Poco Pad 5G: A Decent Mid-Range Tablet with 5G Connectivity, But Is It Worth It?
Poco, known for its budget-friendly smartphones, has forayed into the tablet market with the Poco Pad 5G. This large, 12.1-inch tablet boasts a compelling set of features, including a 120Hz refresh rate display, 5G connectivity, a 10,000mAh battery, and a Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 processor, all at a starting price of Rs. 23,999. However, its striking resemblance to the Redmi Pad Pro 5G raises questions about its uniqueness and value proposition. This review delves into the Poco Pad 5G’s performance, features, and overall experience to determine if it’s a worthy addition to the tablet market and if it’s a better buy than its Redmi counterpart.
Poco Pad 5G Design: Looks Good, But a Fingerprint Magnet
The Poco Pad 5G sports an all-metal unibody construction that exudes durability and premiumness. Its matte finish rear panel with a two-tone design adds to its sophisticated look. However, this matte finish proves to be a fingerprint magnet, requiring frequent wiping. The rear panel also features the Poco branding and two circular modules housing the camera and LED flash. Despite its size, the tablet is surprisingly portable due to its slim profile and lightweight design. Rounded corners, flat sides, and tapered edges on the front glass contribute to its comfortable grip.
Key Features:
- Dimensions: 280mm x 181.85mm x 7.52mm
- Weight: 568g
- Colors: Cobalt Blue and Pistachio Green
The right frame of the tablet houses two microphones, the SIM card tray, which supports dual 5G SIMs or a SIM and a microSD card, and the volume rocker key. The top edge features dual speakers and the power/wake button, while the bottom houses another two speakers, a USB Type-C port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
Poco Pad 5G Display and Sound: Great for Watching Content
Flipping the tablet reveals a spacious 12.1-inch LCD display with uniform and noticeable bezels. Protected by Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3, the panel boasts a 16:10 aspect ratio and 2.5K (2560 x 1600 pixels) resolution. A highlight is the 120Hz adaptive refresh rate, allowing users to choose between 60, 90, and 120Hz for smooth scrolling and visuals. The display also offers three colour profiles: Vivid, Saturated, and Standard, with Vivid being the most vibrant and recommended setting.
Key Features:
- Size: 12.1-inch 2.5K resolution LCD
- Refresh rate: 120Hz
- Audio: Quad stereo speakers
The display supports Dolby Vision and achieves a peak brightness of 600 nits. While sufficient indoors, the brightness struggles to overcome glare in outdoor conditions, limiting usability in direct sunlight.
The Poco Pad boasts a quad-speaker setup with Dolby Atmos support, along with Hi-Res Audio support through the 3.5mm headphone jack. The audio quality is commendable, offering decent stereo separation and volume. However, the lack of sufficient bass at maximum volume might disappoint audiophiles. The tablet excels at enhancing the viewing experience of movies and shows but might not be ideal for music listening.
Poco Pad 5G Software: Not a Lot of Bloat
Poco has equipped the tablet with HyperOS, based on Android 14. The software is surprisingly free of bloatware, with only a minimal number of pre-installed apps.
Key Features:
- OS: Android 14
- Skin: HyperOS
The Mi Canvas app allows for sketching using the optional Poco Pen. HyperOS also offers several handy features such as:
- Xiaomi HomeScreen+: Connects a phone using a Xiaomi account to receive smartphone notifications on the tablet.
- Shared Clipboard: Enables easy copying and pasting of images and text between devices.
- Cross-device Notes app sync: Allows syncing notes with the Camera app, enabling picture insertions directly into notes.
The tablet, of course, supports multitasking, allowing two apps to run simultaneously on the screen. Additionally, two floating apps can be added, bringing the total to four.
Poco has committed to providing two years of Android OS updates and three years of security patches, ensuring continued support and security for the tablet.
Poco Pad 5G Performance: Sometimes Fast, Sometimes Laggy
The Poco Pad 5G is powered by the Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 SoC, delivering generally smooth performance. However, users may encounter occasional lag during multitasking, scrolling through settings, and launching specific apps, particularly the camera.
Key Features:
- Chipset: Snapdragon 7s Gen 2
- RAM: 8GB (LPDDR4X)
- Storage: Up to 256GB (UFS 2.2) inbuilt, expandable
Benchmark results reveal performance comparable to the Redmi Pad Pro 5G, further confirming their shared hardware.
Benchmark Results:
| Benchmark | Poco Pad 5G | Redmi Pad Pro 5G |
|---|---|---|
| Geekbench 6 Single | 1025 | 1034 |
| Geekbench 6 Multi | 2893 | 2994 |
| PCMark Work 3.0 | 12682 | 12518 |
| 3DM Slingshot Extreme | 4583 | 5177 |
| 3DM Slingshot | 5979 | 6690 |
| 3DM Wild Life | 2976 | 2970 |
| 3DM Wild Life Unlimited | 3065 | 3072 |
| AnTuTu v10 | 548927 | 602839 |
| GFX Bench T-Rex | 79 | 81 |
| GFX Bench Manhattan 3.1 | 29 | 30 |
| GFX Bench Car Chase | 15 | 15 |
The tablet experiences minimal heating even during resource-intensive tasks like gaming. It managed to run BGMI smoothly in ultra-high graphics settings with adequate frame rates. However, the large screen size might not be ideal for long gaming sessions.
The 5G connectivity on the Poco Pad delivered impressive download speeds of around 474 Mbps and uploads of 63 Mbps on Airtel’s 5G network. Video calls via 5G proved to be smooth and reliable.
Poco Pad 5G Cameras: Decent
The 8-megapixel front-facing camera, crucial for video calls and selfies, is underwhelming in performance. While it performs adequately in daylight conditions, it struggles to capture details in low light.
Key Features:
- Rear: 8-megapixel with LED flash
- Front: 8-megapixel
The rear camera, likely to be used less frequently, produces usable photos in daylight, but suffers from excessive noise and a lack of detail in low light.
Poco Pad 5G Battery: Enough to Binge a Limited Series on Netflix
The Poco Pad’s 10,000mAh battery delivered a mixed experience in terms of longevity. While expected to match the Redmi Pad Pro’s impressive HD video loop test results, the Poco Pad surprisingly fell short, lasting only about 11 hours and 50 minutes. This contrasts sharply with the Redmi Pad Pro’s impressive runtime of 28 hours and 30 minutes.
Key Features:
- Capacity: 10,000mAh
- Fast charging: 33W
Despite this underwhelming benchmark, the tablet offers solid real-world battery life for regular usage. With several hours of YouTube streaming, gaming, Netflix watching, and web browsing, the tablet consistently lasted two days before requiring a charge.
Charging with the included 33W adapter takes around 2 hours to fully replenish the 10,000mAh battery. Notably, the tablet doesn’t experience significant heating during the charging process.
Poco Pad 5G Verdict: A Decent Mid-Range Tablet, But Is It Worth It?
The Poco Pad 5G presents an attractive offer for users seeking a mid-range tablet with a large display and 5G connectivity. Its appealing features include:
- A large, high-resolution display with good indoor brightness.
- A durable, well-built design.
- Acceptable performance for everyday tasks and some gaming.
- Solid battery life for extended usage.
The tablet’s main competitor is the Redmi Pad Pro 5G, which offers identical hardware but at a slightly higher price point. This makes the Poco Pad a more attractive value proposition. However, users seeking better performance and camera capabilities might consider the Xiaomi Pad 6, which offers a smaller display and battery but delivers superior performance and camera quality at a lower price.
Ultimately, the Poco Pad 5G is a solid mid-range tablet offering a compelling price-to-performance ratio. The decision to purchase hinges on your specific requirements and budget. If seeking a large, affordable tablet with 5G connectivity, the Poco Pad 5G is a worthy contender. However, if performance and camera capabilities are paramount, exploring other options like the Xiaomi Pad 6 might be more beneficial.
