Mi Pad 4 Review: Multi Purpose Tablet!
by mitch002
It sure took more than a year for Xiaomi to finally release its successor to the Mi Pad 3, there are probably some reason that the 3rd series was discontinued along the way that leave fans craving for the release of the 4th iteration which is our current review topic, the Mi Pad 4. Lets run down a bit on the choices of processors by Xiaomi for the previous generations, Mi Pad took in Nvidia Tegra, Mi Pad 2 locked in Intel Atom, Mi Pad 3 had Mediatek and finally Mi Pad 4 equipped with Snapdragon. Could the 4th time be the charm for the Mi Pad Series? Lets check it out!
Xiaomi Mi Pad 4 Specs Sheet
Screen: 8.0-inch FHD, resolution 1920 x 1200, 283 ppi, 12000:1 Contrast Ratio, 16:10 Screen Ratio, Support Eye Mode
SoC: Snapdragon 660 Octacore (4 x 2.2Ghz Kryo 260 + 4 x 1.8Ghz Kryo 260)
GPU: Adreno 512 650 Mhz
RAM: 3GB/4GB dual channel LPDDR4X
Storage: 32GB/64GB eMMC5.1 supports 256GB Expansion Micro SD Card
Rear camera: 13MP, f / 2.0 aperture, HDR, Beautify, 1080p, Omnivision 138855 Camera Sensor
Front camera: 5MP, f / 2.0 aperture, Front HDR, Beautify, Face Recognition, Samsung s5k5e8
Battery: 6000mAh
Dimensions: 200.2 x 120.3 x 7.9mm
Weight: 342.5g
Operating system: MIUI 9.6, based on Android 8.1
Connectivity: USB-C, Bluetooth 5.0, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Color: Champagne Gold, Black
Version: Wifi only Version, 4G LTE Version
Unboxing
We always love the simplicity of the boxes of Xiaomi
Mi Pad 4
Complete Basic Specs Printed at the Back of the Box
Premium looking Tablet at first glance
Mi Pad 4. USB C Cable, 5V 2A Charger and Manual
Supports up to 256GB of expansion storage
8 Inch Screen 5MP front Camera
Dual Loud Speaker and Mic in as well as the USB C Port
Volume Rocker and Power Button
Audio Jack and Noise Cancellation Mic
Expansion Tray
13 MP Rear Camera
New Model of the Mi Pad 4 flashing the "4" sign
Black Edition Unboxing
Which color made you fall in love?
Snapdragon 660
This processor is well known inside the Mi Note 3 which is a flagship Note series by Xiaomi, it later appeared inside the Mi 6X as well in an effort to bring a powerful midrange to the market. This time, its the first time we see a Qualcomm powered tablet for Xiaomi and we bet that this unit should be as good as their smartphones, and we did a lot of testing on this unit, we ran PUBG and NBA 2k18, it pretty much played up to our expectation, we didnt find any much problem during game play but there are times that NBA 2k18 crashed in the middle of the game, probably its app related problem, but rendering the game is A-OK! There is even a Gaming Mode wherein there will be no one to disturb you while you play. Not sure if it will give you all the resources you need like the Black Shark's Shark Space. We did a lot of multitasking on this one, well thats expected of any good laptop in the market to be able to run multiple task at any given point in time. It didnt even break a sweat!
AnTuTu gave it a good score at 135638 out of the box which is a huge jump over the Mi Pad 3 notching only 79296 Points from my review last April 2017.
Black and Gold Side by Side
How many lucky Mi Fans get to compare 2 colors at the same time? Well, I am one and I have the honor to present to you the 2 colors of the Mi Pad 4 with side by side photos.
Camera
This is a section which is not really much of an importance in a tablet, well yeah its good to have a nice camera but it looks kinda awkward for anyone to hold such a big screen to just take a photo. But Xiaomi did packed a good camera in the Mi Pad 4, last year's Mi Pad 3's camera was terrible as it was anything but good. This time around its also a 13MP back shooter with a 5MP front snapper but believe me, the quality is very very lets just say awesome for a tablet. Lets just say it can match the quality of the photos taken by a Redmi 6. Dont believe me? Check out the actual photos I posted below and check out the quality of the Mi Pad 3's camera from this link.
The front camera is still a bit shaky for me after holding and reviewing so much selfie cameras like the Redmi S2 and the Mi 8, this one is kinda out of my chart for quality of a good selfie camera, tho its still good for video chatting on Viber.
Actual Photos
Selfie Camera
Battery Life
Now Xiaomi decreasing the battery capacity from 6600 mAh from Mi Pad 3 to 6000 mAh on the Mi Pad 4 doesnt really sits right with me, it also added a few grams of weight into the unit from the predecessor is caused by the increased screen size. Now, the former has scored a 8 hours SOT test by PC Mark Battery Test last year and I'm very proud to tell you that the Mi Pad 4 scored a whooping 14 hours and 41 minutes this year! Lets just say the Snapdragon switch by the company is a good choice and its really paying back the results pretty good to the consumers.
More Benchmarks
Verdict:
Last year Xiaomi's Mi Pad 3 probably failed to capture the market thats why it immediately was pulled out of the shelves of the company which leaves fans waiting for the next release. This time the company has beefed up its tabler series in terms of SoC, Camera, screen size and battery life, and oh before I forgot, it even got an LTE version which is not yet released to market as of press time. We are very proud of this release and definitely this is a good unit to own for this year.
3/32GB Wifi - 1099 RMB
4/64GB Wifi - 1399 RMB
4/64GB LTE - 1499 RMB
Mi Pad 4
by mitch002
It sure took more than a year for Xiaomi to finally release its successor to the Mi Pad 3, there are probably some reason that the 3rd series was discontinued along the way that leave fans craving for the release of the 4th iteration which is our current review topic, the Mi Pad 4. Lets run down a bit on the choices of processors by Xiaomi for the previous generations, Mi Pad took in Nvidia Tegra, Mi Pad 2 locked in Intel Atom, Mi Pad 3 had Mediatek and finally Mi Pad 4 equipped with Snapdragon. Could the 4th time be the charm for the Mi Pad Series? Lets check it out!
Xiaomi Mi Pad 4 Specs Sheet
Screen: 8.0-inch FHD, resolution 1920 x 1200, 283 ppi, 12000:1 Contrast Ratio, 16:10 Screen Ratio, Support Eye Mode
SoC: Snapdragon 660 Octacore (4 x 2.2Ghz Kryo 260 + 4 x 1.8Ghz Kryo 260)
GPU: Adreno 512 650 Mhz
RAM: 3GB/4GB dual channel LPDDR4X
Storage: 32GB/64GB eMMC5.1 supports 256GB Expansion Micro SD Card
Rear camera: 13MP, f / 2.0 aperture, HDR, Beautify, 1080p, Omnivision 138855 Camera Sensor
Front camera: 5MP, f / 2.0 aperture, Front HDR, Beautify, Face Recognition, Samsung s5k5e8
Battery: 6000mAh
Dimensions: 200.2 x 120.3 x 7.9mm
Weight: 342.5g
Operating system: MIUI 9.6, based on Android 8.1
Connectivity: USB-C, Bluetooth 5.0, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Color: Champagne Gold, Black
Version: Wifi only Version, 4G LTE Version
Unboxing
We always love the simplicity of the boxes of Xiaomi
Mi Pad 4
Complete Basic Specs Printed at the Back of the Box
Premium looking Tablet at first glance
Mi Pad 4. USB C Cable, 5V 2A Charger and Manual
Supports up to 256GB of expansion storage
8 Inch Screen 5MP front Camera
Dual Loud Speaker and Mic in as well as the USB C Port
Volume Rocker and Power Button
Audio Jack and Noise Cancellation Mic
Expansion Tray
13 MP Rear Camera
New Model of the Mi Pad 4 flashing the "4" sign
Black Edition Unboxing
Which color made you fall in love?
Snapdragon 660
This processor is well known inside the Mi Note 3 which is a flagship Note series by Xiaomi, it later appeared inside the Mi 6X as well in an effort to bring a powerful midrange to the market. This time, its the first time we see a Qualcomm powered tablet for Xiaomi and we bet that this unit should be as good as their smartphones, and we did a lot of testing on this unit, we ran PUBG and NBA 2k18, it pretty much played up to our expectation, we didnt find any much problem during game play but there are times that NBA 2k18 crashed in the middle of the game, probably its app related problem, but rendering the game is A-OK! There is even a Gaming Mode wherein there will be no one to disturb you while you play. Not sure if it will give you all the resources you need like the Black Shark's Shark Space. We did a lot of multitasking on this one, well thats expected of any good laptop in the market to be able to run multiple task at any given point in time. It didnt even break a sweat!
AnTuTu gave it a good score at 135638 out of the box which is a huge jump over the Mi Pad 3 notching only 79296 Points from my review last April 2017.
Black and Gold Side by Side
How many lucky Mi Fans get to compare 2 colors at the same time? Well, I am one and I have the honor to present to you the 2 colors of the Mi Pad 4 with side by side photos.
Camera
This is a section which is not really much of an importance in a tablet, well yeah its good to have a nice camera but it looks kinda awkward for anyone to hold such a big screen to just take a photo. But Xiaomi did packed a good camera in the Mi Pad 4, last year's Mi Pad 3's camera was terrible as it was anything but good. This time around its also a 13MP back shooter with a 5MP front snapper but believe me, the quality is very very lets just say awesome for a tablet. Lets just say it can match the quality of the photos taken by a Redmi 6. Dont believe me? Check out the actual photos I posted below and check out the quality of the Mi Pad 3's camera from this link.
The front camera is still a bit shaky for me after holding and reviewing so much selfie cameras like the Redmi S2 and the Mi 8, this one is kinda out of my chart for quality of a good selfie camera, tho its still good for video chatting on Viber.
Actual Photos
Selfie Camera
Battery Life
Now Xiaomi decreasing the battery capacity from 6600 mAh from Mi Pad 3 to 6000 mAh on the Mi Pad 4 doesnt really sits right with me, it also added a few grams of weight into the unit from the predecessor is caused by the increased screen size. Now, the former has scored a 8 hours SOT test by PC Mark Battery Test last year and I'm very proud to tell you that the Mi Pad 4 scored a whooping 14 hours and 41 minutes this year! Lets just say the Snapdragon switch by the company is a good choice and its really paying back the results pretty good to the consumers.
More Benchmarks
Verdict:
Last year Xiaomi's Mi Pad 3 probably failed to capture the market thats why it immediately was pulled out of the shelves of the company which leaves fans waiting for the next release. This time the company has beefed up its tabler series in terms of SoC, Camera, screen size and battery life, and oh before I forgot, it even got an LTE version which is not yet released to market as of press time. We are very proud of this release and definitely this is a good unit to own for this year.
3/32GB Wifi - 1099 RMB
4/64GB Wifi - 1399 RMB
4/64GB LTE - 1499 RMB
Mi Pad 4
