Poco Pad M1 review

Android 15 with HyperOS 2

The Poco Pad M1 boots Android 15 and HypeOS 2 on top of it, but it's scheduled to receive Android 16-based HyperOS 3 in early 2026. HyperOS 2 for tablets offers updated visuals, smoother operations thanks to an upgraded HyperCore, Google AI, and most importantly - Workstation mode for PC-like experience.

HyperOS is not that much different from MIUI on the older tablets, it just looks more modern and has a bit more functionality.

You can enable an app drawer if you prefer, but by default, there is no app drawer, and everything is on the homescreens - apps and widgets alike.

HyperOS 2

The Notification and Control center are summoned from the left top and right top parts, as before.

And, of course, some convenient multi-tasking options are at your disposal - such as split screen and pop-up windows (up to 4 different apps can be visible at once). The task manager is also optimized for the big screen.

Multi-tasking

HyperOS offers deeper integration with connected devices on your home network and devices signed into your personal Xiaomi account. This isn't new for MIUI users, of course, but HyperOS plays even nicer with other Mi Share-capable devices. Xiaomi has put these features under the Interconnectivity umbrella.

With Xiaomi Interconnectivity, you can have the screen of your Xiaomi phone (if you have one) accessible interactively from your tablet screen. You will also receive the notifications that your phone is receiving. The clipboard contents are shared between the two devices. You can exchange files easily, and the phone will automatically share its mobile data connection and its camera with the tablet when needed. And with Hyper OS 2.0, on the tablet, you can open apps that you have opened on the phone and continue directly where you've left off.

Interconnectivity

There is a dedicated Features for Tablets menu in settings. Here you can learn some neat multi-tasking gestures for the floating windows and split screen view. There are options for an optimized two-page layout for some apps.

The Stylus and keyboard menu lets you adjust some settings if you've bought one of these optional accessories. There are quite a few options for the keyboard, including handy shortcuts and cursor styles if you have the Poco Pad M1 Keyboard.

The Poco Smart Pen is quite useful for notes and drawings on the go, as well as custom screenshots, and for a handy remote control when needed (i.e. presentations).

Stylus and Keyboard

There is no Workstation mode, as on the more powerful Xiaomi tablets.

Finally, let's explore the available AI options.

Google Gemini is available as usual. Circle to Search is available, too.

Gemini • Circle to Search

Gemini can also generate images for you. There's also a whole lot of AI-based image editing features in the gallery - an object/people remover, you can add bokeh, do content-aware expansion, or change how the sky looks in your shots.

Image Edit

Performance and benchmarks

The Poco Pad M1 employs the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 (4 nm) chip from Qualcomm. The SoC is a direct successor to last year's SD 7s Gen 3 and offers a virtually unchanged Kryo architecture with the same 1+3+4 core architecture, but with a minor boost in clock speeds.

The processor has 1x Prime Cortex-A720 core now clocked at 2.7 + 3x Cortex-A720 (2.4GHz) units and 4x Cortex-A520 (1.8GHz).

The Adreno 810 brings improved performance, and it has Snapdragon Elite Gaming features like Adaptive Performance Engine 3.0 and Snapdragon Game Super Resolution.

The updated Hexagon NPU offers better AI performance with support for Llama 1B and Qwen 1B and real-time translation. On the connectivity side, the new 7s Gen 4 chip supports Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.4. It also brings support for the aptX Lossless and aptX Adaptive audio codecs.

The Poco Pad M1 has only one memory configuration - 8GB LPDDR4X RAM and 256GB UFS 2.2 storage. MicroSD expansion is available.

And now let's see some benchmarks.

The new mid-range chip is quite capable, and there is a noticeable jump between Gen 2 and Gen 4. At the same time, comparing it to the 7s Gen 3 chip in the Nothing Phone 3a Pro showed no performance benefits in the synthetic benchmarks, even though Qualcomm promises a 7% improvement.

Finally, we ran our usual stress tests on the Poco Pad M1, and we found that it does not throttle at all.

CPU test • GPU test

The Poco Pad M1 offers solid performance for the mid-range class, and it will do just fine for office apps, multimedia, and even gaming. And that's plenty nice.