In this post, we’ll review the OnePlus Pad, a Android tablet from OnePlus. It’s an 11-inch slab with a 144Hz Dolby Vision display, quad speakers, and enough power to handle just about everything. Here is an unboxing and review of the OnePlus Pad.
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Unboxing
We get a OnePlus Pad, a bright red USB cable that is generally associated with the company, and a few extras, like a membership card for the Red Cable Club and a fast start instruction that essentially just directs you to the power button. And that’s it, really. When you think that’s all you receive, the package is rather large.
OnePlus Pad Specs
| Dimensions | Height: 25.80 cm Width: 18.94 cm Thickness: 0.65 cm Weight: 552g |
| Display | 2800 x 2000 pixels Resolution LCD 11.61 inches, Refresh Rate: 30/60/90/120/144 Hz Touch Sampling Rate: 120 Hz/144 Hz, PPI: 296 Contrast: 1400:1 Brightness: 500 nits (Typical), Delta E: <2 |
| Storage or Ram | 8GB/12GB LPDDR5 128GB/256GB UFS 3.1 |
| Operating System | OxygenOS 13.1 |
| CPU | MediaTek Dimensity 9000 |
| GPU | ARM G710 MC10 |
| Battery | 9510 mAh/36.99Wh (Typical) 67W SUPERVOOC |
| Rear Camera | Megapixels: 13 Video: 720p 30 fps, 1080p 30 fps, 4K 30 fps Support Video Zooming: Yes Support EIS Stabilization: Yes |
| Front Camera | Megapixels: 8 Video: 720p 30 fps, 1080p 30 fps Support Video Zooming: No Support EIS Stabilization: Yes |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi: Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), 802.11a/b/g/n/ WLAN 2.4G/WLAN 5.1G/WLAN 5.8G Bluetooth: Bluetooth V5.3, BLE, supports TWS devices SBC, AAC, aptx, aptX HD, LDAC Ports: USB Type-C Audio Device Port: Type-C |
| Unlocking Method | Face unlock |
| Sensors | Geomagnetic sensor Light sensor Acceleration sensor Gravity sensor Gyroscope Color temperature sensor Hall sensor |
| In The Box | OnePlus Pad SUPERVOOC Power Adapter Type-C Cable Quick Start Guide Safety Information and Warranty Card |
| Price | $479 |
Build Quality
The tablet is a lovely rectangular bastard, constructed from aluminum alloy with a unibody design. The metal frame sports a matte finish, making it fairly resistant to fingerprints and scuffs. However, if you handle it for a while, greasy prints may emerge, but a little bit of spit and polish can sort that out. The finish is rather smart, with quite subtle branding, which is always refreshing. Despite that, the undeniably massive camera bump draws the eye, with a radial pattern that emanates out from it, making it even more eye-catching.
Design
The OnePlus Pad comes in a singular color yellow-green, but the finish is quite nice. It’s not a boring, straightforward silver or white or black, but it’s also not too in-your-face. The device is 11.6 inches, so it’s not exactly compact, but it is surprisingly slender, just a few millimeters thick. It weighs just over half a kilo, and I’ve had no issues clutching it for a good hour or so while reading books or watching videos. Even though I’m not exactly a John Cena, I was a bit worried that the bezels surrounding the OnePlus Pad screen are so skinny that my thumb would intrude on the display, affecting its responsiveness. But as you can see, it doesn’t seem to be a problem.
Oxygen OS 13 And features
The OnePlus pad runs on Android 13 with Oxygen OS 13.1 on top, providing a stock Android experience with added features. It is similar to Color OS and comes with three years of Android OS updates (14, 15, 16) and four years of security updates. The front-facing camera enables face unlock, which is speedy and reliable. All the favorite Oxygen OS features, including the Shelf, are available on the tablet. Customization options like changing the fonts and icon styles are also present. However, there is no always-on display option due to the IPS panel. The OnePlus pad allows you to split the screen by swiping two fingers down from the top, which is easy to use and resize. The multi-window setup is convenient to use, and it’s easy to switch between apps. You can even drag out a third app in a mini-window that can be resized and hidden when not needed. OnePlus smartphone owners can enjoy additional benefits such as fast file sharing between the phone and tablet.
OnePlus Pad Keyboard Cover
Of course, like all good tablets, you have the option of slapping on a magnetic keyboard cover if you want to turn the OnePlus pad into a kind of makeshift laptop. This setup does come with the usual obvious limitations, like you can’t adjust the screen angle at all. I’ve got to say though, OnePlus keyboard is actually pretty good for a tablet keyboard. There’s no backlight inside these, so you can’t really use it in the evenings in the dark, but you do have proper physical keys which provide actual feedback when you are striking them. There’s a respectable amount of travel as well, considering how skinny this thing is. It even comes with an adorable weenie touchpad, which is fine for simple stuff like scrolling through web pages, etc. Just for God’s sakes, don’t attempt to highlight text with it or anything like that because it’ll just end in tears.
Now, minor grumble time. Occasionally, I’ll be watching something on the likes of Crunchyroll, and I’ve got to hit the space bar to pause the action, but it doesn’t actually pause the action at all. It just grays out the screen, which is incredibly irritating. More often than not, it does work absolutely fine on other services, but sometimes it just decides it can’t be bothered. Also, as with all tablets, this setup is perfectly fine if you’ve got a table or a desk to lean on, not quite so ideal if you’re just resting the thing on your lap. I mean, frankly, it’s about as stable as Paul Gascoigne rides in a unicycle.
OnePlus Pad Stylo
The OnePlus Pad also supports a stylus, and you can purchase a OnePlus stylus or upgrade to one with 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity and gesture support for a few extra bucks. Unfortunately, I didn’t receive a stylus from OnePlus to test out, probably because they knew I would just draw a lot of terrible doodles. It’s important to note that the OnePlus Pad only supports Wi-Fi and doesn’t have a 4G or 5G option.
OnePlus Pad Display
I’ve been using the OnePlus pad for a few days now, both for work and play, and I have to say, I quite like the 11.6-inch display. It’s not an OLED panel, just IPS, but you still get decent contrast – those blacks actually look black, rather than just a kind of hazy dark gray. Colors are reasonably punchy and vibrant too, and you even have full Dolby Vision support, which is great news for cinephiles.
However, the OnePlus pad isn’t ideal for kicking back with a movie because of the boxy 7×5 screen ratio. When you have it in landscape mode, you get some serious letterboxing going on. This kind of display is definitely better suited to browsing books or, of course, a good bit of side-by-side multitasking.
Visuals are plenty crisp as well, with a 2800 by 2000 pixel resolution view, and angles are pleasingly wide. The OnePlus pad hits 500 nits at the peak brightness, so even though it is a highly glossy reflective panel, you can just about see what’s going on when you’re using it outdoors.
This thing maxes out at 144Hz refresh as well, so flipping through menus and all your supported apps is silky creamy smooth – I absolutely love it.
Audio
The audio on the OnePlus pad is impressive, similar to the likes of the iPad Pro and other premium tablets out there. It features a quad-speaker setup, and once you boost that volume up, prepare to have your ears shattered to bits. Even in a noisy and busy kitchen with all kinds of chaos kicking off in the background, I can always hear what’s going on clearly. The stereo effect comes through pretty well, even when you’re holding the OnePlus pad in portrait mode. You can still tell the difference between the two distinctive channels. The pad comes with full Dolby Atmos support, complete with the usual presets. You can tinker around with those if you want.
Cameras
When it comes to the camera tech, the OnePlus pad has an 8-megapixel lens tucked away in the top bezel. You get full facial tracking and decent HDR capabilities, and the microphones do a great job of picking up your voice. This makes the OnePlus pad great for video conferencing and other similar tasks. Surprisingly, the pad also comes with a 13-megapixel rear camera, but using a tablet to shoot video is not recommended. However, if you do want to use it, just be prepared to face some serious ridicule.
OnePlus Pad Performance
The performance of the OnePlus Pad is impressive. It is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 9000 chipset, which is a rare sighting outside of China. In my review model, it is backed by 8GB of RAM, and I’ve been more than happy with its everyday performance. I’ve had no issues running multiple apps side by side, even with lots of background activity going on. For those who are interested in benchmarks, the Geekbench 6 scores are just over a thousand single-core and 3245 multi-core. While these scores are not competing with the very best premium Snapdragon and MediaTek chipsets, they are still perfectly capable.
Gaming
The OnePlus Pad is not an ideal device for mobile gaming, but it can handle games like Genshin Impact just fine. I tested it with the higher detail settings at 60 FPS, and while it didn’t deliver the most fluid frame rate, it was still perfectly fluid with a stable frame rate. The device didn’t heat up either, so you can play for hours without worrying about it conking out. The Oxygen OS game and toolbar also come in handy for gamers. It dedicates all of the resources to the game, allowing you to block notifications, optimize touch sensitivity, and do all kinds of shenanigans to enhance your gaming experience.
OnePlus Pad Battery life
A 9510mAh battery inside of this tablet provides up to one month’s worth of standby time. Even when I’m multitasking with apps like Docs and Chrome while streaming music in the background, I’ve noticed that the battery life regularly reduces at less than 10% per hour when using the OnePlus Pad. The situation is the same when I stream videos in full screen mode. Therefore, even on a fairly demanding, full-on day, this device will easily last you a full day on a single charge. A full charge will take roughly an hour and fifteen minutes even if the battery is entirely discharged because it supports 67W SuperVOOC charging.
I'm really liking it so far. It is a strong rival to any high-end Android tablet now available, including those built by Samsung. It's crucial to keep in mind that Google's Pixel tablet, with its dock functionality that transforms it into a smart display, is still in the works. This might give the OnePlus Pad some fierce competition.
Post your opinions about the OnePlus Pad in the comments section below.
