Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro review: Android's iPad Pro alternative?

Xiaomi is best known for cramming huge spec into its devices and offering good value for money. That's always been the message on its phones – with sub-brands like Redmi and Poco taking that to an extreme – while latter years have seen something of a price creep for Xiaomi.

Its tablet range really landed internationally with the Xiaomi Pad 5, and a few years later we're looking at the Xiaomi Pad 8 and Pad 8 Pro – the latter on review here. This is a tablet pitched as the closest you'll get to an iPad Pro alternative, although that's a target many brands are now shooting for.

For Xiaomi, however, the price for a tablet of this power will certainly turn heads, undercutting the likes of Samsung and Apple where it matters. Does that make the Pad 8 Pro the perfect premium slate?

Price & Availability

The Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro launched globally (but not in the USA) on 28 February, following an initial launch in China.

It's available for £529 / €649 for the 8/256GB model, while there's also a 12/512GB model for £549 / €679. Additionally, Xiaomi offers a version with a matte display, which is £579 / €769.

However, there's a launch promotion in the UK, with the tablet at £449 on Mi.com, with the Focus Pen Pro also reduced to £59, a saving of £30. There are a full range of accessories available for the tablet, too, including keyboards and covers.

Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro vs Pad 7 Pro: What's new?

• Thinner and lighter
• More powerful
• Bigger battery

The Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro slims down a little, dropping 15g of weight and a fraction of a millimetre (from 6.18mm down to 5.75mm).

At the same time, there's a meaningful bump in the power, by moving from Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 to Snapdragon 8 Elite. Albeit being a previous generation of hardware – as we're now on the step-up Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 – it's a tier higher than the previous Pad model.

The battery capacity has also increased from 8850mAh to 9200mAh, which considering the decrease in thickness and weight is a great feature improvement.

Design & Build

• 5.75mm slim aluminium build
• Impressive quad speakers
• Plenty of accessories
• No IP rating

There's nothing surprising about the design of the Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro – not if you've seen an iPad recently. Squared edges and an aluminium shell frame the display with narrow bezels, plus a camera on the landscape edge.

There's a fingerprint scanner built into the power button, which offers a biometric unlocking option alongside face unlock. I found both to be generally reliable for easy access.

There are neatly drilled perforations on the short sides for the speakers, which give a good showing for themselves. They notionally support Dolby Atmos, which is far better than the Xiaomi Sound alternative.

Then there's an addition option for "immersive sound", which really widens the soundscape. I found this sound great for listening while in a hotel room, streaming Spotify music and watching movies.

The rear of the tablet has a square raised camera housing, which is larger than I'd like it to be, because without a case, it means the tablet won't sit flat on a desk.

The rear of the tablet also features pogo pins for powering compatible accessories, like the Focus Keyboard (£179), which is like Apple's Magic Keyboard with a self-supporting hinge and integrated trackpad.

I found the Focus Keyboard to offer a good typing experience, offering adjustable display angles. Although the keys are a little small, they're well enough spaced to be able to type fairly well.

There's also a standard Keyboard and Cover options, alongside the Focus Pen Pro, which enables drawing, while featuring haptics and pinch controls on the pen itself.

The Focus Pen will magnetically attach to the side of the tablet, connects via Bluetooth and has a lovely feel to it.

Display

• 11.2-inch LCD display, 144Hz
• 3200 x 2136 pixels (345ppi)
• 800 nits peak brightness

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There's an 11.2-inch display here, which is nice and vibrant, presenting rich colours. It's not as nice as the OLED display of the iPad Pro or Galaxy Tab S11, but at this price, it's hard to complain.

The resolution of Xiaomi's tablet is higher, potentially delivering more detail, but Samsung's tablet is significantly brighter. That's where we come to perhaps the first negative of this device: while the quoted 800 nits brightness is reasonable, it's lower than those premium rivals.

The display is also a little glossy. Sitting adjacent to a window when writing this review, found the reflections to be a bit overpowering on a sunny day (see above). The screen doesn't seem to do much to disperse them – although there is the matte option for those serious about using it on the move.

The auto brightness is frustrating too, often wanting to dim the screen in bright conditions, even when in use. I found myself manually adjusting the brightness to get the best experience.

However, in other areas the Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro packs in impressive display specs. There's support for refresh rates up to 144Hz (if you can find supporting apps). There's also support for Dolby Vision and HDR10 to bring high dynamic range content to life, although I didn't find the sort of Ultra HDR brightening in Google Photos that really makes images pop – likely because of the conservative peak brightness.

Cameras

• Rear: 50-megapixel, 1/2.76in, f/1.8, autofocus
• Front: 32-megapxiel, 1/3.6in, f/2.2

Despite the large housing on the rear of the tablet, there's only a single camera. It's a 50-megapixel unit, but it's a small sensor compared to a phone equivalent – and that's what comes through in the performance. That's not really a concern, because you do have a phone in your pocket and that will almost certainly take much better photos.

Tablets are often used for ad hoc photography rather than anything regular or too artistic, so the slightly flat and dull images aren't a concern for me. If you're snapping a document, it's fine, if you're taking a picture of your dog, you won't do the good boy justice, so don't bother.

What irks me more is that Xiaomi insists on the bulbous camera housing on the back for no good reason.

The front camera is much the same. Although 32-megapixels, it's hardly the selfie snapper you'd choose. It's fine for video calling when you're told to turn the camera on – and that's what really matters here.

Performance & Battery

• Snapdragon 8 Elite
  • 8/12GB RAM
  • 265/512GB storage
• 9200mAh battery
  • 67W charging

There's no shortage of power from the Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Elite under the hood. This is the chip that powered many of 2025's flagship phones, so it's no slouch, and I found that resulted in a wonderfully smooth experience across the device.

My review model had 8GB RAM and 256GB storage, but there's no option for microSD expansion – and there's no 5G model available either for a permanent connection.

Moving around the tablet is generally smooth, but I did find some slowdown in the animation when using Xiaomi's desktop-style floating windows and moving those around the display. But for the most part, everything I did on the Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro was nice and smooth.

If you want to run more intensive tasks then you might find it gets a little warm across the back, which I did experience during longer gaming sessions, but whether this is a problem really depends on the demands you'll put on the tablet.

There's that large 9200mAh battery in the Pad 8 Pro, supported by 67W charging – which is respectably fast (although there's no charger in the box) meaning you can top the tablet up rapidly when necessary.

The battery also lasts through a couple of days of use. I used it across two days without the need for a recharge, but having to ramp up the brightness to beat reflections will reduce the stamina.

Interface & Features

• HyperOS 3
  • Android 16
  • 4 years OS updates; 6 years security updates

The Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro runs HyperOS 3, the latest version of Xiaomi's mobile software, which runs on Google's Android 16 base system. Xiaomi offers 4 years of OS updates and 6 years of security updates – which isn't especially long compared to the 7 years that Samsung offers.

I also found the software to be less intrusive than it is on Xiaomi phones. Because of the way that tablets are used – slightly less intensively than a smartphone – I found Xiaomi's changes to be easy to accommodate. There's some preinstalled software and some that I opted not to install, but apart from the occasional notification to use Xiaomi's health software, it generally left me alone.

There are a range of adaptations to suit tablet use, including a dock for apps, and a handy Workstation mode that can be toggled on to make every app open in a window. This allows easy multitasking, on top of split screen views, picture-in-picture (so you can keep Netflix open while checking emails) and so on.

I found it a great alternative to using a laptop, although at 11.2-inches it's small and that has some impact on just how productive you might be. While most apps support the landscape orientation that productivity apps favour, you'll still find the occasional app that doesn’t use the full screen – such as LinkedIn, for example.

But the browser experience is generally good, with Chrome working well and Mi Browser an alternative if you find that something doesn't work in desktop mode on Google's alternative. Generally, HyperOS 3 in this tablet form works well and I found it a lot easier to live with than the same software on Xiaomi's phones.

In addition to the good Android experience, the Pad 8 Pro is one of a number of devices that now plays nice with Apple devices, so it can be used as a second screen for a Mac and send and receive files seamlessly.

Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro review: Verdict

The Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro joins a growing range of solid Android tablets that offer a premium experience. And that's precisely what you get here.

In a field that was once dominated by Samsung, Xiaomi makes its mark with the Pad 8 Pro, which offers a solid experience that doesn't suffer as a result of its HyperOS software.

Indeed, the options for Workstation mode – and a full range of accessories – makes this Android slate a slightly cheaper option than picking an iPad Pro as a laptop replacement.

But those accessories are expensive, the brightness isn't class leading, and the chunky camera seems a design oddity. The experience is generally a good one, though, with the positives outweighing a few negatives for a great all-round tablet experience – especially if you can buy at a discount.

Also consider

The OnePlus Pad 3 is an obvious alternative and is currently available for around the same price.

The Honor MagicPad 4 is another newcomer which is slightly larger with a much brighter OLED display and more power – so the discounted price looks like a steal.

In this price range the iPad Air would be the closest Apple alternative, not only matching the LCD display tech but much of the design too. Apple's M4 chip is powerful, while the app experience is a little smoother for iPad than Android, but the accessories are really expensive.