Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro and Pad 8 go on a world tour
A few months after the market launch in China the Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro and Pad 8 now launched in more countries worldwide. The Pro model is among Xiaomi’s thinnest LCD tablets and is 0.4 mm thinner than the iPad 7 Pro.
Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro: 5.8 mm thin and 485 g in weight
The new Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro is only 5.8 mm thick and weighs 485 g (15 g less than the previous model). The Pad 7 Pro was already 0.3 mm thinner than the Pad 6 Pro and this model is now another 0.4 mm thinner. This all adds up over time and is particularly important since tablets are almost always used with a protective case.
The Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro prioritizes productivity. It offers improved split-screen modes with a 5:5 vertical and a 9:1 horizontal layout. Additionally, the Workstation mode (Xiaomi’s Desktop mode) allows you to add more apps to the dock at the bottom of the screen for quick access.
The web browser supports tabs, right-click functionality, and mouse previews. You can use the stylus for this, but these features are actually best used with a mouse.
Xiaomi Focus Pen Pro
Furthermore, the new Xiaomi Focus Pen Pro deserves mention. The company opted for a buttonless design but still managed to integrate some controls – you can literally squeeze the pen to access additional functions.
This opens a “quick access ring” in the main user interface with 1-6 shortcut buttons. Within apps, this allows users to access relevant settings and controls. Although the Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro is slimmer than its predecessor, it boasts a 9,200 mAh battery, 350 mAh more than before. It still supports 67-watt fast charging and now even supports 22.5-watt reverse charging.
Fast 144 Hz display
The Xiaomi tablet features an 11.2-inch LCD display in a 3:2 aspect ratio with a resolution of 3,200 x 2,136 pixels (345 ppi). It supports Dolby Vision and Adaptive HDR, which allows the brightness to be increased to up to 800 nits. The refresh rate is 144 Hz.
The technical specifications are essentially the same as before. The four Dolby Atmos-enabled speakers are still included. Hi-Res and Hi-Res Wireless Audio are also supported, should you wish to use headphones.
Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset
Compared to its predecessor, the performance has improved significantly – the Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro is now powered by a Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset that is still one of the fastest chips on the market and easily outperforms the anything but slow Snapdragon 8s Gen 3. According to Xiaomi, the CPU is 81% faster in the Geekbench test and the GPU is twice as fast (+103% at 1440p in the Aztec Ruins Vulkan test). The score in the AnTuTu benchmark test is 68% higher.
The tablet is available with 8 or 12 GB of RAM and 128, 256, or 512 GB of storage. The 8 GB RAM version uses LPDDR5X, while the 12 GB version is equipped with the faster LPDDR5T RAM. Similarly, the storage options vary: the base 128 GB version uses UFS 3.1, while the 256 GB and 512 GB tablets are equipped with faster UFS 4.1 chips.
The Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro also features a fingerprint sensor on the side. While the sensor primarily serves to unlock the tablet itself, it can also be configured to unlock your smartphone if multitasking on a single device isn’t sufficient.
It’s also worth mentioning that the Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro features a 50 MP rear camera and a 32 MP front camera with an ultra-wide-angle lens (19 mm). The latter is useful for video calls and group selfies.
