Review: OnePlus Pad

Let's be honest, Android tablets have long been a failure. It's why the words tablet and iPad are almost synonymous these days. Every year, Apple made tweaks to its mobile operating system to optimize it for its tablets—going so far as to eventually separate it out as a standalone OS called iPadOS—while Google only periodically offered its attention to the Android tablet space.

I bought the Nexus 7, one of Google's first tablets (made by Asus), back in 2013, and I used it to death. It was compact and easy to use, and I never felt a similar level of attachment with another Android tablet since—until now, with the new OnePlus Pad. OnePlus' first tablet is a slick machine with powerful hardware and the right software that encourages you to use it for more than just entertainment. With this slate, Android tablets are starting to finally feel like a viable alternative to the iPad and a computer you can reliably use for work and play.

Some of the success of the OnePlus Pad has to do with the operating system itself. It runs Android 13, which, as promised by Google last year, has several tablet-friendly optimizations that make interacting and multitasking with a larger screen a little easier. That includes more first-party apps designed to make use of the larger screen real estate.

That's not to say OnePlus hasn't added any of its own perks. I'm writing this review, for instance, on the Pad with split-screen mode turned on. I have one Chrome tab on the left of the screen, and another on the right with reference material. You can induce this split-screen mode pretty easily in any app with just a two-finger swipe down on the screen.

Apps can also float, not unlike Slide View on an iPad. There's a little tray of (customizable) apps you can pull out from the right side of the screen. Tap on one, and the app will open as a floating window you can partially resize. When I'm in split-screen mode, I open up Slack or Gmail in floating view as a third app to quickly check a notification without having to completely leave the apps I'm working in. Multitasking feels pretty darn fluid on this machine, and this is important. Before, working for long stretches on an Android tablet was a pain in the rear. Now, I actually don't mind spending a workday on the OnePlus Pad.

It helps that both cameras are positioned in the center too. Neither the 8-MP selfie camera nor the 13-MP rear camera are anything to write home about (video quality is adequate), but the former is in a good spot for video meetings and the camera can follow your face if you're shifting around in your seat, like Center Stage on the iPad. This works in Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams. I took a meeting on the Pad with Microsoft Teams and the camera stayed close to my face, and I used the floating window mode for Google Docs to take notes at the same time. It was effortless.

Much of this laptop-like functionality is thanks to the Magnetic Keyboard ($149). It's a folio keyboard that connects to the OnePlus Pad via pogo pins at the bottom, so you never have to recharge it and don't need to bother connecting it via Bluetooth. It doesn't have a lot of viewing angles, but it offers nice key travel and I like typing on it (far more than Apple's Smart Keyboard). It also includes a handy trackpad so you don't need to keep reaching for the screen. The cursor is pretty much akin to the mouse on a Windows laptop, though I can't deny that I miss the adaptability of the iPad's cursor.

The interface still has some quirks. For example, there's a dock on the home screen you can load up with apps. However, you can only access this dock from the home screen. It'd be nice if you could pull it up when you're in an app, to launch another app. And unlike Safari on iPadOS, which now defaults to the desktop version of a website instead of mobile websites, Chrome still relies on mobile webpages. That's not necessarily bad—it depends on the website—but I've found myself manually forcing the desktop site a few times. This also might seem like a nitpick, but when you open a new tab in Chrome, it doesn't automatically place the text cursor in the URL/search field, so I have to manually tap the field. It's a little annoying!

Another problem is the lack of apps that support floating window mode. This mode is great for checking messaging app notifications and responding to them without having to leave the app you're currently using, but Telegram, for example, doesn't support it and only works in portrait view (like Instagram).

As is the case with most OnePlus devices, the hardware doesn't have too many compromises. The 2,800 x 2,000 pixel resolution on the 11.61-inch LCD display is sharp, the colors are vivid, and it got bright enough to use outside a coffee shop on a recent sunny day. The screen supports up to a 144-Hz screen refresh rate, so interacting with the operating system always feels quite fluid, whether I'm bouncing through Reddit before bed or catching up on reruns of House. Speaking of, the speakers can get fairly loud, and they sound rich. I've been quite happy with them.

Performance hasn't given me any trouble. It's powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 9000 processor with 8 GB of RAM. You might see a hiccup here and there, but most of my time with the slate has been smooth sailing, even when I'm juggling three apps simultaneously.

The same rings true with battery life. There's a 9,510-mAh cell in the OnePlus Pad, and the standby time is impressive. I've left it on for a day or two and it barely loses any juice. Once you start using it heavily, it doesn't drastically drop either. I don't think you can get a full workday on it, especially if you factor in Zoom meetings, but you can get close to six or seven hours. OnePlus includes a 67-watt charger and, while it won't recharge the tablet as fast as its phones, it takes roughly an hour and a half to get back to full in my testing.

It wouldn't be an iPad Air rival without a matching stylus. The Stylo ($99) looks very similar to the second-gen Apple Pencil, and it stays connected, charged, and attached to the tablet via magnets on the top edge. It has a 2-millisecond delay, 60-degree tilt, and 4,096 levels of pressure. I was able to eke out some sketches with it (they're not good) and it felt responsive. I liked using it.

There's sadly no cellular connectivity. However, there's a feature called Cellular Data Sharing that can access the 5G signal from your smartphone when it's 1 to 5 meters away. It's purportedly more reliable and efficient than a hotspot, but I haven't been able to test it, as it's not available yet. It'll arrive in an over-the-air software update in June. The catch? It only works with OnePlus phones—one way for the company to try and lure you into its own ecosystem.

The one thing I found missing was the lack of any biometric authentication. I'm not sure why OnePlus couldn't bake a capacitive sensor into the power button like on the iPad Air. There's a snappy face unlock, but it's not super secure, so you can't use it to authenticate yourself to access banking apps. It's purely for unlocking the tablet. There's also no headphone jack, but that's par for the course these days.

The good news is that OnePlus is promising three Android OS upgrades and four years of security updates for the OnePlus Pad. It doesn't quite match Samsung or Apple's level of software support, but it's better than what you'll find on any other tablet. Speaking of, I have tried a variety of Samsung tablets, from $200 all the way to the Galaxy Tab S8, and the OnePlus beats it out on value. Yes, the Tab S8 is now on Android 13, but it still starts at $700 for the tablet alone.

I think this is going to be an exciting year for Android tablets as newer Android 13-powered devices crop up, like the Pixel Tablet. Are any of them going to dethrone Apple's iPads? Probably not. But if you have most of your eggs in Android land and don't want to enter Apple's ecosystem, then you're finally getting some really great alternatives. OnePlus' first venture seems like a right-place-at-the-right-time kind of product, much like the Nexus 7.