Barring iPads, tablets are not exciting to me anymore. Apart from reading a bit of manga and binge-watching new TV shows when traveling, I barely put my personal Xiaomi Pad 5 to good use. Besides, being at the heart of the tech industry, we get a tad too many low-specced tablets with rarely any of them turning out to be worth revisiting. However, the recently launched OnePlus Pad 2 brought me some rather fresh perspective, doubling down as more than a mere tablet for me. At this point, I’ve spent around two weeks with it, and I think I can confidently say that OnePlus Pad 2 is my favorite tablet to date!
Quick Look at OnePlus Pad 2 Specs!
Before that, let me take you through the technical specifications of the tablet. For starters, there’s a big 12.1-inch 144Hz 3K LCD panel backed by Dolby Vision. The panel offers brightness levels of 600 nits (900 nits HBM). There’s also a six-speaker setup on the tablet, tuned by Dolby Atmos.
Under the hood, there’s the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 powering the tablet. Paired with the processor is up to 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage. I have with me the top variant, but an 8GB+128GB variant is available as well. For optics, there’s a 13MP primary rear camera and an 8MP selfie camera.
In terms of software, there’s Android 14-based OxygenOS 14.1. Additionally, there’s a 9510mAh battery with 67W fast charging support. With that out of the way, let’s get to the main thing – how is the tablet exactly?
A Multimedia Feast for the Senses
This is a stunning display, to say the least. Despite being an LCD panel, the colors are pretty vivid. It’s also backed by Dolby Vision, which is great. But, it was when I decided to turn up the decibels that I was blown away. I never had to equip my earbuds. The six stereo speakers on this tablet are very loud, and the audio quality tuned by Dolby Atmos is top-notch.
I had developed a bad habit of turning to my PC every time I wanted to watch something. With the OnePlus Pad 2 at my side, I found myself at ease, slouching in bed and watching all of my favorite shows, with the quality somehow surprising even me from time to time. It probably has something to do with the excellent display and speaker setup.
Solid Performance Meets Reliable Software
What makes this tablet all the more exciting is the absence of any lags whatsoever. Right from the tablet booting up to using it on the daily, the entire experience was very stutter-free. That’s something I couldn’t say about the OnePlus Pad Go (review) or my personal Xiaomi Pad 5 after a year, although they were decent offerings for the price.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is extremely powerful, no doubt. But, the software certainly has a big hand in the overall seamlessness. Android skins on tablets are just exaggerated versions of their mobile counterparts. And the OxygenOS version here is nothing special; even if it has some tricks up its sleeve. But the animations, overall smoothness, and bug-free experience left me very satisfied throughout. This is just one smooth and chonky screen.
Most importantly, if you’re a OnePlus user like me, Multi-Screen Connect is such a handy ecosystem feature. I could mirror my OnePlus 11R to the tablet and sync my notifications and clipboard with it, while my phone was on charge and that just made daily usage more satisfying. Besides, you can also connect your Windows PC to the OnePlus tablet to further boost productivity.
Gaming is such a treat as well, allowing me to finally transition from being a three-finger gamer to a five-finger one on CoD Mobile (my hands hurt, though). I also threw some Asphalt Legends into the mix, and goddamn it’s fun on a large screen.
Can Double Down as a Laptop
Since the tablet is right about the perfect size to double down as a laptop, I replaced my usual 15.6-inch work laptop with this for about four days I’d say, and it worked out pretty well. Alongside the unit, I had the Smart Keyboard and Stylo 2 stylus too, so I equipped them as well to complete the setup.
From having over a dozen tabs open on Chrome to using Canva for image editing, the OnePlus Pad 2 handled it all too well. Moreover, my typing experience is solid on the keyboard accessory, which my big hands didn’t take much time to get used to. Even standard keyboard shortcuts like Alt + Tab and Windows + W worked like a charm, allowing me to multitask without having to touch the display (I did reach out a couple of times as touch laptops are fun).
The front camera is also good enough to attend those meetings with my Editor. While I didn’t have much use for the stylus apart from scribbling when bored, if you’re a student, it should come in very handy. The stylus is responsive and allows the tablet to become a creative beast if you know the right apps to install.
I could also squeeze out 5 hours of continuous usage like this out of the laptop tablet, which is quite impressive. The 67W fast charging support tops the battery in around 1.5 hours.
As All-Rounder As It Can Get
My main quandary with tablets has always been the fact that somewhere or the other, they miss the mark, big time. If you get a good enough display, you miss out on the performance. If you get them both, the battery life is lackluster. If the battery life is good enough, the charging is super slow. And if you’re getting it all, then it has to be priced way out of reach.
But, the OnePlus Pad 2 does it all for a starting price of Rs 39,999. While it may seem expensive, especially for an Android tablet, the tablet delivers, for sure, for all that you can get out of it. Though an iPad is great for Apple users to complete the ecosystem and lock themselves in for the long haul, it doesn’t make much sense for Android users.
All things considered, OnePlus has easily made the most complete Android tablet I’ve used in a long while.
In that case, an Android tablet like the Pad 2 is not just cheaper by quite a bit, but also slightly more powerful than Apple M1-powered iPads in the segment, like the iPad Air 5th Gen. You can also get the Samsung Galaxy S9 around the same price during sale, which comes with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and a stunning 2K AMOLED display. But, off-sale, it costs Rs 70,000. And the tablet rarely stays in stock in the first place.
All things considered, OnePlus has easily made the most complete Android tablet I’ve used in a long while, and I sure am going to stick to it for now.
