Xiaomi's In-House Chip Gives The Pad 7 Ultra Flagship Power
Xiaomi Pad 7 Ultra Ben Sin
A few months after launching two excellent tablets powered by Qualcomm silicon, Xiaomi has launched an even higher tier Pad 7 Ultra that is running on its in-house chipset, the XRing O1.
Fabricated on 3nm TSMC processing, Xiaomi's chip features a 10-core CPU and 16-core GPU, with architecture that differs slightly from the way Qualcomm and MediaTek build silicon. For example, a 10-core CPU is more than what any mobile silicon has used, and Xiaomi says the chip switches between the two ARM Cortex cores to get maximum power while staying as efficient as possible.
A render of the XRing O1 silicon released by Xiaomi Xiaomi
I've been testing the Pad 7 Ultra for the past few days, putting it through its paces as a machine for work (I am writing this article on the tablet) and play (I watched Game 7 of the NBA Finals while juggling through various social media apps on the tablet), and I am very impressed.
Whether it's real-world performance or benchmark numbers, the XRing O1 chip performs at a high level similar to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite. In fact, in a 20 minute stress test in the app 3DMark, the Xiaomi Pad 7 Ultra with Xiaomi silicon scored almost as high as the OnePlus Pad 3 running on Qualcomm's best chip, while being more efficient and more stable (see screenshot below).
Scores on the 20 minute Wild Life Extreme Stress Test conducted by the app 3DMark. Xiaomi's XRing O1 on the left, and OnePlus Pad 3 on the right Ben Sin
I even edited and published an entire YouTube video with the tablet, using the app LumaFusion. While performance wasn't as fast or zippy as doing the same task on a new iPad Pro running Final Cut Pro, I still managed to finish editing the 10-minute video and rendering it in five and a half minutes. I highlighted the process in the video below.
So after a series of tests, it appears Xiaomi's XRing O1 is indeed powerful enough to be considered a flagship silicon in 2025, and able to go toe to toe with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite.
As for the rest of the tablet, there's a lot to like too. The tablet features a gorgeous 14-inch OLED display with an antireflective coating that prevents glare and reflections. Getting up to 1600 nits in brightness, it is a beautiful panel to look at whether indoor or out.
The 14-inch OLED screen Ben Sin
Pad 7 Ultra Ben Sin
The tablet weighs about 609g or about 1.3lbs, and measure just 5.1mm thick. The body is crafted out of aluminum, and houses a 12,000 mAh battery inside that can be charged at 120W speed with the included charger.
With a tablet this big, you will want to pair it with a keyboard, and Xiaomi has a very premium one that unfortunately, looks and feels like a direct knockoff of Apple's Magic Keyboard.
Xiaomi's keyboard Ben Sin
The Xiaomi Pad 7 Ultra keyboard looks an awful lot like the Magic Keyboard Ben Sin
From the way the keyboard props up the tablet, to the hinge design, to the aluminum base that wraps around the keys, it is nearly identical to Apple's Magic Keyboard. I wish Xiaomi had changed up something, even a different paint job.
But, once you get over the lack of originality, the keyboard is tremendous. Keys have excellent travel of nearly 1.5mm and are evenly spaced. The trackpad is also the best trackpad I've tested among Android tablets -- precise and with satisfying haptics.
The Pad 7 Ultra Ben Sin
Xiaomi's multitasking system is also excellent -- you can run apps in split screen or resizable floating windows, making it an excellent work machine.
This tablet is only sold in China for now, retailing at 5,700 yuan ($793) to 6,700 yuan ($933). This is for 12GB+256GB storage and 16GB+1TB storage, respectively.
The Xiaomi Pad 7 Ultra is a tremendous feat of engineering showing Xiaomi is able to produce high level hardware, including the silicon.
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One key advantage of the Razr's approach is that the front screen is ideal for many features where a large display is not necessary. Scrolling Instagram allows you to see one post at a time. Navigating with Google Maps is ideally suited to the screen's aspect ratio. Setting alarms, quickly triaging notifications, and using the cover display as a camera viewfinder are all ideally suited to the Razr form factor. The Razr Ultra 2025 is the gold standard for flip phones for good reason. Huawei Pura X: the small tablet Samsung and Motorola have primarily focused on flip phones designed to make smartphones smaller. At the same time, competitors like Oppo, Vivo, and Huawei have taken alternative approaches designed to rethink the front screen concept. As it turns out, there are benefits to all of these. One of the most interesting phones I've used this year is the Huawei Pura X. Huawei was one of the first to launch a book-style folding phone in 2019, and since then, the company has also released the Mate XT with a triple-folding screen, and is working on a rolling phone. Huawei Pura X specs Dimensions 143.2 x 91.7 x 7.2 mm (unfolded) 91.7 x 74.3 x 15.1 mm (folded) Cover display 3.5in LTPO2 OLED, 980 x 980, 120Hz Main display 6.3in AMOLED, 1320 x 2120, 16:10, 120Hz Cameras 50MP + 8MP + 40MP (rear), 10.7MP (front) Battery 4720 mAh, 66W wired, 40W wireless Weight 194 – 196 grams It's not just those folding phones, however, as the company also unveiled the Pura X, which is a unique take on the flip phone form factor. Instead of a big phone that folds into a smaller one, the Pura X is a compact phone that unfolds to reveal a compact tablet. The display's 16:10 aspect ratio is designed for watching movies and video content, which is traditionally shot and released in a 16:9 aspect ratio. The Pura X does have its challenges. It runs a highly optimized version of HarmonyOS, which is also used in everything from regular phones and laptops to cars and smart home products. The Square Cover Display offers a few shortcuts to key apps, but swiping up allows you to access the full phone, including all of your apps. Imagine a 7-inch tablet experience in half the size, and you have the Pura X front screen. One added benefit of Huawei's approach is that the camera is separated from the display. As a result, instead of the dual camera setup of most flip phones, the Huawei Pura X has a quad-camera setup that's one of the best of any flip phone. It's a great all-around phone, made possible by the design approach. Oppo Find N3 Flip: the vertical display The majority of flip phones have featured a horizontal front display; however, before the industry shifted towards the current all-screen-on-the-front design language, Oppo demonstrated what is possible with a vertical cover display on a flip phone. Oppo Find N3 Flip specs Dimensions 166.4 x 75.8 x 7.8 mm (unfolded) 85.5 x 75.8 x 16.5 mm (folded) Cover display 3.26in AMOLED, 382 x 720 Main display 6.8in AMOLED, 1080 x 2520, 21:9, 120Hz Cameras 50MP + 32MP (2x zoom) + 48MP (rear), 32MP (front) Battery 4,300 mAh, 44W wired Weight 198 grams The Find N3 Flip is almost two years old, but it remains one of the few phones that tried a vertical screen approach. The decision was understandable, especially since the logic was that the cover display could be a small phone, which we naturally use in a vertical orientation. The Oppo Find N3 Flip features a 3.26-inch cover display, and Oppo has built an optimized software experience that is more useful than a smartwatch and less distracting than a normal phone. It's the ideal experience for those times when you urgently need to perform a task, and don't want to be sidetracked by an errant notification on your phone. One of the biggest benefits of the vertical screen approach is that while the screen is smaller, apps don't need to be optimized to run on it. Instead, the phone can scale down an existing app, and it works fairly well. The horizontal orientation on the Razr 60 Ultra screen crops the display so you have to scroll more, whereas the Find N3 Flip can show more on the screen, albeit with smaller text. Huawei Pocket 2: the pocketwatch From the same company that brought us the mini tablet flip phone comes the modern pocketwatch flip phone. The Huawei Pocket 2 is unique, as its front display is a small circle, essentially a contemporary take on the traditional pocket watch. Used for hundreds of years, the pocket watch is a staple when it comes to telling the time, and the Pocket 2 is designed primarily with this function in mind. There's a selection of curated widgets for the cover display, and it is also in use when making payments. Naturally, you can also use it as a very small viewfinder when taking a photo. Huawei Pocket 2 specs Dimensions 170 x 75.5 x 7.3 mm (unfolded) 87.8 x 75.5 x 15.3 mm (folded) Cover display 1.15-inch LTPO OLED, 340 x 340 Main display 6.94-inch LTPO OLED, 1136 x 2690, 120Hz Cameras 50MP + 8MP + 12MP + 2MP (rear), 10.7MP (front) Battery 4520 mAh., 66W wired, 40W wireless Weight 199 grams Talking of photos, what is the biggest benefit of sacrificing on the cover display? The first-ever quad camera setup in a flip phone, as well as 40W wireless charging for the first time. The Pocket 2 front display won't be for everyone, but it's a worthwhile sacrifice for the other features that are packed into the Pocket 2. The best of the rest Of course, other flip phone designs are worth mentioning, but the above five offer the best flip phone experience. If you want a flip phone that oozes luxury, there's a strong chance that you'll consider the vast array of unique Razr Ultra 2025 colors, especially the pink or red leather or the reclaimed wood. However, if you want something more luxurious, the Vivo X Flip is the answer. The reason for this is the textured vegan leather finish, which looks stunning, especially in the purple finish. Then there are older flip phones, such as the Razr 2023 and the Galaxy Z Flip 4. These feature a pager-like design with a small display strip across the front of the phone. These offer limited features, and even the base Razr 2025 now offers a large 3.5-inch display, as the previous design lacked the utility we've come to expect. With fewer companies focusing on the flip phone market, just as the book-style folding phone market is fiercely competitive, it's no surprise that we're starting to see flip phones mostly adopt the same overall design. As the Motorola Razr 60 Ultra shows, that's not necessarily a bad thing. There's a reason it's one of the best phones you can buy, whether it's folding or not.
