Comprehensive Upgrade! Xiaomi Mi Pad 3 Detailed Review: Unbeatable among Tablets Under $300

In past years, the shrink of windows tablet PC market leads that almost all the mainstream tablet PC brands including Apple reduce investment on new products, especially products from $150 to $300. Except the product line updated by Huawei symbolically in the way of ODM, we nearly can’t find some decent new products. So that Xiaomi Mi Pad 2 didn’t mark down in one and a half years from it’s released, still one of the most worth buying tablet PCs at the same price level. This case is unbelievable for tablet PCs market 2-3 years before.

This year, at the time of Xiaomi Mi Fan Festival, Xiaomi finally launched Xiaomi Mi Pad 3. Now let’s see performance of this item together.

Appearance: Is this Xiaomi Mi Pad 2?

From appearance, we can’t find the difference between Mi Pad 2 and Mi Pad 3. They are really too similar to distinguish.

First of all, Mi Pad 3 adopts the same 7.9’’ LCD screen with Mi Pad 2, 2048*1536 resolution(length-width ration 4:3), ppi is 326. This three data are all same with iPad Mini, except the first generation. Compared to the common 16:9 screen, 4:3 screen brings bigger display space, more convenient to read.

It’s worth mentioning that Xiaomi Mi Pad 3 screen adopts full lamination technology, making the protecting glass and display layer cling together. Users can have better watch feeling. As to the actual display effect, Xiaomi Mi Pad 3 has no problem, overall performance is between iPad Mini 2/3 and iPad Mini 4.

On frame design, Mi Pad 3 is also no different from Mi Pad 2.

They both adopts integrated full-metal frame, which is handled with sand-blasting process. The sand-blasting level is not as good as iPad, but still very outstanding for tablet PCs at this price level.

Rear camera is 13MP, no protuberance.

At the bottom is a USB-C port, with standard 5V/2A power adapter.

At the top is a 3.5mm earphone jack.

Below the screen, still keeps three physical-touch keys

With weight 328g (iPad Mini 4 is about 300g) and thickness 6.95mm (iPad Mini 4 is 6.1mm), Mi Pad 3 is very suitable to hold to use in a long time.

On the whole, Mi Pad 3 follows the appearance and craft of Mi Pad 2. But this is not a big problem. Even though now we can say that the appearance, craft and hand feeling of Mi Pad 2 are good.

Configurations: coming back to mainstream

Compared to a little “boring” appearance, Mi Pad 3 has some obvious changes on configurations. Following is the configuration list.

Screen: 7.9’’ LCD, 2048*1536, ppi 326, supporting black and white display mode.

SoC: MTK MT8176 (2*A72 + 4*A53 CPU, PowerVR GX6250 GPU, 28nm HPM processing )

RAM: 4GB LPDDR3 dual channel

Storage: 64GB eMMC5.0

Rear Camera: 13MP, f/2.2 aperture, supporting 1080P video

Front Camera: 5MP, f/2.0 aperture

Battery: 6400mAh(minimum value); 6600mAh(typical value)

Power Adapter: 5V/2A

Frame Size: 200.4mm*132.6mm*6.95mm

Frame Weight: 328g

Operating System: MIUI 8.2, based on Android 7.0

Other: USB-C, Bluetooth 4.1, supporting 802.11 ac

Color: Champaign Gold

Price: 1499￥ (about $220, In China)

Compared to Mi Pad 2, Mi Pad 3 mainly has four changes on hardware:

SoC from Intel X5-Z8500 to MTK MT8176

RAM upgrades from 2GB LPDDR3 to 4GB LPDDR3

Built-in storage from 16/64GB eMMC 4.5 to 64GB eMMC 5.0

Battery capacity from 6190mAH to 6600mAh

Here we mention the MTK MT8176 emphatically.

MT8176 was a SoC mainly designed for Android tablet PCs and launched by MTK in October 2016. It’s the highest level of MTK tablet SoC currently.

In terms of CPU, MT8176 owns Cortex A72 dual core (highest 2.1GHz) and Cortex A5 quad core. The GPU is PowerVR GX6250 (600 MHz), supporting 4K H.265 video decode, TSM 8nm HPM processing.

From the specifications, MT8176 is closed to Qualcomm snapdragon 650 (CPU a little stronger, GPU a little weaker), theoretical performance should be better than the ordinary-performance and bad-compatibility Intel X5-Z8500.

In the Antutu benchmark test, Xiaomi Mi Pad 3 gets 80,000 score, almost the same with snapdragon 650, a little lower than snapdragon 653.

In the Geekbench 4 GPU test, Cortex A72 big core makes it more than 1600 scores. This is almost the same level with snapdragon 820/821. GPU score is more than 2100, this is a little lower than snapdragon 650.

In the actual experience, Mi Pad 3 can operate Weibo, Weixin and other daily-use APP smoothly. Also no problem to play online games like King Glory, which doesn’t require very much for performance. And the 4GB RAM means that users need not to clean up the background any more when using the PC.

What’s more, on account of using SoC of ARM framewrok, When operating Mi Pad 3, users will not meet the compatibility problem caused by SoC of Intel framework just like Mi Pad 2. But the MTK SoC also means that the Mi Pad 3 can’t support windows OS like Mi Pad 2.

But, in fact, operating windows OS on 7.9’’ screen is not a very easy thing itself. And with lack of USB-A, HDMI and other necessary I/O port, for many users, the windows version of Mi Pad 2 is not very meaningful. So maybe it’s not very pity for Mi Pad 3 without windows version.

Experience: MIUI + smartphone APP

About Mi Pad 3 using experience, it can be concluded that several build-in MIUI APP and countless smartphone APP.

Mi Pad 3 is pre-installed with MIUI 8.2 OS, based on Android 7.0. Every built-in APP of the OS is roundly optimize for tablet, including calendar, memo, email, note pad, Duokan reader, news, video, music, browser and so on. It contains most daily-use APP.

If you are a MIUI fan and used to the built-in APP, believe that Mi Pad 3 will satisfy you. On the contrary, after buying Mi Pad 3, you need try to be used to it. Most tablet PCs don’t have many APP especially optimized for tablet.

It’s a progress that after replacing Intel SoC, Mi Pad 3 will not appear compatibility problem during daily use. The APP you want to use are all can be operated normally, but sometimes maybe not very smoothly.

In the online shopping stores, Xiaomi Mi Pad 3 price is about $300. Considering its 4GB RAM and background of raw material price rising, the price is not very high. In addition, because of iPad mini 2 stopped production, 16GB and 64GB version iPad mini 4 halt sale, currently the cheapest “mini” tablet sold by Apple official store is 128GB WiFi version iPad mini 4, about $530. The price difference between Mi Pad 3 and iPad mini is very big.

Is Mi Pad 3 worth buying? It depends on if you need an Android tablet PC.

With the popularization of large screen smartphones, the none-windows tablet PCs including iPad and Android tablets marketing space become smaller and smaller. If a smartphone can meet all your needs, buying a tablet PC may be unnecessary. If you are still not satisfied with smartphone screen size, and hope to get a larger screen holding in hand to read or watch videos, then Xiaomi Mi Pad 3 is one of the best tablet PCs under $300 to consider.