Xiaomi Redmi Pad 2 9.7 – On the edge

Most noticeable when I start using this tablet is the performance and screen quality, or rather the lack of it. I react immediately to the low brightness and the flickering color reproduction. The first time I start the plate, I can’t access the controls to increase the brightness either, and when I do after all the setting steps, the difference is still not very noticeable when I increase it to max.

Constant waiting times

The Xiaomi Redmi Pad 2 9.7 has exactly as the name says a screen of 9.7 inches and it is sold with 64 or 128 GB of storage. I test it with 128 GB which costs SEK 2,200 and the cheaper one instead costs SEK 1,800. Both have the same system chip and 4 GB of RAM. It is noticeable. Starting an app, any app, involves a noticeable wait every time and when I click on a setting in the menu it takes 3-4 seconds for anything to happen. Similarly, I can click in the address bar in the browser only to see the on-screen keyboard sail up and become visible from the bottom of the screen a few seconds later.

When I start Spotify, which in this context can be considered a demanding app, it takes about five seconds if I rotate the tablet from landscape to portrait mode or vice versa, before the tablet has time to rotate the correct image and display the entire image again. The sound is okay with stereo sound from a speaker from each short side, but without impressing because the volume is at the lowest level. So it’s not a record you use to enjoy music, but for movies in the right context it can work. Once you’ve started your streaming app, Netflix for example, which can take a while, movies and TV series run fine without performance slowing down.

Sleek format like a tablet, better than your mobile at something?

The picture, because when it comes to film the screen is important, suffers mainly from low brightness. Therefore, this tablet is perhaps best suited for movies when you are in a dark room and just watch passively as you do with movies, not clicking around the screen while watching. Outside in daylight, on the other hand, it is clear that the brightness is weak and then the surroundings are also slightly reflected in the glass so that the screen image becomes unclear.

If you have a mobile phone, a basic requirement when you buy a tablet is that it should handle some of the things you can do on the mobile phone better than the mobile phone offers. To watch on video. reading e-mails, e-books and surfing, the Xiaomi Redmi Pad 2 9.7 may do better than your mobile, but it is not certain. Because it depends on how the screen in terms of brightness and size is on your mobile. 9.7 inches is also small for a tablet, so it might be better for one person, but the tablet is definitely not big enough for two people to fit in, huddle and watch.

So this is a very limited tablet that, due mainly to performance deficiencies and the screen, has few things it is useful for. There are also few alternatives in this price range, but to get a tablet that overcomes the problems that the Xiaomi Redmi Pad 2 9.7 in many cases struggles with, you probably need to invest a thousand more.

Questions and answers

How are the cameras?

The camera on the back is simple and easily takes overexposed photos. The front camera for video calls is capable, but the person you are meeting with will certainly notice that the quality is worse than in most mobile phones as well as computers.

What colors?

The plate is available in light gray or dark gray.

What accessories are available?

There is a shell you can buy for it, a shell that also works as a stand so you can angle the plate easily on the table surface.

An alternative

Alternatives worth actually considering are more expensive, for example the Samsung Galaxy Tab A11 Plus for around SEK 2,500.