Xiaomi Pad 7’s nano-texture display milestone counters conventional wisdom

Here’s some perspective. An Apple iPad Pro 11-inch, with the reflection eliminating nano-texture glass, costs upwards of ₹1,69,900. The larger iPad Pro 13-inch will get you to part with at least ₹1,99,900. Brilliant in their own right, and having introduced the concept of nano-texture displays as an option on consumer computing devices, credit for direction is inarguable. Android tablet makers, at till now, haven’t replicated anything on similar lines. Mind you, enough expensive Android tablets in the market, to not have an excuse of pricing.

Now, compare this with what Xiaomi has managed to do. So, ₹32,999 is what you’ll likely pay by credit card, debit card or UPI, for a Xiaomi Pad 7 with the Nano-texture display. Xiaomi clearly has countered a long-standing drawback of nano-texture technology, which is that it used to be costly. There is little in terms of any complexity with the available options. The Xiaomi Pad 7 is available with a standard 11.16-inch IPS display in all specs, with a 3.2K resolution, 800-nits of rated peak brightness and the 144Hz refresh rate being some key highlights for this square-er 3:2 aspect ratio real estate — compared with the more 16:9 ratio of the Xiaomi Pad 6. The nano-texture option is only available in the 12GB RAM and 256GB spec variant, and the rest of the display specs remain consistent across the board.

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What exactly is the big deal with this nano-texture coating? This is essentially an extra layer of treatment on a display, a tablet in this case, to create a textured surface. This is designed in a way that any light, direct or otherwise that may be hitting this display if it were glossy and smooth, gets scattered. That is the method to negate reflections, which are otherwise all too common on most tablet, laptop, smartphone and desktop PC displays — the glass layer is conducive to reflections.

That’s Xiaomi’s goal too with the nano-texture layering as an option on the Xiaomi Pad 7. They claim a 99% reduction in interfering light, and the anti-reflective optical coating reduces that by as much as 65%. Side by side with a Xiaomi Pad 7 that has a standard display, the Xiaomi Pad 7 with the nano-texture display immediately makes clear the advantages of this upgrade.

So, who or what use case is it really for? The primary benefit being reflection elimination, and with Xiaomi’s implementation being astonishingly good, it immediately makes the tablet usable with a lot more comfort in most indoor and outdoor lighting conditions. This is particularly true for brightly lit environments. Many an office floor tend to be littered with hard, cool temperature bright ceiling lights that generate reflections off any standard display. Comfort is therefore, the primary advantage.

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Secondly, the coating improves the perceived contrast of whatever it is that you are seeing on the screen. With less light escaping, blacks tend to look deeper for not just the display but also any visuals you may be seeing. That in turn boosts other colour perception too, which for most users, is just the ticket. Clarity too, can often register an uptick, because you’re losing lesser details to reflections and light scatters. The big winners in terms of use-cases include working on documents, spreadsheets, some Netflix binging and of course, reading.

In case of reading specially, eliminating the reflection of the bedside lamp for a spot of night-time reading, is extremely helpful. I also must note that the Xiaomi Focus Pen is slightly better for writing and sketching—the reason for that being a very slight coarseness compared to a slick glass surface, allows the stylus to grip better.

That said, the contrast boost that one may notice visually, can throw off use-cases that may require absolute accuracy with colours. Image editing and video editing, for instance, where precision is paramount. Secondly, and this is particularly relevant for professional workflows, a nano-texture display will struggle with the phenomena of colour-shift — this is the scenario when the colours lose original tonality and hues if you aren’t looking at the screen absolutely straight on. The display’s light emission is also impacted in the same way as external light is.

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It is as much a fingerprint magnet, in our experience, as pretty much any other screen. But catches much less dust particles. Mind you, clean with a really soft cloth, since even the slightest abrasiveness will damage the coating.

Last but not least, the nano-texture coating needs extra care. It is as delicate, as it is useful. Rough usage will create very visible scratches on a nano-texture layered screen such as the Xiaomi Pad 7 Nano Texture Display Edition. Basically, put a cover on the tablet and don’t hand it over to an excitable child.

We often hear the word “democratisation” about technology. If ever there was a genuine example of that making a difference in the realm of reality, this is it. Xiaomi’s countered the legacy of nano-texture being expensive, and brought it to a tablet well under the ₹50,000 price point. For now, it is the only Android tablet to do so. And without charging you a six digit sum for it. Unless you intend to use the Xiaomi Pad 7 Nano Texture Display Edition for extensive photo editing in a professional capacity, this ideally should be the default pick for pretty much every use case you may have for the tablet — work, entertainment, play and reading. That is, if you are confident about caring for this display.