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First impressions 

The OnePlus Pad looks premium at first glance. I grip the sleek-looking tablet to find that, despite its size, it’s not very hefty. It weighs just over 550 grams, and is fairly thin at 0.65 cm. There are only three physical buttons — the power button and the volume rocker — around a smooth corner from each other. Apart from the charging port and the pogo pin to snap onto the magnetic keyboard, there’s a small strip indicating where the OnePlus Stylo needs to rest to charge. 

The brushed metal finish on the rear panel lends a fairly polished appearance. The tablet is available in just one colour, which OnePlus calls ‘Halo Green’. The glass screen is super smooth to scroll on, with the tactile feel of swiping on tech butter. 

Multimedia

The 11.6-inch LCD display offers ample real estate for endless media consumption. The tablet has a fairly unique 7:5 aspect ratio, which turns out to be quite pleasing as it optimises games, apps and website quite well, in both portrait and landscape. The display also packs 2800 x 2000 resolution and a refresh rate of 144Hz. Brightness both indoors and outdoors wasn’t an issue, with the unit offering upto 500 nits. 

Overall, the viewing experience on the OnePlus Pad was quite immersive. Scrolling felt borderline joyful, gaming felt seamless, and binge-watching engaging on the tab. 

Unlike a lot of other tablets, the OnePlus Pad comes with thoughtfully placed speaker grilles — two each on the shorter sides of the tablet. While catching up on Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, the two speaker grilles get covered by my palms and I watch in landscape mode. The other two are powerful enough to not make me reach for my earphones. In portrait mode as well, with the tablet propped on my lap, two speaker grilles get a bit muffled but the overall experience isn’t marred. With Dolby Vision HDR, videos on the tablet are rich and vivid, leaving me wanting nothing more in terms of the media consumption experience.  

Camera

Fairly prominent, the rear camera module is bang in the top centre of the tab. The 13-megapixel camera is nothing to write home about, although it can support 4K recording up to 30fps. The front camera suffices for work meetings but, again, the quality is exactly what you’d expect of an 8-megapixel cam on a tablet, where photography clearly isn’t the focus. 

Accessories

I used the tablet along with the magnetic keyboard and the OnePlus Stylo that were shipped with the review unit. But these accessories must be bought separately, which aren’t exactly wallet-friendly. The stylo is priced Rs 4,999 and the keyboard Rs 7,999. Although I like the chiclet keys layout, the overall keyboard usage feels cramped, almost making me wish I had smaller hands. 

One would think that the keyboard would really support the experience of working on a compact, travel-friendly device. However, that wasn’t always the case. The snap-on keyboard lent solidity and stability to the tablet only when placed on a desk. In transit, when I was typing out my work, with the device propped on my lap, the whole unit wobbled back and forth with each keystroke, which was quite disorienting.  

Tech specs

The OnePlus Pad comes with the Dimensity 9000 chipset, which sports a Cortex-X2 core. With games like Real Racing 3 and Another Shadow, there were no stutters or lags; nor were there any heating issues with the tablet. 

The system runs on Android 13, with Oxygen OS 13 as the user interface. There are enough features optimised to tablet usage such as floating windows, re-sizeable windows, and split screen.

The tablet packs a sizeable 9,510mAh battery, which does its job tremendously well. On days that I watched a lot of shows and gamed on the tablet, it still stayed on the entire day and more. On the days my usage was more moderate — occasional gaming, checking mails, drafting articles — the charge barely dropped by 10 per cent for each hour of usage. On standby, I didn’t have to plug it in even when a whole week had passed. OnePlus ships a 67 W VOOC charger with the unit.  

Verdict 

OnePlus says its first tablet is aimed at “work, study and play”. I’d definitely say it’s better suited for play and even study, than it is for work — especially if your work demands you use a keyboard. However, as a first-ever product in this segment, the OnePlus Pad does manage to come across as a fairly premium tablet with a great display that will keep you lost in binge-watching wonderland, and an amazing battery life that ensures you’re not going to be getting off that sofa anytime soon. 

Price  

₹37,999 (8GB + 128GB)

₹39,999 (12GB + 256GB)

Pros — Elegant build, vivid display, long battery life 

Cons — No microSD card slot, expensive with accessories

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Published on May 10, 2023