Xiaomi Pad 6 review: Massively improved tablet with stylus support at the same affordable price

After a one-year hiatus, Xiaomi is now introducing the next generation of its tablet series to the market. Despite numerous improvements compared to the predecessor , the MSRP of 399 Euros (~$434) for the entry-level version (6 GB, 128 GB) remains unchanged. Those who can invest 100 Euros (~$109) more get additional storage with 8 GB RAM and 256 GB UFS 3.

1. Not only does the Xiaomi Pad 6 inherit the Snapdragon 870 of the previous Pro version but also its WiFi 6 compatibility. The battery of the new midrange tablet from Xiaomi offers a capacity of 8,840 mAh and can be charged at up to 33 watts.

This is accompanied by an 11-inch LCD screen with a resolution of 2,880 x 1,800 pixels. Compared to the Pad 5, both the pixel density of 309 PPI and also the refresh rate of 144 Hz have increased. Compared to the previous generation, the Xiaomi Pad 6 includes numerous improvements, starting from the design and choice of materials.

The midrange tablet from Xiaomi now offers high-quality haptics with its uni-body design in contrast to a plastic back as in the Pad 5 . The metal case can be purchased in the three color options of black, blue, and gold. Thanks to its matte surface, fingerprints won’t become a problem with the Xiaomi Pad 6.

Not only did the 2023 Xiaomi tablet become slightly more compact, which is reflected in the better screen-to-surface ratio of now 83. 6% of the IPS panel in the front, but at 490 grams (~1. 08 lb), it is also lighter than its predecessor.

In addition, the front of the Xiaomi Pad 6 is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3. However, the case doesn’t offer an official IP certification, so you shouldn’t use the Xiaomi tablet in the rain. Interestingly, the slot for a SIM card can be seen milled into the frame, even though you cannot insert any card into the Xiaomi Pad 6, so the midrange tablet and its corresponding Pro model that supports 5G appear to share the same case.

With its new tablet generation, Xiaomi remedies one of the largest critique points of the Pad 5 , and the slow USB 2. 0 standard is replaced in the Xiaomi Pad 6 with a USB 3. 2 connection (Gen 1).

This allows data transfer of up to 5 Gbit/s, assuming you have the corresponding capabilities on the other end. The included USB cable doesn’t support data transfer via USB 3. 0, so buyers of the Pad 6 still have to invest some more money after their purchase.

Using an adapter, the port can also be used as a display output to connect external displays. In our copy test using a connected M2 SSD drive (Samsung 980 Pro), the USB port achieves solid transfer rates of 290. 4 MB/s.

The USB connection also supports OTG, allowing you to connect external peripheral devices or storage media. In addition, Miracast is available for wireless transfer to external monitors. As the operating system, Xiaomi has installed its inhouse MIUI for Pad 14 user interface, which is based on Android 13.

During our test period, the system of the midrange tablet uses the security patch level of July 2023. Thanks to the DRM L1 certification, you can watch streaming contents in high resolution on the large 11-inch LCD display. At this point, there is no update warranty for the tablet segment as in the global Xiaomi smartphones of the premium price range.

However, the Xiaomi Security Center lists the Pad 6 also with the future Android 14 and Android 15 versions. There are supposed to be quarterly security updates, but Xiaomi doesn’t mention anything about the official support period. Midrange smartphones of this price range from the manufacturer offer between three and four year support periods here.

In contrast to its predecessor , the Xiaomi Pad 6 offers fairly fast WiFi 6, although it is unable to create a connection with the 6-Gigahertz frequency band for WLAN transfers. In combination with the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000 router, the Xiaomi tablet reaches transfer rates with peaks above 900 Mbit/s, which is a good value in the price range of the Pad 6. The tablet from Xiaomi doesn’t offer an NFC chip for contactless payment, but instead Bluetooth 5.

2 and four microphones for video calling over WLAN are included. LTE or 5G frequencies are not supported by the Xiaomi tablet, and neither is a GPS module. Similar to Samsung’s auto framing technology , Xiaomi implements a centering function in the Pad 6, which is supposed to ensure that the user always remains in the center of the image during video calls, even when moving.

If a second person also joins in, the field of view is enlarged correspondingly. However, this feature doesn’t work with all applications. Our test call using Skype reveals a front camera that uses a very wide angle but with a fixed viewing angle.

The spec sheet for the cameras of the Xiaomi Pad 6 doesn’t mention any changes compared to the predecessor . Above the display, the 11-inch tablet continues to offer an 8-MP front camera with an f/2. 2 aperture that delivers very acceptable results in daylight conditions and a good quality for video calls.

Those who like to send short video messages are able to do this in a resolution of 1080p. The 13-MP main camera in the back allows recording videos in maximum UHD quality at 30 fps. With sufficient light, the sensor with an aperture of f/2.

2 delivers an attractive image quality. The color reproduction, detail, and dynamic extension of the images are definitely sufficient for some snapshots, even if users of an 11-inch tablet would probably want to use the camera module in the back more to record documents or notes. The camera app also offers a special mode for this.

We take a more detailed look of the color accuracy of the 13-MP sensor under controlled light conditions. The deviations of the reference colors we find are free from any real outliers (>15), and most colors are reproduced accurately. However, the color reproduction is slightly too bright in general, and the white balance is calibrated slightly too warm.

The box of the midrange tablet includes a modular 33-Watt charger and a USB cable (2. 0 standard). In addition, Xiaomi offers a compatible Smart Pen of the 2nd generation with 4,096 pressure levels and a battery life of up to 150 hours as an additional accessory for the Pad 6 at an MSRP of around 100 Euros (~$109).

An optional keyboard cover is also available for around 90 Euros (~$98). Xiaomi offers a warranty period of 24 months for its tablet in Germany. The 11-inch IPS panel with its Gorilla Glass 3 covering implements finger inputs quickly and precisely.

Thanks to its refresh rate of 144 Hz, scrolling gestures in the browser or GUI animations are displayed very smoothly. Unfortunately, we are unable to test how the Xiaomi Pad 6 fares in everyday operation with the 13-gram (~0. 45 oz) Smart Pen 2.

The manufacturer doesn’t specify any information on the latency. The current Xiaomi Pad generation still doesn’t offer a fingerprint scanner. The front camera allows unlocking via biometric face recognition for a maximum of two stored faces.

Both the response speed and recognition rates of the fairly insecure 2D face recognition are convincing in daylight conditions, but with less light and dimmed display, this won’t work as reliably. For compatible Xiaomi wearables or smartphones, there is also a smart unlocking function via “trusted devices. ” The 11-inch LCD panel offers a slightly unusual resolution of 2,880 x 1,800 pixels with a maximum refresh rate of up to 144 Hz.

To save power, the system is also able to optionally adjust the refresh rate automatically (144 Hz, 90 Hz, 60 Hz) – we can gather these values from the system information. Interestingly, the refresh rate is reduced to 50 Hz after a short period without any finger inputs, even when it is fixed at 144 Hz. The screen uses an RGB matrix consisting of one red, one blue, and one green LED each.

According to the manufacturer, a maximum brightness of 550 nits is supposed to be reached, and we can also confirm this from our measurements in the APL18 test with 543 cd/m². With a pure white display and activated brightness sensor, the display of the Xiaomi Pad 6 reaches almost 500 cd/m² on average, which is also a good value for this price class while still insufficient for optimal display of HDR material. We cannot detect any flickering from PWM in the LCD panel, so the Xiaomi tablet should be particularly suited for users who are sensitive to PWM.

One of the weaknesses of the Xiaomi Pad 5 was the low contrast of the LCD panel. The successor is now supposed to improve this, and Xiaomi specifies a value of 1400:1. However, with the fairly high black value of 0.

65 cd/m², we are unable to confirm this pronounced contrast ratio, even though at 830:1, the Xiaomi Pad 6 is still improved compared to the predecessor in this regard. We evaluate the color calibration of the HDR10-certified IPS panel with the Calman analysis software and a photo spectrometer. The “Original Pro” profile targets the sRGB color space, which is covered almost completely.

We see very low color deviations, and the DeltaE values we measure show very small deviations in the grayscale. The Xiaomi Pad 6 also offers two additional color profiles as well as the option to target the larger DCI-P3 color space. But as we expected, the deviations in the color reproduction turn out slightly higher here.

In addition, the extended settings allow you to adjust the color space and color temperature, as well as individual parameters such as the saturation. Optionally, the brightness sensor is also able to adjust the color reproduction automatically depending on the light conditions. Outdoors, the midrange tablet leaves a good impression.

Even though the brightness is unable to compensate reflections in bright sunlight, you can still read the contents of the LCD display in partial shade. The stability of the viewing angles is also very attractive, and even from steep viewing angles, the brightness drops only marginally . In the graphics tests of 3DMark, the performance differences between the Xiaomi Pad 6 and the OnePlus Pad become even clearer, and in the GFXBench measurements, the differences between both tablets are 50% at times.

As expected due to its lower resolution, the Xiaomi Pad 5 is able to keep up with the Adreno 650 in the successor in terms of the onscreen values. As in the CPU and GPU tests, the Xiaomi Pad 6 also convinces with a good performance in the browser benchmarks. In everyday operation, the midrange tablet doesn’t show any weaknesses either.

Websites are rendered quickly and can also be scrolled smoothly. In terms of storage speed, the Xiaomi Pad 6 produces results at the level of the USF 3. 1 competitors.

However, particularly when reading and writing small data blocks, the AndroBench results are significantly better compared to the predecessor. In order to evaluate the graphics power of the Adreno 650 in everyday operation, we take a closer look at two games from the Play Store using the app from GameBench . Even though the hardware is powerful and at 144 Hz the panel is refreshed very frequently, we are limited to only 60 fps in the Armajet arena shooter that theoretically supports the full frame rate of the IPS display.

However, this is still twice as many frames per second as our measurement found for the Xiaomi Pad 5 in the test. In PUBG Mobile , the typical 60 fps are also possible in the HD setting, and in the highest detail setting (UHD), the midrange tablet displays a constant 40 fps. The optional 90-fps mode isn’t offered for the Pad 6.

During everyday operation, the warming of the midrange tablet’s case is only worth mentioning in some areas. The average of our measurements under load results in a temperature of 35. 7 °C (96.

3 °F). However, when comparing this with the temperature levels that we measured for the predecessor (max. 32.

6 °C, 90. 7 °F), we should also mention that we now use the Burnout benchmark for the temperature measurement of the Pad 6 instead of the stability test. An exact comparison is therefore not possible anymore.

In order to evaluate the heat development inside the Xiaomi tablet, we use the battery tests of 3DMark. The Wild Life stress tests complete without any problems at a constancy of more than 80%. So even under constant load, we are unable to force the Pad 6 into any kind of serious throttling worth mention, although even the slight throttling is enough to even out the performance advantage of the newer Qualcomm SoCs compared to the Pad 5 almost completely.

The Xiaomi Pad 6 offers four powerful speakers that produce a volume of more than 88 dB(A). We really like the sound quality of the four speakers, even if the bass presence is limited. Otherwise, the midrange tablet delivers a fairly linear reproduction of mids, even if the super high frequencies drop slightly in the Pink Noise.

Some users will sorely miss the audio output via 3. 5-mm audio port. Instead, audio content has to be output via adapter through the USB-C port.

However, Xiaomi doesn’t include the corresponding adapter. Wirelessly, a selection of audio codecs is available via Bluetooth 5. 2: SBC, AAC, aptX and aptX HD, as well as LDAC.

In terms of the battery life, nothing much has changed in the Xiaomi Pad 6 compared to its predecessor. In our WLAN test at an adjusted display brightness of 150 cd/m², the midrange tablet with a refresh rate of 144 Hz lasts about 14 hours. In our constant video reproduction test with deactivated WLAN module, the battery keeps the 11-inch IPS panel running for 12.

5 hours. The Pad 6 from Xiaomi is a successful update and very good midrange tablet. At an MSRP of 400 Euros (~$435), it shows itself improved compared to the preceding generation in many areas and is even at least equal in many regards to sometimes more expensive competitors such as the Apple iPad 10 .

The overall package consisting of the attractive 144-Hz display, fast USB 3. 2 connection, and pen support in combination with the high-quality impression is very interesting for this price class. Even though the Snapdragon 870 used here is not the most current chipset and doesn’t range at the performance level of a OnePlus Pad , the Qualcomm SoC is still fast enough for everyday tasks and its performance is also stable.

The Xiaomi Pad 6 does many things better than its predecessor and is a very interesting choice in the midrange price segment. To keep the price attractive, buyers of a Xiaomi Pad 6 have to accept some compromises in the equipment with the lack of an option that offers 5G support and locating abilities. The lack of storage expansion is another compromise you have to accept with the midrange tablet.

But what will probably be missed most in everyday operation is a fingerprint sensor. Those who cannot live without it will perhaps find a suitable alternative with the Pro model of the Xiaomi tablet, although that can only be purchased via import vendors (for about $460 ) with some possible corresponding restrictions in terms of language, warranty, Chinese ROM, etc. At the time of our test, the Xiaomi Tab 6 is available for example from Amazon starting from $359 .

As an import device (CN or Global version), the device is available starting from about $341, for example from Trading Shenzhen . .