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Pros
- Gorgeous design
- Big, vibrant screen
- Punchy speakers
- Clean OnePlus Android skin
- Long battery life
- Integrated phone features
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Cons
- Slow performance
OnePlus Pad Specs
Battery Life | 10 hours (est.) |
CPU | MediaTek Dimensity 9000 |
Dimensions | 10.16 by 7.46 by 0.26 inches |
Operating System | Android 13 |
Screen Resolution | 2800 by 2000 pixels |
Screen Size | 11.61 |
Storage Capacity | 128 |
Weight | 19.58 |
The A$799 OnePlus Pad, the company's first-ever tablet, is finally here, and it competes directly with one of the tablet market's best offerings, the A$749 Apple iPad (10th Gen). The Pad from OnePlus brings some solid features to the fore, including a refreshing design and software tools that blend the capabilities of the tablet with a OnePlus 11 smartphone. It will have its charms for OnePlus devotees, but despite good battery life and an appealing screen, the OnePlus Pad runs a little unevenly and can't quite match the performance of the iPad. As such, Apple's tablet remains our Editors' Choice pick for tablets in this price range.
A Beautiful Tablet With a Big Screen
If there's one thing OnePlus absolutely nails with the Pad, it's the aesthetics. It's a stunning device in its vibrant Halo Green color (the only option available) with a pleasing metal casing that wraps around the whole machine. The one-piece metal body has rounded edges that flow right into the display glass for a smooth hand feel. The bezels are trim, at a uniform 6.7mm all the way around.
The OnePlus Pad is a large slate at 10.16 by 7.46 by 0.26 inches (HWD) and 1.22 pounds. It's slightly bigger than the iPad, which is 9.79 by 7.07 by 0.28 inches and 1.05 pounds. The iPad is also made mostly of metal and glass.
![OnePlus Pad with accessories](https://i.pcmag.com/imagery/reviews/05Yjcmgutm92W4JFW0ZG07A-17.jpg)
The OnePlus Pad's LCD panel is impressive. At 11.61 inches, it features a relatively high resolution of 2,800 by 2,000 pixels, which translates to a rather unorthodox 7:5 aspect ratio. OnePlus claims the shape benefits both work and play. The Pad's screen easily beats the 10.9-inch iPad's 2,360-by-1,640 display in terms of sharpness and pixel density, at 296 pixels per inch (ppi) versus 264ppi.
The tablet also has a variable refresh rate that runs up to 144Hz. The company says it can ratchet between 30Hz, 60Hz, 90Hz, 120Hz, and 144Hz automatically, depending on the task at hand, to balance smooth response and power consumption. The top frame rate applies to games only, however; standard activities max out at 120Hz. The tablet is more than bright enough for daily use, with brightness reaching 500 nits (same as the iPad). The screen features a 1,400:1 contrast ratio. Simply put, it's an excellent display.
Around the tablet's sides, you'll find the standard array of ports and controls. The bottom edge features three pogo pins that connect the tablet to the keyboard accessory, while the top houses the volume up and down buttons. The top also includes a magnetized area designed to hold and charge the OnePlus Stylo (the company's stylus accessory). The left is where you'll find the power button and two speakers. The right side of the tablet has a USB-C port and the other two speakers. Unfortunately, there's no headphone jack, but Bluetooth 5.3 offers the latest wireless connectivity to devices such as headphones. The selfie camera is centered above the screen, which makes a lot of sense for video chats.
The four-speaker system claims to offer Dolby Atmos playback for supported content, and we were pretty impressed with how loud and clear the audio was. We used "Silent Shout" by The Knife to test the speakers, and the bass response was much better than other small speakers we've tested. We cranked the volume all the way up and enjoyed thumpy, distortion-free bass.
![OnePlus Pad bottom edge with pogo pins](https://i.pcmag.com/imagery/reviews/05Yjcmgutm92W4JFW0ZG07A-11.jpg)
The tablet's rear is oddly compelling. A lighter shade of green runs around the edge and creates a 3D look and feel. You'll find the camera sitting right in the middle of the device rather than off to one corner, with a ring of concentric circles emanating from it, forming a halo. This gives it a pleasing symmetry. The company's logo is etched into the metal in the center of the panel.
We see many devices pass through the lab, so it takes a lot to impress us; this tablet did precisely that.
The Components: Dimensity Lacks Intensity
The market for Android tablets is a rather mixed bag. Most of the slates available from the likes of Lenovo and Samsung are affordable fare meant for casual use. Only the Samsung Galaxy Tab S series truly stands at the top of the market. Given how much attention it paid to the design, we hoped OnePlus would pad its Pad's performance a bit to compete with the Tab S. Alas, it's not quite there.
The OnePlus Pad features the MediaTek Dimensity 9000 processor. This is an eight-core chip fabricated on a 4nm process with a single Arm Cortex-X2 ultra core at 3.05GHz, three Cortex-A710 super cores at 2.85GHz, and four Cortex-A510 efficiency cores. The processor is paired with 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 128GB of UFS 3.1 storage.
We run every device through an intense series of benchmark tests to ensure that it's up to par. The OnePlus Pad's numbers aren't terrible, but they're not great, either.
![OnePlus Pad PCMark scores](https://i.pcmag.com/imagery/reviews/05Yjcmgutm92W4JFW0ZG07A-13.jpg)
Starting with the PCMark Work 3.0 benchmark, which is designed to put the tablet through real-world tests like data manipulation, image editing, and so on, the tablet scored 8,255. To put that into perspective, the TCL Tab 10 5G scored 9,312 on the same test. The OnePlus 11 5G smartphone scored 11,212.
![OnePlus Pad Geekbench scores](https://i.pcmag.com/imagery/reviews/05Yjcmgutm92W4JFW0ZG07A-20.jpg)
On the Geekbench test, which is designed to show the raw processing power, the Pad scored 810 on the single-core benchmark and 2,123 on the multi-core variant. Here, we see much higher scores than the TCL Tab 10 5G, which rang up at 448 and 1,688 on the two tests. However, compared to the latest iPad, the OnePlus Pad gets absolutely crushed, with Apple's tablet rating 1,573 and 4,097 on the single- and multi-core tests, respectively. That's about double the performance for less money.
Finally, we tested the GPU power of the OnePlus Pad using the GFXBench Aztec Ruins high-tier test. The results weren't bad, with the tablet averaging 27fps on the demanding graphical test. The iPad, again, was better, scoring 36fps on the same benchmark.
Thankfully, real-world performance isn't quite as poor as the benchmarks might lead you to believe, but it's not as good as we'd hoped either. Executing daily tasks is smooth enough, and most games run fine, though performance on Genshin Impact doesn't measure up at higher settings.
Long-Running Battery, Solid Wi-Fi
We tested the battery to ensure the 9,510mAh power cell was up to snuff. We streamed a YouTube video over Wi-Fi with the screen's brightness set to the maximum and let the slate drain. In this test, it lasted 7 hours and 55 minutes. This is quite a bit less than the 12-hour estimate offered by OnePlus, but still reasonable. Compared to the latest iPad, which lasted 5 hours and 59 minutes in the same test, the OnePlus Pad is doing well.
![OxygenOS 13.1 on the OnePlus Pad](https://i.pcmag.com/imagery/reviews/05Yjcmgutm92W4JFW0ZG07A-19.jpg)
Filling the device with juice doesn't take long. The tablet supports OnePlus' proprietary 67W SuperVOOC wired charging. It took just 1 hour and 34 minutes to go from empty to full, which is excellent considering how large the battery is. Better yet, the speedy adapter comes in the box so you don't need to purchase it separately.
For connectivity, the tablet supports Wi-Fi 6 but not Wi-Fi 6E. We tested it against a Lenovo Tab P11 Pro Gen 2 to see if it could achieve a fast connection on our 1.2Gbps internet service. When in the same room as the router, the OnePlus Pad netted 429Mbps down and 223Mbps up. This compares favorably against the Tab P11, which reached speeds of 484Mbps down and 227Mbps up. The results were close at the network's edge too, with the Pad getting 8.57Mbps down and 2.91Mbps up and the Tab P11 getting 7.91Mbps down and 2.81Mbps up.
These might not be the fastest Wi-Fi speeds ever recorded, but they demonstrate that the OnePlus Pad can put the Wi-Fi signal it receives to good use. Note that OnePlus will not sell a 4G/5G cellular variant of the Pad. If that's a core need for you, you'll have to look elsewhere.
Making a OnePlus Connection (Eventually)
Unfortunately, some of the most exciting aspects of the OnePlus Pad aren't ready yet: the connectivity and sharing features with OnePlus phones. OnePlus designed the Pad to work seamlessly with its phones in much the same way the iPad does with the iPhone. Bottom line, it's not ready. We mean that literally: We couldn't test it because the feature isn't available. These to-come features only work on OnePlus phones running OxygenOS 13.1, which hasn't been pushed to our OnePlus 11 5G as of this writing.
The features include Auto Connect, for example, which automatically shares the phone's 5G service with the tablet when they are close to one another. The idea is to negate the constant pairing and re-pairing and just allow the tablet to connect on its own unprompted. Another is the ability to copy text on one device and paste it on the other, and yet another is to view and respond to notifications on the tablet rather than the phone.
Perhaps the most useful one? One-time password auto-filling, which will fill the security codes sent to your phone automatically into the proper field on the tablet.
Capture the Moment: The OnePlus Pad Cameras
Tablets and cameras have always felt like odd combinations. Holding a giant device in front of our faces to snap a moment in time never feels natural, and that holds true here. However, if you need to take a photo or video in a pinch and don't mind the looks you might get, the OnePlus Pad has pretty solid cameras on the front and back.
![OnePlus Pad rear camera](https://i.pcmag.com/imagery/reviews/05Yjcmgutm92W4JFW0ZG07A-6.jpg)
The rear camera rates 13MP with support for video recording in resolutions like 720p, 1080p, and 4K at 30fps. It won't rival the recording capabilities of the latest high-end smartphones, nor an iPad, but it does the job. Images and videos captured with the OnePlus Pad look solid, but you'll get better results from your phone.
![OnePlus Pad photo sample](https://i.pcmag.com/imagery/reviews/05Yjcmgutm92W4JFW0ZG07A-21.jpg)
There are several shooting modes. Night mode, for example, is designed to assist in low-light settings. Results in this mode were actually better than we expected for a tablet. Other modes like panorama and time-lapse are on-board, too, but it's hard to believe OnePlus actually expects anyone to use them.
![OnePlus Pad sample image with selfie camera](https://i.pcmag.com/imagery/reviews/05Yjcmgutm92W4JFW0ZG07A-22.jpg)
You'll likely get more use out of the user-facing camera. Selfies captured with the 8MP front-facing shooter look fine, but the real purpose of this camera is for video conferencing, and for that, it's more than adequate. We tested video calls for several work meetings and no one could tell we weren't using our high-end desktop webcam, which is the best praise we can offer. A feature called Limelight keeps you centered in the frame as you move around during a video call. It works well enough if you don't move too quickly (or too far).
The selfie camera is also used for facial recognition, the only form of biometric access. Thankfully, it's snappy and worked perfectly in our testing.
Android 13+++
OnePlus is near the top of the heap for Android, both in terms of its upgrade policy and the quality of its Android skin. Starting with the former, the company offers three years of Android updates and four years of security patches, which is very good for a tablet. It doesn't quite match the policy for OnePlus' phones, which get four Android releases and five years of security updates, but it's still a better policy than you get with most other Android tablets.
![OxygenOS 13.1 Smart Sidebar](https://i.pcmag.com/imagery/reviews/05Yjcmgutm92W4JFW0ZG07A-23.jpg)
As far as the software itself is concerned, it's not just the company's standard OxygenOS Android skin slapped onto a bigger screen. OnePlus made several tweaks to improve the experience of using Android on a tablet. For example, you can drag from the edges to resize apps that don't support fullscreen in landscape mode. Moreover, a smart sidebar tool lets you access apps, quick actions like taking screenshots and recording the screen, and more. (This mimics iPadOS's Control Center, to a degree.)
![OxygenOS 13.1 split screen multitasking](https://i.pcmag.com/imagery/reviews/05Yjcmgutm92W4JFW0ZG07A-24.jpg)
When multitasking, you can quickly split the screen in several ways, such as swiping down from the top of the display with two fingers, launching two apps from the recent tasks screen, and even pulling apps in from the smart sidebar. You can use flexible windows to display supported apps in a floating window, or pair them up side by side. There's even the option to run the same app in two separate windows, but only the OnePlus Community, Membership, and Store apps support this.
![Oxygen OS 13.1 menu screen and settings](https://i.pcmag.com/imagery/reviews/05Yjcmgutm92W4JFW0ZG07A-25.jpg)
A floating app dock on the bottom of the screen looks similar to the one you'll find on iPadOS. This is a helpful tool for storing your most-used apps for quick access.
Overall, OxygenOS is great on the OnePlus Pad, even though the inconsistent performance issues we discussed above are apparent here and there. If things were just a little faster, we'd declare our love for this tablet, but we're friend-zoning it for now.
Stellar Accessories
OnePlus knocked it out of the park with the accessories for the Pad. You can get both the A$249 OnePlus Magnetic Keyboard and the A$159 OnePlus Stylo stylus to round out the tablet experience.
The keyboard features a large touchpad with support for several gestures that give it a more laptop-like experience. The keys themselves feel nice and smooth, though the top-most row is close to the screen and I sometimes accidentally brushed my fingers against the screen when typing. This could be partly because I have long fingers, but it's something to consider. It's a solid value, especially when compared to Apple's A$399 Magic Keyboard Folio for the iPad.
![OnePlus Pad keyboard case closeup](https://i.pcmag.com/imagery/reviews/05Yjcmgutm92W4JFW0ZG07A-16.jpg)
The Stylo isn't quite as advanced as the Apple Pencil, but it interacts well with the OnePlus Pad. It features a 2ms delay, which is hardly noticeable, and 4,096 levels of pressure. It also works hand-in-hand with several apps on board the tablet. At $159, it's the same price as the first-generation Apple Pencil.
We Wish It Were Faster
We like the OnePlus Pad, especially considering it's the company's first attempt at making a slate. It's a gorgeous slab of metal and glass, and it includes a lovely display and appealing four-speaker sound. The battery life and connectivity are solid, and the software and accessories together make it a compelling Android workstation.
The performance, however, lags behind the iPad in a big way. Further, the iPad has a far better app selection (particularly for work). And then there's the price. The iPad is $50 cheaper, and often on sale for less. Those shopping for an affordable do-it-all tablet should stick to the Editors' Choice-winning iPad, but OnePlus 11 5G smartphone owners who want a tablet that works specifically with their phone might find that the OnePlus Pad is the one.