[Gadgets] Poco Pad 5G Review: Deja Vu

[-Sn!PeR-]

 

Poco has been doing well when it comes to smartphones, so naturally, it wanted to try out a new segment. Enter the Poco Pad 5G. It's the first tablet from the Chinese brand, and at first glance, it appears to be a good deal. It offers a large 12.1-inch LCD display, a 10,000mAh battery, and a Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 SoC. The tablet also offers cellular connectivity and a premium design. However, it looks awfully similar to the Redmi Pad Pro 5G. And when you look at the specifications, it's hard to ignore the fact that the Poco Pad and Redmi tablet are pretty much the same tablet.

Poco has priced the Pad 5G at Rs. 23,999 for the base option, which is Rs. 1,000 lower than the Redmi Pad Pro 5G. Is this then a better buy than the Redmi tablet? Read on to find out.

 

Poco Pad 5G Design: Looks good, but a fingerprint magnet

 

• Dimensions - 280mm x 181.85mm x 7.52mm
• Weight - 568g
• Colours - Cobalt Blue and Pistachio Green

 

The Poco Pad 5G has an all-metal unibody construction that feels durable and premium. It has a matte finish rear panel with a two-tone design, which loves fingerprints. You may want to carry a microfibre cloth with you everywhere. The rear panel has the Poco branding and two circular modules housing a camera and an LED flash. The tablet, although large, is portable thanks to its weight and slim profile. It has rounded corners, flat sides, and tapered edges on the front glass.

 

 

 

The right frame of the tablet houses two microphones, the SIM card tray (supports dual 5G SIMs or a SIM and a microSD card), and the volume rocker key. You get dual speakers on the top edge along with the power/wake button, and the bottom houses another two speakers, a USB Type-C port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The left frame is bare. Overall, it's a well-built tablet.

 

Poco Pad 5G Display and Sound: Great for watching content

 

• Size - 12.1-inch 2.5K resolution LCD
• Refresh rate - 120Hz
• Audio - Quad stereo speakers

 

Flipping the tablet over reveals the large 12.1-inch LCD display surrounded by uniform and rather thick bezels. The panel is protected by Corning's Gorilla Glass 3 and offers a 16:10 aspect ratio with 2.5K (2560 x 1600 pixels) resolution. It also supports up to 120Hz adaptive refresh rate and lets you choose between 60, 90, or 120Hz. There are three colour profiles available onboard, including Vivid, Saturated, and Standard. It's best to leave it at Vivid, as you get good colours with decent blacks.

 

 

 

The display supports Dolby Vision and offers a peak brightness of up to 600 nits. However, using it outdoors is not fun as the screen doesn't get bright enough. Indoors, the panel gets plenty bright.

 

Coming to the sound, the Poco Pad has a quad-speaker setup with support for Dolby Atmos. You also get Hi-Res Audio support via the 3.5mm headphone jack. The audio is quite good on the tablet, and there is nice stereo separation. It does get loud, but there's not enough bass at max volume. Listening to music isn't a great experience, but watching movies and shows is.

 

Poco Pad 5G Software: Not a lot of bloat

 

• OS - Android 14
• Skin - HyperOS

 

Poco has included HyperOS on the tablet, and it's based on Android 14. There's also very little bloatware or pre-installed apps, which is nice. You get a Mi Canvas app that can be used to sketch using the Poco Pen. However, I did not receive the pen or tablet, so I cannot comment on its performance and usage.

 

 

 

Apart from the Mi Canvas app, you also get several HyperOS features such as Xiaomi HomeScreen+, Shared Clipboard, and cross-device Notes app sync with the Camera app, which allows you to take a photo on a connected phone and insert the picture directly onto the Notes app. The HomeScreen+ feature lets you connect a phone using a Xiaomi account to receive smartphone notifications on the tablet. Meanwhile, the shared clipboard lets you easily copy and paste images and text between devices. Multi-tasking is also available on the tablet, obviously, and it works as expected. You can have up to two apps running simultaneously on the screen, but you can also add two floating apps, bringing the total to four.

Poco has promised two years of Android OS updates and three years of security patches on the tablet, which is nice. 

 

Poco Pad 5G Performance: Could've been better

 

• Chipset - Snapdragon 7s Gen 2
• RAM - 8GB (LPDDR4X)
• Storage - Up to 256GB (UFS 2.2) inbuilt, expandable

 

Poco has equipped its first tablet with the Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 SoC, which performs well. The UI experience is mostly smooth when navigating around, but I did notice lag when multitasking, scrolling through the Settings app, and launching certain apps such as the Camera.

 

 

 

As you can see, the Poco Pad performed similarly to the Redmi Pad Pro, which shouldn't be surprising since both are essentially the same tablet.

I did not typically face heating issues when using the tablet, and even when playing games such as BGMI, the tablet only got slightly warm around the camera. I could play BGMI in ultra-high graphics settings, and it ran smoothly without any lag. However, playing the game on a big tablet like the Poco Pad isn't super comfortable.

Since the tablet also supports 5G connectivity, I tested 5G speeds using Speedtest, and the Poco Pad delivered download speeds of around 474 Mbps and uploads of 63 Mbps. Video calls worked well on Airtel's 5G network.

 

Poco Pad 5G Cameras: Decent

 

• Rear - 8-megapixel with LED flash
• Front - 8-megapixel

 

The only camera that should matter on a tablet is the front-facing one, and the 8-megapixel sensor on the Poco Pad isn't that great.

 

 

 

It works fine in daylight conditions, and you can make video calls, but I wouldn't recommend using the tablet to take selfies as photos lack details. It's the same with the rear camera, where photos are usable in daylight conditions, but there's plenty of noise and loss of detail when there isn't enough light.

 

Poco Pad 5G Battery: Enough to binge a limited series on Netflix

 

• Capacity - 10,000mAh
• Fast charging - 33W

 

Battery life on the Poco Pad was a mixed experience for me. I expected the 10,000mAh battery to last just as long as the Redmi Pad Pro in our HD video loop test. However, the Poco tablet only lasted about 11 hours and 50 minutes, whereas the Redmi Pad Pro survived for 28 hours and 30 minutes.

 

 

The result was also surprising because with regular usage that involved several hours of YouTube streaming, half an hour of gaming, watching Netflix, and browsing the web, the tablet went about two days without needing a charge.

Talking about charging, the Poco Pad supports 33W fast charging and the charger is provided in the box. Using the adapter, it takes about 2 hours to fully charge the massive 10,000mAh cell.

 

Poco Pad 5G Verdict:

 

Alright, so should you buy the Poco Pad 5G tablet? Well, in short, yes, because it is a pretty good mid-range tablet. It's got a good high-resolution display with good indoor brightness, it's well built, the performance is not bad, the battery life is pretty good, and you can even play games on the tablet if you like. It offers good value for money.

One of its main competitors is the Redmi Pad Pro 5G (Review), but it's priced slightly higher while not offering anything different. The Poco Pad is a better deal here. Then you have the Xiaomi Pad 6 (Review), which is cheaper and offers better performance and cameras but has a smaller display and battery.

 

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