Introduction
A year and a half later, the OnePlus Pad receives a genuine sequel: the OnePlus Pad 2 features a larger and brighter screen, a top-tier CPU, louder speakers, and upgraded accessories. We loved the OnePlus Pad since it was a simple tablet that covered all basics nicely without any specialized or gimmicky features. Naturally, it was also reasonably priced. The OnePlus Pad 2 raises the bar, so let’s explore what’s new here.
The latest edition features an aluminum unibody and an even bigger 12.1-inch IPS LCD screen with a resolution of 2,120 x 3,000 pixels, 10-bit color depth, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision streaming, and up to 900nits of peak brightness. It also supports the new Stylo 2 stylus, which is optional. The OnePlus Pad 2’s standout feature is the newest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 CPU, which should flourish with such a huge screen and cooling (the metal unibody).
The OnePlus Pad 2 boasts the same basic cameras as its predecessor: a 13MP rear camera with 4K video recording and an 8MP front-facing camera with 1080p video. The OnePlus Pad 2 has six speakers, up from four on the original OP Pad. The connectivity has been improved to Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, however there is neither GPS or optional cellular connectivity – this is a Wi-Fi only tablet.
If you already have a OnePlus phone, OnePlus has included some useful continuity features. Finally, the OnePlus Pad 2 has a 9,510mAh battery capable of 67W fast charging, which is the same as the Pad 1.
OnePlus Pad 2 specs at a glance:
Body dimensions: 268.7×195.1×6.5mm, weight 584g; glass front, metal back, and frame; stylus support.
Display: 12.10″ IPS LCD with 1 billion colors, Dolby Vision, HDR10+, 144Hz, 600 nits (typ), 900 nits (peak), 2120x3000px resolution, 12.74:9 aspect ratio, and 304ppi.
Chipset: Qualcomm SM8650-AB Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (4 nm): Octa-core (1×3.3 GHz Cortex-X4, 3×3.2 GHz Cortex-A720, 2×3.0 GHz Cortex-A720, and 2×2.3 GHz Cortex-A520); Adreno 750.
Memory: 128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 12GB RAM, and UFS 3.1.
The operating system and software are Android 14 and OxygenOS 14.1.
Rear camera: 13 megapixels, f/2.2 aperture, 23mm (wide).
Front camera: 8 MP, f/2.3 (wide), 1/4.0″ (1.12µm).
Video capture: rear camera: 4K@30fps, front camera: 1080p@30fps, gyro-EIS.
Battery: 9510mAh; 67W wired, 64% in 30 minutes, 100% in 81 minutes (as claimed).
Connectivity includes Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, aptX HD, and LHDC.
Miscellaneous: Accelerometer, gyro, proximity (accessories only), compass, and stereo speakers (6 speakers total).
For a €499 tablet,
we believe the OnePlus Pad 2 has it all – its specs are balanced, with strong capabilities, and you will even receive a free charger and pen if you buy it directly from OnePlus. The only item we see as a possible deal-breaker is the lack of a fingerprint reader.
Unboxing the OnePlus Pad 2
The OnePlus Pad 2 comes in a pretty tiny paper packaging that includes the tablet and one of those characteristic red USB-A-C connections. There is no included charger, however OnePlus will provide one for free if you purchase it from the official website. That, together with a pen or a Folio Case, are wonderful presents.
Design, build quality, handling
The OnePlus Pad 2 is a visually appealing tablet, with a flat front glass and an aluminum shell. The metal rear panel effortlessly morphs into a frame, resulting in a subtle yet noticeable curve over the whole slate. That’s a welcome contrast from the iPads and Galaxy Tabs, which have chiseled flat corners. While the Chinese version of the Pad 2 (named the Pad Pro) comes in gray and green, the international OnePlus Pad 2 is only available in Nimbus Gray, a fancy moniker for the standard dark gray color.
There is no official statement on the sort of glass utilized above the screen. There is no official ingress protection rating, either. None of these are extremely crucial for a tablet, especially a mid-range model. Naturally, the new 12.1-inch IPS LCD screen takes up the entire front, with a high quality, fast refresh rate, and compatibility for all latest streaming protocols. It has uniformly thin bezels, no cutouts, and certainly appears good at first sight.
It also allows stylus input. The rear features a spherical camera housing that protrudes from the back, which looks completely superfluous for a basic 13MP camera with an LED flash. Maybe the tablet was too narrow to fit the camera lens. The OnePlus Pad 2 has six speakers on its shorter sides, concealed under four outlets. Each sound outlet features two long, narrow holes with grilles.
In addition to the normal full-range speakers,
the bottom two speakers have woofers, which should deliver more thud and better immersion while watching multimedia without headphones. The top side is largely flat and includes a magnetic charger, where you will ultimately lay the OnePlus Stylo 2 pen for storage and charging. The pogo pins for the optional Smart Keyboard, which includes a touchpad, are on the other side.
Even though it connects via pogo pins (perhaps for charging), it is mostly utilized via Bluetooth and has a range of 10 meters. The keyboard features a 205mAh battery and weighs 504g. Attaching it to the tablet makes the entire item too hefty for your lap, therefore we recommend using a desk. The Smart Keyboard lets you change the angle of the display. When you close the tablet and keyboard, the flap between them seems a little loose.
You may disconnect the keyboard and use the rear cover as a stand. This allows you to doodle with the pen, text wirelessly with the keyboard, or simply watch movies without fuss. The Stylus also features an inbuilt battery. It offers 16,000 pressure levels, has minimal latency, and vibrates for a better experience. It may be used for drawing and writing, as well as for a variety of motions throughout the user interface and your programs.
The OnePlus Pad 2’s sandblasted finish provides a gripping surface, and fingerprints and smudges are not apparent. It is just 6.5mm thin, and its 584g weight is equally distributed across its body, so it seems light for its size. Don’t get us wrong: this doesn’t imply it’s a lightweight gadget. There is no fingerprint sensor on the tablet, so your security options are on-screen (PIN, password, pattern) or the less secure face recognition.
The OnePlus Pad 2 is a well-built tablet, and we have no issues with its design or manufacturing quality. It also has some excellent usability scores.
Display
The OnePlus Pad 2 has a 12.1-inch IPS LCD screen with a resolution of 2,120 x 3,000 pixels, or 304 ppi. It supports up to 144Hz refresh rate and the most common streaming formats, including HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. According to the official OnePlus specifications, the screen can provide up to 500 nits of average maximum brightness and 900 nits of peak brightness.
Our display measurements corroborate these figures: we measured 570 nits of maximum manual brightness and 793 nits of maximum automatic brightness. The brightness increases as the size of the white patch decreases, and it may easily reach 900 nits. It’s an LCD screen, which means it can go entirely black, so the contrast isn’t limitless, and the contrast ratio is really rather low at 864:1. The minimum brightness at point white was only 2.1 nits.
Refresh rate
The OnePlus Pad 2’s display supports seven fixed refresh rates: 30Hz, 48Hz, 50Hz, 60Hz, 90Hz, 120Hz, and 144Hz. There are three system modes to choose from: Auto Select, Standard, and High. There is also a White List where you may manually increase or limit the refresh rate per app. When using Auto, the system utilizes 50Hz for idle, 48Hz or 60Hz for video, 90Hz for system apps, and 60Hz for the majority of third-party programs.
High mode increases the maximum refresh rate for third-party apps to 90Hz or 120Hz. No app will utilize 144Hz unless it is forced through the whitelist. Standard naturally restricts the maximum refresh rate to 60Hz, but it may also lower to 50Hz and 48Hz when necessary. We never witnessed the screen dip to 30Hz, though.
HDR and streaming
The display supports HDR10+ and Dolby Vision streaming, as validated by all hardware scanning applications. YouTube provides HDR streaming. However, Netflix does not yet identify the tablet as HDR capable, and only supports 1080p SD streaming.
Battery life
The OnePlus Pad 2 is powered by a massive 9,510mAh battery, which is the same amount as the one found within the OnePlus Pad. The new tablet achieved a respectable Active Use Score of 10:51h. It lasted more than 33 hours for internet voice conversations, over 11 hours for online browsing, 10 and a half hours for video streaming, and 6 and a half hours for gaming.
Charging speed
The OnePlus Pad 2 supports 67W fast charging, although it comes without a charger. OnePlus is now offering one for free if you purchase it through its website, or you may use any VOOC charger from OnePlus or Oppo. We didn’t have a 67W VOOC charger in our office, but we did have a 100W charger that we utilized for the charging test. Any compatible SuperVOOC charger rated at 67W or above will recharge 36% of the dead battery in 15 minutes and 65% in 30 minutes. A full charge took 56 minutes, which is excellent considering the size of the tablet and battery.
Speakers
The OnePlus Pad 2 includes six stereo speakers: four full-range speakers and two woofers. Those are really loud while listening to music or watching movies, which is wonderful. These six speakers received an Excellent rating for volume on our test, as expected. However, the audio quality is not particularly great. There is a definite pounding, which is fantastic, and the high-frequency range is effectively conveyed, but the voices are muffled and lack clarity.
Android 14 with OxygenOS 14.1
The OnePlus Pad runs OxygenOS 14.1 on top of Android 14. It’s a slightly modified version of OxygenOS designed specifically for tablets. Starting with the launcher, you may choose to have all icons on the homescreen, like on the iPad, or use an app drawer. Regardless, the icons are well spread out, and there is enough of cushioning on the edges. This significantly limits the number of things you can display on the homescreen, particularly widgets.
You can have one huge widget, and then there is no room for any smaller ones on the side. To get the notifications, slide down from the homescreen. All of the toggles on the left regulate brightness and audio playback. Notifications display on the right side. OnePlus has incorporated several essential tools to facilitate multitasking. A simple two-finger swipe down will bring up the split screen mode.
This capability is still limited to apps that support split-screen, however the majority of the apps we tested did. Split screen supports up to three apps, however only two may be utilized simultaneously. Another important feature is floating windows, which allow you to open some programs in a small floating window on the side that can be reduced. Unfortunately, you can only run one such app at a time, and it isn’t compatible with all apps.
OnePlus features only a few exclusive apps,
including Community, Photos, and OnePlus Store. Of course, there are settings and cameras to consider. Everything else is set to Google’s default. The extra OnePlus Smart Keyboard is really handy and comfy. It features a beautiful, big touchpad with excellent tactile feedback. The keys have enough travel to make it seem like a full-sized keyboard, and there are lots of helpful shortcut keys.
The only thing it lacks is illumination. The touchpad movements are generally similar to those on the screen: swipe with two fingers to scroll, and swipe three times from various directions to close/open the task switcher/pull down alerts. Split screen works as well. The mouse cursor works okay, however clicking on buttons or other clickable items is hit-and-miss (50/50 likelihood of acceptance).
Switching between languages is unusual; the Ctrl+Space shortcut cannot be used while you are already in an active text field. This is especially inconvenient if you are a multilingual writer. The majority of these faults are most likely inherent in Android and are not necessarily OnePlus’ fault. However, they greatly reduce the platform’s utility as a work computer or laptop replacement unless you go out of your way to work around the flaws.
The Stylo 2 pen is quite comfortable, and writing with it is a breeze. It offers rapid notes, notes with the screen turned off, and even presentation mode with laser pointer and draw-on-screen features. Scribble is also supported. The Stylo 2 features a capacitive surface (the thin flat line) that allows you to swipe or tap. Taps and swipes have varied purposes depending on the task at hand. If we had to pick between a keyboard and a pen, we would select the stylus due to its superior experience and painting/writing capabilities.
Performance and benchmarks
The OnePlus Pad 2 is powered by Qualcomm’s most current Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, which is a significant advance over the Dimensity 9000 in the first Pad. This implies you’ll receive an octa-core CPU with 1 3.3 GHz Cortex-X4, 3 3.2 GHz Cortex-A720, 2 3.0 GHz Cortex-A720, and 2 2.3 GHz Cortex-A520 cores. The Adreno 750 GPU is also on board. The OnePlus Pad 2 is available globally with 256GB UFS 3.1 storage and 12GB LPDDR5X RAM.
There is also a 128/8GB variant available in various areas. The tablet, like previous OnePlus and Oppo smartphones, includes a Performance option under the battery settings that allows for greater CPU temperatures and higher benchmark scores (by roughly 10%-20%). It makes no difference to the GPU’s performance. This is how we performed the benchmarking. Following our readers’ complaints that the previous benchmark scores were too low, we obtained another review device.
This time we received considerably better results, reflecting the tablet’s flagship chip. The GPU stability score has also improved significantly. As you can see, the findings speak for themselves. In our tests, the OnePlus Pad 2 topped the charts in all benchmarks. The CPU and GPU testing yielded fantastic results, with roughly 90% stability! The tablet never got too hot, only slightly warm in one location. Overall, the OnePlus Pad 2 has the most up-to-date hardware. It also supports high-refresh-rate gaming; simply whitelist each game app.
Camera
The OnePlus Pad 2 features a 13MP rear camera with autofocus and an 8MP front camera with fixed focus. The rear one can capture 4K video, while the front one can record 1080p films and make 1080p video calls. Optional electronic stabilization is offered on both sides for the 1080p@30fps option. The camera app is really easy. Night Mode is available on the back camera, including Tripod Night Mode.
The photographs from the back camera are acceptable – there is little noise, a broad dynamic range, and appealing and vibrant colors, but the resolved detail is subpar at best. The images from the front camera are good – the detail appears to be sufficient, the colors are somewhat over-saturated but not excessively so, and the subject is usually nicely illuminated, while the dynamic range stays sufficiently broad.
Selfies
The 4K video from the back camera includes stereo sound and features vibrant colors, low noise, and strong contrast. The detail is once again unimpressive, and the dynamic range is typical. The 1080p footage from the front camera is quite soft and has a poor dynamic range. Indoors, it appears rather desaturated. It will suffice for video calls, but it will not provide exceptional video quality.
Our verdict
The OnePlus Pad 2 is a great mid-range tablet, with flagship-level performance, speakers, and battery life. We were quite delighted with the overall design and user experience. Optional accessories are also a lovely touch. We believe it is one of the greatest tablets you can buy for €500, especially if you bundle it with a slew of goodies from the OnePlus website. It is hardly an ideal tablet, of course. It does not have strong cameras, no biometric security, no cellular version, and no desktop features like DeX or Ready For.
Furthermore, the Smart Keyboard requires additional software enhancements. But for a heavy-duty multimedia machine with a pen, it is ideal. That is why we recommend that you consider it. Before making a decision, consider the Xiaomi Pad 6S Pro, which is a similarly priced tablet with a better screen, cameras, and larger battery, but with an earlier generation CPU.
