Redmi Pad Se 4g Review: For whom is Redmi’s cheapest tablet best?

Redmi Pad Se 4g Review: Xiaomi’s Redmi brand has been popular in India since its launch. It has rarely lost its hold in the mid-range smartphone market. The company would want to achieve the same position in the tablet category as well. It is launching new tablets in the form of ‘Redmi Pad’, which have the power to attract customers with different prices and features. Redmi Pad Se 4g is the latest in this series. It came to us for review about a month ago. The starting price is Rs 10,999, which makes it the ‘cheapest’ Redmi Pad in the market. Will this be a good option for people who have a low budget or who want to buy a tablet for their children’s online studies? A SIM can be installed in it, which supports 4G network, so will it be better for those who do not have high-speed internet? How useful are its features? We tried to know all this in the review of Redmi Pad Se 4g…

Redmi Pad Se 4g Price in India

Redmi Pad Se 4g can be purchased in Forest Green, Ocean Blue and Urban Gray colors. Its price is Rs 10,999 for the 4GB + 64GB variant. The price of the 4GB + 128GB model is Rs 11,999. The company is selling the cover of the tab separately, which works like a quick stand. Its price is Rs 999. It can be purchased from Flipkart, mi.com and Xiaomi retail stores. If you buy the tab on ICICI credit card and credit card EMI, then you will get an instant discount of one thousand rupees.

Redmi Pad Se 4g Design & Display

Pad Se 4g follows a simple design. We reviewed the Urban Grey colour variant. Its back is made of plastic, which has a matte finish. Don’t be disappointed by reading ‘plastic’, because the build quality is solid. There is a camera module on the top left on the back side and Redmi branding at the bottom. The company did not show off more than that, which made its look decent. It looks good from the front side as well. Although the top and bottom bezels i.e. the empty area is a bit more than the display, but in this price range one should not expect a very low screen to body ratio.

With a thickness of 8.8mm, this tab is slim. It is compact in size and was comfortable in my hand. All four edges are rounded. Speakers are provided on both the top and bottom sides. At the bottom, you get a Type-C port, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a microphone. It also has an IR blaster, which can work as a remote. The right side has a power button and volume rocker. The left side has a SIM tray, in which you can put 2 SIMs and an SD card up to 2 TB. There is no fingerprint sensor in it.

With form factors like compact feel, solid build and easy to carry, the Redmi Pad Se 4g can be given full marks in design. Even my 6-year-old daughter was able to use it comfortably and she did not find it too heavy, as it weighs 375 grams.

Redmi Pad Se 4g has an 8.7 inch HD Plus LCD display, which has a resolution of 1340 X 800 pixels. Compared to the 10 inch display tabs available in the market, an 8.7 inch screen may seem small, but users buying a tab for the first time will find it large. The most important thing is that this screen size fits the purpose of a tablet. If it was smaller than this, it would have felt small.

The display of Redmi Pad Se 4g is ‘scratch resistant’ (scratch resistant glass). Even after using it for a month, there was no scratch on the display, but I recommend that you install a tempered one. Initially, I was a bit upset with the display, because my smartphone has an AMOLED display with full HD Plus resolution. Gradually my eyes adjusted to the HD Plus LCD screen. It is bright enough for indoor use. Its brightness goes up to 600 nits in sunlight and at times the display was fading in bright sunlight.

I did not face any problem in indoor use. The balance of color-contrast seemed good. Xiaomi has said that this display is TUV Rheinland certified, which means that there is no harm to the eyes if used for a long time. I streamed content from YouTube and Disney Hotstar in it. I did not enjoy the HD quality much, but it did not tire my eyes much.

It supports a refresh rate of up to 90 Hz, which results in smooth visuals while scrolling. From the students’ point of view, those who want to buy a tab for online studies will not be disappointed by the display of Redmi Pad Se 4g. I read e-papers in it, read online content. My experience was good. Still, it seems that if Redmi had offered full HD Plus resolution in Pad Se 4g, it would have left no stone unturned in attracting people. Yes! Then the price could have been a little higher.

Redmi Pad Se 4G Performance

Redmi Pad Se 4g is powered by MediaTek’s Helio G85 processor. It is paired with 4GB LPDDR4x RAM. This combination handles day to day tasks with ease. I ran many of my favorite apps on this tab, most of them were OTT apps, which performed without interruption. This tab can handle the load of 10 to 12 tabs on Google Chrome. There was occasional slight lag when switching from one app to another. Social media apps like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp also ran smoothly. App loading was happening without interruption.

I did not find the Redmi Pad Se 4G very powerful in terms of gaming. I was able to play light games on it, but bus simulators, which are my favorite, hardly ran on it. My daughter played light games like ‘Subway Princess’ and ‘Princess Salon’ on it, which ran fine.

Don’t expect much gaming with Redmi Pad Se 4g, those whose focus is online studies and some entertainment will not be disappointed with its performance. By installing up to 2TB SD card in it, you will be able to store a lot of study material. It supports 4G network with 2 SIM trays. If you live in a remote area, where 5G network has not yet reached and there is no broadband internet, then you can choose Redmi Pad Se 4g.

Talking about benchmark scores, the Redmi Pad Se 4g scored 413 in single-core test and 1429 in multi-core test in Geekbench test. In GFXBench’s T-rex, Manhattan 3.1 and Car Chase tests, it achieved 52fps, 29fps and 14fps respectively. In the 3D Mark Wild Life test, the device scored 687.

Redmi Pad Se 4g Software and Battery

Redmi Pad Se 4g runs on the latest Android 14, layered with Xiaomi HyperOS. People accustomed to the Xiaomi interface will like the UI of Redmi Pad Se 4g. Even if Pad Se 4g is your first Xiaomi or Redmi device, you will soon adjust to its software. Apart from some bloatware, it has a very clean interface. All the useful apps are available on the home screen itself. Apps can be opened by sliding the app drawer from right to left or top to bottom. Notifications are available by scrolling down the screen on the top left side, while all the shortcuts are present on the right side. Things can be changed according to your needs by going into the settings. To some extent, I felt like I was running a device other than a smartphone.

Redmi Pad Se 4g has a 6650mAh battery. It can handle everyday tasks including social media scrolling, content streaming, etc.
This tab lasted for almost a day with the requirements of 24 hours. But if you use it more for online classes, then you may need to charge it before 24 hours. In our HD video loop test, the battery of Redmi Pad Se 4G lasted 9 hours 36 minutes, which can be called average.

What disappointed me was the 10W charging support, which could have been at least 18W. The charger provided in the box charged the phone from zero to 18 percent in 30 minutes, 36 percent in one hour and 100 percent in 3 hours and 40 minutes.

Redmire Pad Se 4g Camera

Redmi Pad Se 4g has an 8MP back and 5MP front camera. Cameras do not play a major role in any tablet and the Redmi Pad Se 4g tab fulfills the responsibility for which these sensors have been provided. For example, students will be able to present themselves in video during online classes. I made some WhatsApp video calls from this tab. The experience was good. I also found these sensors sufficient for scanning documents etc. You can take useful photos, but there is not much detail in them.

Redmi Pad Se 4G Verdict

The company has introduced the Redmi Pad Se 4g as an affordable tablet, so our decision is also based on those criteria. People who want to do a lot of gaming or stream a lot of content should leave the Redmi Pad Se 4g out of their wishlist.

Those who are students or those who need a tablet for small needs like a shopkeeper or businessman for their business activities, a mother for the entertainment and studies of her young children and college going students can buy Redmi Pad Se 4G.

The Redmi Pad Se 4g competes with devices like the Realme Pad Tablet, Motorola Moto Tab G62 LTE.