Redmi Pad Pro 5G Review: Pro-grade Tablet at an Affordable Price?

Redmi has made some strides in the tablet segment by introducing two new tablets: Redmi Pad SE 4G and Redmi Pad Pro 5G. The former is meant for the budget segment and offers some interesting use cases. However, the latter brings a plethora of features to the masses.

The Redmi Pad Pro 5G comes with a price tag of Rs 21,999 for the Wi-Fi variant with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage. The 5G variant with 8GB RAM + 128GB option is priced at Rs 24,999, while the top-end option with 8GB + 256GB model is priced at Rs 26,999. With this, the latest Redmi tablet is eyeing to get all the attention in this price segment. However, does it have enough arsenal to become the Chosen One? Let’s find out in this review:

Redmi Pad Pro 5G Design: Sleek and Thin

• Dimension: 280.0 x 181.85 x 752mm
• Weight: 571g
• Colours: Mist Blue, Graphite Grey

Redmi is playing it aggressively when it comes to the design of the new Redmi Pad Pro 5G. The tablet comes loaded with an aluminium unibody, which offers a sturdy look and feel. The device is thin enough at 7.52mm and weighs 571 grams, meaning that you can easily carry it in your laptop bag without much hassle.

The sleek design also makes it easier to hold, in spite of its huge display (which we will talk more about later). The rear panel offers a dual-tone finish. One-fourth of the area is plastic for incorporating the 5G modem and other connectivity options, while the rest is metal body. Interestingly, with the Wi-Fi variant, you get a complete metal unibody.

The display is flat and brings Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection, giving some confidence to use it without worrying too much about the display. The company has also bundled a Redmi Smart Pen and a Keyboard priced at Rs 999 and Rs 3,999, respectively.

Adding these accessories makes it a complete package for the customer. Talking about the keyboard it does not support POGO connectors. It relies on a Bluetooth connection, meaning that you need to charge it via a USB Type-C cable. The same is the case with the Redmi Smart Pen, which only makes it a bit annoying to charge it. That said, the battery life of both the accessories is good enough to last for a long time.

The company offers keyboard and customised Redmi Smart Pen as part of accessories with Redmi Pad Pro 5G.

The keyboard presented with this tablet is good and offers a reasonable travel distance and tactile feedback when you type on it. Whether quickly taking notes or you will enjoy typing on this keyboard without much trouble. The only downside is the lack of backlit and trackpad support, which could have made it more usable. The pairing is seamless, and the case securely holds the tablet.

Coming to the Redmi Pen works great in different scenarios. Whether be it writing or drawing, the Redmi Smart Pen offers a good response, thanks to the 4,096 pressure levels. Interestingly, you can also take notes, even if the screen is switched off, which is good. On the downside, the Smart Pen does not attach magnetically to the tablet, but the company has played it smartly by giving a hook to hold the Pen with the keyboard accessory.

Redmi Pad Pro 5G Display and Audio: Decent

• Display: 12.1-inch 2.5K LCD display
• Refresh Rate: 120Hz screen refresh rate
• Other Features: 16:10 aspect ratio, 12-bit display, 1500:1 contrast ratio, 600nits HBM brightness, Dolby Vision, DC dimming, Corning Gorilla Glass 3

The Redmi Pad Pro 5G display meets the standard despite being an LCD panel. Xiaomi is known for its colour tunning, which is also reflected in this tablet. The display is huge (I mean, really huge) compared to your usual tablet, which makes it an ideal choice for streaming movies or series. It also supports Widevine L1, meaning you stream content in HD on Netflix, though HDR10 support is missing.

I watched ‘Maharaja’ on Netflix and was satisfied with the colour reproduction, though the screen is a bit reflective, which can be turned off for some. The 120Hz adaptive refresh rate makes the whole experience smooth sailing, and you will not notice any lag or anything while using the device.

The tablet also comes loaded with four speakers and supports Dolby Atmos. The speaker output is well-balanced with the right amount of bass and loudness, making it a good device to watch any content.

Redmi Pad Pro 5G Software: Smooth Experience

• Software: Xiaomi HyperOS
• Version: Android 14
• Updates Promised: 2 years of OS upgrade + 3 years of security updates

This is the first tablet from Redmi that runs on HyperOS. Although it is not too different from the MIUI, it offers better under-the-hood optimisations. This results in faster switching between the different tasks and lower latency as compared to the MIUI skin.

The Redmi Pad Pro 5G is the first tablet from Redmi to run on HyperOS.

The tablet also comes loaded with some interesting connectivity features. The smartphone link features allow you to transfer data from your Xiaomi device and tablet seamlessly. One can simply open the smartphone screen right on the tablet and drag and drop files seamlessly.

Moreover, the shared clipboard allows you to copy text and images from your smartphone and paste it onto your tablet. The Network Sync feature is also there, and it basically connects to the phone’s hotspot with a single click. However, these features are currently limited to Xiaomi 14 and Xiaomi 14 Civi.

Apart from this, you get the usual Split-screen and floating windows support, making multitasking easy. The brand has also confirmed that it will provide this tablet with two years of Android OS upgrades and three years of security updates.

Redmi Pad Pro 5G Performance: Does the Job

• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 2
• Memory: Up to 8GB (LPDDR4X)
• Storage: 256GB (UFS 2.2)

The Redmi Pad Pro 5G is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 processor. The chipset is a bit faster than the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 but not as powerful as the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 or the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1.

That said, the tablet easily handles most of the tasks you throw at it. Switching between different applications while playing songs on YT Music in the background was smooth enough. That said, I noticed slight lags when multiple apps opened in the background. Interestingly, you can also add your 5G SIM anywhere.

The tablet also scores decent enough scores in benchmarks. You can take a look at all the scores in the below table:

Coming to gaming, the tablet handles most of the games quite well. The Call of Duty Mobile ran smoothly with the default setting of High graphics quality and Very High frame rate. However, with Max frame rates, I did notice some occasional lags. The thermal performance was decent enough, and the tablet did not get alarmingly hot during the gaming sessions.

Redmi Pad Pro 5G Cameras: Usable

• Rear: 8-megapixel with f/2.0 aperture
• Front: 8-megapixel sensor with f/2.28 aperture

The cameras present on the Redmi Pad Pro 5G are usable for video calls, but that’s it. The rear camera does take some decent photos in the daylight, but low-light performance is average. The front camera again does a decent job for video calls and occasionally taking selfies (but we have smartphones for that).

Redmi Pad Pro 5G Battery: Massive backup

• Battery Capacity: 10,000mAh
• Wired Charging: 33W
• Charger: 33W (Included)

The Redmi Pad Pro 5G brings a whopping 10,000mAh battery to the table in a sleek form factor. The tablet lasted 28 hours and 30 minutes in our battery loop test.

The Redmi Pad Pro 5G is backed by a massive 10,000mAh battery with 33W fast charging support.

The tablet comes loaded with 33W fast charging support, which takes time to charge the device fully. In the testing, we found out that the tablet charges 26 percent in 15 minutes, 30 percent in 30 minutes, and 59 percent in 60 minutes. The tablet took 2 hours and 10 minutes to get fully charged. In a real-life scenario, the tablet gives up a good battery life. With moderate use, you can easily get two to three days of battery life.

Redmi Pad Pro 5G Verdict

To conclude, the Redmi Pad Pro 5G offers an excellent value-for-money proposition. The sleek design makes it comfortable enough for on-the-go travel. The display looks good for this price segment, and the performance is decent, if not great. The battery life is impressive, though the fast charging support could have been better.

The Redmi Pad Pro 5G is available at a starting price of Rs 24,999.

As far as the competition is concerned, with the Redmi Pad Pro 5G, you have the Lenovo Tab P12 and Xiaomi Pad 6 (Review), which gives stiff competition to the tablet. That said, if you are looking for an entertainment powerhouse that can also do well in other aspects, then you can consider this tablet.