For the past month, I’ve been using Xiaomi’s Pad 8, which was announced in China many months ago. But it’s finally going global this week at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
The Xiaomi Pad 8 does not have a 8-inch display, even though the name might indicate that. Instead, this is a 11.2-inch 3:2 aspect ratio display. So why is it not considered “big”? Well, because it’s not the size of most laptops. A lot of other tablets on the market these days are 12.5″ or larger now. The Xiaomi Pad 8 is actually easy to hold onto with one hand.
This is a high-resolution display at 3.2K resolution, with up to 144Hz refresh rate. Xiaomi is using the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 to power this device, which is a 4nm processor. It’s still pretty high-end but not quite as high-end as a lot of other processors on the market, like the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. And to be perfectly honest, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 is plenty powerful. Now, I say this coming from the OnePlus Pad Go 2, which is using an even lower-end chip, in the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Ultra.
Why is this processor enough? Well, because this isn’t replacing my laptop. For tablets, I mostly use them to watch content, get the occasional work done like sending emails, researching stuff in Chrome, etc., and with the lead-up to MWC, I did send a lot of emails and add a lot of events to my calendar using this tablet. Which it worked just fine. I even spent a day using it as my laptop to get work done, writing a handful of articles, and even writing this article.
I was able to do this thanks to the keyboard that Xiaomi included with the Pad 8, which is also quite good. It has a trackpad, which allows you to use the tablet like it’s a small netbook, but way better.
As I said, a lot of what I use a tablet for is consuming media. And thanks to that stunning 11.2-inch high-resolution display, it’s an amazing experience. That is improved with the support for Hi-Res and Hi-Res Wireless audio, as well as Dolby Atmos. Xiaomi has included quad speakers on this tablet, like a lot of high-end tablets, so the speakers sound amazing for watching YouTube, Netflix, and even listening to music on Spotify.
What also makes the tablet so great for consuming media is the great battery life. Xiaomi has crammed a 9,200mAh capacity battery inside, which typically lasts me a few days. I am usually charging about once a week, but then again I’m not using this as much as my smartphone. And when it is time to recharge, it does have 45W charging available.
So whether you’re watching content, or making content using the 13-megapixel rear and 8-megapixel front-facing camera, the Xiaomi Pad 8 is a pretty good tablet.
Great build, stunning colors
Now let’s talk about the build of the Xiaomi Pad 8. This is your typical metal-frame tablet, and Xiaomi has decided to launch it in a few different colors. It’s available in black, blue, and green, with the blue and green being a bit lighter. So you’re not stuck with the boring black or silver colors, as Apple offers with the iPad Pro.
Xiaomi sent over the Pad 8 in the green color, which I actually quite like. It photographs quite nicely, way better than a black one. And since this is a metal tablet, it does not pick up fingerprints as easily.
On the right side is the volume rocker, with the power button at the top. A lot like the iPad. The camera is in the left corner, and in the lower left corner are a few pogo pins, which are used for the keyboard accessories. Xiaomi is launching both the Focus Keyboard and Keyboard for the Pad 8. The big difference here is that the Focus Keyboard has the trackpad and works a lot more like the Magic Keyboard from Apple.
Is the Xiaomi Pad 8 worth buying?
The tablet market is a weird one. You’ve got the iPad at the top of the list, then a pretty big gap before you get to any Android tablets. As much as I’ve liked some tablets from HONOR, OnePlus, and even Samsung in the past, they really don’t stack up to what Apple offers. And the Xiaomi Pad 8 is also in that camp.
At the time of writing this, I do not have pricing for the tablet in Europe. But it is expected to be around $300, which is very competitive for what you’re getting here. If that is the launch price, then this is definitely worth picking up at that price.
Of course, the Xiaomi Pad 8 won’t be coming to the US, but it will be launching in Europe.
