Poco Pad X1: Two-minute review

Xiaomi is quite possibly the most prolific smart device manufacturer on the market, churning out a ridiculous number of models under various sub brands. This inevitably leads to repurposing, the latest example of which is the Poco Pad X1.

Yes, this full-sized tablet is practically identical to the Xiaomi Pad 7, and shares a lot of its components with the Xiaomi Pad 7 Pro we reviewed earlier in the year. But when you’re getting a brilliantly priced, premium-feeling, solid-performing tablet with a full roster of accessories to choose from, it’s difficult to care.

The design has barely changed, and that’s fine. This is another premium, if heavily iPad-influenced, tablet with a solid all-metal body and a 3:2 aspect ratio. Poco’s signature pop of yellow around the ‘squircular’ camera module sets it apart, at least on this grey model, but even the blue model packs the kind of rich tone we’re not accustomed to seeing in the staid tablet world.

Quad speakers with Dolby Atmos support make for a nice sound profile, even if we’re still not talking iPad levels of sound quality. One notable design omission is any kind of fingerprint sensor, which means you need to rely on a facial unlock system.

It’s far from the most powerful tablet on the market, even within the mid-priced Android tablet space. You could spend a little more on a OnePlus Pad 3 and get a much more capable device. But Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 is more than capable of running all the usual light tablet tasks without missing a beat.

It’s aided by a good 11.2-inch display. This might be a humble LCD, and so lacking in the vibrant colours of the more premium OLED crowd, but it packs a sharp 3.2K resolution, natural colours, decent brightness and a possibly-excessive 144Hz refresh rate.

The Poco Pad X1 supports 45W charging, which is pretty decent for a more affordable tablet like this. That charging juices an 8,850mAh battery, which is good for a full working day of light productivity tasks, though mixing in any kind of extensive media consumption may just see you falling short before the end of your shift.

There’s just the one 13MP rear camera, which is precisely as good as it needs to be on a full-sized tablet – that is, not very good at all.

If you’re in the market for an iPad like tablet experience, but don’t have money to burn, the Poco Pad X1 as you covered. Or the Xiaomi Pad 7, depending on which region of the world you’re in.

Poco Pad X1 review: price and availability

• Not available in the UK, Europe, or US
• Priced from $399

The Poco Pad X1 is available in certain markets for the equivalent of $399 (around £300 / AU$610). Without wishing to get too ‘inside baseball’ here, Xiaomi’s launch plans aren’t quite what we had initially been led to believe.

We thought the tablet would be shipping in at least some Western markets, but Poco has since confirmed to TechRadar that’s not the case. This would seem to explain why Xiaomi was willing to launch a product that’s functionally identical to the pre-existing Xiaomi Pad 7.

It seems the brands have avoided potential duplication and cannibalisation through a selective launch. These opaque launch plans are annoying, but understandable.

As such, comparisons with other tablets are a bit superfluous here. We’d suggest that this review might be able to aid your decision if you’re thinking of importing the device from overseas, but that seems fanciful.

Realistically, if you like the sound of the Poco Pad X1, just buy the Xiaomi Pad 7 instead. It’s exactly the same, and you’ll probably be able to secure a discount on one.

• Value score: 4 / 5

Poco Pad X1 review: specs

Poco Pad X1 review: design

• iPad-like looks
• Premium all-metal build
• No fingerprint sensor

If the Poco Pad X1 looks familiar, there are two possible explanations for that. The most likely is that it looks a lot like an iPad. It’s got the same flat edges, 3:2 aspect ratio, and rounded square camera module as the iPad Pro.

The other reason this might look familiar is that we’ve seen this exact design before from Xiaomi, under its own name. The Xiaomi Pad 7 Pro launched earlier this year with the very same body, down to the millimetre (251.22 x 173.42 x 6.18mm) and gram (500g).

There’s a pop of signature Poco yellow around the camera module of my grey model, while the blue model comes in a much richer shade than we’re used to seeing from a tablet.

Like the Pad 7 Pro, there’s no 3.5mm headphones jack. Unlike the Pad 7 Pro, and more problematically, there’s no fingerprint sensor either. To gain entry to the tablet, you’ll need to use either a relatively insecure facial recognition system or an old fashioned pin entry; neither is ideal.

Xiaomi has furnished the Poco Pad X1 with a couple of excellent optional accessories that can transform into a genuinely powerful productivity tool. The Floating Keyboard, in particular, turns the tablet into an ultra portable laptop that’s great for light typing tasks. I was able to draft much of this review using the combination, with only a handful of annoying mis-types.

The Poco Focus Pen, meanwhile, is a credible stylus. What it lacks in terms of the writing feel, it makes up for in responsiveness and Xiaomi’s well-integrated notes taking tools. It affixes to the side of the tablet with magnets, where it also charges.

• Design score: 4 / 5

Poco Pad X1 review: display

• 11.2-inch LCD
• 2136 x 3200 resolution
• 144Hz refresh rate

Xiaomi has used the exact same display in the Poco Pad X1 as in the Xiaomi Pad 7 Pro – a significantly more expensive tablet, don’t forget.

It’s the same 11.2-inch LCD, which means it lacks the pop of OLED. However, this remains and excellent example of the format, with natural colours and a clear look. An 800-nit maximum brightness is solid, though I did find the screen somewhat overly reflective when exposed to direct light.

Text and images are rendered sharply thanks to an impressively pixel-dense 2136 x 3200 resolution, while a 3:2 aspect ratio gives that iPad perspective that seems so popular. It’ll give you huge black borders where watching TV and movie content, but it’s far more practical for everything else.

One spec that feels little unnecessary is the provision of an enhanced 144Hz refresh rate. You won’t notice the difference in responsiveness to a 120Hz panel, and with the limited power on offer, this isn’t really the machine to be blasting through high-end games with elevated frame rates either. Still, there’s no denying that general navigation is fluid.

• Display score: 4.5 / 5

Poco Pad X1 review: Performance & camera

• Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3
• 8GB RAM and 256GB storage
• 13MP rear camera and 8MP front-facing

The Poco Pad X1 runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 processor – a chip that we’ve seen before powering capable mid-range smartphones like the OnePlus Nord 4.

It’s paired with 8GB of RAM, which isn’t quite as much as I’d like to see in such a productivity-focused device; 12GB would have been much better.

With that said, I can’t fault the day-to-day experience of using the Poco Pad X1. General navigation and hopping between multiple open apps is suitably snappy, and the setup is typically able to keep pace with that unusually smooth display, barring a few tell-tale slowdowns.

You can even do a spot of gaming on this tablet, though anything intensive (like Destiny: Rising) will require low to medium graphical settings.

Camera quality is so-so, but we’re talking about a mid-tier tablet here. Expectations are low, and the Poco lives down to them with its solitary 13MP real camera and 8MP front camera. Fine for scanning documents and conducting Full HD video calls respectively, and that’s about it.

• Performance & camera score: 3.5 / 5

Poco Pad X1 review: software

• Android 16 with HyperOS 3 UI on top
• Familiar bloatware issue
• Fairly standard AI features

Xiaomi’s latest HyperOS 3 UI runs the show on the Poco Pad X1. It’s not my favourite take on Android, to say the least.

While Google’s Android 16 forms the underpinnings, Xiaomi seems far more enamoured with Apple’s iOS. The influence is quite clear, from the look and positioning of the Control Center-like drop down shortcut menu, to the general appearance of the icons and menus.

There’s a fair amount of bloatware here too. Most are popular apps, but I’d rather have the choice to download Netflix, Spotify, and TikTok myself. Who wants LinkedIn preinstalled on their tablet? It’s here regardless.

Xiaomi supplies a fair number of its own apps too, not all of which are useful. It’s not the only manufacturer to supply its own web browser and image review apps alongside Google’s superior versions, but it remains an annoying habit.

You get a by-now-expected suite of AI tools here, too, but they’re somewhat buried and all too easy to miss.

Head into Mi Canvas, for example, and you can turn your doodles into AI-generated art. It works well, though we’ve seen this trick pulled off plenty of times before by this point.

Elsewhere you have the usual batch of AI transcriptions and translations, and a handy AI-supported system search that lets you find settings and the like using natural language.

Google’s Gemini is also included, which will be the primary source of AI assistant for most people.

• Software score: 3 / 5

Poco Pad X1 review: battery

• 8,850mAh battery
• 45W charging

The Poco Pad X1 ships with an 8,850mAh battery, much like the Xiaomi Pad 7 range with which it shares so much DNA.

It should see you through a day of light work tasks, though sprinkling any kind of media consumption into that might just see you running out of juice before 5pm.

I tried using the Poco Pad X1, together with the Floating Keyboard, across a light working day. During that time I wrote some of this review using the the built-in Notes app (for about an hour and a half), browsed the web (35 minutes), watched a fair amount of YouTube (two hours), and played some Destiny: Rising (55 minutes).

All in all, my screen on time totalled about 5 hours 15 minutes. This brought the battery dangerously low to about 4%. It’s the media that seemed to really hit it hard.

There’s no charger supplied, but if you can provide your own compatible 45W wired charger, you can expect a full charger in about an hour and 15 minutes.

• Battery score: 3 / 5

Should I buy the Poco Pad X1?

Buy it if…