OnePlus Pad 4 vs Xiaomi Pad 8: Which flagship Android tablet should you actually buy?

It's an exciting time in the Android tablet market with companies finally prioritizing the segment with their flagship devices. The segment has seen two new products in the recent months, the Xiaomi Pad 8 and the OnePlus Pad 4, both devices running on Android 16 and Snapdragon processor but coming in at a different price range.

If you are looking to buy a new tablet and wondering which of these tablets may be the right choice for you, here's a look at a detailed comparison.

Meanwhile, the Xiaomi Pad 8 features a smaller 11.2-inch 3.2K LCD display with the same 144Hz refresh rate and Dolby Vision. The Pad 8 also comes with lower 800 nits in High Brightness Mode (HBM) but there is an option to choose a nano texture coating variant of the tablet to reduce glare.

The OnePlus Pad 4 features a 7:5 aspect ratio which gives more area for tasks like reading, multitasking and editing documents side by side. Meanwhile, the Pad 8 comes with a 3:4 aspect ratio which makes the display feel more compact and better optimised for portrait viewing but doesn’t feel as spacious for split-screen use.

In terms of design, the Pad 8 is both lighter (485g weight) than the Pad 4 (672g weight) while being slimmer at 5.75mm thickness compared to 5.94mm thickness of the Pad 4.

Processor and software:

The OnePlus Pad 4 is powered by the flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, which is the same chipset powering most high end phones of 2026 including the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra and even OnePlus 15. The tablet comes with support for up to 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.1 storage across all variants.

Meanwhile, the Pad 8 runs on the more mid-range Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 processor. The tablet comes with support for LPDDR5x RAM and UFS 3.1 storage for the 128GB variant and bumps it up to UFS 4.1 for the 256GB variant.

In terms of software, it is always a personal choice with both the OnePlus Pad 4 and Xiaomi Pad 8 running on Android 16 based custom skins, Xiaomi with HyperOS 3 and OnePlus with OxygenOS 16.

Both the tablets have some basic features like computer shortcuts on their keyboards and seamless connectivity with their own smartphones that allows for a shared clipboard, easy file transfer and screen sharing. However, I personally feel, the OxygenOS 16 is slightly more optimized for tablet with its Open Canvas multi-tasking system that allows for opening 3 apps at once along with floating windows.

The system feels more intuitive, you can adjust the size of all 3 individual apps and each app can also be easily replaced by clicking on the three dots button above them.

Batttery:

OnePlus pad 4 features a much larger 13,380mAh battery with support for 67W superVOOC fast charging. Meanwhile, the Pad 8 comes with a 9,200mAh battery with 45W charging support. Both the tablets also come with reverse charging support, meaning if you wish to you can use them to power up other devices like a TWS or even in emergency situations, your phone.

Another area where Pad 4 takes a lead is in the speaker department with the OnePlus tablet packing an 8-speaker setup with Hi-Res certification while the Xiaomi Pad 8 sticks to a quad-speaker setup with Dolby Atmos support. While the Pad 8 speaker still sounds good, its volume feels lacking despite the 200% volume booster when compred to the Pad 4.

Price:

OnePlus Pad 4

₹59,999 (8GB + 256GB)

₹64,999 (12GB + 512GB)

Xiaomi Pad 8

₹33,999 (8GB + 128GB)

₹36,999 (12GB + 256GB)

Which tablet is better for you?

Both the Xiaomi Pad 8 and OnePlus Pad 4 are really good offerings in their respective price ranges. And the choice in the end would come down to what are your expectations from your new tablet.

If you want your tablet to be able to withstand, heavy multi-tasking, video editing, lots of gaming, rigorous streaming sessions, the OnePlus Pad 4 with the Snapdragon Elite Gen 5 processor is the clear choice for you. However, it also commands a premium price of around ₹60,000.

Manwhile, if you want a more portable option to handle everyday tasks, light gaming and are okay to compromise a little bit on the audio quality, the Pad 8 is a very decent option at a starting price of ₹33,999.