Poco Pad 5G review: A budget 5G tablet for everyday use

Firstly, it’s not really a tablet per se, as the Poco Pad 5G is essentially a rebranded version of the Redmi Pad Pro, which is already available in India. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as the Poco Pad is close ₹1,000 cheaper than its Redmi counterpart, but with the same specifications.

Unboxing and design:

Inside the Poco Pad 5G’s yellow and black box, you’ll find the device itself, a SIM card ejector tool, some documents, a 33W USB adapter, and a Type-C cable. The tablet doesn’t come with a pre-installed screen protector (plastic or otherwise), and I highly recommend getting one before you start using it on a daily basis.

Design-wise, the Poco Pad 5G features two coin-shaped cutouts at the back, one for the 8MP camera sensor and the other for the flash. It comes with a dual-tone finish at the back, with the glossy side made of aluminum and the matte side covering the cameras made of plastic.

Weighing in at around 570g and 7.52mm thick, the new Poco Pad isn’t the lightest or most stylish Android tablet on the market, but Poco seems to have done some work on managing the weight of the device and it doesn’t feel heavy when performing everyday tasks like watching OTT content or reading PDFs. What I didn’t like, however, was that the matte half of the Poco Pad is an absolute magnet for fingerprints and the marks it leaves behind are difficult to remove.

Display and battery:

The Poco Pad 5G comes with a 12.1-inch IPS LCD display with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels, a variable refresh rate of 120Hz, and a peak brightness of 600 nits. It also supports Dolby Vision and comes with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection.

I was a bit skeptical about the Poco Pad’s IPS display, but it soon won me over with its excellent detail, viewing angles, and color accuracy. Obviously, the contrast isn’t as good as an AMOLED display, but it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to live with given the price range. Coupled with the quad-speaker setup that comes with Dolby Atmos support, the tablet offers a very comfortable viewing experience for binge-watching fans like me.

I was also very impressed with the Poco Pad’s 10,000mAh battery, which easily lasted until the second day with usage that consisted of watching 5-6 hours of OTT shows or YouTube videos and some web browsing. What wasn’t as impressive was the 33W charger that came with the tablet, which took around 2 hours to fully charge it from 0 to 100 percent. This is the only area where Poco has cut some corners, and honestly, I would have liked to see more than 50W of fast charging given the massive battery size.

Software and camera:

Poco Pad 5G runs on Android 14-based HyperOS and the company has promised 2 years of OS updates and 3 years of security patches.

I didn’t have high expectations for the Poco Pad’s software, given that budget devices from Poco and Xiaomi are packed with bloatware and ads. But to my surprise, the Poco Pad offers a very clean and complete software experience that’s tailored for tablets. With the exception of Netflix and Fitbit, there are no pre-installed apps with the tablet, and I didn’t encounter any ads during my testing period.

Additionally, HyperOS comes with a ton of features, especially for tablet use. For example, you can now easily put an app into a floating window or split screen by dragging it from the smart sidebar to the center or right side of the screen respectively. There is also a new three-finger gesture to easily put an app into split screen and you can also close an individual app while in split screen mode.

There’s also a new ‘Conference Tools’ option when joining a meeting that can help ensure you stay focused during a video call or even fill the frame with light if needed.

Performance:

Poco Pad 5G is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 chipset, paired with an Adreno 710 GPU. It supports up to 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM and up to 256GB of UFS 2.2 storage with an option to add up to 1.5TB of storage via microSD card slot.

While the Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 isn’t the most powerful chipset on the market, it can handle everyday tasks like browsing the web, taking notes, and streaming OTT content with ease. While it can handle casual gaming sessions, it’s certainly not intended for hardcore gaming enthusiasts.

As for the benchmarks, the Poco Pad 5G scored 5,03,477 on Antutu. In Geekbench 6, it received a single-core score of 979 and a multi-core score of 2,749.

Verdict:

The Poco Pad 5G is priced at ₹23,999 for the 8GB + 128GB storage variant and ₹25,999 for the 8GB + 256GB version. At this price point, there aren’t many tablets that offer 5G connectivity, meaning the Poco Pad will be an obvious choice for those who prioritize having a SIM card slot on their tablet.

The Poco Pad has a lot of other things going for it, too, including a stunning 12.1-inch display, a quad-speaker setup, great battery life, and a clean, feature-rich software experience designed for tablets. However, the addition of a Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 processor means this isn’t a tablet for gamers or power users.

Who is it for? The Poco Pad 5G is a great choice for those looking to buy a budget tablet for watching movies, browsing the web, attending online meetings, reading e-books, playing casual games, and performing everyday tasks.

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Published: Sep 02, 2024, 03:16 AM IST