Xiaomi Pad 8 review: Flagship power at an affordable price

In recent years, there has been a drastic adoption of tablets as an alternative to a laptop for entertainment and casual work. If we look at numbers, the tablet shipments grew by 5% year-over-year to reach 151.9 million units in 2025, according to an IDC report, showcasing evolving consumer demand.

While we only have a few options for tablets, the market is mostly dominated by the Apple iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab S series, or the OnePlus Pad series. But now, Xiaomi is emerging as a new competitor, or we can say a flagship-killer, with advanced features, at a fraction of the price.

The latest Xiaomi Pad 8 is one such great example. The tablet comes with a sleek, lightweight design, refined software experience, a powerful mid-range processor, and some useful AI-powered features that simply make productivity seamless. 

We have been testing the Xiaomi Pad 8 for over 10 days, in terms of display experience, productivity, multitasking, and simple day-to-day tasks, to see if it lives up to the hype as a flagship replacement. 

Xiaomi Pad 8 review: Design and display

The Xiaomi Pad 8 feels premium at first glance, and it might as well remind you of the iPad Air if you keep the massive camera module aside. The tablet is exceptionally slim, measuring just 5.75mm in thickness and weighing 485 grams. 

It comes with a full-metal unibody with an aluminium frame and glass front. On the rear panel, it features a square-shaped camera module, which is awkwardly placed with a massive bump. It houses a rear camera and a ring-shaped LED light. 

In addition, you get the basic power and volume buttons, but it misses out on the fingerprint scanner and cellular connectivity. It also has a magnetic space for the stylus. Overall, the Xiaomu Pad 8’s design is clean and minimalist, as most buyers may prefer.

In terms of display, the Xiaomi Pad 8 features an 11.2-inch LCD that offers 11.2-inch LCD resolution, up to 144Hz adaptive refresh rate, and up to 800nits of peak brightness. 

In terms of real-time experience, the tablet delivers exceptional visuals, despite the lack of an OLED display. It manages to offer sharp visuals with accurate colours and HDR support, making it perfect for content consumption.

It also comes with a nano-texture coating option that reduces the glare, similar to the ones we find on the iPad models. Furthermore, the display was quick and responsive to touch and actions, and the brightness levels were also adequate to work outdoors, but may not be the best in direct sunlight conditions.

Apart from its display and design, one of the standout aspects of the Xiaomi Pad 8 is its speaker experience. It is equipped with a quad-speaker setup with Dolby Atmos, and the sound quality is quite impressive, which is rare for a tablet. This makes content viewing on the Xiaomi Pad 8 2x better.

Xiaomi Pad 8 review: Performance, software and accessories

The Xiaomi Pad 8 is powered by the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 processor paired with up to 12GB LPDDR5T and 256GB UFS 4.1 storage. The new processor is a major performance upgrade over last year’s Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3. According to the brand, the chip delivers 26% and 32% improvements in single- and multi-core performance, respectively.

In day-to-day use, the tablet is snappy and responsive, seamlessly handling multitasking, media, and gaming. The apps open quickly without any stutter, and the overall experience is well-optimised. Even with multiple apps open and running in the background, the Xiaomi Pad 8 remains consistent, with no noticeable slowdowns.

In addition, if you are a gaming enthusiast, then the tablet delivers a promising performance with the combination of a powerful chip, crisp display, and a booming speaker. We tested with BGMI and Call of Duty Mobile, and both ran smoothly with medium graphics.

Software

While the Xiaomi Pad 8 also checks all the boxes, another special mention should be the Android 16-based HyperOS 3. The software feels clean and refined across the board. The UI feels visually polished with swift animations, improved multitasking features such as floating windows and split-screen. It also has a Workstation Mode that offers a desktop-like experience to swiftly navigate through apps.

Most importantly, it comes with minimal bloatware that only consists of useful apps, which eventually users end up installing. It has no ads compared to its mobile phones in the same price range. 

Furthermore, the software also comes with AI-powered features such as AI Writing, AI Live Subtitles, Xiaomi Creation, AI Speech Recognition, and more. Overall, Xiaomi has made noticeable changes to its UI, and it's clean, fluid, and absolutely user-friendly. 

Accessories

Coming to the Xiaomi Pad 8 supports Xiaomi Focus Keyboard and the Xiaomi Focus Pen Pro. Both pair fits well with the tablet when it comes to productivity or creative work. 

The Focus Keyboard truly feels premium in terms of build and experience. The keys are comfortable to use, and the trackpad is small, but it does the job. The trackpad also supports gesture features, making it quite easy to navigate between apps, features, and others.

However, the keyword does not have a stylus holder, so it solely relies on the tablet’s magnetic attachment. 

The Xiaomi Focus Pen Pro is perfectly built for creative users and works well for basic navigation. This time, it skips physical buttons and features haptic feedback for gestures like double-pressing or pinching the sides, and you can also twist the pen to change stroke direction while sketching. 

Xiaomi Pad 8 review: Battery

The Xiaomi Pad 8 is backed by a 9,200mAh battery that can last you an entire day with medium to heavy usage. During our testing, we used the device for entertainment, browsing, video editing, Google Docs, and light gaming, taking up to 6 hours of screen time, and we still had about 25% left at the end of the day. Therefore, the tablet will not give you battery anxiety at any moment.

The Xiaomi Pad 8 supports 45W charging, but it comes with a faster 67W charger inside the box. It takes nearly 1 hour to fully charge the tablet, which is impressive for a battery this big. Notably, the tablet also supports 22.5W reverse charging, hence if you are running low on battery on your smartphone, the tablet can double up as a power bank and quickly top it up when needed.

Xiaomi Pad 8 review: Verdict

After careful consideration and testing, we have come to the conclusion that the Xiaomi Pad 8 is the perfect mid-range Android tablet that most buyers have been waiting for. The tablet delivers everything you can expect: flagship-level performance, a punchy and swift display, an impressive quad-speaker setup, and a clean software experience, all at just Rs 33,999.

All these impressive features make the camera bump and the absence of an OLED display easier to overlook in everyday use. Hence, the Xiaomi Pad 8 makes a compelling and power-packed option at an affordable price.