Xiaomi Pad 6 vs OnePlus Pad: Which one to buy and why?

By Aman Rashid: The Android tablets saw a resurgence during the COVID times, but now that we are back to offices and schools, the first question you need to ask yourself is - why do you need a tablet? And how can a tablet add value to your daily life that your smartphone already doesn’t?

If you ask me, I think tablets are good to have and are a great extension of our smartphones. For me, I would love to own a tablet, just because I can watch movies and play games on a bigger screen. I would get it for a better audio experience. I would use it as my laptop alternative when it comes to typing and surfing the internet. Most of all, I would buy a tablet with a bigger battery that gives better endurance. And right now, these two tablets perfectly — the Xiaomi Pad 6 and the OnePlus Pad, fit the bill perfectly. Though, the OnePlus Pad does fall on the pricier side, as its starting price is Rs 11,000 more than that of the Xiaomi Pad 6’s starting price.

So, the big question — which one out of the two should you buy and why? Let me help you make an informed decision.

Display

The Xiaomi Pad 6 and OnePlus Pad boast 10-Bit IPS LCD panels that refresh at 144Hz. Of course, they differ in size. The Xiaomi Pad 6 features an 11” display, while the OnePlus Pad features a larger 11.6” display. But again, because of the not-so-common 7:5 aspect ratio on the OnePlus Pad, the display looks bigger than it actually is, over the Xiaomi Pad 6. Apart from this, the OnePlus Pad boasts 500 nits peak brightness, while the Xiaomi Pad can hit 550 nits peak brightness. And both tablets are ample bright in day-to-day use, both indoors as well as outdoors.

So, which one offers a better display experience? Honestly, both tablets feature well-calibrated LCD panels, so it’s actually tough to choose one, based on their quality. Because one — both have different colour modes to choose from according to your preference. The colour reproduction is rich and vibrant, so no complaints there as well. Third — both tablets have high-refresh-rate screens, and it is good to see, most of the apps that I use are optimised for the higher-refresh rate.

In terms of content consumption, both the OnePlus Pad and Xiaomi Pad 6 provide rich and immersive multimedia experiences. Both tablets have loud and crisp quad speakers. Of course, both tablets don’t have room-filling audio, but in comparison to my laptop, i.e. an M1 MacBook Air, both tabs sound loud and clear, without any audio distortion. However, I would give the slight edge for the better bass output to the OnePlus Pad.

That said, I think, personally, because of the manageable form factor, a comparatively wider view, and the Video Toolbox feature that lets you customise a bunch of settings while watching content on streaming platforms — the Xiaomi Pad 6 will be my overall pick for the better multimedia consumption device. However, for people who love it big — the OnePlus Pad is an equally impressive option.

Design and build

Design is subjective. What I may like, you may not and vice versa. So, both the Xiaomi Pad 6 and the OnePlus Pad feature premium metallic builds, slim bezels at the front, full-HD cameras in landscape orientation along with a quad-speaker setup and a type-C port for charging. Now, both tablets here don’t have a fingerprint sensor for authentication, although you do get face unlock for what it's worth. The Xiaomi Pad 6 here also gets an IP53 rating, while the OnePlus Pad misses out on an IP rating. Moreover, I think the rear camera module looks better on the Xiaomi Pad 6, while the circular camera module on the OnePlus Pad didn’t impress me much.

When it comes to handling, to me, because of the lighter weight of the Xiaomi Pad 6 — 490g versus 552g of the OnePlus Pad, the former was comfortable to use. Also, because of the boxier build along with the squared-off edges of the Pad 6 versus the curved edges of the OnePlus Pad, again, the grip was better on the Xiaomi Pad 6, while the OnePlus Pad felt slippery to me, despite the tablet being relatively light and slim for its size. So, design-wise, it would be the Xiaomi Pad 6 for me.

Software

Both the Xiaomi Pad 6 and OnePlus Pad boot Android 13 software, with both companies offering their custom builds. So, when it comes to long-term software support, Xiaomi is not giving a number on the year of Android OS updates, but the company does promise 3 years of security patch updates with the Xiaomi Pad 6. The OnePlus Pad, on the other hand, is promised to get 3 years of Android OS upgrades, along with 4 years of security patch updates. So, without any doubt, when it comes to long-term software support, the OnePlus Pad has definitely got you covered better here.

As for the actual software experience, both OxygenOS 13.1 and MIUI 14 are optimised well for the large-screen form factor. Both tablets come packed with multitasking features such as split-screen, floating windows, dual windows and whatnot. Both tablets are extremely good for taking video calls also. While the OnePlus Pad gives you a feature called Limelight, where the front camera can track your movement so that you always stay in the middle of the frame during a video call. The Xiaomi Pad 6 offers conference tools, which again, brings a slide-out toolbar that lets you access useful features during video calls.

Now, if you want to know in-depth about the software on both tablets, you can check out our reviews (find them in the videos section) of the Xiaomi Pad 6 and the OnePlus Pad. But, right now, if you ask me which software experience I prefer? I know a lot of people are not going to agree with me here, but maybeâ€æ And, I don’t know, but somewhere MIUI 14 has been so buttery smooth to operate in day-to-day use, that I have absolutely fallen in love with the speed and fluidity of the software here. Of course, the OnePlus Pad is fast and offers an equally cleaner software experience, like MIUI 14. Yes, you heard that right, MIUI 14 offers a clean user experience, and I am glad to report, I didn’t come across any bloatware or spam notifications, which is great. I prefer MIUI 14 for its smoother transitions and animations, not to mention, the rubberband effect that you get while scrolling feels so satisfying.

Plus, a lot of times I noticed, maybe it was a bug, but my OnePlus Pad throttled to a 60Hz refresh rate. And when I checked in Settings also, 144Hz was enabled at all times. So this way, to revert to a smoother scrolling experience, I had to restart the tablet. So, yes, the OnePlus Pad with OxygenOS 13.1 operates fine for the most part and it also has the advantage of the 3 years of Android OS updates. But, if we talk about right now — the present, MIUI 14 definitely felt more refined to me.

Performance

The Xiaomi Pad 6 is powered by the Snapdragon 870 SoC, coupled with up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The OnePlus Pad, on the other hand, is powered by the Dimensity 9000 chip, paired with up to 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.

First up, when it comes to handling day-to-day ordinary tasks, such as browsing, social media, using WhatsApp and the like, both Xiaomi Pad 6 and OnePlus Pad offer smooth and great performance. And the great performance even extends to gaming as well. Now, one might think that the Dimensity 9000 chip would’ve offered a better gaming experience over the Snapdragon 870. However, surprisingly, I wasn’t able to notice any visual differences while gaming.

For instance, both tablets could run Asphalt 9 at high graphics and 60 fps, and the game ran smooth and stutter-free, with rarely a frame drop here and there. Even Call of Duty: Mobile, was playable on both machines at Very High Graphics and Max 60fps framerates, and again, both tablets were able to run the game smoothly. That said, when it comes to thermal management, while the OnePlus Pad shows mild heating over long sessions of gaming, the Xiaomi Pad 6 tends to heat relatively more. Especially in the top-right corner, the heating was quite prominent. But again, the good thing is, I never felt that the tablets throttled performance, so that was good.

In terms of battery life also, both tablets have large batteries under the hood. The OnePlus Pad has a 9510mAh cell versus Xiaomi Pad 6’s 8840mAh battery. And when we talk about battery life, see, if you use your tablet as an extension to your phone, both tablets should be able to give you at least 3-4 days of battery life, i.e. if you use your tablet for content consumption, gaming, video calls, for at least 3 hours every day. Still to give you an idea, a 40-minute gaming session of Call Of Duty drained 8% battery on the Xiaomi Pad 6 versus 10% on the OnePlus Pad. Similarly, an hour of streaming drained 11% battery on the Xiaomi Pad 6, while the OnePlus Pad drained 13% after an hour of streaming. So overall, good numbers on both tablets. Of course, the Xiaomi Pad 6 offers a slightly more efficient battery here, because of the better numbers, but then again, the OnePlus Pad, with its bigger size, has the advantage of a bigger battery.

Plus, charging times on the OnePlus Pad — 67W support versus 33W support on the Xiaomi Pad 6, means it takes a little over an hour to fully charge the OnePlus Pad, while a full charge on the Xiaomi Pad 6 takes about 2 hours 15 minutes using the supplied charger.

Accessories

Before summing up the conversation, let me tell you about the accessory support for both tablets. So, both the Xiaomi Pad 6 and OnePlus Pad come with stylus support and have respective keyboard covers. Of course, you can also pair a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse with both tablets if that’s your thing. But, when it comes to the respective first-party accessories that I just mentioned — when it comes to the stylus, you can use both the Xiaomi Smart Pen 2 and OnePlus Stylo for sketching and doodling as well as throughout the UI.

As for the experience itself, I found the pen input latency to be better with the OnePlus pencil in comparison to Xiaomi’s solution. So, at Rs 1,000 less than the Xiaomi Smart Pen 2, i.e. Rs 4,999 for the stylus, OnePlus definitely does the stylus better if that’s something you fancy.

Now, when it comes to the keyboard, both companies provide exceptionally good quality keyboard covers. You get long key travel with both solutions, and the typing experience is great. However, with the addition of the trackpad, I think the keyboard for the OnePlus Pad provides more functionality. But, just think, if you can make do without a trackpad on the keyboard cover, in that case, Xiaomi’s keyboard cover for the Pad 6 surely gives you more value, as it’s Rs 3,000 cheaper than OnePlus’ offering.

Summing up

I think, by now, I have made my case pretty clear. And if you haven’t guessed by now, if you ask me — I think the Xiaomi Pad 6 is a better overall Android tablet. I say this, because you see, the Xiaomi Pad 6 is compact, yet, at the same time, it has a large enough 11” display that makes it the best of both worlds. Big in size plus comfortable to use. Additionally, and this one might be an unpopular opinion — but while the OnePlus Pad offers longer software support, in its current form, MIUI 14 offers a better software experience.

Moreover, while the performance was on par on both tablets, I was surprised to see that, despite the smaller battery, I observed better optimisation on the Pad 6 when it came to battery drain. But to top it all, I think it is the price that simply makes the Xiaomi Pad 6 a better pick over the OnePlus Pad. You see, the OnePlus Pad (Rs 37,999 starting price) is a superb tablet for its budget. But, the Xiaomi Pad 6 (Rs 26,999 starting price) one-ups the OnePlus when it comes to a better price-to-performance ratio.