Redmi Pad 2 Pro review: Long battery, reliable performance
It is not easy to find a good tablet with a reasonable price. However, the Redmi Pad 2 Pro comes pretty close. Priced at Rs 24,999, Xiaomi’s Pad 2 Pro offers a mix of good hardware and useful software.
redmi pad 2 pro review
Pros
- Battery
- Display
- build quality
- Display
Shortcoming
- speaker
- slow charging
Not everyone needs a premium tablet like the iPad Pro. And not everyone wants to pay for it either. If you’re looking for a big screen for watching movies, browsing or doing some work, like online classes for your kids, without spending big, you’ll want something that’s worth the money. Redmi Pad 2 Pro has been introduced by Xiaomi as one such tablet. It targets users who want a large screen, long battery life, and reliable performance without the flagship price tag.
This is a big pill. And it’s well equipped for its price. The Pad 2 Pro comes with a larger 12.1-inch display and is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 chipset. It is paired with up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, along with support for expandable storage up to 2TB. To keep things running, it has a massive 12,000mAh battery with 33W fast charging support.
The tablet runs on Xiaomi HyperOS 2 and offers 5G connectivity, Wi-Fi 6, and Bluetooth 5.4. It also has a 13-megapixel rear camera and an 8-megapixel front camera, which is useful for scanning documents and making video calls. All this comes at a starting price of Rs 24,999.
In short, if you’re in the market for a mid-range Android tablet, this is an option worth considering. But is it so? Or rather, is it any good? Here at India Today Tech, we’ve been using the Pad 2 Pro for over two weeks now, and so far, it delivers on its promise of reliable, everyday performance. Of course, there are some areas where it could have been better.
Redmi Pad 2 Pro design and display
In this review, we are looking at the Redmi Pad 2 Pro in silver color option, which the company calls Quick Silver. Design-wise, the back panel and frame of the Redmi Pad 2 Pro use aluminum alloy. The metallic finish on the color variants further enhances its premium look and feel. While most of the back is clean, there is a patterned sheet running along one side with zig-zag style lines that breaks up the monotony and adds some character. The camera module sits in a pill-shaped island and features a single rear camera with an LED flash, keeping the overall look simple and clean.
Around the edges, you get the usual set of ports and controls, including quad speakers, a USB Type-C port, volume buttons, a power button, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Now I wouldn’t call it a slim tablet. It’s not too thick, but it’s not particularly thin either. For comparison, Xiaomi’s Pad 7 is thinner and lighter by about 500 grams, while the Pad 2 Pro weighs about 610 grams. That said, it feels comfortable in the hand, and the metal alloy construction adds to its durability and sense of sturdiness.
Talking about the front, the 12.1 inch display of Redmi Pad 2 Pro is large and enough for every entertainment. While the bezels are on the thick side, they’re uniform all around, giving the tablet a clean and well-balanced look. The display also offers sharp 2.5K resolution, and the 16:10 aspect ratio works especially well for watching movies, web browsing, and reading. The high refresh rate makes scrolling and animations feel smooth during everyday use.
I’ve been using the tablet extensively for watching movies, shows, scrolling through social media, and even reading documents, and the display performs well on all of these tasks. During prolonged viewing, the screen feels comfortable on the eyes and remains easy to hold. I used the tablet in both bright and low-light conditions, including late at night, and the panel maintained consistent brightness and clarity with wide viewing angles.
Redmi Pad 2 delivers consistent performance
The Redmi Pad 2 Pro is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 chipset. Although it is not the most powerful processor in this segment, it is not slow either. In fact, it’s a more capable chipset for the price. In use, the chip handles everyday tasks reliably. For reference, I ran the Geekbench benchmark on the tablet, you can see below.
This is clearly not a tablet built for hardcore gaming, but it’s more than capable of keeping pace with casual titles. I played games like Asphalt 9 and Minecraft and I loved playing it on a big screen with smooth visuals and stable performance.
In terms of entertainment and productivity, multitasking works well. I switched between apps, browsed the web, and worked in split-screen mode without noticeable lag. The tablet remains responsive during everyday use, and is suitable for streaming, video calls, online classes, and light work.
That said, the speakers leave room for improvement. Although the quad-speaker setup gets quite loud, the sound sounds crisp and lacks depth, which becomes noticeable when listening to music, especially at loud volume levels. For movies and casual videos they’re fine, but for music I found it somewhat irritating.
The performance of the Pad 2 Pro is complemented by Xiaomi HyperOS 2, which offers a clean and fluid user interface with smooth animations. The UI also offers ample customization options with useful widgets that make the tablet responsive and easy to personalize.
Redmi Pad 2 comes with a bigger battery
The Pad 2 Pro’s reliable performance is powered by its large 12,000mAh battery. In my daily usage, the tablet easily lasted for about two days with normal usage like web browsing, video streaming and light work. Even with heavy usage, including long, repetitive viewing sessions, it comfortably got me through the day.
That said, while the battery capacity is impressive, the charging speed is barely decent. While 33W fast charging might be good enough for a smartphone with a small battery, it takes about two and a half hours to fully charge the battery from zero to 100 percent on this tablet. It is somewhat slow.
redmi pad 2 pro accessories
I used the Redmi Pad 2 Pro with its smart pen and keyboard, both of which are sold separately. The Redmi Pad Pro Keyboard is priced at around Rs 4,000, while the Redmi Smart Pen is also priced at around Rs 4,000. Together, these accessories complete the setup and provide a laptop-like experience.
The keyboard feels tactile and comfortable to type on, and continues to do so even as I write this review. However, it doesn’t come with a trackpad like Xiaomi’s Pad 7 keyboard or Apple’s iPad accessories. The keyboard also adds noticeable weight, making the tablet feel like a small laptop when carried in a bag.
The smart pen works smoothly for note taking and casual drawing, although there is a slight hint of latency. One drawback, however, is that the pen needs to be charged separately, and there’s no dedicated magnetic slot on the tablet to connect it. While the keyboard includes a holder for the pen, it doesn’t connect directly to the tablet, making carrying and storing the stylus a bit inconvenient, and even more so if you don’t have a keyboard.
Verdict on Redmi Pad 2 Pro: Should you buy it?
If you’re looking to buy a tablet primarily for entertainment or for your kids to attend online classes on it, the Redmi Pad 2 Pro is worth considering. It offers a large display with smooth and vibrant viewing experience, good brightness levels, and reliable performance for everyday use. It works well for watching shows, playing casual games, attending online classes, and doing light work on documents.
That said, the audio quality from the speakers is a bit weak, and the accessories are a mixed bag and they add to the overall cost. If you’re looking for a more premium tablet experience, you may want to explore higher-priced options, including Xiaomi’s Pad 7. However, at its starting price, the Redmi Pad 2 Pro delivers reliable performance, and gets most things right.
