After releasing the realme Pad in India, the company has also announced its mini variant, the realme Pad mini which is the second Android tablet from realme in the realme family. The mini variant highlights its 8.7-inch display, 7.6 mm slim design, stereo dual speakers, and 6,400 mAh battery with fast charging support. Here’s our hands-on and first look at the realme Pad mini.
realme Pad mini Specifications
- Display: 8.7-inch LCD display, WXGA+ resolution (1,340 x 800 pixels), 60 Hz refresh rate, 360 nits (typ.) brightness
- Software: realme UI for Pad, Android 11 operating system
- CPU: 12nm Unisoc Tiger T616 octa-core SoC clocked at 2.0 GHz
- GPU: ARM Mali-G57 Graphics
- Memory: 3 GB OR 4 GB RAM
- Storage: 32 GB OR 64 GB internal storage, microSD card support up to 1 TB (dedicated)
- Main Camera: 8 MP Camera
- Selfie Camera: 5 MP
- Connectivity: USB Type-C, Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi 5 802.11a/b/g/n/ac
- Others: Stereo dual speakers, Dirac Certification, Adaptive Surround Sound, Face Unlock
- Cellular: 4G LTE (separate variant)
- Battery: 6,400 mAh battery
- Charging: 18W fast charging, reverse charging
- Colors: Grey, Blue
- Weight: 372 grams
- Dimensions: 211.8 mm x 124.48 mm x 7.6 mm
- Price: ₹10,999 (3 GB RAM + 32 GB Storage, Wi-Fi), ₹12,999 (4 GB RAM + 64 GB Storage, Wi-Fi), ₹12,999 (3 GB RAM + 32 GB Storage, LTE), ₹14,999 (4 GB RAM + 64 GB Storage, LTE)
- Availability: 2nd May, realme.com, Flipkart and other retail stores
realme has added another Android tablet to its portfolio, the realme Pad mini is the tone-down variant of its bigger 10-inch sibling, the realme Pad. The realme Pad mini offers an 8.7-inch LCD screen with WXGA+ resolution (1,340 x 800 pixels), 60 Hz refresh rate, and 360 nits (typ.) brightness.
Speaking of its design, the realme Pad mini offers a slim form factor, with a thickness of just 7.6 mm, it’s the thinnest tablet in its class and weighs around 372 grams. The realme Pad mini adopts an Aluminium Alloy body design with sides having metallic frames giving a premium look and feel, and solid build quality.
The realme Pad mini comes in two variants – the Wi-Fi and the Wi-Fi + 4G LTE. You get an option to add a 4G SIM card on top of Wi-Fi, the 4G variant helps you to use Mobile Data if you aren’t connected to the Wi-Fi. The realme Pad mini comes in two color models – Grey, and Blue.
The front side has a 5 MP selfie camera while the back has an 8 MP camera with LED flash. Since it’s a tablet, you don’t often see triple or quad cameras as you see on smartphones. You get a 32 MP selfie camera on its larger variant while the rear camera remains to be identical i.e. 8 MP.
The tablet offers stereo dual speakers which can be great for multimedia experience, the sound quality is exceptionally loud and good. It comes with Dirac Certification and Adaptive Surround Sound. No fingerprint scanner is found on the tablet.
You get a USB Type-C port at the bottom alongside the loudspeaker and a microphone. The top side has another loudspeaker for stereo experience and a 3.5 mm jack for earphones and headphones. The right side has a power key and volume control, no fingerprint scanner is available.
The left side has an optional SIM tray depending on the model you choose, the 4G LTE variant comes with a SIM tray on the left that allows you to use the SIM card on the tablet.
The realme Pad mini equips an entry-level octa-core CPU, the Unisoc Tiger T616 SoC clocked at 2.0 GHz. The SoC is paired with ARM Mali-G57 clocked at 750 MHz for gaming and GPU-intensive tasks. This is the same CPU we saw on the realme C35, hence you can expect a similar performance out of it. The CPU is slightly better than the MediaTek Helio G70, the overall performance seems to be suitable for daily use and fair for gaming.
It comes in two variants, 3 GB RAM and 32 GB storage as the base variant, and 4 GB RAM and 64 GB storage as the top variant, the storage can be expanded via a microSD card up to 1 TB. The realme Pad mini comes in two models, Wi-Fi only or Wi-Fi + 4G LTE. The smartphone also offers a 6,400 mAh battery with 18W fast charging support.
The realme Pad mini runs on the Android 11 operating system with realme UI for Pad. The realme UI for Pad is designed for a tablet experience. The interface shares identical features that we saw on the realme UI 2.0, you have a number of Android features and customizations for the tablet. The UI isn’t based on the latest Android 12, the realme UI 3.0 is a more advanced Android update built on the Android 12, take a look at some features of the realme UI 3.0.
Early Verdict
The realme Pad mini offers a large 8.7-inch display which is sufficiently large, a seamless design with a 7.6 mm slim form factor, a solid build quality, and dual loudspeakers for a stereo experience. It also comes with a decent hardware package and a reasonable battery size of 6,400 mAh capacity. For those who are looking for an 8-inch Android tablet, the realme Pad mini seems the best tablet in this price range, the price starts at ₹10,999 for its 3 GB + 32 GB W-Fi variant and goes 14,999 for its LTE 4 GB + 64 GB variant.
