This is the best 11-inch Android tablet for less than $350

The 11-inch Xiaomi Pad 5 tablet with Snapdragon 860 processor and updated to MIUI 14 (based on Android 13) for 327.46 euros with 18% discount is the best purchase you can make if you want a large 2K screen. It is true that the tablet Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 (209 euros) It has a similar screen (they’re 10.5 inches, but the Xiaomi Pad’s 11 inches are practically the same) and it’s cheaper, closely followed (it’s 90 euros more expensive, but still below that ceiling) by the Lenovo Tab P11 Plus (232 euros), which is also cheaper than the Pad 5. The price differences between the two models are there, but they are not the same products: the Xiaomi Pad 5 has 6GB of RAM compared to the Samsung’s 4GB, a better processor than that of the one and the other and a longer useful life (measured in future OS updates) than the other two models, which are older. Therefore, the three tablets are among the ten best-selling tablets on Amazon. However, the Xiami Pad 5 has a slightly better screen, better sound, and more RAM (if you’re going to ask for a bit more at some point, especially when OS updates come). You have to think about the combination of operating system, processor capacity and performance.

Just as the minimum storage capacity in a tablet should be 64GB, the minimum RAM should be 6GB RAM, which I believe is the minimum for this type of tablet in this price range with this type of processor. (The Snapdragon and Mediatek of the last two years). As always, there are Android tablets for over 400 euros that are of course better. If you ask me, I’ll tell you the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE tablet when it goes on sale (which it doesn’t right now). And up there… uh, up there it’s very hard to take advantage of Android and systems built on Android, which is still under iPadOS.

In any case, I also tell you that you can pay more for other Android tablets with better screens or better sound or more inches (with many nuances, mind you), but you will not get much more performance from them. Ultimately, it’s a matter of operating system. That’s why we recommend it and that’s why we consider it a good buy at this price (and if you’re not going to demand a lot from the tablet, no doubt both the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 and the Lenovo P11 will do the trick for 100 euros less) .

I’m not going to deny that the design of the Xiaomi Pad 5 strongly reminds me of the new range of Apple iPads, since the brand launched the iPad Air 2021 (this is, as you can imagine, intentional): it’s a comfortable design for a tablet. It’s a light and robust tablet, with a good screen and sound, and at this price you can’t ask for more.

Are there buts? Clearly. The front camera isn’t particularly good, that’s right, it doesn’t have a fingerprint reader (which gets my partner Sergio on his nerves) and there’s no LTE option, but ultimately you don’t care. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 mounted on it comes from 2021 and is a good processor with its eight cores in the version with 6GB RAM and 64GB storage. This interests you because it has a longer battery life than the other two cheaper models from Samsung and Lenovo. Adding to that a more than decent 2K display with a 120Hz refresh rate, I think if you’re not going for the price then the choice is the right one.