Review of Xiaomi Mi Pad 3 - a tablet with a good screen and a long-lasting battery

Specifications

Display	7.9 inches, 2,048 x 1,536 pixels, 326 ppi
CPU	MediaTek MT8176, 2.1 GHz, 28 nm
Graphics	IMG PowerVR GX6250 GPU
RAM	4 GB LPDDR3
Persistent memory	64GB eMMC 5.0
Front-camera	5 MP, f / 2.0 aperture
Main camera	13 MP, f / 2, 2
Battery	6 600 mAh, 5 V / 2 A, USB Type-C
Dimensions (edit)	200, 4 × 132, 6 × 6, 95 mm
Weight	328 g
Operating system	Android 7.0 Nougat, MIUI 8.2

Appearance and ergonomics

Xiaomi's design is fine. Clear straight lines, slightly rounded corners, flat surfaces. The side frames are minimal, the top and bottom are symmetrical. They are just enough to provide a firm grip in landscape mode, to place the touch buttons (by the way, in the same order as in the company's smartphones).

The buttons sit close enough. Out of habit, you often miss the side, hitting only the central "Home". Fortunately, the volume rocker and the power button are in their usual place and are easily accessible when used with one hand. In general, the Mi Pad 3 is like an extremely enlarged Xiaomi smartphone, such as the Redmi 4A or Mi Max.

The main camera is in the corner, like the company's budget smartphones. At the bottom of the all-metal case is a USB Type-C connector. Slightly higher on the rear panel are two neat stereo speaker grilles.

The body is one-piece, consisting of one anodized aluminum panel. The display is also protected: a tempered glass plate is used that completely covers the front side of the tablet.

Screen

The screen of Xiaomi Mi Pad 3 is one of the best in its class. Like Apple, the aspect ratio is 4: 3. IPS technology provides maximum viewing angles, and a resolution of 2,048 × 1,536 pixels - no mesh visible to the eye.

The protective glass and display are made without an air gap. There is no color inversion.

Unfortunately, the developers have completely forgotten about anti-reflective and oleophobic coatings. Fingerprints have to be scrubbed off regularly, and the display is off and it is almost impossible to photograph without glare. But there are several software features associated with the screen.

MIUI

To reduce the burden on the eyes of users, the developers have introduced several chips into the familiar MIUI shell based on Android 7.0, which are included if necessary:

Customizable Color Display - Choose between cool, warm and realistic color calibrations (based on white balance).
Night mode - replaces the white screen backlight with a yellow one.
Monochrome - replaces all colors with grayscale in accordance with standards.

The first two are already familiar to users and have shown themselves well. The third turned out to be the most useful software feature of the Mi Pad 3. The black and white screen with high contrast and clarity reduces eye strain and partially replaces E-Ink.

Other features of the operating system are quite common: customization, stable updates and a proprietary shutter.

Hardware platform and performance

The last generation Mi Pad was equipped with an Intel processor. Users did not appreciate, therefore Xiaomi MI Pad 3 is equipped with a six-core processor MediaTek MT8176: 28-nanometer process technology, 2.1 GHz per core, PowerVR GX6250 video accelerator.

A rather weak hardware platform was chosen for maximum stability. Xiaomi has thus protected itself from the problems that it has faced in the past.

MediaTek does not break records either in synthetic tests or in real applications. But Asphalt and Epic Citadel work at maximum settings (with such and such a resolution!). Rendering of interfaces - no lags. The increased amount of RAM - 4 GB - helps the tablet to cope even with heavy PDF documents.

Permanent memory - 64 GB, no memory card slot - active use of cloud storage is assumed. This is also an unpleasant feature: in the current version of the tablet there is not a hint of SIM cards. We'll have to be content with Wi-Fi or conventional drives connected via OTG.

Multimedia capabilities

They are rather scarce: a 5 megapixel front camera (f / 2.0 aperture) and a 13 megapixel main camera (f / 2, 2 aperture). Both without flash and improved autofocus. The most common cameras installed in budget smartphones. For video chat and document scanning, it is enough, but no more.

Peripheral capabilities are also limited. Wireless interfaces are Bluetooth 4.1 and dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 / a / c with Wi-Fi Display support and fast Wi-Fi Direct data transfer. Wired interfaces - USB Type-C with OTG support and traditional headphone mini-jack.

Autonomy

Xiaomi Mi Pad 3 is equipped with a 6 600 mAh battery, which is quite impressive for its class. Since 4G is not supported, this is enough to work for 10 hours with an average display brightness and in mixed use (3D games, surfing the Internet). In monochrome, this figure increases by 1.5 hours. Turning off Wi-Fi extends your tablet's life by another hour.

Unfortunately, there is no fast charging feature. The charging standard is 5V / 2A, so the process takes as long as four hours.

Outcomes

Mi Pad 3 looks great, works fast, performs all the functions of a pocket tablet and will help many to abandon a reader with a screen on electronic ink.

pros	Minuses
Balanced filling	Lack of memory card slot
Nice appearance	Lack of built-in 4G modem
Sophisticated ergonomics	Lack of anti-reflective coating
Great screen
Availability of special display modes

The Xiaomi Mi Pad 3 has few competitors. Chief among them - iPad mini - is much more expensive and runs on iOS.

For Android fans, there are three good branded tablets with an aspect ratio of 4: 3 and compact dimensions: Samsung Galaxy Tab A, Huawei Media Pad T1 and Mi Pad. The first two will cost the buyer $ 300-400. The Xiaomi Mi Pad 2 can be purchased for $ 284, the more powerful and more memory-based Mi Pad 3 for $ 240 at a discount. Not a bad budget solution for every day.