Thursday, September 23, 2021

Xiaomi Pad 5 Hands-On

After 3 years, Xiaomi is back in the tablet market with the Xiaomi Pad 5 and the Pad 5 Pro. It’s about time since tablets are surely becoming a go-to device for students as well as for work-from-home professionals. We finally got our hands on a Xiaomi Pad 5, and let’s take a quick look at it!

Checking out design, the first thing that popped into our minds is its resemblance to the Xiaomi Mi 11 series.

Particularly its protruding square camera module with curved edges, the Xiaomi branding, and the matte frosted back. You’ll also appreciate its nice aluminum frame.

The unit we have is in the Pearl White color, and locally it’s also available in Cosmic Gray. Its size and weight are pretty average to most tablets in its range so it’s easy to bring anywhere.

Upfront we get an 11-inch or rather a 10.9-inch display to be exact, with moderately thick bezels. This 2K IPS LCD display features up to 120Hz refresh rate, HDR10, and 10-bit color support so it can show up to 1 billion colors.

In portrait mode you’ll find the front camera on the top bezel, so we’ll introduce the buttons and ports in this orientation.

Found on the right side are the volume rocker, two microphones, and the Xiaomi Smart Pen charger.

Then on the left is the keyboard connector.

The Smart Pen and keyboard, by the way, are optional accessories.

Up top, we get the power button together with two speakers and a single microphone. And as for the bottom part, there’s your USB Type-C port, main microphone, and two more loudspeakers. If you’re wondering, the Xiaomi Pad 5 is a Wi-Fi-only tablet.

Talk about its internals, the Xiaomi Pad 5 is powered by a Snapdragon 860 processor that’s paired with an Adreno 640 GPU, 6GB of RAM, and 128/256GB of storage. It’s running on Android 11, skinned with MIUI 12.5/MIUI for Pad since it’s optimized for a tablet. You can surely expect Google services on board, and so far this OS looks well-organized and familiar. We’ll explore it more in the next couple of days so stay tuned for our full review.

As for the battery, it’s equipped with a large 8,720mAh battery with 22.5W fast charging.

Going through the cameras, at the back is a 13MP lens while on its notch is an 8MP selfie shooter. We’re not really expecting a lot from it since cameras aren’t much of a focus for tablets, but so far they’re not that bad. To give you an idea, here are a few sample photos we got:

Locally, the Xiaomi Pad 5 is priced at PHP 17,990 for 6GB + 128GB and PHP 19,990 for the 6GB + 256GB. A limited early bird price of PHP 14,990 and a free Xiaomi Smart Pen for the 6GB + 128GB variant will be offered exclusively on Xiaomi Official Global Store via Lazada on September 24 only. So far, it is really looking good. We’re excited to use it more in the next couple of days so expect our full review soon. So what do you think of this Xiaomi Pad 5? Do let us know in the comments.

Xiaomi Mi Pad 5 specs:
11-inch WQHD+ (1600 x 2560) IPS LCD screen, 275 PPI
120Hz refresh rate
120Hz (finger), 240Hz (stylus) touch sampling rate
Qualcomm Snapdragon 860
Adreno 640 GPU
6GB LPDDR4X RAM
128GB, 256GB UFS 3.1 storage
13MP rear camera
8MP front camera
WiFi 5
Bluetooth 5.0
Quad speakers, Hi-Res Wireless Audio Certification
USB Type-C
MIUI 12.5 (Android 11)
8,720mAh battery w/ 33W fast charge
254.69 x 166.25 x 6.85mm
511g
Black, White, Green