Note: This review was first published on 28 December 2021.
Xiaomi Pad 5.
Overview
After what seemed to be a drought of Android-based tablets, 2021 saw a strong rebound of new offerings by different brands, with major OEMs launching Android tablet variants targeted at multiple market segments. Xiaomi took a three-year hiatus after the Xiaomi Mi Pad 4, before launching its successor, the 11-inch Xiaomi Pad 5 earlier this year.
Xiaomi touts this as an all-in-one affordable tablet that can be used for productivity and entertainment. And it even has an optional stylus to boost the tablet's usage scenarios.
Will the Xiaomi Pad 5 live up to its all-in-one, daily use purpose? Is it good value for money, or is it a compromise in favour of lower prices? Let’s find out.
Design, Display, Sound Quality
The simple naming of the Xiaomi Pad 5 belies its major aesthetic upgrade from its predecessor, the Mi Pad 4. Xiaomi’s Pad 5 incorporates many designs typically found in modern tablets these days: a slim profile, removal of all front buttons, and thinner bezels. At 6.85mm, it is comparable to the competition which typically sit at 6mm thickness or more.
The Xiaomi Pad 5 felt slightly heavier than competing tablets of similar sizes. Weighing at 511g, it is comparable to an iPad Air or Samsung Tab A7. The tablet uses an aluminium finish on the back, fitted with an aluminium frame that exudes a premium feel. In portrait orientation, the power button is on the top-right corner (again, similar to the iPad Air), with the volume to the right. On the same side is a magnetic mechanism for the Xiaomi Pen (not included). To the left side are other connectors, presumably for the keyboard cover case.
An interesting feature is the tablet’s screen: an 11-inch WQHD+ (2,560 x 1,600 pixels resolution) IPS display, with 120Hz refresh rate. While 120Hz is increasingly common in high-end flagship tablets, it was surprising to find this touted on an affordable tablet, even if it's a Xiaomi. The fluidity affords most animations and some games or videos a buttery smooth appearance, helping to enhance the viewing experience. The display also supports Dolby Vision and True Depth, allowing it to deliver HDR videos from content streaming sites or other options. The only minus point is that it is an IPS LCD screen and as such, the blacks are not truly black as opposed to an OLED screen. However, we're getting ahead of ourselves at this price point and it's merely a point of comparison and nothing against this affordable Xiaomi Pad 5 that delivers plenty on other aspects.
The Pad 5 also has a Dolby Atmos-capable quad-speaker audio setup - each side of the tablet has two speaker grilles. Together with the display, you can go ahead and watch blockbusters with a great aural and visual experience in your hands.
Note that the Xiaomi Pad 5 does not come with any expandable storage options and comes in two colour options: Cosmic Gray (our review unit) and Pearl White.
User interface and experience
The Xiaomi Pad 5 sports MIUI for Pad. It’s essentially MIUI 12, but suited for the Pad 5’s tablet form factor. It bears many design similarities to its phones’ UI counterpart but is optimised to take advantage of the generous real estate an 11-inch screen can afford. The MIUI eschews using Android’s app drawer, preferring to put all apps in the Home Screen though, much like an iPad OS interface.
Just like many Android tablets in the market, MIUI supports multi-tasking. However, Xiaomi’s implementation is slightly non-intuitive compared to stock Android experience; it is in the form of floating windows, in which it can only be activated through the Recents menu, tapping on “Floating Windows”, and then selecting the app to float. Another quirky thing is that while the height of the window can be adjusted, you aren't able to adjust the width.
Interestingly, there is a ‘desktop’ mode for the Xiaomi Pad 5. To get there, a PC Launcher app needs to be downloaded somewhere on the web. Unfortunately, beyond just looking like a PC desktop, it offers little tangible benefits, as the problem of resizing windows still remains.
Xiaomi Pad 5 supports Xiaomi Smart Pen, a digital stylus, and the Xiaomi Pad Keyboard. Unfortunately, these optional accessories were not included in the review set, so we can’t comment on these add-on features.
The Xiaomi Pad 5 facilities camera functionality via a 13MP f/2.0 rear camera, and an 8MP front camera lens. What is interesting is that even though the camera is understandably basic, the tablet still packs a substantial camera bump at the back of the camera. The camera bump makes it impossible for the tablet to be laid flat on a surface for reading or typical interaction.
Nevertheless, here are some sample photos taken by the Xiaomi Pad 5.
The front camera is mainly used for facial recognition to unlock the tablet. It is speedy and works even if I'm wearing glasses. However, the front camera is situated at the top of the tablet, should the tablet be held in portrait mode. In landscape usage, this means the camera is either to your left or right of the screen.
Benchmark Performance
Xiaomi Pad 5 is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 860, which is essentially an overclocked version of its 2019 flagship Snapdragon 855+. Geared towards the upper-mid-range mobile computing devices, it consists of quad Cortex-A76 cores, one of which runs at 2.96GHz and the other three at 2.42GHz, and another quartet of Cortex-A55 cores running at 1.8GHz. Since Xiaomi Pad 5 is clearly designed for the upper-mid-range tablets, we will be benchmarking it against similar higher-tier classed tablets that we have reviewed, such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE. However, to improve the mix, we will also throw in Apple iPad 2021, as well as Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+.
JetStream 2.0
JetStream 2 is a combination of a variety of JavaScript and Web Assembly benchmarks, including benchmarks that came before like SunSpider and Octane. It primarily tests for a system’s and browser’s ability in delivering a good web experience. It runs a total of 64 subtests, each weighted equally, with multiple iterations, and takes the geometric mean to compute the overall score.
Geekbench 5
Geekbench CPU is a cross-platform processor benchmark that tests both single-core and multi-core performance with workloads that simulate real-world usage. Geekbench 5 scores are calibrated against a baseline score of 1000, which is the score of an Intel Core i3-8100.
3DMark Wild Life
Benchmark Analysis
Overall, Xiaomi Pad 5 performs rather strongly against its competitors - save for the Apple iPad. What is more interesting is that its performance is close to the Samsung Tab S7+, the flagship of Samsung tablets that costs thrice the price of the Xiaomi tablet. It's also comfortably better than both the Fan Edition Tab S7 tablets from Samsung, which again, cost more than the Xiaomi Pad 5.
Battery Life
Our standard battery test for mobile phones has the following parameters:
- Looping a 720p video with screen brightness and volume at 100%
- Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity turned on
- Constant data streaming through email
Xiaomi Pad 5 has an 8,720mAh battery and supports 22.5W fast charging. While Xiaomi also supports USB PD charging, the only way to attain maximum charging speed is to use the 22.5W fast charger that comes with the tablet. From the tablet's 50% battery mark, it took me about 45 minutes to get it to 80% mark, though it took about another 30 minutes to get it fully charged (100%).
Final Thoughts
Is Android on tablets finally viable? Back in 2018, it seemed all but a lost cause as there were very few notable options coming out. However, we now see a resurgence of interest in OEMs launching Android tablets. Surely, there must be some trend that Xiaomi saw in the market which compelleds them to launch the Xiaomi Pad 5, after a three-year gap from Xiaomi Pad 4?
One major trend that we observed in the launch of Android tablets is the incorporation of digital stylus capability. Samsung is one of their pioneers with their S Pen, and recently, we see Lenovo with Precision Pen, Huawei with M-Pencil, and Xiaomi with their Smart Pen.
The incorporation of digital stylus as a use case in their tablets may have actually renewed interest into Android tablets. While Android apps that are optimised for tablets are still scarce, the support of a digital stylus, on a tablet that has a screen about the size of an A4-paper pairs nicely with OEM-specific note-taking apps that make up for said lack of support by third-party apps.
It does however call into question whether such over-reliance on first-party apps and accessories will be beneficial to the consumer and the Android ecosystem in the long run. Neither does it resolve the fundamental issue of lack of tablet support from third-party developers, and that includes professional apps, like Adobe Photoshop.
With that point in mind, one can argue that iPads and Surface tablets also have digital stylus support, and have far more functionality than an Android tablet. The crux then comes down to the price-point vis-a-vis features that a tablet has to offer.
Xiaomi Pad 5 seems to tick all the feature boxes nicely, which offers a rather good video viewing experience, and note-taking capabilities, all for just S$449 for the tablet and a further S$99 for the Xiaomi Smart Pen. This tablet can at times even be found for as S$399 at special sale periods, making it even more competitive than it already is. There's also a 256GB internal storage version at S$529 for those who want to keep more apps loaded and available at their fingertips.
Granted, this tablet is not for those looking to do professional work, it is however well-positioned as an all-rounder device for casual use. Want to watch movies on the go? The Xiaomi PAd 5 is an excellent choice with good sound and display quality for the casual user, plays HDR content, and supports Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos content too. A student who wants to do some light reading and jotting down notes? No problem, with the optional Xiaomi Smart Pen to bundle with the tablet. Someone who wants to sketch something? Check. Want another large screen gadget with Youtube Kids to entertain your kids? Xiaomi Pad 5 offers that, and with an affordable price to beat out the rest.
Ready to get one? You can shop for the Xiaomi Pad 5 exclusively on their Lazada Lazmall store.
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