The Xiaomi Pad series is one I was first introduced to last year with the excellent Pad 7. At the time, I was impressed by how quickly it made me forget about my iPad. From design to build to implementation, the Xiaomi Pad 7 was my iPad replacement. Fastforward to about two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to get my hands on the new Xiaomi Pad 8. Offering some upgrades to the processor and battery, the Pad 8 provides a solid update to the Pad series, but doesn’t take any risks in innovation or design.
The overall design of the Pad 8 hasn’t changed much from its predecessor. While the overall length of 251.22mm and width of 173.42mm remain consistent with the Pad 7, the Xiaomi Pad 8 measures slightly thinner at 5.75mm (Pad 7 measures 6.18mm), providing a slimmer overall profile. As a result of this thickness reduction, the Xiaomi Pad 8 is also slightly lighter, weighing 485g to the Pad 7’s 500g.
As for button layout, camera positioning and port orientation, nothing has changed with the latest iteration of Xiaomi’s Pad series. It’s a “if it ain’t broke” situation, as the layout works well. Another advantage of this minimal design change is that the various cases, such as the Pro Focus Keyboard, Pro Keyboard, and Pro Cover for the Pad 7, all work flawlessly with the Pro 8 and vice versa.
“The Xiaomi Pad 8 simply brings over what was great about the Pad 7’s display and implements it here.”
I was able to swap the case between the Xiaomi Pad 7 and Pad 8 without issue or needing to resync, as the three-point connection system is identical on both Pads. This is actually an appreciated feature, as I find far too often that with the update of a tablet, all peripherals also have to be repurchased, often giving up perfectly good accessories for no other reason than lack of support on the new device.
Xiaomi has brought back the beautiful 11-inch screen from the Pad 7. This time, measuring slightly larger (emphasis on slightly, with a .04-inch difference), the LCD offers an impressive 144Hz refresh rate along with a beautiful 3.2K resolution. With adaptive HDR enabled, the display can reach a peak brightness of 800 nits, which is in line with the previous generation.
As noted on the Xiaomi Pad 7 review, the display is beautiful and crisp, offering an impressive touch response and support for hands and the Focus Pen Pro, a must-have accessory for note takers. The Xiaomi Pad 8 simply brings over what was great about the Pad 7’s display and implements it here. In testing, it performs exceptionally well and, while not adding anything new from a hardware perspective, remains one of the best tablet screens I’ve worked with.
The camera on the Pad 8, likewise, feels almost identical to that on the Pad 7. The rear camera features a 13MP lens that supports video capture up to 4K30FPS. The front camera uses a solid 8MP lens with 1080P30FPS video capture. Both work well, though neither offers image stabilization for video.
The audio experience of the Xiaomi Pad 8 is solid. Offering the same 4-speaker system found on its predecessor, the Pad 8 provides a great platform for streaming your latest content. The audio is clear, and while it lacks low end like most tablets and phones, it’s clear and loud. In comparable tests between the Pad 7 and 8, there wasn’t a notable difference in sound quality. Both were, as noted, solid, providing ample sound for content viewing.
While everything up to this point has been comparable between these two generations of the Xiaomi Pad, there are a couple of notable upgrades. The first and most important is the CPU. The Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 that helped push the Pad 7 into premium tablet territory has been replaced by the new Snapdragon 8s Gen 4. This also means a new and improved onboard GPU in the Adreno 825. When coupled with the 8GB of dedicated LPDDR5X RAM ( a 12GB model is also available), the results speak for themselves.
“Running Xiaomi HyperOS 3 over Android 16, the user experience is buttery smooth and fast.”
Geekbench scores between the two Pads show a decent improvement, with the Xiaomi Pad 8 single-core score of 2078 beating out the Pad 7 single-core score of 1843. Likewise, the multi-core scores tell the same story, with the Pad 8 scoring 6222 and the Pad 7 scoring 4920. This all falls within expectation with the updated CPU platform onboard.
In real-world testing, the Xiaomi Pad 8 performed exceptionally well. Running Xiaomi HyperOS 3 over Android 16, the user experience is buttery smooth and fast. Navigating an opening app is quick and responsive, while animations for these actions remain consistent and never lag. Performing productivity tasks, such as writing in OneNote or checking email, is a breeze on the Pad 8, while even more resource-intensive tasks run smoothly on the tablet.
Gaming is also a great experience on the Xiaomi Pad 8 with the Snapdragon 8s, delivering decent performance even in resource-heavy titles like Diablo Immortal. With a controller connected, Diablo Immortal becomes a solid gaming experience. While not marketed as a gaming tablet, such as REDMAGIC Astra, the Pad 8 can still hold its own and allows for 60FPS gaming at medium settings on Immortal.
The other notable update to the Xiaomi Pad series is battery life. This is something that I’ve noticed in everyday testing, even before checking battery specs. While the Pad 7 allowed for three or so days of use before a charge, doing light work throughout the day, I’ve noted that, during a normal work week with the Xiaomi Pad 8 as my primary tablet (I use it frequently for note taking, research and emails), I’ve gotten about 4 ½ to 5 days before needing to charge it. These are averages, and obviously personal usage will determine overall time, but my point is that there is a notable difference in battery life between the two devices.
A big part of this is the increased battery capacity. While the Xiaomi Pad 7 opted for an 8850 mAh battery, the Xiaomi Pad 8 offers a 9200 mAh battery. In addition, the latest version of HyperOS 3 seems to offer improved power efficiency over the Pad 7’s original HyperOS 2 (which I’ve since updated since the Pad 7 review). Back, though, is the 45W turbo charging, a welcome feature that I appreciate has become standard.
Another expected and appreciated update is connectivity with both WiFi and Bluetooth, seeing a jump to the latest iterations of their respective hardware. In the case of the former, the Xiaomi Pad 8 supports WiFi 7 while the latter sees a jump to the latest Bluetooth 6, allowing for better HiFi audio streaming. In testing, both worked as advertised and without issue.
“The Xiaomi Pad 8 is a marginal update to an excellent tablet series.”
While the Xiaomi Pad 8 is a logical update to the Pad series, the question remains: “Who is this for?” The answer is two-fold. If you own a Pad 7, I would suggest sticking with what you have. It’s a solid update, and while the Pad 8 outperforms it, the difference is marginal. For the most part, it’s not really that noticeable in everyday use cases, other than battery life.
If you are looking for a premium-level tablet, though, I would highly recommend the Xiaomi Pad 8. Xiaomi has created a superb tablet that can handle your everyday work exceptionally well. The build and design are of premium quality, and the available accessories can turn the Pad 8 from a tablet into a laptop replacement in mere seconds. Not to mention that HyperOS 3 is solid, and the ecosystem Xiaomi has created, especially between its phones and tablets, rivals Apple’s.
The Xiaomi Pad 8 is a marginal update to an excellent tablet series. If you are looking for a premium tablet experience in the Android ecosystem, Xiaomi offers one of the best. When compared to the Pad 7, though, I’m not sure there are enough new features or innovation of warrant a replacement.
