Got a Xiaomi Pad 6? Try out these 10 cool features

Xiaomi released the Xiaomi Pad 6 with accessories in the Indian market recently. While the tablet does come with some very impressive hardware for its price, our favorite aspects of the tablet were the touches to the interface that enabled users to use the tablet more effectively, especially given that Android by itself isn’t the best tablet OS.

So if you have got yourself Xiaomi’s latest tablet, here are the ten best Xiaomi Pad 6 features we think you should be trying out:

Get face unlock working

If we had one gripe about the Xiaomi Pad 6 (read our review here), it was the absence of a fingerprint scanner. Fortunately, the tablet comes with a face unlock option, which is not secure enough for transactions, but is certainly good enough to ensure that only you can access your Xiaomi Pad 6 when it is locked. It also saves you the hassle of having to enter a pin or a password every time you unlock the device. Here’s how you go about setting up Face Unlock:

1. Go to Settings, and scroll down to Passwords & Security
2. Choose Face Unlock
3. You will be asked to enter your Pin. Do so and choose to Add face data.
4. The tablet will then scan your face, and you will be able to unlock your tablet by just looking at it.
5. You can specify whether you want the tablet to stay on the lock screen after unlocking by face unlock (you would need just to swipe up to unlock it) or go to the home screen.

Wake up the display a lot faster

The display of the Xiaomi Pad 6 switches off after a while when you are not using it to conserve battery. You can wake it up by hitting the power button, but reaching it is a bit more difficult on a tablet, so we would suggest making it easier. A small tweak to the settings and the display will wake up whenever you tap twice on it and/or when you just raise the tablet. This is what you need to do:

1. Go to Settings
2. Once there, choose Lock Screen
3. Among the options, you will see Raise to Wake and Double tap to wake or turn off the screen when the device is locked.
4. Choose whichever option you find better – you can choose both if you so wish.

Use floating windows

Floating windows are one of the most useful features of the Xiaomi Pad 6. As its name indicates, this basically launches an app in a window that can float alongside other apps that you are using, allowing you to multitask. You could work on a document or browse a website and keep Twitter or a video open on a floating window, keeping an eye on it even as you work. Using a floating window is very easy. If you are already using an app, and want another app as a floating window, follow these steps:

1. From within the app, swipe up from the right or left of the center at the very base of the screen (the bar you swipe up to show open apps).
2. This will bring up the app bar (also called the sidebar) at the base of the screen.
3. Pull the app you wish to place in a window from this bar to the center of the display. It will appear as a window, which you can move or resize as per your needs.

What if you want to create an app in a floating window from the homescreen or if it is not on the app bar at the base of the screen? Well, in that case, you do this:

1. Long press on the icon of the app you want to open in a floating window.
2. Choose Floating window from among the options that appear. Voila!

Please remember that not all apps support floating windows mode – fortunately, many do!

Screenshots without touching the buttons

You can take a screenshot on the Xiaomi Pad 6 by hitting the power button and volume lower key at the same time. However, while this ‘normal’ screenshotting tool is easy to use on a smartphone, it gets a little convenient on a tablet. Fortunately, there are easier ways of taking a screenshot on the Xiaomi Pad 6:

1. Simply drag down three fingers from the top of the display. That’s it.
2. If you want to capture a particular part of the screen, place three fingers on the display, and then just select the area you want to capture by resizing the box that appears.

These gestures were enabled by default in our Xiaomi Pad 6. In case they are not on your unit, you can activate them by following these steps:

1. Go to Settings, and then choose Additional Settings
2. In Additional Settings, choose Gesture shortcuts
3. You will then see options titled Take a Screenshot and Partial Screenshot. Activate the ones you want to use.

Split screens effortlessly

Want to work on two apps side by side? It is incredibly simple on the Xiaomi Pad 6. This is how you go about it:

1. From the app you are in working in, swipe in from the right-hand side with three fingers.
2. From the list of apps that appears, choose the one you want to work with in split-screen mode.
3. That’s it. The screen of the Xiaomi Pad 6 will be neatly split in half with one app on either side. You can resize the areas of the screen they occupy by moving the bar in the middle!

What’s as cool as split screens? Split screen shortcuts!

Suppose there are two apps that you always want to work on side by side and do not want to go through the whole split-screen process every time you want to use them. Well, you can just serve the split screen as a shortcut on the homescreen of the Xiaomi Pad 6. To open the two apps in split-screen mode, simply tap on the shortcut. Making a shortcut of two split-screen apps is very simple. Here is how you do it:

1. Open the two apps you want in split-screen mode (as explained in the previous step).
2. Swipe up from the base of the display to go to the home screen. You will notice that the split-screen apps will now appear as a single icon on the app bar at the base of the display.
3. Long press the split screen app icon on the app bar. The Add to Home Screen option will pop up. Choose it, and the split screen apps will now be available as a shortcut on the homescreen of your Xiaomi Pad 6. Just tap on the shortcut to access the apps in split-screen mode!

Make video toolbox available for more apps:

One of the coolest features of the Xiaomi Pad 6 is the video toolbox that lets you tweak the quality of the video you are viewing, record the screen, take screenshots, and do a whole lot more. All you need to do is to swipe in from the tiny bar that appears in the top left corner to access this toolbox. You, however, might not see the video toolbox on most applications. That is because it is turned on by default only on YouTube. To be able to access the video toolbox from other apps, just follow these steps:

1. Open Settings, and because just good old Settings will not suffice, scroll all the way down to Additional Settings.
2. In Additional Settings, scroll down and select Video Toolbox
3. You will find Video Toolbox turned on by default as well as the option to display its shortcut (in the left corner of the screen). You will also get a choice of where you want the shortcut placed.
4. What you are really looking for is the Manage Video Apps section. Tap on it, and you will get a list of apps in which the Video Toolbox will appear. Go ahead and add the ones you want.

Clean those quad speakers

The Xiaomi Pad 6 comes with an excellent set of quad speakers. But this being India, dust does tend to accumulate in those speakers. Fortunately, the Xiaomi Pad 6 comes with a provision to clean those speakers too. Getting them spic and span is as simple as playing a 30-second track on them. Here’s how:

• Go to Settings, and there choose Additional Settings
• In Additional Settings, choose the Clear Speaker option.
• This will play a 30-second audio clip (warning: it is piercing and not a pleasure to hear). Play it a number of times, and your speakers will be grime-free.

Got the Smart Pen? Don’t just sketch and scribble…scroll!

Xiaomi has also released the Smart Pen (2nd Generation) stylus along with the Xiaomi Pad 6. Of course, this new stylus lets you write and draw on the Xiaomi Pad 6. But it also has some smart features beyond that. The stylus comes with two buttons on it, which let you take screenshots and also switch between writing tools. However, the buttons also let you scroll content on the tablet – the button near the nib scrolls down, and the button further away from the nib scrolls up. It is turned on by default. You just need to use it.

Got the keyboard? Set up some shortcuts

Another accessory that Xiaomi launched with the Xiaomi Pad 6 was a keyboard cover for it. Attaching the keyboard to the tablet converts the Xiaomi Pad 6 into a makeshift notebook. There are some smart elements to the keyboard too.

While there are a number of shortcuts baked into the keyboard (including basic ones like Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V for copy and paste), the keyboard also comes with a whole set of system shortcuts. These revolve around the command key (⌘), such as ⌘+W to close a window and ⌘+L to lock the screen.

Well, you can actually change them if you wish and even create shortcuts to launch apps. You can use any key combination as long as you start with the ⌘ key. Here is how you go about it:

• Open Settings and scroll down to Stylus & Keyboard
• Choose the Keyboard tab, and there, choose Custom shortcuts.
• You will now see a list of System Shortcuts and shorts to Open Apps.
• To change a System Shortcut, select it and then enter the key combination in the box that opens.
• To add a shortcut to open apps, tap on Add shortcut and then enter the key combination in the box that pops up.

There you are then – ten features that let you get more out of your Xiaomi Pad 6. If you have one, be sure to try them out.

Buy Xiaomi Pad 6