OnePlus' First Tablet Is Sleek, Green and Coming in April
It's called the OnePlus Pad, and we've been hands on.
- Shortlisted for British Photography Awards 2022, Commended in Landscape Photographer of the Year 2022
Better known for its all-round decent Android phones like the OnePlus 11, OnePlus has been showing off its first tablet. Called the OnePlus Pad, this Android 13-based device packs an 11.6-inch display into a slender, green metal body and comes with handy extras like fast charging and a beefy battery. It goes up for preorder in the UK and US in April, although OnePlus has yet to say how much you'll have to splash in order to get one.
I liked the feel of it when I got my hands on it during MWC in Barcelona. It's got an all-metal design, which feels sturdy to hold, and I'm quite fond of the green color that's also common on the OnePlus 11 and OnePlus Buds Pro 2. It felt particularly skinny in my hands, but at 6.54mm thick it's actually marginally thicker than the iPad Pro. I'm splitting hairs at this point, though; it's certainly slender enough to slide into a backpack, and it felt comfortable to hold and swipe around the Android interface.
The 11.6-inch display has an unusual 7:5 aspect ratio, which is aimed more towards reading books, looking at documents and web browsing than it is for pure media consumption. That's great if you want it more as a business and productivity device, less so if you want it to plow through your favorite Netflix boxsets -- those 16:9 aspect videos will have some pretty hefty black bars above and below. Still, the screen is sharp, has a 144Hz refresh rate and supports Dolby Vision HDR for vibrant colors.
Like most of the OnePlus phone range, the Pad supports 66W fast charging, with a full charge of the battery from empty apparently taking a little over an hour. At 9,510mAh, the battery itself is pretty capacious, and OnePlus reckons it'll allow for up to 14 hours of video playback and up to a month on standby. I didn't get any sense of battery life in my very limited hands-on time, so I'll reserve judgment on its skills here for when I get a model in for some proper testing.
The tablet comes either by itself or with a keyboard case and a stylus (called the OnePlus Stylo, because why not). Both do look somewhat reminiscent of Apple's iPad accessories, but I suppose there's not a load of room for aesthetic experimentation when it comes to a stylus. If you're wanting a tablet as a work device for emails and more, then the keyboard at least should be an essential.
It's powered by a Dimensity 9000 processor, backed up by at least 8GB of RAM (up to 16GB in some markets) and features a camera on the back, plus an 8-megapixel front camera for video calls. OnePlus also boasted of the Pad's powerful speakers, but these were difficult to test at the quite raucous hands-on event. Stay tuned for when we get one for review.