The Xiaomi Pad 6 is no different and comes with options for a smart pen and keyboard that can be bought extra to up your game.
Can you bring in more productivity on to an Android tablet? This seems to be the question most new Android tablets seem to be probing as they come to market with accessories like the stylus and keyboard which make them effective for both productivity and creativity. The Xiaomi Pad 6 is no different and comes with options for a smart pen and keyboard that can be bought extra to up your game.
The Xiaomi Pad 6 is a thin and compact tablet with a 11-inch screen and an overall design that reminds you of the iPad and the OnePlus Pad, both almost the same when it comes to looks. The design is uncomplicated and you get a power button on top and a volume rocker on the right when you hold the tablet in vertical orientation. There is a square camera module at the back and it does protrude out a bit, given that the chassis itself is just 6.5mm thick.
This also means the tablet is super light and can easily slip inside your messenger bag, along with the books. The review unit came with a regular folio cover as well as a keyboard cover. With the latter, it does become a bit more thicker and heavier, but still very manageable. This cover sticks magnetically to the back of the tablet and you have a groove to make the screen stand up. The keys are well spaced out and offer the right amount of travel, but there is no trackpad on offer unlike with the Apple Magic keyboard. One can also buy the smart pen which thankfully sticks to the top of the tablet where it charges too.
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The display is one of the strong points of this tablet with the 1800 x 2880 pixel screen being ideal for content consumption. The screen is crisp and can become quite bright too if needed. The four speakers flanking the screen shine through thanks to Dolby Atmos, making even the Adipurush trailer enjoyable.
I could not help but notice that the Xiaomi Pad 6 made me go through the entire set up in vertical mode, reminding me of the first breed of Android tablets and phablets which were essentially smartphones hidden inside larger screens. Even after set up, there are places where this tablet’s UI keeps reminding you of a smartphone, like when browsing websites like indianexpress.com in horizontal orientation. Chrome kept showing these sites in mobile view. For me, this was certainly an irritant.
The Xiaomi Pad 6 is powered by Snapdragon 870 with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. This makes the tablet quite powerful for regular tasks as well as gaming. The MIUI 14 supports multitasking well and I could scan websites in the morning even as I had new music vides playing on YouTube on the sidebar. For those who own a Xiaomi phone, you can expect some synergies as you will be able to drag and drop content from one device to the other soon.
While the tablet manages tasks quite well, and even multi-tab browsing — I do end up accumulating a lot of tabs with even a few minutes of browsing — there is a hint of warmth towards the charging port side, though nothing alarming. And this does not aggravate when you are gaming, even at high refresh rates on the screen.
On the productivity side, the keyboard makes this a good option for those who want to carry a large screen around to write or even check spreadsheets. Thanks to the keyboard commands, I could work on Google Sheets without much issue, though I still feel large spreadsheets is the Achilles heel of all tablets at the moment.
On the creative side, the Smart Pen is quite useful and it comes with two buttons that let you switch between a pen mode and a screenshot mode. But I did miss the intuitiveness of the S-Pen on a Samsung tablet where it offers a stylus menu every time I touch the pen. Here you need to download specific apps or use the scribble option inside the notes app, which again feels a bit of a patchwork and not very well integrated. Also, to use the Smart Pen properly one ideally has to take out the tablet from the keyboard stand. Even then, I ended up with quite a few false taps with my palm that kept closing the notes app. This could be an area of improvement before the next software update.
The 13MP camera works decently in good light and throws up noise in low light. But I don’t think that’s important as I still don’t have a good use case for a back camera in tablets. The front camera is reasonable enough for video calls.
The 8840 mAh battery can last a couple of days if you are taking the device to work. With gaming or Netflix, expect the battery to drain faster.
At Rs 26,999 with an additional 10,999 for the keyboard and stylus, the Xiaomi Pad 6 is an option for those looking for an Android tablet can consider. While the hardware is solid, I would like to software to get a bit better and keep the tablet experience in mind.
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First published on: 13-06-2023 at 12:12 IST
