For more than a decade, Android tablets have lived in a strange limbo. They were declared dead when phones grew larger, dismissed as pandemic‑era stopgaps, and overshadowed by Apple’s iPad. Yet the category refuses to fade away. In India, Xiaomi, OnePlus, Lenovo, and Samsung continue to launch new models every year, and many of them are selling far better than their reputation suggests.

This contradiction is at the heart of the tablet story today.

The post-pandemic momentum did not just "bring back" tablets; it transformed them into a standalone category that sits comfortably between the smartphone and the laptop.

Xiaomi’s latest launch, the Pad 8, arrives in this context of market category that isn’t booming, but nor is it shrinking. Tablets aren’t fashionable, but they continue to serve a functional purpose, and consumers are more willing than ever to treat a tablet as a long‑term computing device rather than an auxiliary accessory.

The great inversion

I recently sat down with Sandeep Sarma, Associate Director, PR & Marketing, and Gautam Batra, Associate Director, Product Marketing, at Xiaomi to understand why the company treats tablets as a growth engine (Xiaomi re‑entered the segment in India with the Pad 5 in 2022). Currently the company sits at the number three spot in India in this segment, even ahead of Apple.

In the smartphone world, the volume usually sits at the bottom of the value chain; a company typically sells millions of entry-level devices, and the numbers taper off as one moves toward the flagship. With tablets, the opposite is true. Xiaomi is seeing its highest demand in the “premium” segment, which they define as anything north of ₹20,000.

“People are no longer looking for a ‘cheap’ tablet,” Batra says. “We have moved from a one-to-two-year upgrade cycle for phones to a four-to-five-year sustainment period for tablets.” Because it’s often a shared device in a household, the consumer is willing to invest in the highest SKU available, Sarma explains.

Additionally, tablets have become lifestyle markers. You’d rarely spot CXOs or senior professionals lugging around laptops, but tablets with stylus and keyboard attachments instead. That creates a trickle-down effect where the new generation of workers sees the tablet as a lifestyle choice and a symbol of professional success.

And it’s not just limited to iPads. Android tablets are now trying to tap into that same aspirational space with sleeker designs, better displays, and premium accessories.

Xiaomi Pad 8: A well-rounded productivity bundle

The Xiaomi Pad 8 is not the top‑end flagship—that role belongs to the Pro series globally. Instead, the Pad 8 is the mainstream model meant to appeal to the broadest slice of the tablet market—students, families, casual creators, and professionals who want a capable device without stretching to premium pricing.

The Pad 8 continues Xiaomi’s design language of clean lines, flat edges, and a premium aluminium finish. It feels more expensive than its price suggests, and importantly, it feels durable. At 11.2 inches, with 3:2 aspect ratio, the size hits the sweet spot: large enough for productivity, small enough to remain portable.

Powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 mobile platform, the Pad 8 is tuned for balanced performance rather than brute force. It handles multitasking, split‑screen, and everyday apps without strain and with a fluidity that Android tabs lacked just a few years ago.

The keyboard case and stylus transforms the tablet into a credible productivity machine. The stylus experience is solid, with low latency and lovely haptics as well as a natural writing feel. The keyboard, though, is a mixed bag. It’s great for casual typing and binge watching, but since the angle of the tablet is limited, long typing sessions with varying postures is awkward. As a long-time Surface Pro user, I couldn’t get around this limitation and wondered how this design choice was greenlit.

Battery life remains one of the strongest arguments for tablets over laptops. With its 9200mAh battery, the Pad 8 easily lasts a full day of heavy use or multiple days of mixed use on a single charge. That is a battery claim that no Windows laptop—regardless of the “all-day battery life” marketing claims—can actually meet in a real-world working environment.

The Xiaomi Pad 8 is the kind of device that makes sense for students who want a reliable study companion, families who want a shared screen, and professionals who need a travel‑friendly productivity device.

Tablets as PCs

If the first wave of Android tablets failed because the software wasn’t ready, then the second wave is succeeding because this shortcoming has been rectified.

Android has come a long way in multitasking, multi‑window, and overall maturity. Apps scale better, split‑screen is usable, stylus support is more consistent, and media playback—with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos—is often better than most laptops.

In 2017, Apple famously ran “What’s a computer?” campaign to assert that its iPad Pro lineup can replace the primary computing device for most people. It was piggybacking on the new features of iOS at the time that enabled several productivity and multitasking capabilities on the iPads.

Multitasking matters because tablets are increasingly being positioned as laptop replacements for light productivity and could cannibalise the low‑end laptop market. This is especially true for sales professionals, field workers, students, and professionals whose workflows revolve around documents, presentations, note‑taking, and video calls.

The reasons are straightforward: Tablets are lighter and more portable, they last longer on battery, and they’re easier to use for touch‑native users. Plus, the Android operating system and the popular apps now offer top-tier experience on a tablet—for work or leisure.

Therefore, for tab makers, it’s no longer about just selling a piece of hardware; it’s about bundles. People are realizing that without the pen and the keyboard, the proposition of a premium tablet is incomplete. The tablet adapts—it’s a lightweight folio for a flight, a keyboard-driven powerhouse at a cafe, and a standalone screen for bedtime browsing.

The perception gap

While smartphones have hit a plateau, tablets haven’t. You can see meaningful upgrades with every iteration. Better displays, better stylus tech, better speakers, better battery life, better accessories—there’s still room to grow. And as long as that’s true, Android tablets will continue to defy the narrative of decline.

The perception of Android tablets may lag behind reality, but tablets are here to stay, both as an add-on device for the well-heeled, and as a laptop replacement for casual users.

And Xiaomi is betting on this. The Pad 8 starts at ₹33,999, but you’ll have to pay ₹8,999 extra for the Focus Keyboard and ₹5,999 for the Focus Pen Pro. That’s quite a sticker shock for the bundle, but well worth it.

There’s also Lenovo Yoga Tab Plus ( ₹59,998, for the bundle) or OnePlus Pad 3 (starting at ₹49,999, and ₹15,498 more for the keyboard and stylus). Both offer more affordable variants as well, with the Lenovo Idea Tab series and the OnePlus Pad Go 2 that you can pick for under ₹30,000. OnePlus also launched its flagship, the supersized Pad 4 in India last week, which costs a whopping ₹54,999 (plus ₹5,499 for the stylus). And then there’s Samsung, which offers a mouth-watering Galaxy Tab S11 at an eye-watering price of ₹91,999 (plus ₹9,999 for the keyboard). It’s a true flagship product but also prices most people out. But Samsung’s portfolio is quite wide, and you’d be able to find more affordable options across price segments as well.

Abhishek Baxi is a New Delhi-based tech writer.

For more than a decade, Android tablets have lived in a strange limbo. They were declared dead when phones grew larger, dismissed as pandemic‑era stopgaps, and overshadowed by Apple’s iPad. Yet the category refuses to fade away. In India, Xiaomi, OnePlus, Lenovo, and Samsung continue to launch new models every year, and many of them are selling far better than their reputation suggests.

This contradiction is at the heart of the tablet story today.

The post-pandemic momentum did not just "bring back" tablets; it transformed them into a standalone category that sits comfortably between the smartphone and the laptop.

Xiaomi’s latest launch, the Pad 8, arrives in this context of market category that isn’t booming, but nor is it shrinking. Tablets aren’t fashionable, but they continue to serve a functional purpose, and consumers are more willing than ever to treat a tablet as a long‑term computing device rather than an auxiliary accessory.

The great inversion

I recently sat down with Sandeep Sarma, Associate Director, PR & Marketing, and Gautam Batra, Associate Director, Product Marketing, at Xiaomi to understand why the company treats tablets as a growth engine (Xiaomi re‑entered the segment in India with the Pad 5 in 2022). Currently the company sits at the number three spot in India in this segment, even ahead of Apple.

In the smartphone world, the volume usually sits at the bottom of the value chain; a company typically sells millions of entry-level devices, and the numbers taper off as one moves toward the flagship. With tablets, the opposite is true. Xiaomi is seeing its highest demand in the “premium” segment, which they define as anything north of ₹20,000.

“People are no longer looking for a ‘cheap’ tablet,” Batra says. “We have moved from a one-to-two-year upgrade cycle for phones to a four-to-five-year sustainment period for tablets.” Because it’s often a shared device in a household, the consumer is willing to invest in the highest SKU available, Sarma explains.

Additionally, tablets have become lifestyle markers. You’d rarely spot CXOs or senior professionals lugging around laptops, but tablets with stylus and keyboard attachments instead. That creates a trickle-down effect where the new generation of workers sees the tablet as a lifestyle choice and a symbol of professional success.

And it’s not just limited to iPads. Android tablets are now trying to tap into that same aspirational space with sleeker designs, better displays, and premium accessories.

Xiaomi Pad 8: A well-rounded productivity bundle

The Xiaomi Pad 8 is not the top‑end flagship—that role belongs to the Pro series globally. Instead, the Pad 8 is the mainstream model meant to appeal to the broadest slice of the tablet market—students, families, casual creators, and professionals who want a capable device without stretching to premium pricing.

The Pad 8 continues Xiaomi’s design language of clean lines, flat edges, and a premium aluminium finish. It feels more expensive than its price suggests, and importantly, it feels durable. At 11.2 inches, with 3:2 aspect ratio, the size hits the sweet spot: large enough for productivity, small enough to remain portable.

Powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 mobile platform, the Pad 8 is tuned for balanced performance rather than brute force. It handles multitasking, split‑screen, and everyday apps without strain and with a fluidity that Android tabs lacked just a few years ago.

The keyboard case and stylus transforms the tablet into a credible productivity machine. The stylus experience is solid, with low latency and lovely haptics as well as a natural writing feel. The keyboard, though, is a mixed bag. It’s great for casual typing and binge watching, but since the angle of the tablet is limited, long typing sessions with varying postures is awkward. As a long-time Surface Pro user, I couldn’t get around this limitation and wondered how this design choice was greenlit.

Battery life remains one of the strongest arguments for tablets over laptops. With its 9200mAh battery, the Pad 8 easily lasts a full day of heavy use or multiple days of mixed use on a single charge. That is a battery claim that no Windows laptop—regardless of the “all-day battery life” marketing claims—can actually meet in a real-world working environment.

The Xiaomi Pad 8 is the kind of device that makes sense for students who want a reliable study companion, families who want a shared screen, and professionals who need a travel‑friendly productivity device.

Tablets as PCs

If the first wave of Android tablets failed because the software wasn’t ready, then the second wave is succeeding because this shortcoming has been rectified.

Android has come a long way in multitasking, multi‑window, and overall maturity. Apps scale better, split‑screen is usable, stylus support is more consistent, and media playback—with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos—is often better than most laptops.

In 2017, Apple famously ran “What’s a computer?” campaign to assert that its iPad Pro lineup can replace the primary computing device for most people. It was piggybacking on the new features of iOS at the time that enabled several productivity and multitasking capabilities on the iPads.

Multitasking matters because tablets are increasingly being positioned as laptop replacements for light productivity and could cannibalise the low‑end laptop market. This is especially true for sales professionals, field workers, students, and professionals whose workflows revolve around documents, presentations, note‑taking, and video calls.

The reasons are straightforward: Tablets are lighter and more portable, they last longer on battery, and they’re easier to use for touch‑native users. Plus, the Android operating system and the popular apps now offer top-tier experience on a tablet—for work or leisure.

Therefore, for tab makers, it’s no longer about just selling a piece of hardware; it’s about bundles. People are realizing that without the pen and the keyboard, the proposition of a premium tablet is incomplete. The tablet adapts—it’s a lightweight folio for a flight, a keyboard-driven powerhouse at a cafe, and a standalone screen for bedtime browsing.

The perception gap

While smartphones have hit a plateau, tablets haven’t. You can see meaningful upgrades with every iteration. Better displays, better stylus tech, better speakers, better battery life, better accessories—there’s still room to grow. And as long as that’s true, Android tablets will continue to defy the narrative of decline.

The perception of Android tablets may lag behind reality, but tablets are here to stay, both as an add-on device for the well-heeled, and as a laptop replacement for casual users.

And Xiaomi is betting on this. The Pad 8 starts at ₹33,999, but you’ll have to pay ₹8,999 extra for the Focus Keyboard and ₹5,999 for the Focus Pen Pro. That’s quite a sticker shock for the bundle, but well worth it.

There’s also Lenovo Yoga Tab Plus ( ₹59,998, for the bundle) or OnePlus Pad 3 (starting at ₹49,999, and ₹15,498 more for the keyboard and stylus). Both offer more affordable variants as well, with the Lenovo Idea Tab series and the OnePlus Pad Go 2 that you can pick for under ₹30,000. OnePlus also launched its flagship, the supersized Pad 4 in India last week, which costs a whopping ₹54,999 (plus ₹5,499 for the stylus). And then there’s Samsung, which offers a mouth-watering Galaxy Tab S11 at an eye-watering price of ₹91,999 (plus ₹9,999 for the keyboard). It’s a true flagship product but also prices most people out. But Samsung’s portfolio is quite wide, and you’d be able to find more affordable options across price segments as well.

Abhishek Baxi is a New Delhi-based tech writer.