Classic copy of the iPad in a metal case
Mi Pad has always tried to be an iPad Mini . The new generation was no exception. What to expect from a classic 8-inch tablet?
This is the same metal all-in-one, the back is completely identical to the iPad Mini thanks to the plastic insert and the protruding camera. Or Xiaomi A2. Looks like everything.
Who prevented you from hiding the module? Oh those developers. And the plug for the antennas can be made more carefully.
The material used is aluminum and plastic. It’s pleasant to hold: the body is “matte”, rough. This makes the rather large tablet more grippy. It will not slip out of your hand, although it weighs a noticeable 340 grams.
The controls follow the concept of Xiaomi smartphones: between the pair of speakers at the bottom there is a USB Type-C , a headphone jack at the top, power and rocker on the right, and the left side carries only a memory card tray.
Or a combined tray for microSD and flash cards with LTE . There is also such a version, and it costs a little more.
ATTENTION: Xiaomi Mi Pad 4 does not support 2G/GSM and 3G/HDSPA. Voice calls are not possible.
As in Xiaomi smartphones, there are no touch buttons under the screen - they are replaced by on-screen keys. Due to the lack of a fingerprint scanner, the solution is so-so.
Appearance
The tablet has chopped, pointed shapes and a simple back cover design. You still can’t call Xiaomi Pad 5 faceless. Firstly, the back cover beautifully diffuses light, and secondly, the camera design is consistent with the brand’s smartphones. I got the black version that collects fingerprints. I advise you to take the white version for absolute non-marking and more beautiful tints.
The frame is made of metal and the back cover is plastic. Usually they do exactly the opposite to push premium material to the fore. However, this combination has objective advantages. The metal frame provides rigidity to the case and removes heat from the chipset. And plastic with a slightly rough coating looks no worse, but it doesn’t get cold on your hands, doesn’t slip and has a little less weight. Compared to glass, plastic is more difficult to break, and small scratches remain invisible.
I like the format of the Xiaomi Pad 5; the tablet does not feel bulky, but at the same time gives comfort when watching videos and reading books. Considering the weight of 511 grams, most of the time the tablet will be in two hands, but holding it with one is not a problem.
There are three Pogo pins at the bottom, and the official accessories include a keyboard case. But only the stylus will be available on the Russian market, which will be discussed below.
Frames are not being abandoned yet
The weirdness The weirdness is in the details. Mi Pad 4 has an 8-inch screen with a 16:10 resolution ratio 1920×1200.
That is, this is a slightly elongated (since it is buttonless) screen 7.9 of previous generations, equipped with 4:3 ratio matrices at 2048 × 1536 . Need I say that the modification was not beneficial?
And this despite the use of IPS (respectively, excellent viewing angles) without an air gap, and a generally good pixel density of 283 pixels/inch .
The maximum brightness has also become lower and is now 457 cd/m²: in the sun this is a stretch. But the image is juicy, bright and pleasant.
The minimum brightness is 1.7 cd/m², so as a reader in complete darkness, the Mi Pad 4 fully justifies itself. In this regard, the absence of navigation keys is beneficial.
Compromise of performance and autonomy
When releasing the Xiaomi Mi Pad 4, the developers focused on the “powerful processor” Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 . And this decision also seems strange.
Of course, the previous generation of the company’s tablets did not shine with anything amazing - the performance of the Mi Pad 3 was so-so, but the second generation used perhaps the most interesting Intel processor. And dualBoot with Windows 10!
Alas, now the niche of hybrids is occupied by Chuwi , Teсlast and Co. Therefore, the Four got a Snapdragon 660 with an Adreno 512 video accelerator.
For a mobile device, the performance is excellent - the processor matches the Snapdragon 821 , surpassing it in energy efficiency and graphics power. And it doesn't throttle.
The younger version of Mi Pad 4 is equipped with 3/32 GB of memory. The older and LTE modifications are equipped with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage.
All options work with microSD cards, so built-in memory doesn't matter. But for LTE in the older version it’s worth paying extra: Bluetooth 5 and Wi-Fi 802.11ac won’t be enough.
The “cold” processor made it possible to achieve impressive autonomy from the Mi Pad 4’s 6000 mAh (the same as in previous versions).
Games eat it up in 7 hours, reading or surfing - in 9-10, depending on the intensity of use and screen brightness. They didn't deliver fast charging, the process will take an hour.
Features you forgot about
Although the tablet turned out to be good, it is still far from ideal. Take sound for example: Mi Pad 4 has a 3.5 mm output and an excellent system equalizer. There are also a couple of fairly loud speakers.
But they are located too close, the stereo is not felt. And in landscape orientation, even one is blocked by hand.
It's no better with cameras. However, has anyone come across tablets with a normal camera?
There is no flash, stabilization or additional modes in either the main 13 megapixel ( OV13855 ) or the 5 megapixel ( Samsung S5K5E8 ) front camera of the Mi Pad 4.
For video chats, copying a document in good lighting is enough. But not more.
Xiaomi Pad 5: detailed review of the best tablet for multimedia and games
Recently, a significant event occurred in the tablet market, Xiaomi released a new model Pad 5. The recipe for a new hit from Xiaomi is quite simple: for a relatively low cost, give users a top-end high-performance Snapdragon platform, a large colorful screen with support for HDR and Dolby Vision, high-quality sound with Dolby Atmos, as well as a good long-lasting battery that will provide long-lasting operation.
In general, the tablet market for a long time was more dead than alive. If you needed a good productive tablet, the choice was actually limited between the expensive iPad and the Galaxy Tab. Huawei and Lenovo tried something in the middle class, but in both cases only compromises and very weak hardware awaited the user. Basically, the tablet market was filled with outright garbage, which was based on solutions from Unisoc or old MTK chipsets. For the Internet and video this is still somehow enough, but there’s no need to talk about games. And there is no performance reserve, so the growing appetites of applications make budget devices lag even in simple tasks.
And suddenly, like a bolt from the blue - the presentation of the Xiaomi Pad 5 and Xiaomi Pad 5 Pro tablets, which are based on top-end Snapdragon chips and at the same time have an adequate price tag. Admit it, how many times have you wondered why they don’t release tablets with powerful Snapdragons? And finally, our requests were listened to. Yes, it was a long wait, but better late than never. The tablet was ordered immediately after the start of sales and all this time I used it every day on an ongoing basis. Well, today I’m ready to share my impressions and talk in detail about the new product.
Technical characteristics of Xiaomi Pad 5:
- Display : IPS with a diagonal of 11″, WQHD+ with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels and a refresh rate of 120 HZ. HDR 10 and Dolby Vision support
- Processor : 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 (1 Kryo 485 Gold core with a frequency of 2.96 GHz, 3 Kryo 485 Gold cores with a frequency of 2.42 GHz and 4 Kryo 485 Silver cores with a frequency of 1.78 GHz), 7 nm process technology
- Graphics : Adreno 640
- RAM : 6GB LPDDR4X
- Storage : UFS 3.1 128 GB or 256 GB
- Cameras : Rear 13 MP, f/2.0 with Dual-LED flash, autofocus and 4K video support. Front 8 MP, f/2.0
- Sound : 4 speakers with support for Dolby Atmos surround sound technology, HiRes certification and 24 bit/192KHz quality support
- Wireless interfaces : Wi-Fi 5 with support for 2.4GHz/5GHz + Bluetooth 5.0
- Battery : 8720 mAh with fast charging support
- Operating system : MIUI 12.5 based on Android 11
- Dimensions : 254.7 mm x 166.3 mm x 6.9 mm
- Weight : 511 g
In addition, the tablet supports work with the Xiaomi Smart Pen stylus, which recognizes 4096 levels of pressure. Magnetic wireless charging is built right into the tablet body and allows you to charge the stylus in just 18 minutes, and after charging the stylus for one minute, you can use it for another 2 hours. They also released a case for the Xiaomi Pad 5 - a keyboard that connects via magnetic contacts and allows you to turn the tablet into a compact netbook. Additional accessories are not included as standard and must be purchased separately.
Video version of the review
What's included
I chose the Pearl White colorway. From memory, I took the younger version 6 GB/128GB, because most of the time I will use it at home, where there is WiFi. And for a vacation, to download a series or several films, 128 GB is enough.
The equipment is spartan, only the bare minimum: tablet, charger, cable, user manual and warranty card. Protective film or glass, as well as a case, must be purchased separately. If you need them of course.
Charger and charging speed
The included adapter supports charging power up to 22.5W and can operate with voltage from 5V to 12V.
Load testing showed that the charger corresponds to the declared characteristics and even has a small power reserve. Without voltage drop I was able to pull more than 24W. During operation, the adapter is not prone to excessive heating and does not produce any extraneous sounds.
But of course the tablet controller and its operating algorithms play a decisive role. It almost immediately switches to a voltage of 8.6V and gradually increases it as it charges. At the peak of the process we have a voltage of 9.65V and a maximum power of about 20W. After which the charger switches to 6.5V mode and charges the battery for some time with a small current. In time, the whole process looks like this:
- 10 minutes - 8%
- 20 minutes - 16%
- 30 minutes - 26%
- 1 hour - 51%
- 1 hour 30 minutes - 79%
- 2 hours - 100%
After the charge indicator reaches 100%, final charging with a small current continues for another 15 minutes. This practically does not affect the autonomy and charging speed, but in fairness it is worth noting that the process stops completely after 2 hours 16 minutes.
Appearance, ergonomics, ease of use
The first thing you notice after turning on the tablet is the symmetrical frames around the screen. Cheap tablets usually don’t bother with this and often the horizontal frames differ in width from the vertical frames. Everything is smooth and pleasing to the eye. The screen aspect ratio is 16:10, which in my opinion is the optimal value for entertainment and multimedia.
The back of the tablet is made of tactilely pleasant matte plastic and visually resembles glass. At the same time, such a coating has important advantages over glass: it is not slippery or easily soiled, and fingerprints do not stick to the surface. The Pearl White color looks very interesting and, depending on the external lighting, can have a mother-of-pearl shimmer.
The main 13-megapixel camera was placed in the corner, playing with the design of the module using a decoy. Below is a flash consisting of a pair of LEDs of different colors.
The second point that is very captivating is the thickness of the tablet, which is 6.9 mm, which is even less than the thickness of most modern smartphones. The tablet is pleasant to hold in your hands, and its metal frame is not only durable, but also actively participates in cooling, evenly distributing and removing heat under high loads. In the central part you can see a platform, which is a regular place for charging the stylus. The stylus is held on the body in the desired position using magnets and is charged wirelessly.
At the top there is a double button for adjusting the volume, and the lock button is located on the top edge. The Xiaomi Pad 5 does not have a fingerprint scanner and it was installed only in the PRO version, which is puzzling, because the function is cheap, but very important in times of global digitalization.
But what we were pleased with was the incredibly high-quality sound. On tablets, I have never heard such clear and yet surround sound as here. When watching movies, speech sounds as natural as possible, and in games the effect of presence is felt. In the same PUBG, you can clearly hear from which side the shooting is coming and from where the enemy is approaching. The audio system consists of 4 speakers, a pair on each side. The sound is configured for using the tablet in landscape orientation, i.e. for watching videos and games. And yes, Dolby Atmos really does its job, making the sound seem to be directed from all directions and completely envelop the listener.
A universal type C is provided for charging and connecting to a computer. There is OTG support, so a connected flash drive with a USB-C connector was detected without problems. I was also able to connect a USB-C hub, through which I connected memory cards, standard USB flash drives, a keyboard and mouse, and even a gamepad.
On the bottom edge you can see contacts for connecting a magnetic keyboard - a cover. The pleasure is not cheap; for an original keyboard they are now asking about $80, while a non-original keyboard with a Bluetooth connection will cost almost three times less.
Screen
The tablet is equipped with a large 11″ IPS screen with WQHD+ resolution with 2K resolution of 2560 x 1600 and detail at 274 ppi. DCI-P3 color space is supported, so the image looks colorful and realistic, the screen is capable of displaying more than a billion colors and shades.
In the settings you can adjust everything according to your taste, but in my opinion the factory calibration is ideal and you don’t need to touch anything. In Vivid mode, the color gamut is 100% DCI-P3, and if you switch to standard, the color gamut is 100% sRGB. The next interesting point is the 120 Hz refresh rate, which visually adds smoothness to scrolling and animation and the device feels as responsive and fast as possible. It is possible to switch to 60 Hz and in theory this should increase autonomy, but then the system interfaces will not be as smooth. In general, there is a choice.
There is an advanced reading mode that, in addition to the blue filter, adds a paper texture that has a relaxing effect on the eyes. In addition, Mi Pad 5 has a special sensor that analyzes the ambient light and adjusts not only the brightness of the screen, but also its color temperature.
The peak brightness of 500 nits is enough for using the tablet both indoors and outdoors.
The tablet supports playback of content in HDR 10 and Dolby Vision and this of course adds contrast and depth to it, although of course the maximum brightness of 500 nits is not enough to fully implement these standards. However, HDR content looks better on the screen than standard ones, and the blacks are quite deep, despite the fact that this is not an AMOLED, but an IPS matrix.
The tablet impresses with its accurate and natural color reproduction, good detail and brightness sufficient for any conditions.
As expected, everything is in order with viewing angles: no color distortion or inversion, the brightness of the picture drops slightly.
The white fill is uniform; areas differing in color and shade, as well as darkened areas, are not detected. The backlight brightness is uniform, with the exception of the left side (lower corner and center), where it is 11.5% higher than the average brightness across the screen. Visually this is not noticeable and, according to my statistics, it is within normal limits; usually the difference in backlight brightness in different areas in modern devices is within 7% - 12%.
Black field uniformity is average, with some backlight bleeding in the corners. In the photo I deliberately increased the exposure a little, in reality it is less.
There is no flicker at all brightness levels, so the tablet can be safely used for reading.
As for tactile sensations, as befits a device of this class, the glass is coated with a high-quality oleophobic coating. Its presence can be determined by a “drop” test. You can see how the water collects in hemispheres rather than spreading over the surface. Thanks to oleophobia, your finger glides better over the surface of the glass and leaves no marks. By the way, the sensor recognizes up to 10 simultaneous touches, and its polling frequency is 240 Hz, so the tablet is ideal for games.
Software part
As for the software part, the tablet runs the MIUI 12.5 operating system, which in turn is based on Android 11. Updates are regular and downloaded via the Internet, like Xiaomi smartphones. During testing, one update was already installed.
Because this is a global international version, that is, the Russian language, services and applications from Google and Play Market. The system is almost identical to the smartphone version of MIUI: applications are installed directly on the screen and can be grouped into folders. Pre-installed applications include the standard set of Google applications, Xiaomi tools, as well as WPS Office and Netflix, which can be removed if you do not plan to use them. No trash. There is also no advertising, which used to irritate many people in MIUI.
But there are also small differences. For example, the notification curtain goes down on the left side of the screen, and the quick settings curtain goes down on the right side of the screen. You can switch between curtains by swiping.
For a tablet of this diagonal size, it is convenient to use the split-screen function. For example, in one part of the screen you may have a browser open, and in another part a football match is being broadcast.
Or you can switch to “floating windows” mode and the desired application will be displayed in a small window on top of the screen.
The settings are all standard, with the exception of a new section where you can configure the stylus
And a keyboard. The rest is typical MIUI with its wide capabilities and flexibility in settings.
By default, control is carried out using gestures, but if desired, you can enable virtual buttons.
I would also like to note the interesting function of increasing RAM using the drive. Since there is very fast UFS 3.1 memory installed here, the tablet can use it as RAM. In total, you can add 2 GB of memory, which gives a total of 8 GB of RAM (6GB real + 2 GB additional). I first saw this feature in the summer in the Realmi GT 5G smartphone, and there you can add RAM at your discretion from 2GB to 5GB. But Xiaomi also came to the rescue and added such a feature, although here you cannot select the amount of memory to be added, only 2 GB. But thanks for that.
Hardware and tests
So we come to what most people actually buy this tablet for - productivity. Xiaomi Pad 5 is based on the high-performance Snapdragon 860 chipset, which includes an 8-core processor built on the TSMC 7 nm process technology and Adreno 640 graphics. The Snapdragon 860 is based on the Snapdragon 855+ and is its improved version. It is certainly weaker than the current flagship Snapdragon 888, but it is not prone to overheating and throttling with adequate cooling. The most powerful core is capable of operating at a frequency of 2.96 GHz and provides high performance, while for less demanding tasks the mid-range 2.42 GHz cores and energy-efficient 1.8 GHz cores are used. For RAM we have 6 GB LPDDR4X memory, which operates in four-channel mode + 2GB can be added using the drive.
In Antutu, the result is impressive - 576,000 points, which immediately makes it one of the most powerful Android tablets.
Geekbench 5: 773 points in single-core mode and 2792 points in multi-core mode. In the Work 3.0 test, the device scored 11,310 points. It is noteworthy that the temperature did not actually increase during the test, which means the cooling copes well with active loads.
Next we move on to graphically oriented benchmarks. 3D Mark's Sling Shot Extreme test was too easy for a tablet and received a perfect score.
The new Wild Life test is more suitable for load. Using the Vulkan api, the device scored 3438 points and showed an average frame rate of 20.6. In the Wild Life Extreme test, which runs at 4K resolution 3840 x 2160, the tablet scored 985 points.
The next thing I checked was the speed performance of the drive and the result exceeded even the wildest expectations: 517 MB/s for writing and 1140 MB/s for reading, these are speeds comparable to SSD drives. At the same time, the speed is uniform throughout the test, without sudden dips.
Just in case, I double-checked the results in Androbench and Antutu and got exactly the same results.
RAM copying speed is more than 31,000 MB/s.
And of course, we’ll check the Internet speed via WiFi. In the 5 GHz range we get an impressive 467 Mbps, that is, a pair of transmitting and receiving antennas (2T2R) are clearly used here. In the 2.4 GHz range everything is also good, with an average of 124 Mbps.
Stress tests
It's no secret that most modern processors lose some of their power under high loads. Not only do processors get quite hot, but their cooling is sometimes done carelessly. As a result, the loss of productivity can be 20% - 30%, and in some cases even up to 50%. And it turns out that the top-end flagship chipset begins to work like middle-class chipsets, devices based on which cost 2-3 times cheaper. But Xiaomi Pad 5 is just that rare exception, when they took care not only of the powerful filling, but also of its adequate cooling. The CPU Slowdown application showed a CPU slowdown of only 4% during 20 minutes of continuous 100% load. At the same time, the maximum core frequency remained unchanged, and the temperature increased by only 16 degrees.
The more famous CPU Throttling test showed a 6% drop in performance. The maximum performance was 191,922 GIPS, the average was 185,780 GIPS. But even these values do not reflect the real picture, because there is nothing to load the processor at 100% for a long time on the tablet, and the same games create a mixed load of “processor + graphics accelerator”. To test this mode, I used the Wild Life Stress Test, where a high gaming load is simulated for 20 minutes, that is, 20 test passes are made and the results are compared. So the result is excellent, stability is 99.4%. The differences between the minimum and maximum results are minimal. The result shows that the tablet will be an ideal solution for gaming.
Multimedia capabilities
According to DRM Info, the tablet has hardware support for VP8, VP9, AVC, HEVC, MPEG2 and WMV codecs. There is also support for HDR10, advanced HDR 10+ and advanced Dolby Vision. In terms of sound, there is support for ac3, ac4, eac3 and eac3-joc. Screen refresh rate 60 Hz or 120 Hz.
Widevine with L1 security and HDCP 2.3.
This is necessary for legal online cinemas and streaming services; the pre-installed Netflix itself confirms this.
Netflix offers Dolby Vision-enabled content, as indicated by the corresponding icon.
If you go into the settings and look at the playback characteristics, you will see that HDR10 and Dolby Vision are supported, but the maximum quality is limited to Full HD.
I’ll say frankly that Full HD video is enough for such a diagonal, but no one forbids watching 4K video from other sources, even with a frequency of 60 fps. The tablet supports Ultra HD quality without any problems, including with Dolby Vision.
By the way, the built-in Mi Video player has interesting settings for Dolby Atmos sound. You can add presence (with headphones) or increase the volume of dialogue in a movie or TV series.
As for Youtube, video is available in 4K\60 fps quality with HDR support.
Even at maximum quality, the video plays smoothly and without drops.
Everything is fine with IPTV digital television; the tablet easily plays even 4K channels.
Sound
I have already talked about the sound of the tablet itself. If anyone missed it, I’ll repeat it: the sound system consists of 4 speakers, a pair on each side. They provide clear, loud and spacious sound that perfectly creates the effect of presence and seems to envelop the listener from all sides. In my opinion, this is one of the best sounding tablets. However, here I want to talk about the sound in headphones. The tablet does not have a 3.5 mm audio jack, which means you won’t be able to connect regular wired headphones. You can try using an adapter from type C to 3.5 mm audio, but I haven’t tested it. What's the point if I switched to wireless TWS headphones a long time ago?
The first good news was that the system supports animation and displays information about the remaining charge of the headphones and case automatically when connected. Naturally, not all headphones are supported, but only those that are part of the Xiaomi ecosystem. For example, my ZMI PurPods Pro.
The second good news is that the tablet supports not only the standard SBC codec or the more advanced AAC, but also high-quality aptX Adaptive and aptX HD. I connected my receiver through it without any problems and output the sound to my bookshelf home speakers. The sound is definitely bomb! Clear, detailed and balanced in frequency response. It’s not for nothing that the tablet received a Hi-Res Wireless certificate; at a minimum, this indicates support for audio with a sampling frequency of 192 kHz and 24-bit. So you can not only watch movies or play games, but also listen to music.
According to the settings, we have a 10-band equalizer and 8 ready-made sound presets, there is also an adjustment for Dolby Atmos surround sound depending on the type of content being played.
Gaming Features
For today's gaming test, I decided to skip weak and average games, because it is clear that they will work well. I chose 4 popular and hardware-demanding games with flexible graphics settings. As always, I used the Gamebench gaming benchmark for testing. Each game was tested for at least 30 minutes to evaluate long-term load and eliminate throttling. The first game is Call Of Duty.
Maximum graphics settings: quality - very high, number of frames per second - maximum. Textures are naturally downloaded in high resolution.
And as we see here, stable 60 fps for 98% of the game time. In fact, it’s even higher because the drawdown in the center of the graph is the loading of the lobby and the launch of a new game between skating rinks. Thanks to the high FPS and 240 Hz sensor polling rate, playing shooters and action games is a real pleasure. By the way, the battery consumption in this game is approximately 12% per hour, i.e. on a full charge you can play for 8.5 hours.
The second game is the founder of the battle royale genre on Android devices, a hit that has not lost its popularity to this day - PUBG.
Graphics settings at maximum: detail - ultra, frame rate - ultra.
And we see stable 40 fps for 99% of the game time. The 1% seems to have been spoiled by the defeat and loading of the lobby, during which the frame rate dropped noticeably. Of course, the game turned out to be too easy for a tablet and it would have played without any problems in higher quality and with a higher FPS, but for now the manufacturer has set such a limitation. By the way, I would like to once again note the sound of the speakers - everything is very atmospheric and natural. The positioning of the sound is well felt, making it clear from which side the shots are coming or the enemy is approaching. The battery consumption in this game is 11% per hour, i.e. a full charge will last for almost 9 hours of continuous play.
The next game is a thunderstorm of smartphones and tablets, a processor burner and the lord of throttling - Genshin Impact.
Here the testing took place in 2 stages. Knowing how demanding the game is and how easily it brings even flagships to their knees, I decided to first test the game on high graphics settings, but with a frame rate per second of 30 fps.
And to my surprise I got a stable 30 fps for 100% of the game time. The game, of course, consumes more resources, so the battery consumption was 14% per hour and a full charge will last for 7.2 hours of play.
And then I turned on the frame rate of 60 fps.
And I got an average fps of 50 frames per second (91% of the game time). But here the frame rate fluctuated a little, at some points dropping to 30 - 40 fps. And battery consumption has increased significantly, up to 20% per hour. That is, with these settings you can play for only 5 hours. Is it worth it? In my opinion no. The game runs much more stable at 30 fps, and the heating in this mode is less.
The last game I checked was Pubg New State. This is a completely new version of the battle royale with improved graphics and good optimization. I boldly turned up the graphics settings to ultra and the frame rate to maximum.
It was not possible to test this game in Gamebench because it refuses to launch with USB debugging enabled. But the built-in Game Turbo utility shows that the game runs at 120 frames per second! Yes, in fact, you can even feel it in the game, everything is very smooth.
Oh, by the way, just a few words about Game Turbo. The utility allows you to optimize performance and give all free resources to the game. You can limit functions, disable buttons and gestures, and remove anything that might distract you. In addition, you can individually configure each game, namely, improve the image in the game, adding detail and contrast to it. You can also adjust the controls and set insensitive zones to avoid accidental clicks.
Well, during the game you can open a browser or instant messenger, take a screenshot or record a game video. And here you can estimate the load on the processor and graphics, as well as see the frame rate per second in real time.
Camera
And now many people probably thought: “What kind of camera can a tablet have? Yes, yes, okay.” I also thought when I ordered the tablet. But my opinion changed when I saw her in action. Of course, by the standards of cameras that are installed in smartphones, it takes very mediocre pictures. But compared to other tablets, especially all Chuwi, Alldocube, Teclast and Blackview, this is the top. Let's start with the rear camera. Why is it even on the tablet? First of all, to photograph some document or text. And here the tablet copes perfectly: autofocus is fast and accurate, sharpness is uniform throughout the entire image, and artificial intelligence equalizes the white balance. As you can see in the picture below, all the letters are sharp, even the bottom row with font 10.
What if you zoom in and shoot in macro? No problem. The camera captures small details well, for example, letters not printed by the printer or traces of paint from the printer. Well, that is, for the purpose of photographing something and sending it via messenger, it’s quite suitable.
As for subject photography, there are no problems either.
It is unlikely that when you go on vacation, you will use a tablet to take photos, but in principle it is possible. Color rendition is natural, detail is good, focusing is accurate. My photos are not very colorful, but what can you do - winter makes its own adjustments.
What is most pleasing is the sharpness across the entire field of the image, i.e. we used normal optics. Even tree branches are not blurred when zoomed in. Very good.
As for the front camera, it is needed exclusively for video communication, so fixed focus is used here. Below is a photo at arm's length, which roughly corresponds to desktop mode of use.
From a closer distance, if you hold the tablet in your hand. The first shot is in natural light on the balcony (cloudy weather), the second shot is in artificial light indoors.
Original photographs for self-study.
Autonomy
The tablet is equipped with an 8720 mAh battery and can go for a long time without recharging. It’s difficult for me to track exactly how many hours the screen works on average, because the statistics in the system are reset every 24 hours. But I can say for sure that I charge the tablet only once a week. At the same time, I use it about 2 hours a day (reading news, browsing the Internet, playing games). That is, in total we can talk about the minimum screen operation at the level of 12 - 14 hours per week. The brightness is automatic, at approximately 50%. During the day the tablet is always on, but at night I turn it off. To give you an approximate understanding of the battery capabilities, here are a couple of scenarios: A Youtube video in 2K resolution at maximum screen brightness plays for 9 hours 33 minutes, and if you reduce the brightness to 50%, the playback time increases to an incredible 21 hours 27 minutes. This suggests that the processor is very economical, and it is the screen that consumes the most charge. By the way, in standby mode no more than 1% - 2% is spent overnight, but I specifically limited the background processes of “eating” applications, like facebook.
Well, another test that simulates a mixed load is Work 3.0, in which the tablet lasted 14 hours 7 minutes (average screen brightness). In games, the average battery life is from 7 to 9 hours (see the corresponding section for details).
Results
Xiaomi Pad 5 is an ideal tablet for home use, an undisputed hit and a real TOP for your money. Hand on heart, I can't think of a single major drawback that could sway your decision to buy or not if you're looking for a tablet to use on a WiFi network. Yes, we can say that it is not cheap. But on the other hand, for this money there is nothing even close in this class. You can, of course, take some conventional Alldocube or Blackview for half the price, but it will be a completely “different movie”: an outdated processor from MTK or even a defective Unisoc, a much worse screen and sound, a disgusting camera, etc. No, this is a completely different level. I would put the Xiaomi tablet on the level of flagship tablets from Samsung, for example the Galaxy Tab S7, but the Mi Pad 5 is much cheaper.
What I liked:
- Flagship performance, enough for any task and even the latest games
- No overheating or throttling even during long gaming sessions
- Large and bright 2K IPS screen with 120 Hz refresh rate and Dolby Vision support
- Support Xiaomi Smart Pen stylus and magnetic keyboard
- High-quality audio system consisting of 4 speakers, support for Dolby Atmos surround sound
- Not bad cameras that were not installed for show
- Long operating time on a single charge
What to pay attention to:
- Does not support SIM cards
- No memory expansion slot
- No 3.5mm audio jack
How convenient is MIUI on a tablet?
the MIUI 9.6 operating system based on Android 8.1 . At the moment, the official firmware remains the same version, but there are custom versions of MIUI 10.
Xiaomi Mi Pad 4 was released only for the Chinese market, so there is no global version of the firmware.
To install the localized version from Google Play, you need to unlock the bootloader, get root and use custom firmware from Xiaomi.eu or MiRum.
There are practically no differences from MIUI for smartphones, except for full support for working in landscape orientation. Control - as in the latest Mi, with gestures or on-screen keys.
The tablet test proves that MIUI remains the most convenient branded version of Android. It turns out almost like an iPad, but with greater ability to customize the interface.
Why do you need Mi Pad?
After 2 weeks of use, it becomes clear why Xiaomi limited the distribution of Mi Pad 4 to the domestic market. It's just another tablet among many.
Solid, comfortable and high quality. But it will not replace a smartphone. It will not replace a laptop. It is convenient to use with one hand, but the diagonal is too small for serious work.
The new Mi Pad is ideal for consuming content - instead of an e-reader, media player or portable set-top box.
Software
The Mi Pad 5 line of tablets is equipped with professional software and the MIUI shell, adapted for the large screen. The user can simultaneously watch a video, chat in instant messenger and take notes in a notepad. Concept Sketchpad offers the user a complete set of brushes and other drawing tools. A 240Hz stylus with up to 4,096 levels of pressure and tilt sensitivity works with your tablet's hardware to help you unleash your creativity.
