Xiaomi has built a strong reputation for delivering flagship-grade hardware at competitive prices, and the Xiaomi Pad 8 is a great example of this approach. However, this isn’t the flagship model, and the Pad 8 sits just below the Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro. But rather than being in competition, these devices offer slightly different performance in a near-identical package at different price points. Powered by the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 processor, 8GB RAM, and offering a 3.2K 144Hz 12-bit display, the Pad 8 is a tablet that comes with an impressive spec sheet, given its price. That said, it’s not the must budget conscious 11-inch tablet available, but it is a tablet that can be used for a wide range of tasks.The Pad 8 can straddle the line between consumer entertainment and productivity; it handles everyday tasks like streaming, gaming, and browsing without breaking a sweat, but with the optional Focus Keyboard and a suite of Xiaomi HyperAI features baked into HyperOS 3, alongside WPS Office, it also works well as a compact and mobile workstation. But whether the Pad 8 fully delivers on that promise in practice is something we'll dig into throughout the review. The question always has to be, is it one of the best tablets for photo editing? This is much more demanding than simple entertainment and typing, so these two types of productivity never go hand-in-hand.
