This is a post on the unboxing and early impressions of the newly released tablet by Xiaomi – Pad 6. I got the one with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. Before I dive deeper into the experience and backstory, here are some pictures of the unboxing.
Some shots of the boxes that arrived. I had two different orders, one with the Xiaomi Pad6 itself and one with the Xiaomi Smart Pen 2nd gen and the Xiaomi Pad 6 cover. I’ll cover the accessories in different posts.
The package contains the Xiaomi Pad 6 tablet, paperwork, a 33W charger and a USB-A to USB-C cable.
Shot of the front with the Smart Pen 2. The Display looks great. It is 11 inches with a resolution of 2880×1800 at a 16:10 aspect ratio making it 309ppi (pixels per inch). FYI, this is more PPI than the latest iPad Air or even the latest iPad Pros. So can I say, it is even more of a liquid retina display?
One thing you might see missed out in a lot of the marketing material is that this is an LCD panel. I guess Xiaomi wants to avoid focusing on the panel type and instead create attention to the resolution and also the refresh rate. This tablet has a refresh rate of 144hz! You can select between auto, or force it to 60hz, 90hz or 144hz. Lastly, the display supports HDR10 and has a peak brightness of 550nits. I think 120hz would have been fine and it’s not like a user can differentiate between 120 or 144hz.
The front camera is 8MP and capable of supporting videos of 1080p@30fps.
The unibody in all its glory. You can see pogo pins and the camera module. The pogo pins would connect to the keyboard case that Xiaomi offers, but I didn’t opt for that.
The rear camera is a 13MP with f2.2 aperture capable of shooting 4K@30fps or 1080p@30/60fps. It comes with a dual LED flash. There’s also a microphone in the module.
Other specs:
Snapdragon 870
WiFi 6
Bluetooth 5.2
Android 13, MIUI 14
4 Stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos
490grams
8840mAh battery
Early Impressions on Value
I did not want to rant so much about what Apple is giving you but it’s kinda hard to not compare considering the Xiaomi Pad 6 costs ₹26,999 (USD329) and the iPad Air costs ₹59,900 (USD730) for 64GB and ₹74,900 (USD913) for 256GB. The iPad Pro 11inches costs ₹81,900 (USD999) for 128GB.
Here’s a one-liner picture: The Xiaomi Pad 6 256GB costs less than a third (31%) of the 256GB 11-inch iPad Pro and two-fifths (38%) of the iPad Air 256GB.
Early Impressions on Product:
I’ve been using the tablet for over 24 hours now. I made Zoom calls, used the pen to write notes, installed applications, watched YouTube, checked emails, browsed the web and explored split-screen/multi-window.
The Display is very good. It’s such a shame that Apple locks high refresh rate to “pro” devices. Apart from the refresh rates which came in handy using the tablet, the colors on the display are great. Watching 1440p videos on YouTube was crisp. As I said earlier, this has more PPI than the latest iPad Air or Pro. The speakers are decent, not that I tried playing music or movies yet.
It charges fast~ish? The Xiaomi website claims it charges 100% in 100mins. I think this is fairly close. The battery has lasted a day for me but I’ll track this more.
The build quality is quite good. I’m actually surprised at the quality of the materials used.
The front camera is fine for your Google Meet or Zoom calls. I might add pictures in the full review later.
Another note: There’s a feature called “Apple Pencil Hover” that Apple has locked to the new gen of iPad Pros – this is available in the Xiaomi Pad 6 if you use the second-generation pen.
That’s a wrap for now. Will post a full review in the coming week along with a review of the second-generation pen and the cover.
Update 3/7/23: Here’s the link for the Full Review
Pankaj Kara 