra-wide front camera also has this FocusFrame feature and the video call will automatically track subjects and keep them centered in frame. This means you can set the Redmi Pad down and move around freely, without having to worry about the other side losing sight of you.
PERFORMANCE:
The Redmi Pad makes use of the new MediaTek Helio G99 SoC and you could get it either with 4GB or 6GB RAM with 128GB storage (expandable up to 1TB via microSD)
This latest chipset from MediaTek is reasonably powerful and the SoC is more than adept at tackling a user’s productivity and multimedia needs, the likes of which include using Google Docs or Sheets whilst browsing through social media and watching videos at the same time. The Helio G99 is an improvement from the previous Helio G96 as it uses a 6nm processor and comes with higher-clocked Cortex-A76 cores at 2.2Ghz.
I’d personally go for the 6GB RAM especially if you plan on using this tablet for a lot more than just consuming content.
If you enjoy gaming on a tablet then the Redmi Pad wouldn’t disappoint you as it can handle all of the popular games like Asphalt 9, Mobile Legends, League of Legends: Wild Rift, Call of Duty, PUBG and others. Just do not max out the settings to enjoy smoother gameplay.
Software-wise, the Redmi Pad runs on MIUI 13.1 based on Android 12 which has been slightly tweaked for tablet needs. You’ll notice a dock on the bottom for the most recent and utility apps. The navigation throughout the UI works exceedingly well so it would be a good idea to familiarize yourself with the various gesture-based control methods.
Lastly, it is powered by a huge 8,000mAh battery which according to Xiaomi can last up to 26 hours of nonstop reading, 21 hours video playback and 12 hours of nonstop gaming. In our daily use it was able to last more than an entire day of moderate use. It has 18W fast charge capability but fully recharging the tablet from zero take more than 2 ½ hours.
REDMI TAB SPECS:
Dimensions: LxW 250.38mm x 157.98mm/ Thickness: 7.05mm
Weight: 445g
Display: 10.61″ display 1200 x 2000 resolution with 90hz refreshrate 400nits (typ)
Processor: MediaTek Helio G99 Up to 2.2GHz 6nm process
Camera: Rear camera: 8MP
Front camera: 8MP
Speaker: Quad speakers Dolby Atmos® supported
Storage & RAM: 4GB+128GB, 6GB+128GB LPDDR4X RAM + UFS 2.2 storage
Battery & Charging: 8000mAh (typ) /18W fast charging
Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.3/ Wi-Fi 5 2.4GHz/5GHz/ USB-C
OS: MIUI for Pad
FINAL WORD:
The Redmi Pad is undoubtedly one of the most value-for-money tablets in the market today. It offers a big display and quad speakers for your binge-watching requirements, and the crisp screen works great for browsing, reading and for all kinds of document creation and editing. Plus it is the only one with a 90Hz 2K panel at this price point. Oh and it also looks quite premium. Hopefully Xiaomi would offer cases or accessories for it.
Overall performance is also quite good and you could use this for your online school and work besides just being an entertainment or gaming device. The lack of a headphone jack is a miss but the missing fingerprint sensor is quite understandable.
The Xiaomi Redmi Pad 4+128 GB is priced at Php 13,999 while the 6+128 GB comes with a Php 14,999 price tag. Both variants are now available on Xiaomi’s online and offline stores nationwide.
