Poco Pad M1 review

Design, build quality, handling

The Poco Pad M1 may be a mid-range tablet, but it sure has a premium build. The slate has an aluminum unibody and glass front. All sides are flat, including the frame.

Whether you get the gray or blue version (ours), the finish will be matte. While it appears smudge-resistant at first, we found it to be quite the fingerprint magnet all-around.

The Redmi Pad 2 Pro had a Gorilla Glass 3 front, something the Poco Pad M1 is missing from its official specs sheet. We have little doubt that the glass used on the Poco Pad M1 is the same, but still we wonder why Xiaomi decided to omit this detail.

Anyway, the Poco Pad M1 has a 12.1-inch LCD screen at the front, with even bezels and no cutouts. The 8MP front camera placed on the longer bezel is almost invisible.

The back of the Poco Pad M1 is all metal. Here you can see the two-step camera island, which accommodates in separate rings the 8MP camera and the LED flash.

The aluminum unibody extends over the sides, too.

There are 2x2 large speakers across the short sides. They support Dolby Atmos.

Also, on the short sides are the audio jack, the USB-C port, and the power/lock key.

The volume key, two microphones and the microSD slot are on one of the longer sides.

The Poco Pad M1 measures 279.8 x 181.7 x 7.5 mm and weighs 610 grams, the same as the Redmi Pad 2 Pro and similar to the original Redmi Pad Pro.

The Poco Pad M1 is a decently sized tablet, perfect for multimedia, office apps, or even gaming. It is a well-built one, but it is also quite slippery and a large fingerprint magnet. We would suggest using a case.

Optional accessories

There are three original accessories you can get from Xiaomi, if we don't count the 33W charger for the EU version. The first one is the Poco Pad M1 Cover.

The M1 Cover is a standard case with a leather-like texture (even if cheap-looking). It can double as a stand on its own in landscape mode, where you choose to put the tablet in a standing or lying position.

The Cover also comes with a detachable pen holder, which will come in handy if you opt to buy the stylus.

The Poco Pad M1 Keyboard Cover is available, too. This one connects to the tablet via Bluetooth and has 64 standard keys with impressive travel good feedback. You can recharge the keyboard via USB-C port (it has a separate battery), and it has an on/off switch on its side.

The Keyboard Cover also doubles as a stand with one fixed position. And it comes with two detachable pen holders for your stylus.

The Poco Smart Pen is convenient enough for writing or drawing without any advanced features. It connects via Bluetooth and has a USB-C port for recharging. There are two buttons on the Pen.

The Poco Smart Pen supports 4,096 pressure levels. The 240Hz touch sampling rate of the screen, enhanced by Xiaomi's prediction algorithm, means you can achieve excellent results if you have decent drawing skills.