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Xiaomi has launched the 4th generation of the MI Pad and it by the look at the spec sheet, I can say that it has a pretty good hardware which can deliver some powerful performance. The design is also improved and the display has adapted to a 16:10 design. Also, the battery life looks pretty promising too.
Let’s jump in and take a closer look at the complete review of MI Pad 4.
Mi Pad 4 Design
The design on the Mi Pad 4 has improved quite a bit when compared to the previous generation Mi tablets. It has a metal-unibody design which adds weight to the body but also protects from accidental drops making it a sturdy device to use. The bezels on the front are shrunken down making the display more immersive. There are only two colors options available for Pad 4 including the Black and Rose Gold.
If you have ever used or seen a tablet before, you know that they aren’t actually portable. The same thing goes for the Mi Pad 4. Although it’s just 7.9mm thick, the tablet is big and has a weight of 342.5 grams which is quite heavy when compared to smartphones but light when compared to tablets lineup. With that being said, the Pad 4 feels easy to hold and there are no sharp edges.
Mi Pad 4 comes with a USB Type-C charging port flanked by 2 speaker grills on either side. The SIM Tray is on the left while on the WiFi model, it only holds the Micro SD card. On the other side, there are the Volume and Power keys. Upfront is the big screen with a selfies camera, an earpiece and some sensors above it. Turn the tablet around and you will find the camera sensor on the top left with no Flash. The headphone jack is on the top of the Mi Pad 4. Some of the features it lacks are Wireless charging to metallic back and IP certification. Overall, the design of the Mi Pad 4 is pretty modern and solid.
Big Display Big Fun
The screen on the Mi Pad 4 is just 0.1 mm bigger than the previous gen Pad 3 but Xiaomi has adopted a new 16:10 ratio stretching the display vertically. As a result, the display looks much better for content consumption. Talking about the screen size, it’s an 8 inch IPS LCD panel which has a resolution of 1200 x 1920 and a pixel density of 283 pixels-per-inch. The edges of the screen are rounded rather than pointy adapting to the latest trend.
Talking about the screen quality, the screen resolution has been reduced when compared to the Mi Pad 3, but the screen is still pretty sharp and clear for reading text or watching movies. The colors are good and the viewing angles are great. Viewing the display outdoor is difficult under direct sunlight but condition improves when you move under the shadow.
Overall, it’s a pretty big and good display for media consumption. Although, the bezels aren’t as small as we have liked but they aren’t chunky. You can actually enjoy watching movies or your favorite TV series on Netflix while on vacation with the Mi Pad 4.
Performance and Software
Performance wise, the Mi Pad 4 has exceeded my expectations. Almost all the budget tablets are powered by weak SoC which results in sluggish performance. But with Mi Pad 4, that’s not an issue. Xiaomi has used the powerful mid-range Snapdragon 660 SoC with 4GB of RAM on LTE model and 3GB or 4GB RAM option on WiFi model. The Snapdragon 660 is an Octa-Core chip based on 14nm architecture which can reach a max frequency of 2.2 GHz. With 660, Mi Pad 4 has Adreno 512 to handle graphics related tasks.
Talking about the real world usage, the Mi Pad 4 handles even some intense tasks with ease. You can play heavy games like Asphalt 9, PUBG on it without any issue but in mid-level graphics settings. Apart from heavy apps, basic apps like Instagram, Whatsapp, Gmail, Web browsers etc runs totally smooth and lag free. The Mi Pad 4 is actually capable of handling heavy workload and does well when it comes to multitasking too. Quite a number of apps remains in the memory which makes switching between the apps much very fast. Overall, Mi Pad 4 is one great table performance wise.
Software wise, the Mi Pad 4 runs on the Android 8.1 Oreo which is good for a budget tablet. Although, the stock experience is hidden under a heavily themed MIUI 9.0. The MIUI has plenty of customization features and resembles quite a lot to iOS. Also, there is no app drawer so the apps are scattered on the home screen only. The Mi Pad 4 comes with plenty of bloatware pre-installed and some of them cannot be uninstalled. Other issue with the MIUI is the slow software update cycle. As of now, there is no word on when the Android Pie update will be released. However, the UI feels smooth and responsive with no lags or frame drops so that’s not an issue.
Camera and Battery Life
Cameras on the tablets were never the spotlight stealer and the same case goes with the Mi Pad 4. It comes with a single primary sensor which is of 13 Megapixels and has f/2.0 aperture while the front selfie camera is a 5 Megapixel sensor with similar f/2.0 aperture. The camera app on the Pad 4 doesn’t have options like Pro mode, slow-mo etc but have basic features like HDR and Xiaomi’s live filers.
Talking about the quality, it’s pretty average all around. The rear camera captures good images outdoors when the lighting condition favors. However, the images quality immediately starts to fall when the level of light goes down. Same story goes with the front camera as well. The quality is pretty much OKAY when the light is good but at night, the images are just bad. Also, the rear camera is capable of recording Full HD videos @ 30fps but there is no stabilization whatsoever which results in shaky videos.
The Xiaomi Mi Pad 4 comes with a 6000 mAh battery which is non-removable. Don’t know why but the battery capacity is decreased compared to the previous gen Mi Pad 3 which had 6600 mAh battery. With that being said, the battery life on the Pad 4 is still great lasting a whole day of heavy usage. With our battery test, we got Screen-on-time of around 8–9 hours and the tab was able to last a whole day. However, the mileage differs depending upon the usage but overall it’s pretty good. What’s bad here is the lack of fast charging which means longer charging times as the battery is pretty huge.
More Features on Mi Pad 4
The MI Pad 4 comes in two variant, LTE and WiFi only. THe LTE models houses a single SIM and supports VoLTE. There is a dedicated memory card slot which can be used to expand the memory up to 256 GB. The WiFi only model has no SIM slot and uses WIFI for connectivity. Other connectivity features on both the variants includes WIFI, Bluetooth, and AGPS.
There are a couple of sensors on the Mi Pad 4 including Accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity, compass but the WIFI only models lacks the compass. There is no NFC on either model and also there is no fingerprint scanner for unlocking the device. What both models have for unlocking the device is Face Unlock. The Mi Pad 4 uses the front camera to recognize the face and unlock it which is fast but now where as secure as the tradition unlocking methods.
The MI Pad 4 comes with stereo speakers and the audio gets really loud. Distortion is very minimal at high levels and the audio is crisp and clear. The tablet also comes with a headphone jack which allows using external speaker or wired earphones with it.
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