Description
Design
Pad 5 has a thickness of 6.85mm and weighs 511 grams. It is very light for a tab that has an 11-inch screen. The front face is mostly made out of glass and the frame is made out of metal. However, the back is made of plastic of quality. The entire tablet is strong and feels premium which justifies its price. Xiaomi Pad 5 comes in just one color variant- Cosmic Gray. In portrait orientation, the top side has an on/off button, a microphone, and two speakers. The right side contains the volume rockers and a button-shaped magnetic strip that can be used to attach the optional stylus accessory. Coming to the bottom side a microphone, two additional speakers, and a Type-C charging port are positioned at the bottom. The left edge is home to a set of pogo pins to help you connect a detachable keypad, which is also sold separately. Some other things you can get to see are the 3.5mm audio jack and official IP ratings to offer any protection from water and dust.
Display
Xiaomi Pad 5 offers a high-resolution LCD panel boasting 2.5k resolution. The screen size is 10.95 inches which comes with a WQHD+ resolution (1600 x 2560) that has 275 PPI pixel density. Videos and games look pretty impressive and the Pad 5 also works as an excellent big-screen device for e-learning, reading, and simply browsing web pages. It has a brightness of 500nits due to which you might struggle sometimes under direct sunlight. Moving on it has a 120Hz refresh rate which makes the UI navigation and scrolling buttery smooth and even the touch response is also quite good. Overall, the Pad 5 has an excellent screen for the tablet’s price.
Camera
The usage of cameras in tablets is very low so it is less expected to have a powerful photography camera, but at least they should address basic photography needs. The Pad 5 does that excellently, it has a 13MP rear camera and an 8MP front camera. It does a decent job of capturing pictures and recording videos in good lighting conditions. You can even get crisp 4K 30fps videos from the 13MP rear camera. The camera app is easy-to-use and offers the most required features for basic photography needs.
Software
The Pad 5 supports MIUI Global 13.0.3 stable version. According to Android 11, the software has been enhanced to support the large display and runs well for the most part. The number of bloatware has been kept extremely low and the Pad 5 also removed the ‘GetApps’. The UI feels smooth but the app opening/closing animations need some refining as in some cases it is overlapping. The most useful Xiaomi MIUI utilities are present on Pad 5. Xiaomi Pad 5 provides most of the MIUI utilities and these include- Reading mode, Battery saver, Dual apps, App lock, Screen recorder, Game Turbo, Floating windows, Second space, Clear speaker tool, and more.
Battery Life and Connectivity
The battery can survive for almost three days and a day and a half with heavy usage. The Pad 5 comes with a 22.5W fast-charging brick in the box; moreover, it supports 33W fast-charging too. It takes 2 hours and 15 minutes to recharge the battery. Moving on to connectivity Pad 5 comes in two Wi-Fi configurations and it supports Bluetooth 5.0.
Overall performance
The Pad 5 work smoothly for daily use and can also handle heavy multimedia tasks. The powerful internals ensures smooth processing and a lag-free multitasking experience. The tablet is run by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 chipset (Adreno 640 Graphics) and comes in two combinations 6GB RAM + 128GB ROM and 6GB RAM + 256GB ROM. Xiaomi has used LPDDR4X RAM and UFS 3.1 storage in both variants.
