OnePlus Pad Go review: A go-to entertainment tablet at an affordable price

The curved metal unibody finish feels premium (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

OnePlus Pad Go design: Retains the signature ‘Pad’ design

When OnePlus announced Pad Go, its first tablet, many were quick to compare it with the iPad- a benchmark when it comes to tablet devices. However, I felt, the OnePlus Pad is nothing like an iPad or vice versa. With a metal body finish and a uniquely positioned camera unit, the OnePlus Pad Go stands out from the rest and looks almost similar to its more expensive sibling – the OnePlus Pad (review).

What’s more? The Twin Mint shade (which is the only colour option), makes the tablet look unique and elegant. To add to that, the rounded-off corners, where the frame of the tablet seamlessly infuses with the display further elevates the in-hand feel. The tablet also has a microSD card and there is also an LTE variant, which makes this the biggest OnePlus device that you can make calls. The device supports face unlock, but it misses out on the fingerprint sensor.

The large 2K resolution screen is well suited for content consumption (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

OnePlus Pad Go display and audio: On par with the competition

OnePlus has consistently proved that it offers the best display technologies on its products, and the OnePlus Pad Go is a testament to the same. The 11.35-inch 2K resolution screen with a 90 Hz refresh rate is a treat to the eyes, especially while watching videos on YouTube or witnessing a nail-biting Cricket World Cup match on DisneyPlus Hotstar.

The display has a decent 400 nits of peak brightness and 96 per cent of NTSC colour gamut coverage, which results in fairly accurate colour reproduction. However, while using the tablet in vivid mode, colours like red, orange, and yellow look accentuated. I liked the fact that the display has more pronounced curves on all four corners when compared to other tablets in this class.

Hostar app on OnePlus Pad Go (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

From binge-watching the latest season of ‘Rick and Morty’ on Netflix to catching up on ‘Koffee with Karan’, I liked the content consumption experience on this tablet. However, I would advise you to be mindful of the fact that the tablet does not support HDR playback, not even on YouTube. The video streaming resolution on YouTube is limited to 1440p.

The tablet has a quad-speaker setup with support for Dolby Atmos. These speakers output crystal clear audio with very minimal distortion even at the higher volume settings. However, I felt that the speakers on the Realme Pad 2 (review) product were slightly louder and had a fuller sound.

OnePlus Pad Go performance: Not its strongest suite

Performance is probably the weakest link of this device. Powered by the Mediatek Helio G99 SoC with 8 GB RAM and up to 256 GB of storage, the tablet can handle simpler tasks like web browsing or video streaming without any issue. However, I did experience a lot of frame drops and stutters across the UI, which definitely boils down to the processor.

Even when it comes to gaming, the tablet is well suited for simple arcade-style titles. While I was able to play ‘COD: Mobile’ with ease, I had to set the graphics quality to medium to get a stable experience.

OxygenOS 13.2 offers several tablet-centric software features (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

OnePlus Pad Go software experience

OnePlus Pad Go ships with OxygenOS 13 based on Android 13 OS. Like every other OnePlus device, the Pad Go is bloatware-free and offers a rich user experience and customisation options. The tablet received the OxygenOS 13.2 update a while ago, which added new capabilities, including an enhanced dock, which now features a button to access the app drawer and file manager that categorises images and documents.

And unlike an iPad, this one has a calculator app. The software is also well-optimised for the tablet form factor. Again, the company could have added a few more tablet-friendly features like the ability to move the lock screen (pattern) to the right or the left side, and the ability to access more than two applications at the same time, similar to the Canvas feature on the OnePlus Open. The tablet is promised to receive two major software updates, which is a welcome move, as most budget Android tablets even struggle to push a single major OS update.

It can stream FHD content on all major OTT platforms (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

OnePlus Pad Go battery life

The tablet is powered by an 8,000 mAh battery with 33W fast charging and you also get a fast charger in the box. The slightly smaller capacity battery on this tablet also means the battery life is above average and not excellent. For most days, the laptop offered me anywhere between 6 to 7 hours of screen-on-time, and my use case was mostly limited to streaming content on OTT platforms or web browsing.

A tablet with clean software and premium build (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

Verdict: A perfect budget tablet for content consumption

The OnePlus Pad Go is clearly one of the best tablets to consider around the Rs 20,000 price mark. Unlike its contemporaries, OnePlus offers a far superior build quality, a great screen, and an enhanced tablet experience at a highly affordable price. If you are looking for a tablet computer, primarily for content consumption, the OnePlus Pad Go is an easy pick.