Xiaomi announces the next best thing to iPad Pro & Tab S8 Ultra for power users
We saw plenty of announcements this week - Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Flip 4 from Samsung, Razr 2022 from Motorola, and Mi Mix Fold 2 from Xiaomi. These were not the only products announced though. Xiaomi, for instance, announced a new tablet called the Xiaomi Pad 5 Pro (via GSM Arena) as well as a couple of other products such as a smartwatch and earbuds.
The Xiaomi Pad 5 Pro is a revamped version of the 11-inch 2021 version of the tablet of the same name. The latest iteration is equipped with a bigger screen, a beefier battery, and more RAM.
Xiaomi Pad 5 Pro sports a bigger screen than the 2021 version
The Xiaomi Pad 5 Pro sports a large 12.4-inch screen with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 and a refresh rate of 120Hz. Some aspects that most consumers are not crazy about have been down specced such as a 120Hz sampling rate instead of 240Hz and 8-bit color depth instead of 10-bit.
Xiaomi has upped the battery capacity from 8,600mAh to 10,000mAh and claims it should last more than two days. The slate supports 67W charging, allowing the cell to replenish from empty to full in 68 minutes.
Despite the bigger battery, the 2022 Pad 5 Pro is slimmer than the 2021 version (6.66mm vs 6.9mm). It features a 50MP main camera and a 2MP depth sensor and a 20MP front shooter.
The tablet is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 chipset, which slots between the Snapdragon 865 and Snapdragon 888. So, while it might not be as fast as the best tablets around, it should still be reasonably fast for the average consumer. It supports the USB 3.2 Gen 1 tech and offers a DisplayPort to let you connect it to a monitor.
High-definition screen projection is supported
The slate runs Android 12-based MIUI 13 and also supports a full-sized keyboard and stylus.
The base model comes with 6GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 128GB of UFS 3.1 storage and is priced at CNY 3000 (~$445). The 8GB+256GB variant will set you back CNY 3,500 and the maxed-out 12GB+256GB version will cost CNY 4,200. Xiaomi will only be selling Wi-Fi variants.
Overall, while this may not be the most specced-out tablet on the market, it is one of the best options in this price range, especially if you are on the lookout for a large-screened slate with multi-day battery life and a sufficiently fast chip that doesn't cost upwards of $1,000 (I am looking at you Apple iPad Pro and Samsung Galaxy S8 Ultra!).
As is the case with many Chinese products that we actually want, this might never come to international markets.
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