realme Pad Mini Review | Geek Lifestyle

Officially adding another member to their growing tech family, realme formally launched the latest Mini that may be smaller in stature but relatively big on features – the realme Pad Mini. Coming from the heels of the realme Pad launched Q4 of 2021, the realme Pad Mini aims to satisfy a market that may need a bang-for-buck Tablet but one that would take up less space.

Geeksthetic

Design-wise, the realme Pad Mini takes a huge chunk of inspiration from its predecessor, the realme Pad. With a full aluminum unibody, the realme Pad Mini feels premium to touch especially with the special matte surface that prevents fingerprint smudges from sticking to the bottom of your Pad.

realme Pad Mini vs realme Pad size comparison

The realme Pad Mini is also one of the slimmest in its price category. Just a hairline above the realme Pad, the Mini is just 7.6mm thin, has about 5 inches width (4.9”) and weighs only 372 grams making it really handy, indeed.

Contrasting the shimmering matte finish of the realme Pad Mini, the 8MP camera module is set within a shiny hard plastic-like encasing.

Dual speaker grills are found on the top and bottom section of the device as well as 3.5mm combo jack, USB Type-C port and microphone.

Overall, we’re loving the premium design factor which makes the unit seem more luxurious than it is.

Binge-Watching Factor

We tried to stream a couple of movies with the realme Pad Mini and the large 8.7” screen size mixed with the dual speaker array immerses you enough that you forget you’re watching this on just an HD screen. Sadly, the realme Pad Mini runs on just a 1340×800 HD standard HD display. It’s going to be a bit obvious when you browse through various sites, check documents and play some video games but for binge-watching movies online, it’s not as quite obvious as I thought it would be.

Because the weight is just under 372 grams, the tablet is light enough for you to carry around and with LTE support, you can pretty much be online as long as you have enough mobile data allocation on your plan.

Gaming Prowess

For gaming, the realme Pad Mini runs on a Unisoc Tiger T616 processor. It’s a newer processor than the ones used on the realme Pad (MediaTek Helio G80), but it’s not necessarily as strong or stronger than the ones used there. While the Unisoc Tiger T616 reportedly fairs better than the G80 on power consumption, and app optimization, it clocks a bit lower when it comes to gaming. That being said, you can still game on the realme Pad Mini, but we don’t suggest you try and run more resource-rich games like Genshin Impact. It’s going to be quite a struggle to enjoy that one. Casual games like Angry Birds 2 and even more prominent MOBAs like Mobile Legends: Bang Bang will run on the unit (although you’ll have to clock the graphics to low for MLBB).

To be honest, trying to play competitive games like MLBB on the realme Pad Mini poses a bit of a challenge because of the size of the unit as well. While you do have a bigger media real estate, you’re also carrying a much heavier device than, say, your mobile phone – so you’ll have to contend with possible quicker fatigue.

That being said, the size is ideal for more casual games and other kid-friendly titles like Roblox. And yes, you can play Roblox with this. I suspect you may be able to play mobile games as well even with the 3GB/32GB variant, but you may experience a bit of a slow down every now and then.

Geek Photoshoot Capabilities

As an all-around tablet, the realme Pad Mini comes with an adequate 8MP rear camera and a 5MP front-facing camera. Tablet’s aren’t known for taking the best mobile photography out there and the realme Pad Mini is no exception. With proper lighting, the realme Pad Mini can take decent snapshots but the quality dips drastically when light is reduced (i.e. Indoor and Night Photography).

: Day time horizon

: Day Time plants

: Day time plants 2

: Day time plants 3

: Light contrast plants

: Outdoor selfie

: Night time

: Indoor Selfie

: Tried capturing this doggo indoor

: Night time plants

Clearly photography isn’t the main highlight of the unit – but then, what entry-level Android Tablet is?

Everyday Reliability

The realme Pad Mini is aimed for possible first-time tablet users and/or kids who may need it for school or as a general family entertainment device. It’s handy enough for small kids to handle without high occurrence of dropping it since it’s light enough and sized just right, and the specs are also geared towards overall productivity and general app usage than one-specific focused used case (i.e. gaming, photography, etc.).

The large 6400 mAh powers of battery is enough to run through the entire day and if you do need to top up, there is the 18W “fast charger” included in the package. We’re seeing more and more brands put out 18W chargers that it’s become the standard at this point. Hopefully a future iteration of this will have actual fast-chargers (33W and higher).

realme Pad Mini – Final Verdict

While the realme Pad Mini doesn’t seem to offer anything ground-breaking in terms of tech, it does provide a sweet and reliable alternative to those wanting a middle ground for a tablet or a smartphone. Want an overall entertainment device but don’t want the bulk? This is the answer.

Another factor to consider is the price. Starting at Php 9,990 for the 3GB+32GB LTE variant, realme priced this 8-inch tablets quite competitively. If you need a bit more power, there’s a 4GB+64GB LTE variant as well which retail for Php 11,990. This is also the variant that we used for this particular review.

To truly make it sulit, you may want to take advantage of the early bird promo as realme slashes off Php 1,500 OFF (Php 8,490) for the 3GB+32GB LTE variant and Php2,000 OFF (Php 9,990) for the 4GB+64GB LTE variant starting this April 5, 2022.

The realme Pad Mini will also be available at all realme official stores and partner dealers nationwide. Those who purchase from April 4-30 will get a FREE realme Mobile Game Finger Sleeves.

A 3GB/ 32GB WiFi version will be available later this month.