Some of the Mi Pad 2's specs don't help it get away from the iPad mini copy situation. Namely the 7.9in screen size and matching resolution of 2048x1536 resulting in Apple's'Retina class' pixel density of 326ppi.
This is not a negative thing; just that it's identical to the iPad mini. The Mi Pad 2's screen is excellent offering a crisp image with good contrast, vibrant but not garish colours and great viewing angles. There's plenty of brightness available, too, and a reading mode which is accessible via the quick settings.
As mentioned there's 16GB of storage for the cheaper model. There's around 11GB available and no Micro-SD card slot for expansion so we fully recommend spending the extra to get the 64GB model. Either way, the tablet has 2GB of RAM just like the original and many rivals, too.
In the engine room, Xiaomi has switched from nVidia to Intel for the processor. The Xiaomi Mi Pad 2 comes with an Atom X5-Z8500 64-bit 2.2GHz quad-core chip which has Intel HD Graphics GPU. We've found performance to be extremely good with minimal lag. iPad benchmarks are difficult to beat but as you can see, the Xiaomi Mi Pad 2 outpaces the iPad mini 4 in Geekbench 3 and is just shy on the graphics side of things.
Xiaomi has reduced the capacity of the battery from 6700- to 6190mAh but that's still large for a tablet this size. The iPad mini's is around 1000mAh smaller. Battery life is a plus point for the Mi Pad 2 managed an impressive seven hours and 49 minutes with a score of 4696 in Geekbench 3 which is more than an hour better than the iPad mini 4.
For the price, it's no surprise that the Mi Pad 2 doesn't come loaded with extra gizmos and gadgets like a fingerprint scanner or NFC. It does, however, have 11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1 and a reversible USB Type-C port which provides faster charging – although the downside is having loads of Micro-USB cables lying around which don't fit.
Like its predecessor, the Mi Pad 2 has an 8Mp rear camera( no LED flash) and 5Mp front camera. We're not particularly impressed with either with most photos ending up blurry despite holding the device steady. There are many filters on offer but barely any camera modes such as HDR.
