Xiaomi Pad 6 Review: Doubling Down on Value

The Xiaomi Pad 6 has been launched as a new Android tablet under Rs. 30,000 in India, replacing the Pad 5 (Review) which debuted last year. The Pad 6 has some big boots to fill as its predecessor got most things right by offering value-for-money hardware at an attractive price. The new mid-range tablet has received some incremental upgrades over the outgoing model such as a smoother display, bigger battery and a faster processor. To make the experience more productive, there are a couple of accessories available as well.

With all that is on offer, is the Xiaomi Pad 6 a good deal? Here is our full review to help you decide.

Xiaomi Pad 6 has sizeable bezels around the display

Xiaomi Pad 6 price in India

The Xiaomi Pad 6 starts at Rs. 26,999 for the base variant with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The company sent us the 8GB RAM variant with 256GB of storage, which is priced at Rs. 28,999. The top-end option of the Pad 6 gets more RAM for the same price as last year’s Pad 5. The tablet is available in two colour options — Graphite Grey and Mist Blue.

Xiaomi has also launched the Smart Pen (Gen 2) for Rs. 5,999 and a keyboard case for Rs. 4,999. There is also a cover case available for Rs. 1,499. To make the deal sweeter, the Pad 6 can be bought as a bundle which includes a combination of these accessories, making the effective price slightly lower than what you’d pay if you bought them individually.

For example, the 6GB RAM variant with the keyboard and smart stylus will cost Rs. 34,997, whereas the 8GB RAM variant will cost Rs. 36,997. There are standalone bundle offers on the smart stylus and smart case as well.

The speakers on the Xiaomi Pad 6 are quite loud

Xiaomi Pad 6 design and display

Xiaomi has made some design changes to the Pad 6 which helps it offer a premium look and feel. The Xiaomi Pad 6 continues to offer a flat frame design. Unlike the Pad 5 which featured a plastic rear and a metal frame, the Pad 6 has an all-metal unibody design. The company has also managed to make the tablet a bit lighter at 490g, while measuring 6.51mm thick.

The camera module design seems to have been inspired by the company’s flagship smartphone in India, the Xiaomi 13 Pro (Review). Obviously, the quality of the cameras between the two devices are no where close and the Pad 6 features only a single camera sensor on the back. The bezels around the display are thick enough for you to hold the tablet comfortably. The front camera is placed at the top-centre along the length of the bezel, which is appropriate for video calls.

The Xiaomi Pad 6 has an 11-inch IPS LCD like its predecessor, but the resolution and refresh rate tech have received an upgrade. It now supports an adaptive 144Hz refresh rate and the screen is able to adjust it between 30Hz and 144Hz, depending on the on-screen content. During my time with the tablet, I only noticed the refresh rate going up to 120Hz (Smart switch mode), which itself is quite smooth.

Xiaomi Pad 6’s keyboard accessory does not feature a trackpad

The display also offers a 2.8K screen resolution (2,880×1,800 pixels), along with support for HDR10 and Dolby Vision HDR certifications. The display offers good brightness, colours and viewing angles indoors but under harsh sunlight outdoors, I found found myself squinting at times trying to view the content due to the reflective panel. The display has a maximum rated brightness of 550 nits, which could have been higher. Complementing the multimedia experience is the quad-speaker setup, which is quite loud and produces a good amount of bass. It also supports Dolby Atmos. 

Just like the Xiaomi Pad 5, the Pad 6 does not get a side-mounted fingerprint scanner or a 3.5mm headphone jack. The tablet has a USB Type-C port at the bottom which is supports the USB 3.2 standard, which is nice to see considering the more expensive OnePlus Pad (Review) had a USB 2.0 port. The Pad 6 also supports video-out to a 4K monitor and even though not everyone might need this feature, the faster USB 3.2 standard itself should ensure quicker data transfer speeds which content creators are likely to appreciate.

Another productivity-focused feature is support for two new accessories. The Xiaomi Pad 6 supports the Smart Pen (2nd gen) and a keyboard cover. The latter can be attached using the three pogo pins on the tablet’s rear side. The attachment is not as strong as the iPad 10th-generation’s (Review) magnetic keyboard. The Pad 6 fell off while I tried picking up the tablet using the keyboard. It also doesn’t have a trackpad.

However, key travel is nice. Xiaomi has also used a luminescent coating for the letters and symbols on the keyboard so they glow in the dark, making it a cheaper alternative to backlighting. The smart pen is quite responsive and offers many features, which we will discuss in the performance section of this review.

Xiaomi Pad 6 sports an 11-inch display

Xiaomi Pad 6 specifications and software

The Xiaomi Pad 6 features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 SoC, which is a couple of years old but still quite capable. The tablet does not offer storage expansion support via a microSD card slot. It also packs a beefy 8,840mAh battery with support for 33W fast charging.

In terms of software, Xiaomi Pad 6 boots the Android 13-based MIUI 14 for Pad software. The custom Android skin is quite clean and offers a good amount of features which contributes well to most productivity and personalisation requirements. 

Xiaomi has also provided many software features which take advantage of the big screen, such as floating window and split-screen. The latter requires you to have the primary app open and perform a three-finger swipe from left to right on the display, in order to open the second compatible app. The software also gives you the option to pair apps and save them as an icon on the homescreen so that both can be opened with a single tap.

Some apps like JioCinema are yet to be optimised for landscape mode

Xiaomi has also ensured that its own apps are optimised for the 16:10 aspect display. It has also worked with some developers of popular apps for the same. For instance, the homescreen of the Disney+ Hotstar  app can be viewed in landscape mode too, which was not possible when we reviewed the Redmi Pad (Review).

However, there are many popular apps which aren’t optimised yet for the big screen, although this is more of an Android issue than strictly Xiaomi’s. Jio Cinema for instance shows grey bars when you open the app in landscape mode, and Twitter and Instagram are simply blown-up versions of the mobile app. 

Regarding updates, Xiaomi has promised to provide three major MIUI versions for the Pad 6 but it hasn’t revealed whether these updates will include new Android generations and for how many years it will be supported.

Xiaomi Pad 6 performance and battery life

The SoC in the Xiaomi Pad 6 still has enough power to pack a punch for most tasks, including gaming. I played BGMI and Asphalt 9: Legends on the Xiaomi Pad 6 and the performance was quite good. My issue was more to do with the grip and comfort while holding the device to play the game. I found the large screen and the flat edges a bit too uncomfortable to play games such as BGMI, which require a lot of touch inputs. If you have a Bluetooth controller, the tablet could offer a fun gaming experience.

Xiaomi Pad 6 has some software features to take advantage of the big display

During my week with the device, I did not encounter any major bugs across the interface. RAM management is quite good on the 8GB variant. In AnTuTu (v10), the tablet scored 755,321 points. In Geekbench 6, it scored 1,308 and 3,371 points in the single-core and multi-core tests.

Coming to the Smart Pen, the stylus is quite responsive. There is no noticeable lag between the input and output on the screen. The pen is also pressure-sensitive allowing you to draw a darker/ thicker line in the Notes app when pressed harder. The primary button on the pen can be long-pressed to quickly open the Notes app. You can also use the pen to navigate between various writing and erasing tools. The secondary button can be used to take screenshots. Also, you can also use it to scroll vertically across a webpage in Chrome.

Xiaomi Pad 6 has three pogo pins on the back for the keyboard accessory.

In terms of battery life, the Xiaomi Pad 6 can last a full day on Wi-Fi, with a little bit of gaming. On days when I played BGMI for more than an hour, the average screen-on time (SoT) was about seven hours. On days with lighter use, the SoT was around 8 hours and 30 minutes. In our HD video battery loop test, the Xiaomi Pad 6 lasted for 12 hours and 4 minutes, which was surprisingly average. The device takes about an hour and 45 minutes to charge from 0-100 percent using the bundled 33W adapter.

Xiaomi’s Smart Pen can be charged magnetically and is claimed to last for about 150 hours on a full charge, which is a massive upgrade over the previous generation’s claim of just eight hours. Xiaomi claims that charging the new stylus for a minute should give users seven hours of battery life.

Xiaomi Pad 6 cameras

Xiaomi Pad 6 has a single 13-megapixel camera on the back, which is primarily aimed at scanning documents. For photography, the output is decent with good colours and dynamic range. 

Xiaomi Pad 6’s camera module design is similar to the Xiaomi 13 Pro

For selfies and video calls, there is an 8-megapixel front camera which does a decent job with colours and exposure under sufficient lighting. It does tend to add a face beauty filter by default. The camera offers support for Focus Frame, which is Xiaomi’s version of Apple’s Centre Stage. The feature currently works on WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger video calls where it tracks your face adjusts the frame accordingly so you’re always in the centre. 

Xiaomi Pad 6 rear and front camera samples (tap to see full size)

Verdict

The Xiaomi Pad 6 checks quite a few boxes when it comes to offering a smooth, value-for-money Android tablet experience. The upgraded design, sharper display, powerful performance unit and all-day battery life come without attracting any additional cost over the outgoing model, which is a great plus point. However, it has been a whole year since we got the Pad 5 and it would have been nice to have a more recent processor in the new model. Things such as a fingerprint sensor is still missing and there’s no cellular model either. And finally, we expected better battery life especially for video playback. 

The Xiaomi Pad 6 can also be used as a productivity machine with its set of optional accessories and with the bundle offer, it would actually still cost less than something like the OnePlus Pad (Review). The latter is a more premium tablet that also costs a bit more and could be worth stretching your budget for if you want a more unique looking tablet, better processing power, and nicer accessories.