Xiaomi Pad 5 review: Top value

Looking for an affordable and capable Android tablet for watching videos and playing games? The Xiaomi Pad 5 should definitely be on your shortlist. Its crisp display and powerful Dolby Atmos quad speakers make for an excellent multimedia experience. Its Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 chip offers plenty of horsepower, and the tablet performs well in our battery life test, too.

Quick specs

11-inch IPS LCD (2,560 x 1,600 pixels)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 chip with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage
8,720mAh battery (22.5W fast charging)
511g

With its 11-inch Dolby Vision-compatible IPS display, the Xiaomi Pad 5 is almost perfect for media consumption. This screen is bright and crisp, if not quite as rich as the best OLED screens. Bezels are narrow, while the tablet itself is slim and feels premium in the hand. It could be a bit lighter, though. The 120Hz screen refresh rate also makes for a smooth user experience. But there's no dynamic refresh rate to optimise battery life — you can only pick between 60Hz and 120Hz in the settings. Further bolstering its multimedia credentials are the excellent quad speakers. They can get impressively loud, but still retains a nice, balanced sound, especially with Dolby Atmos enabled. However, I did miss having a headphone jack.

When paired with Xiaomi's keyboard cover and smart pen, the Xiaomi Pad 5 may be decent for light productivity tasks like emails. I didn't manage to try these accessories because Xiaomi Singapore doesn't sell them. But you can find imported versions on Lazada and Shopee. However, I'm not convinced by the multi-tasking capabilities of Xiaomi's MIUI for Pad interface. For starters, it takes more taps to open two apps side-by-side compared to a Samsung tablet. However, you can open a handful of compatible apps as floating windows. There's also no native desktop mode ala Samsung's DeX. Another downside is the lack of proper biometrics — the tablet doesn't have a fingerprint reader. You do get the basic Android face unlock feature, which is fast but not really secure.

I usually don't bother taking photos with my tablet. But the 13MP rear camera on the Xiaomi Pad 5 is surprisingly decent. It's about on par with a low to mid-range smartphone camera. It can even shoot 4K videos at 30fps. Of course, it's still awkward to take photos with the rear camera. Meanwhile, the 8MP front camera only shoots 1080p videos, but is adequate for video calls. Performance-wise, the Xiaomi Pad 5 feels snappy. After all, its Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 chip is a revised 855+ chip, which powered flagship phones in 2019. I had no issues running mobile games like Minecraft. While the tablet warmed up slightly during gaming, it stayed cool to the touch while browsing the web and during video playback.

The Xiaomi Pad 5 lasted a good 10hr 13min in our video-loop battery test at maximum brightness. I would have liked a faster charging speed than 22.5W, but it's a minor nitpick. Overall, Xiaomi has done a great job at creating an excellent tablet for media consumption. The firm, though, should also consider selling the accessories here. More importantly, the Pad 5's S$449 retail price is excellent value for money, especially when compared to similarly-priced models like the Lenovo Tab P11 Plus. It's also much more affordable than the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE 5G. Get the Xiaomi Pad 5 now at Amazon, Shopee and Lazada.

Note: Review unit provided by Xiaomi.

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