Redmi Pad Review: The Best Budget Tablet!

Xiaomi launched the Redmi Pad in Nepal in November. It is the first tablet from Xiaomi under the new Redmi sub-brand.

Redmi Pad price in Nepal is Rs. 34,999 for the sole 6/128GB. Considering the spec sheet, Redmi Pad looks to offer the best bag for the buck when it comes to tablets.

It comes with a 2K IPS panel, Helio G99 chipset, and 8000mAh battery. So, is this enough to make it the best tablet in Nepal? Find out in this review of the Redmi Pad.

Redmi Pad Review

Design

• 250.5 x 158.1 x 7.1 mm
• 465 g
• Aluminum frame and back

Redmi Pad is an aesthetically pleasing tablet, more so from the rear than the front. The aluminum sides and the back have a matte finish that feels premium in the hand. When you pick up this device, you’ll realize how impressively sleek it is. On top of that, the device does not feel too heavy.

The rectangular camera module is reminiscent of the Apple iPad Pro camera module. However, Xiaomi has extended the camera module vertically to make it look different.

The Redmi Pad misses out on a headphone jack and fingerprint sensor. Also, it doesn’t support cellular data but it does come with an sd card slot to expand the storage. The quad-speaker setup gives this budget tablet an extra edge and there’s a power button on the top.

Finally, there’s no IP rating for water and dust resistance on the Redmi tab. For me, that isn’t an issue considering its price tag.

Xiaomi has done an excellent job – full marks to Xiaomi when it comes to the design.

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Display and Audio

• 10.61 inches 2k IPS LCD
• 1200 x 2000 pixels
• 90Hz, 1B colors, 400 nits

The Redmi Pad is sporting a 90Hz Full HD+ IPS LCD display, and it is a very good panel with vivid color, excellent brightness level, and wide viewing angles. Even though it’s an IPS panel, the 10-bit panel produces really good color for a rich content viewing experience.

I enjoyed watching videos on the Redmi Pad, I even watched World Cup matches on the Redmi Pad. Though the black level is not as good as the AMOLED panel, I don’t have any complaints about this IPS panel. Combine this with the 90Hz refresh rate smoothness, it’s a joy to use this panel.

If you watch tons of Netflix series, you will be glad to know that it comes with Widevine L1 certification that enables FHD playback. But, it doesn’t support HDR.

For the price, the 10-bit 90HZ IPS panel of the Redmi Pad provides more than what it is expected to.

For sound, the Redmi Tab comes with quad speakers, two on the left and two on the right when you hold the tablet in landscape orientation. And yes, they come with Dolby branding. They can easily fill a medium-sized room. The speakers do not feel distorted at max volume – well not completely. There’s a slight feeling of distortion at max volume but it is not annoying.

Quality-wise, the speakers are above average. I would have liked a punchier sound with a brighter and warmer sound profile. But, it is quite good for a budget tablet.

That said, unless you’re comparing it with high-end Samsung or Apple tablets, you’ll be just fine with Redmi tab’s speakers.

Performance

• MediaTek MT8781 Helio G99 (6nm)
• Octa-core (2×2.2 GHz Cortex-A76 & 6×2.0 GHz Cortex-A55)
• Mali-G57 MC2
• 64GB 3GB RAM, 128GB 4GB RAM, 128GB 6GB RAM, UFS 2.2

Redmi Pad is powered by the all-new Helio G99 chipset from MediaTek. Technically, it is still an old chipset but with a twist. The G99 is an overclocked version of the Helio G96 chipset with the same cores but it is built in a much more advanced 6nm architecture compared to the 12nm architecture of the G96.

With the G99, the Redmi tab is a very good performer overall. Whether it be gaming, running multiple apps side by side, or opening apps, the Redmi Tab doesn’t feel sluggish.

Benchmarks

We ran a couple of benchmarks to see how the new Helio G99 performs and it is pretty good. It outscores the older Helio G96 and looks to compete with the expensive Snapdragon 695 chipset.

In GeekBench, the G99 in the Redmi Tab outscores the Helio G96 chipset. The data for the Helio G96 chipset is taken from the Redmi Note 11 Pro 4G. Likewise, the G99 is not too far from the Snapdragon 695 as well.

The G99 manages to outscore the Snapdragon 695 chipset in 3D MarkWildlife which did not surprise me – the G99 in Poco M5 had already achieved that feat. But, it’s surprising that Helio G96 has a significantly lower score even though they use the same GPU. Whatever MediaTek has done with the Helio G99, it seems to have worked.

Gaming

Gaming performance is decent too. We tested COD Mobile and Genshin Impact on the Redmi Tab.

COD Mobile can be played at the ‘High’ frame rate option with both ‘Low’ and ‘Medium’ graphics settings. Redmi Tab performs well in both settings as it averages 59.9 fps with negligible frame drops and zero stutters.

For Genshin Impact, we tested the game at the Lowest graphics setting capped at 30fps. It averages 30 fps but we did notice occasional frame drops along with 0.2% stutter.

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Camera

• 8MP, f/2.0, AF (Rear Camera)
• 8MP, f/2.3 105° (ultrawide) (Front Camera)
• Video: 1080p@30fps

The Redmi Tab has a single 8MP sensor on the rear and an 8MP wide sensor on the front. The front camera has a 105-degree FOV.

REAR CAMERA

Picture quality is what you expect from tablets: it’s good when there’s nice bright light and noisy in low-light situations. I do like the vibrant colors and the contrast is also good. The sharpness might not be good but overall detail is commendable.

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FRONT CAMERA

The front camera is more than good enough for video calls. The wide FOV also helps to achieve a wider frame if you need it. However, the fixed-focus selfie camera produces soft selfies with plenty of noise and low detail.

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VIDEO

It is capable of shooting up to 1080p video at 30fps. The video quality is decent considering the price. It gets the job done but it is not amazing.

Battery

• 8000mAh battery
• 18W Fast Charging

The 8000 mAh battery on the Redmi Pad isn’t huge on paper, but in practice, it’s enough to power through an entire day. Even with heavy usage, Redmi Pad will last a day. With my moderate usage, I was getting almost 10-11 hours of screen time.

For charging, it comes with a 22.5W charger in the box but it only supports 18W charging. In our testing, it took us 2 hours and 40 mins to fully charge the Redmi Pad from 0 to 100%.

Software

• Android 12
• MIUI 13.1

Redmi Pad comes with Android 12 out of the box along with MIUI 13.1. Xiaomi has optimized the MIUI for tablets with dual pane settings page, dock, and multi-window features.

The multi-window feature isn’t much different from what we already get on the Xiaomi smartphone. However, I like the feature where the recently used multi-window layer gets saved in the dock, making it easy to access in the future.

There is also a floating window feature where you can have multiple floating windows. To minimize the floating window, you can simply swipe the window toward the sides.

Should You Buy the Redmi Pad?

Redmi Pad is a great tablet with a good display, excellent performance, and decent battery life. It is built well and the quad-speaker system makes it a great option for consuming content.

When I was using this tablet, I had to send my laptop for repair. This was my main source for watching tv shows, movies, and the world cup. It’s fair to say that I enjoyed doing all of the above on this tablet.

If you are looking for a good tablet for Rs. 35,000, this is the one to get. There are not many options either, only other options from brands like Alcatel, Samsung, and Lenovo are below par.

ALSO READ: Xiaomi Mobiles Price in Nepal: Features and Specs

So this is my Redmi Pad review. What do you think of the Redmi Pad? Let me know in the comments!

Also, watch our review video of the Redmi Pad in Nepali.