Xiaomi Pad 7 Pro offers strong value but LCD display and software bugs hold it back

Xiaomi's latest tablet arrives as a capable companion to its flagship phones, but the company has made some choices that undercut what could have been a genuinely compelling device. The Pad 7 Pro costs £449 in the UK—roughly $580—and on paper, it reads like a steal: a Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 processor, an 8,850mAh battery that lasts nearly twelve hours of web browsing, and 67W fast charging that fills the tank in an hour. These are the specs that matter to people who want a larger screen without spending iPad money. The problem is that Xiaomi has chosen to build this tablet by tracing the outline of Apple's iPad Pro so closely that you'd forgive yourself for mistaking one for the other. The aluminum frame, the button placement, the overall proportions—it's all there. The design does feel premium and sits comfortably in your hands at just 6.2 millimeters thick, but the lack of originality is hard to ignore. It's a tablet that borrows confidence from another company's playbook rather than building its own.

The 11.2-inch display strikes a sensible middle ground between screen real estate and actual usability. It's not the unwieldy behemoth that Samsung's Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra has become, nor is it as cramped as the latest iPad mini. The panel itself pushes 3,200 by 2,136 pixels at up to 144Hz refresh, which sounds impressive until you learn it's IPS LCD technology. This is the tablet's most significant compromise. In testing, the screen reached 750 nits of brightness, which is respectable, but LCD simply cannot match what OLED delivers. Colors lack punch. Blacks aren't truly black—they're dark gray. Contrast suffers. Outdoor use becomes frustrating. You can tinker with color temperature settings and choose from various presets, but no amount of adjustment will bridge the gap between this panel and an OLED screen. It's the kind of choice that saves money in manufacturing but costs the user every time they use the device in sunlight.

The tablet ships with Xiaomi's HyperOS, built on Android 15, and it's here that the second major problem emerges. The software is feature-rich and genuinely useful if you own other Xiaomi devices—you can hand off apps between phones and tablets, mirror your phone's screen, even use the Pad 7 Pro as a wireless display for a Mac. Google's Gemini is onboard, along with Xiaomi's own HyperAI features for cloud-based processing in the gallery and notes apps. But the interface is buggy. The company has inherited bugs from MIUI that date back nearly five years, including a persistent double-tap glitch in the Mi Remote app that renders it largely unusable. These aren't minor annoyances; they're friction points that accumulate across daily use.

Performance is adequate but not exceptional. In Geekbench 6 single-core testing, the Pad 7 Pro keeps pace with Samsung's Tab S10 Ultra, but drops significantly in multi-core results. The 3DMark Extreme stress test reveals the tablet's real limitation: it's fine for light gaming, but anything demanding will cause stuttering. The device comes with 8GB of RAM and either 128GB or 256GB of storage in the base models, with a 12GB/512GB option at the top. The entry-level 128GB version uses slower UFS 3.1 storage, which is worth noting if you plan to move large files around.

Accessories expand the tablet's utility considerably. Xiaomi offers two keyboards: the Focus keyboard, which magnetically attaches and includes a trackpad similar to Apple's Magic Keyboard, and a more compact keyboard-case hybrid that sacrifices the trackpad for portability. The Focus Pen stylus offers 8,192 levels of pressure sensitivity with just 3 milliseconds of latency, and its three programmable buttons let you quickly access tools like the pointer, highlighter, and screenshot editor. These aren't included in the box, but they transform the Pad 7 Pro from a consumption device into something closer to a productivity tool.

The camera system is respectable for a tablet. The rear 50MP sensor handles 2X zoom without significant quality loss and can shoot 4K video at 60 frames per second. The front-facing 32MP camera is adequate for video calls and selfies, though it maxes out at 1080p30fps—not great for content creators. Battery life is where the Pad 7 Pro genuinely shines. In video playback testing, it matched the performance of Apple's larger 13-inch iPad Pro. Gaming lasted over nine hours. Web browsing stretched to nearly twelve hours. The 67W charger—sold separately—gets you to 64 percent in thirty minutes and a full charge in an hour, which is faster than most competitors.

Audio comes from quad speakers with Dolby Vision Atmos support. The soundstage is wide enough for a tablet, and the mix of bass, mids, and highs remains balanced even at high volumes without excessive distortion. There's no haptic feedback, which aligns with the iPad comparison but still feels like a missed opportunity.

The Xiaomi Pad 7 Pro occupies an awkward middle ground. It's genuinely good value for Android users who want a larger screen and don't want to spend flagship money. The battery life is excellent. The performance is sufficient for most tasks. But the LCD display is a constant reminder that you're making a compromise, and the buggy software suggests the device needed more time in development before launch. For someone willing to accept these trade-offs, it's a solid choice. For anyone expecting a truly polished experience, the flaws will wear thin quickly.