Poco Pad review

Design, build quality, handling

The Poco Pad is a copy-paste job of the Redmi Pad Pro but with a different paintjob. And that is great, because it means a premium build and a clean design. One with a Gorilla Glass 3 front panel and aluminum unibody with matte finish.

Redmi Pad Pro (left) • Poco Pad (right)

We liked the Redmi Pad Pro and we do like the Poco Pad too. It has a darker gray hue but it is still this thin and flat metal slab with almost perfect shape. Almost - because of the two jutting out of the back camera rings, which seem completely unnecessary.

The Poco Pad is not a waterproof tablet, just like the Redmi Pad Pro isn't.

Its front is home to the 12.1" LCD screen of high resolution, high refresh rate and Dolby Vision support. It can also display over 68B colors! And there are no notches, thankfully.

The screen bezel is thin and even across all sides. There is a tiny 8MP camera at one of the sides intended for video calls, and, well, selfies.

The back is all clean except for huge rings that house the 8MP and the LED flash.

The shorter sides of the Poco Pad feature two by two Dolby Atmos speakers, which sound really nice.

The Poco Pad may not support cellular connectivity, but it offers a microSD card expansion.

The Poco Pad has a matte finish and flat sides, which makes it grippy and easy to handle and operate. We found it comfortable and nice to the touch and overall, we have no complaints.

Accessories

Xiaomi has launched the Poco Pad Cover, Poco Keyboard Cover and Poco Smart Pen accessories, which are the same as the ones for the Redmi Pad Pro but painted in a different color and with a Poco logo. In fact, we tried mixing those between the two pads and they worked trouble-free on either tablet.

The Poco Cover is a basic rugged cover that can prop the tablet up in landscape mode.

It contains a detachable Smart Pen holder - if you get the stylus, you can secure it at the side of the cover as there are no magnetic spots on the tablet itself.

The Poco Pad Keyboard case is your next option priced at €100. It is your typical keyboard cover that doubles as a stand. There is no touchpad.

The Keyboard Cover has an integrated battery and charges via USB-C port. It connects to the tablet over Bluetooth. It has 64 or 65 keys with super nice tactile feedback.

The Keyboard Cover also contains two detachable smart pen holders in case you opt for the Pen - just like the simple cover we already explored.

The Keyboard has no backlighting in case you were wondering.

Finally, you can purchase the Poco Smart Pen for €70. It has two buttons and charges via USB-C port placed around its top. The Pen is ideal for writing and drawing; it supports 4,096 pressure levels and 240Hz touch sampling rate enhanced by Xiaomi's prediction algorithm.

You can write immediately on the turned-off screen and take instant screenshots.