Rating: 3.8/5
There’s a particular kind of confidence that comes with releasing a product that barely changes its design yet raises the bar on every spec that matters. That’s exactly what Xiaomi has done with the Pad 8. In a tablet market increasingly crowded with would-be iPad killers, the Pad 8 doesn’t shout for attention — it simply outperforms everything near its price point and lets the numbers do the talking.
At Rs 33,999, you’re getting a Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 processor, a stunning 3.2K 144Hz LCD display, a 9,200mAh battery, Android 16 out of the box, and one of the best keyboard-and-stylus. We used the Xiaomi Pad 8 for sometime and here’s our complete review of the same.
Design
Xiaomi Pad 8 offers a premium metal unibody design and weighs 485 grams. The sleek and stylish Android tablet comes in two colour options — Graphite Grey and Titanium Blue.
Xiaomi Pad will definitely impress you with its trendy and elegant design. The rear of the tablet offers a smooth finish and houses a single lens 13MP camera. The front is dominated by a large display surrounded by uniform bezels on all sides. The power button is placed on the top and the USB Type C case is at the bottom.
The device comes with four speakers and looks quite trendy and well built. The front is dominated by the 11.2-inch display, framed by ultra-thin bezels that maximise screen real estate without compromising grip.
The minimalist aesthetic is complemented by subtle branding and a clean back panel, giving the device a refined, professional look. The build quality reflects Xiaomi’s attention to detail, with precise machining and a matte finish that resists fingerprints and smudges.
Focus Keyboard
Xiaomi Pad 8 comes with two keyboard options — Keyboard and the budget end and Focus Keyboard which is the premium offering of the company. We got the Focus Keyboard with our review unit.
The Focus Keyboard also includes a trackpad and backlighting which further enhances the user experience. The backlighting automatically comes on in low light which makes the device quite handy. The slim and lightweight keyboard attaches magnetically to the tablet transforming it.
Into a productivity device. We were quite impressed with the build quality of the keyboard and it also features a sturdy hinge mechanism which keeps the device stable.
Despite its compact form factor, the keys are well-spaced and the matte finish of the keyboard resists fingerprints. We really had a great time using the Focus Keyboard. The keys offer decent travel and tactile feedback. The layouts of the keys are also intuitive with all essential shortcuts and function keys integrated for quick access to brightness, volume, and multitasking features. The trackpad integrated into the keyboard supports multi-touch gestures, allowing smooth navigation across apps and documents.
Students, professionals, and casual users will find it particularly useful for writing assignments, editing presentations, or managing spreadsheets on the go.
Focus Pen
Along with the Focus keyboard, the Xiaomi Pad 8 also offers support for Focus Pen which is a stylus. This addition of a stylus transforms the Android tablet from Xiaomi into a versatile tool for creativity, productivity, and everyday use. The lightweight and sturdy Focus Pen feels comfortable to hold and its matte finish offers good grip.
The Focus Pen delivers natural handwriting experience. Also due to low latency and high pressure sensitivity, strokes appear instantly on the screen, closely mimicking the feel of pen on paper.
The palm rejection technology further enhances usability, allowing users to rest their hand on the screen without accidental inputs.We were also impressed with the ability of the stylus to capture fine details. With tilt recognition and multiple pressure levels, shading and line variation feel intuitive, making sketching and digital illustration more expressive.
Along with writing and drawing, the Focus Pen also seamlessly blends with Xiaomi’s HyperOS, allowing quick shortcuts like tapping to switch tools, highlighting text, or navigating apps.
Display
Xiaomi Pad 8 features an 11-2-inch LCD display with 3200×2136 pixel resolution. The display comes with Dolby Vision support and offers up to 144Hz refresh rate. The high refresh rate of the display makes scrolling, gaming and animations feel fluid and responsive.
Along with this, the adaptive refresh rate helps in painting the right balance between performance and battery efficiency. The Xiaomi Pad 8 also offers 2600 nits peak brightness levels.
The high brightness levels also offer outstanding visibility even under direct sunlight, something few tablets can match. The high brightness levels of the Xiaomi Pad 8 also makes it ideal for reading or streaming content when sitting outdoors.
The colour reproduction is also vivid and accurate and the improved Dolby Vision support brings cinematic quality to movies and shows.Along with this, the Xiaomi Pad 8 also houses triple ambient light sensors enabling it to automatically adjust the brightness level and colour tone on the basis of your surroundings. The ambient sensors make sure that you enjoy a natural and comfortable viewing experience in different lighting conditions.
The screen on the Android tablet from Xiaomi also comes with wet hand touch support, which means that users will still be able to use the device with wet hands making it more user friendly.
In all the display on the Xiaomi Pad 8 excels with its performance, it’s a complete mix of clarity, brightness, and smoothness and is ideal for gaming, content consumption and productivity tasks.
Performance
Xiaomi Pad 8 is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 chipset.
The Android tablet comes in two variants — 8GB+128GB and 12GB+256GB. In real-world testing, the Pad 8 performed exceptionally well. The user experience is buttery smooth and fast. Navigating and opening apps is quick and responsive, while animations remain consistent and never lag. Gaming is also a great experience even resource-heavy titles like Diablo Immortal can be played at 60FPS on medium settings.
The 144Hz adaptive refresh rate display complements this by ensuring ultra-fluid visuals, while the large VC cooling system keeps temperatures under control during extended sessions.
Apart from raw speed, the Xiaomi Pad 8 also optimises performance for AI-driven tasks, image processing, and enhanced efficiency.Along with a smooth and lag free performance, the Xiaomi Pad 8 also delivers a rich audio experience. The tablet comes equipped with a quad-speaker setup tuned for Dolby Atmos. The device delivers an immersive audio experience and the strategically placed speakers ensure balanced stereo separation, making dialogue clear and bass tones more pronounced. Coming to the software, the Pad 8 ships with HyperOS 3 based on Android 16, and it’s a noticeably cleaner and more polished experience. The multi-tasking capabilities that made HyperOS useful on tablets are all present and improved. You can enable Workstation Mode for a macOS-type interface with app icons on a dock at the bottom, allowing you to quickly open them in floating windows. The updated split-screen layout supports a 5:5 vertical split view and introduces a new horizontal 1:9 split ratio for flexible window management.
There’s also a PC-level browser that provides a desktop-like interface with a full keyboard shortcut support. HyperOS 3 includes AI Live Subtitles, which can transcribe and translate meetings in real-time, showing bilingual subtitles on screen if participants are speaking different languages.
Unlike Redmi phones that come pre-loaded with a fair share of apps, the Xiaomi Pad 8 delivers a largely clean UI out of the box.
Xiaomi promises 4 years of major OS upgrades and 6 years of security updates. That said, software is not without its rough edges. Xiaomi’s HyperOS 3 launcher has a cluttered design and counterintuitive choices, like the lack of a settings shortcut in the control centre — a minor but persistent annoyance. The Workstation Mode wants to be Xiaomi’s answer to Samsung DeX, but it’s not quite as flexible — you’re still limited to three main windows plus a fourth floating one, and hooking up to an external screen can only mirror the tablet, not extend it.
Camera
Xiaomi Pad 8 features a 13MP primary camera and an 8MP secondary camera. The basic camera setup of Xiaomi Pad 8 is good enough for taking photos of documents and receipts and giving callers a clear view during video calls. The rear sensor is spec’d at f/2.2 with PDAF, and the front at f/2.28. In well-lit environments, both sensors produce photos with ample detail and reasonable colour accuracy. In everyday use, the camera does its job fairly well.
Whether scanning documents, joining a quick video meeting, or snapping the occasional photo, the results are usable. Video calls look clear enough in good lighting, and document scans come out readable without much effort.Image quality is fine in good light but quickly drops off in the dark — a mid-range smartphone will almost always do a better job. That’s the honest summary of a tablet camera in 2026, and the Pad 8 is no exception to the rule.
One charming detail worth calling out: a little LED lights up on the front of the tablet when the camera is active, a small but appreciated design touch that lets you know when your tablet is looking at you, both for privacy reasons and so you don’t leave it on by mistake.
Battery
Even though it is slimmer and lighter, the Pad 8 remarkably packs in a bigger battery than the Pad 7 — a 9,200mAh cell compared to the 8,850mAh on the Pad 7 — and comes with 45W charging support and a 67W charger in the box.
The Xiaomi Pad 8 boasts impressive battery life with its 9,200mAh cell, lasting a full day of mixed use and up to two days with moderate use. Charging is equally impressive. With fast charging support, the Pad 8 can quickly recover from low battery levels, reducing downtime and ensuring you’re back to work or entertainment in no time. While wireless charging is not included, the wired fast charging speeds compensate well, making it practical for users who rely on quick top-ups.
The tablet’s power management system also plays a key role in extending battery life.
HyperOS intelligently balances performance and efficiency, ensuring that high-demand tasks like gaming or video editing don’t drain the battery excessively.
Verdict
The Xiaomi Pad 8 comes with a starting price tag of Rs 33,999. The tablet is a refined, focused upgrade that puts near-flagship hardware into a slim, attractive body at a price that consistently embarrasses much of the competition. It’s the best value Android tablet to beat, with specs that far exceed its reasonable price which includes a good-looking screen, plenty of processing power, and a nice compact build that’s easy to carry around.
If you are looking for a premium-level tablet and do not want to burn a hole in your pocket then the Xiaomi Pad 8 is a superb recommendation.
