Xiaomi Pad 11.2" Pad 7 Ai Review

The Xiaomi Pad 7 is a screen-first tablet that makes a huge compromise. That 11.2-inch, 3.2K 144Hz display is absolutely stunning—it's in the 90th percentile for screens, and you'll notice it the second you turn it on. But here's the one thing you need to know: it only comes with 8GB of RAM and a paltry 256GB of storage, with no SD card slot to fix it. That storage score is in the 1st percentile. It's a brilliant screen strapped to a device that's hamstrung from the start if you want to do anything more than watch videos.

The Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 is surprisingly capable, landing in the 78th percentile for both CPU and GPU. It handles everyday tasks and even some light gaming without breaking a sweat. But, just like a customer review pointed out, you might want to turn off the auto refresh rate. It can feel a bit sluggish with it on, but locking it to a high refresh rate makes everything feel buttery smooth. The performance is there, but you have to tweak it a bit to get the most out of it.

At $380, it's a tough sell. You're paying for that gorgeous screen and a capable chip, but the storage and RAM configuration is from 2018. If you only stream content and use a handful of apps, it's okay. But for anyone else, that storage ceiling will hit fast, and there's no way out.

This sits in a weird spot. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S10+ is its direct Android competitor, but it costs more. The trade-off? You get better long-term software support and likely more storage options. The Lenovo Idea Tab Pro is a similar price but often has more RAM and storage, though the screen and chip won't be as good. Against an entry-level iPad, you're choosing between a much better screen and a much more robust, long-supported ecosystem. The Pad 7 wins on raw display specs but loses on everything else that makes a tablet useful for more than two years.

I can only recommend the Xiaomi Pad 7 with a giant asterisk. If your tablet life is 90% watching YouTube and Netflix, and you're meticulous about cloud storage, this screen is a treat. For literally any other use case—gaming, downloading movies for travel, using it for work files—the storage limit makes it a non-starter. It's a fantastic media consumption device that's built for a world where unlimited high-speed data exists everywhere, which isn't our world.