Xiaomi Redmi Pad Pro Review: Great Gaming Tablet At A Budget

The Xiaomi Redmi Pad Pro is a pretty exciting 12-inch tablet that costs under 300 dollars despite its very bright display, Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and pen and keyboard option. Too good to be true? That’s what you’ll learn in this Redmi Pad Pro review.

Hardware & Performance

Let’s start with the internal hardware. The Xiaomi Redmi Pad Pro is equipped with a 2nd generation Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s processor. Depending on the model, you get 6GB or 8GB of RAM and 128GB or 256GB of internal storage. There is no version with 5G.

My Geekbench 5 benchmark comparison is quite exciting. Here you can see immediately that the performance is above the Honor Pad 9, which is a direct competitor. It’s also significantly more powerful than the Redmi Pad SE. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ and the Xiaomi Pad 6, on the other hand, are a good deal faster.

In the 3D Mark Wild Life test, the Redmi Pad Pro comes surprisingly close to the significantly more expensive Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ and the results are almost identical. It’s again more powerful than the Honor Pad 9, but the Xiaomi Pad 6 remains significantly stronger.

My gaming test confirms the good benchmark results. You can actually play PUBG Mobile with Ultra HD graphics settings and the game not only looks great, but also runs quite smoothly.

The same goes to Call of Duty Warzone. Here I was able to set the graphics to “high” and the game looks great and runs just as smoothly. We definitely have the Qualcomm processor to thank for that.

Display & Speakers

I also have almost nothing but praise for the 12.1-inch display. It has an aspect ratio of 16:10 and a high resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels. At 12.1 inches, this results in a pixel density of a sharp 249ppi. At the same time, it’s bright at 500 nits and can even reach 600 nits with HDR content.

500 nits is really a lot for an Android tablet, until recently only flagship devices had that, such as the iPad Air with M1 chipset. I also think it’s great that the display supports up to 120Hz.

In a direct comparison with the Honor Pad 9, I found almost no differences. Except for slight deviations in the colors, which may be due to the software. It could even be that the displays are exactly the same.

But even compared to the more expensive Galaxy Tab S9 FE+, it performs very well. As I said, it’s vibrant and bright, quite sharp and the viewing angles and contrast are also good. I can almost only criticize the fact that it’s not OLED, but we can’t expect that from a sub 300 dollar tablet.

I don’t have as much praise for the speakers. They’re fine and good enough to listen to music and watch Netflix and YouTube. But in direct comparison, the sound of the Honor Pad 9 is louder and more pleasant than on the Redmi Pad Pro. The speakers are also not as good compared to the S9 FE+.

Design & Build Quality

The body of the Xiaomi Redmi Pad Pro is mostly made of metal and is available in gray, green and blue. I have the blue version, whereby the colors are only slightly saturated. It’s 7.52mm thick and weighs 571g, the latter is quite light for 12 inches.

Although we get a metal casing, it’s not as high-quality as the Galaxy Tab S9 FE series. This is particularly noticeable at the transition from the body to the display, where there is a bit of plastic. But I think that’s definitely okay for the price.

It’s a shame that premium features such as a fingerprint reader are missing. However, it does have a microSD card slot and even a 3.5 mm audio port. It’s charged via a USB C port, but this is only USB 2.0.

There is an 8-megapixel camera at the front, which can also be unlocked using facial recognition. The main camera also offers 8 megapixels and is supported by an LED flash. It’s clear that you won’t win any awards with the photos. But the quality is sufficient.

Redmi Smart Pen

You can write on the Redmi Pad Pro with the Redmi Smart Pen. I think it’s a shame that Xiaomi hasn’t decided on a standardized pen here. They have already released several tablets with different pens. But manufacturers like Lenovo do that too.

The Redmi Smart Pen is made entirely of plastic, has a pressure-sensitive tip and two buttons on the side. I think it’s a shame that the stylus has to be charged separately via USB C. Other manufacturers manage this more elegantly via induction.

From a technical point of view, the stylus actually works surprisingly well. For a sub 300 dollar device, this is a positive surprise, as it’s not so long ago that styluses in this price range were useless. Alongside the Lenovo Tab Plus, this is now the second tablet in addition to the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite series that has a good pen.

With the Redmi Smart Pen, you can write and draw precisely. If you move the pen very quickly, a slight lag is sometimes visible. But this is not a deal breaker, as you hardly notice it in real-world use.

So, the tablet is great for students that like to write handwritten notes with a pen.

With that being said, I do have a bit of criticisms. The writing experience is not as pleasant as on more expensive tablets such as the Xiaomi Pad 6S Pro, but also not quite as pleasant as on Samsung’s S Pen tablets. This is not a technical issue, but a feeling. Here I describe the writing feeling as cheap. I guess this is due to the choice of material for the pen tip, which is a softer material on the Samsung, for example. But here it’s rather hard.

Software: Android 14

The Redmi Pad Pro runs Android 14 with the Xiaomi HyperOS interface out of the box. Xiaomi has been pretty good with updates in the last few years, which is why I assume that the Redmi Pad Pro will also receive a few updates.

The interface is typically Xiaomi and has elements that are reminiscent of iPadOS. Ultimately, however, it’s just normal Android including all apps from Google.

Redmi Pad Pro Keyboard Cover

Let’s move on to the Redmi Pad Pro Keyboard Cover. Just like the Honor Pad 9 and unlike Samsung and Lenovo, for example, the keyboard is only connected using Bluetooth. This means that you always have to charge the keyboard separately from the tablet with USB C. So if you have a tablet, pen and keyboard, you have to charge three devices.

Apart from that, the keyboard case is good. Due to the display, the keys can be large and it is well protected when folded. Incidentally, the edges are also somewhat protected. There is a loop for the stylus build in.

Read: The Best Tablets With A Keyboard Tested

It is a bit of a shame that there is no touchpad and the keyboard can only be set up at one angle. However, this accessory costs under 100 dollars, which is pretty cheap compared to Samsung and Apple, so I think that’s okay.

Battery Life

In my battery test, the Redmi Pad Pro achieved a runtime of 6.75 hours. Considering the bright display and the 120Hz, I think this is a solid result, even if it could be much better, of course. For this test, I always run an HD YouTube video at maximum brightness in an endless loop.

Redmi Pad Pro Review: My Conclusion

So, is the Xiaomi Redmi Pad Pro a tablet worth recommending? Yes, I think so. Especially considering the price of under 300 dollars, we get an amazingly 12-inch display and pretty good processor performance. At the same time, there are a pen and keyboard as accessories and the build quality is also solid. I think it’s slightly better than the Honor Pad 9.

But it’s also clear that it’s more of a good entry-level tablet. If you want more premium features such as a fingerprint reader, a water and dust-proof casing and a better keyboard option, then you can take a look at the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE+.