OnePlus Pad Go – Review

Well, I have unboxed the OnePlus Pad Go here and I have now been using it for a couple of weeks it is now time to share my further thoughts on this tablet with you. Before we get into that though i want to address something.

In the current mobile tech environment where we have got standard smartphones with displays of bigger than 6 1/2 inches screen size and we also now have the newer book-style folding devices like the Honor Magic V2  and Pixel Fold, do we still need tablets and if so what is there purpose? So this is something I have been wrestling with for quite some time whilst I have been using the Pad Go

I have been fortunate enough to use some of the latest and greatest phones from a variety of manufacturers including the Honor, Google, Samsung and indeed OnePlus. I have used their normal candy bar-style devices and their book-style folding devices. I have been very happy with those devices and in the case of the folding style devices they have become a dual purpose device for me as they can act as phones and tablets simply by unfolding the device. For me, I thought that ticked the boxes for what I would need from a tablet. However just before this review period started I sold my Pixel Fold and I changed to a Pixel 8 Pro. This in turn meant that I did not have that dual functionality device anymore. My timing couldn’t have been better because the Pad Go arrived the day after I made the switch. This meant that for a significant cost saving, I now had a phone and a tablet albeit as two separate devices. Now the true test would be whether will I use them in the same sort of way I used my Pixel Fold.

Typically when I was out and about I would use the Pixel Fold in closed mode and I would limit myself to relatively basic phone functions, quickly skimming emails, on-the-go gaming and some very light media content in the form of either YouTube tube or music playback. When I needed to get more stuff done this is when I would typically unfold the device, for example, if I needed to respond to an email with more than a few lines, if I was editing an image I had taken, reading a PDF or watching a video of more than 10 minutes in length. All of these things I had identified as “tablet mode” tasks. These tasks were simpler on a larger screen and being able to have two apps open at the same time was advantageous. An example is when I was renewing my car insurance as I could be on a live chat at the same time as searching for price comparisons in a web browser.

So now that we have had some background on my uses for a tablet let’s see if the Pad Go can tick the boxes and see if it will work as part of a two-device mobile setup for me. Firstly let’s recap the hardware tour from the unboxing.

 

Design

As always with a device tour we will start on the top edge of the device and to avoid confusion I am going to be orienting the tablet in landscape mode as that is what is suggested as its normal use mode by the camera positioning.

This is where we can find the volume up and down buttons on the far left edge the next noticeable thing is the pinhole microphone that will be brought into function when the front camera is being used. on either end of the top edge, there are two antenna bands for the inbuilt connections.

 

Moving around to the right-hand side we will then find that there are two of the 4  speakers, nestling inside these you will find another pinhole microphone next to the USB type C port. This port does not support Display Out, unfortunately, but given the price point and target demographic, this is hardly surprising.

Moving around to the bottom of the tablet there is nothing to see here which makes holding the device in the landscape orientation comfortable.

Continuing to the right-hand side we can see that we have got the other two speakers but this time they are flanking a Nano SIM/microSD card slot. This allows the tablet to support LTE bands for full phone and data duties if you wish to use it as a phone! You can also expand the storage by up to 1TB via the Micro SD card slot. You can also find the sleep-wake/power button on this side. This is simply just a button there is no fingerprint reading going on here.

Around the back we have the Camera module that is mounted on the upper third of the device in a shinier section of the back cover, presumable this is where the twin Mint naming comes from. Incidentally, this colour is the only variant you can get in the UK and it matches up with a lot of the other OnePlus devices of late. The camera itself is an 8MP sensor which has EIS and will support 1080P/720P video recording at 30FPS.

Going around the front finally, we have got the 11.35″2.4K screen which has a pixel density of 260PPI, and a refresh rate of 90Hz. The screen is reasonably bright at 400 nits with a contrast ratio of 1500:1 and a colour gamut of 96% NTSC. As is the case on most devices these days the screen is set up for Eyecare as well meaning that it will automatically adjust in lower light settings to limit Blue light and adjust colour temperatures to suit the available lighting in your viewing environment. It is a TÜV Rheinland Certified Full Care Display. Very good to know especially if this is a purchase being considered for younger users.

Also at the very top of the display is where we find the 8MP front-facing camera.

Overall I really do like the aesthetics of the design and the way the tablet feels in the hand. It is comfortable to hold due to the 7.5mm bezels surrounding the devices and the 7.:5 aspect ratio of the display means it is not too wide for a 11.35″ screen size. I can find that I can interact with the tablet easily enough but typing is a bit easier using the thumbs when in portrait mod. it is light enough to hold in one hand while poking at the screen with the other hand which is great if you’re doing a quick search for something to watch or listen to. It is also pretty useful for games as well as I found with a quick session of Asphalt 9. As I mentioned earlier the device has a quad-speaker setup which creates a very good sound stage. I was more than happy to have this playing music in the background as I was working on writing this review.

Hardware

The outside may be good to look at but none of that makes any difference unless the internal hardware is any good. thankfully we have got some pretty good-looking kit inside. bear in mind that this is by no means a flagship-grade tablet so the expectations need to be aligned to that. To start with we have got a MediaTek Helio G99 CPU powering the tablet. This is an octa-core CPU built on the 6 NM process it has 2x Arm Cortex-A76 up to 2.2GHz and  6x Arm Cortex-A55 up to 2.0GHz and is paired with an Arm Mali-G57 MC2. We also have 8GB of LPDDR4X and 128b GB of UFS 2.2 storage which will give a reasonably fast read and write speed but is not anything groundbreaking, more than adequate for streaming media and some light gaming. As I mentioned above the device has a SIM card slot and this is down to the CPIU being able to support 4G for both calls and data. Alongside that, you have the usual WIFI 5 and 2.4Ghz available frequencies and Bluetooth 5.2. Lastly, we have got support for GPS (L1), BEIDOU (B1I), GLONASS (G1), GALILEO (E1), and WLAN positioning. All in all, this is some pretty good spec for the price and is comparable with tablets from other players like Honor in the form of the Honor Pad 9u

We also have a standard suite of sensors that you would expect to see in an entry-level tablet; a Geomagnetic sensor, Light sensor, Acceleration sensor, Gyroscope, and Hall sensor.

I am pretty pleased with the hardware and especially happy to see that this device carries a battery with 8000mAh in it that is also capable of charging at 33W SUPERVOOC with the appropriate power supply unit (not included). This will allow for use for at least two days but it also supports a standby time of 514 hours according to OnePlus, which works out as just under 21.5 days. This is an important metric for a tablet as you tend not to use it constantly all day long. You will use it for a quick look at something or maybe to catch a TV Show watch a film etc. Having the ability to shut the screen off and then come back to it and still have some charge a few days later is a very useful feature.

The screen is plenty bright enough for use inside but it does struggle when in direct sunlight outside due to that max brightness of 400 nits. however, at this price point, you will struggle to find a much brighter screen. As you would also expect there is a lot of reflection in very bright conditions, however, I have yet to use a tablet that doesn’t suffer from this issue so I can let it slide.

Software

A key area for this tablet to be used in the way I am looking to use it is the ability of the device to work for the “tablet tasks” that I have identified above. the first of these that is important for me is long-form email. I have found that when typing up longer emails in the landscape orientation the keyboard spacing does prove to be a little bit of a stretch for me to thumb type. That being said though if the tablet is supported then I can type reasonably efficiently but it is far from ideal. This is where a keyboard attachment would have been advantageous for me. If I use the tablet in portrait then I can get on a bit better when thumb-typing as the keyboard is a bit more condensed but this is true of all tablets not just the Pad Go. Image editing is another area where having the bigger screen provides for a better experience and this was true for the Pad Go, particularly taking advantage of the fact that Google Photos has been enabled for tablet mode when using the in-built edit function. I can still see the full image and the tools easily as the tooling appears on the right-hand side of the image in a list view as shown in the image below.

Split Screen mode is something I have found to be very useful when using a folding device and I have been trying to use it as effectively on the pad go as well and for the most part it does work just as well. Using the split screen to reference something whilst working in a different app is extremely useful and productive. I will be going to Rhodes in the summer and have been able to do some sightseeing planning on the tablet by using the split screen. Whilst I could easily do this on my Pixel 8 Pro having the ability to have two apps open side by side does make this much easier especially when I want to show this to someone else as the device size is more conducive to doing so.

Media playback is another huge aspect of the tablet experience and I have been using this a lot for that function. I was away doing some training for my new job and having the pad Go with me during this time was a big advantage as I was able to stream Netflix on a screen that was big enough to be enjoyable for long durations in the evening instead of having to make do with watching the in-room TV  which was showing mostly football and reality TV rubbish. Again this is something that could be done on either my phone or Macbook but the Pad Go made the process easier and more flexible as I could take the Pad Go with me if I wanted to indulge in my viewing in the bar or the beer garden. What would have been useful in this scenario is a stand which I don’t have for review but there is one available from the OnePlus Store.

An area where I was hoping that I would be able to use the extra screen real estate was in the writing of this review but unfortunately, as the Pad Go does not have an attachable keyboard cover like the OnePlus Pad this was not a successful endeavour. Unfortunately, the keyboard takes up too much of the screen real estate to be used in this mode and this was enough to stop me from trying to get the review written up on the Pad Go. Admittedly I could have used a Bluetooth keyboard but the lack of a stand and and mouse made this prohibitive to me and it was more practical to use my laptop for this. The hardware deficiency is not the only issue here as this has been an issue with Android and if I recall correctly iPad tablets for some time so the Pad Go is not to blame here. This is one of the reasons I moved to a Chome-based solution the last time I had a tablet. While it is certainly possible to create content using a word processor and then copy this into our chosen platform (WordPress) it is not as fluid as it could or should be.

One nice surprise that I did get when doing this review was that the tablet was updated to Android 14 which is great to see as normally these cheaper tablets get left behind in terms of updates to the core OS. At the time of writing the Pad Go is on Android 14 and the Google Play system update is on the 1 May 2024.

Which is not too bad given that is the same as my Redmagic 9 Pro is, (my Pixel 8 Pro is on the latest beta version of Android 15 so the Google Play System update is a bit out of whack).

The Multitasking is smooth and you can choose to use an app in Picture in Picture mode if you wish as well as the split screen shown mode above.

So overall the Pad Go software is exactly what I was expecting it to be for a mid-range Android tablet. It does not have the extra hardware to support the possibility of being laptop replacement but it does have the benefits of the bigger size which makes it great for web browsing and media consumption whilst travelling or away from home (or just when you are kicked out of the living room).

Gaming is another thing that I have used Tablets for in the past and did use my Pixel Fold for and the Pad Go is perfectly adept at the medium-weight games that I have be playing recently The refresh rate is adequate for all but most intensive games and the brightness is okay for indoor gaming but you will struggle outside under direct sunlight. I tested the Pad Go by playing Asphalt 9 and Grand Mountain and both were fine. I do find that the hardware is a bit too big for my liking and i couldn’t get my Stadia Contoller to pair with the Pad Go correctly but I was still able to get by. It will not replace a dedicated gaming console or handheld by any means but the same can be said for any mid-range Android tablet that is over 10″ in size. I have found that the best-sized device for gaming is around 7″ to 8″ and it seems that the industry is in agreement with me as this is the screen size of the Steamdeck and the Nintendo Switch console.

There is also the Games app which is very useful for configuring your gameplay settings and keeping track of your games on the device.

 

Next up is the camera,

I will be honest the camera is an addition that I have never really looked to use on a tablet. They are not the best device to take photos with due to their size. However I have taken a few sample shots here to showcase what it can do and it is not terrible but still, the rear camera is for me largely superfluous. Video can be recorded at 1080p and 720p at 30fps as well. Although as you can see from the results below I probably wouldn’t bother if I were you!

The front camera on the other hand is more useful as it will allow the user to use the tablet for video calls etc. It is also not too bad for selfies but i feel that the video call experience has been what has been prioritised here. The camera will record at 1080p or 720p at 30fps. I have enclosed a sample of the video at 1080p below and a couple of static shots as well one with middling bokeh and one without any.

Conclusion

That about finishes up the review so we just now need to wrap things up.

The need for a standalone tablet is in my opinion coming towards an end. I can fill the need for a tablet and a phone in one device now as I have been bitten by the foldable bug in a big way. At the time of writing this, I have just re-bought my Pixel Fold back from the person I sold it to a few weeks ago.  However, not everyone is on board with the foldable phone concept and I can see where it would be useful to have a separate device like the OnePlus Pad Go as a secondary device for use around the house when travelling etc. This is where the Pad Go fits into a use case and it does so very well. However, this is not by any means a high-end device, which is fine as it is not meant to be. if you are looking for a laptop replacement then I would advise looking for a tablet like the OnePlus Pad with a keyboard or any of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 lineup (although be prepared to pay more for these).

I am glad I have had the opportunity to review the OnePlus Pad Go as it has answered a question for me that I had been pondering. Do I need (as someone who uses a folding phone) a standalone tablet? For me, the answer is no but that is because my phone will perform as one and I am happy with the compromises that foldable phones entail. if you prefer your phone to be non-folding but want the extra real estate sometimes then the OnePlus Pad Go would be a very good addition to your kit.

If you want to pick up the Oneplus Pad Go you can do so by going to the OnePlus website where you can get one for £269 and it will come with a free Folio case worth £39.99 included. You can also look at the bigger brother the OnePlus pad which has the option of Stylus use and an attachable keyboard as well.