Xiaomi’s Pad 5 is an iPad Pro at half the price
The slate pretender
Imitation might be the sincerest form of flattery, but it’s not much of a compliment when your copycat competitor undercuts you by half. Yet for all the iPad Pro comparisons, Xiaomi deserves kudos for squeezing serious smarts into its much more affordable Pad 5. For the very fair price of £369, you get a streamlined Android slate with slim bezels and a button-free front. At 6.85mm, it’s just a smidge thicker than the iPad Pro, while its 500g weight is hardly hefty. The 11in display is just as sharp at 2560×1600, plus 120Hz refresh rates and Dolby Vision should translate to slick visuals. Quad speakers deliver stereo landscape listening, while the Snapdragon 860 chip has eight cores to keep things rapid. Camera kit is less generous, with a single 13MP main sensor and a selfie shooter good for 1080p video. But you’ll probably be too busy brandishing Xiaomi’s Smart Pen to notice any shortcomings in the Pad 5’s Pro impression.
Chris Rowlands
Freelance contributor 
