Oppo's attempt to release a tablet for the Indian market was quite good.
Highlights
For connectivity, it has Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5.1.
The Pad Air has Widevine L1 certification
With normal usage, the tablet easily lasts for a day and a half.
The Indian budget tablet market is full of options. However, most of these are devices from manufacturers like Samsung and Lenovo. These products offer enough power for basic tasks and generally focus on large screens and large batteries, with less emphasis on performance. The COVID-19 pandemic has elevated tablets from a media entertainment category to a vital tool for education, video conferencing, and learning.
The Oppo Pad Air was launched as the company's first tablet in India. The company focused on build quality. At first glance, the tablet offers everything a user might expect, with a stylish touch. But is it enough to compete with the competition? I used this tablet for a few weeks, and read my opinion here.
Oppo Pad Air price in India
The Oppo Pad Air comes in two configurations in India. The base variant I received comes with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage and is available for ₹16,999. The second variant comes with 128GB of storage but only 4GB of RAM. It is priced at ₹19,999. The tablet is available only in gray.
Oppo Pad Air design
Despite being a budget tablet, it feels premium. It's solid in build and appears to be able to withstand some splashes. Featuring a unibody design, it features a metal case with an anodized finish that's non-slip. Its sides are flat and its corners are rounded. Its build quality is impressive, devoid of sharp or rough edges.
The Oppo Pad Air weighs a fairly light 440 grams. It's easy to use with one hand, but you'll need both hands to operate. The only thing protruding from the body is its rear camera, but even when placed on a flat surface, the tablet doesn't lift up. The back features a plastic stripe that spans a quarter of its length and features a nice, wave-like pattern. This likely helps with signal reception for connectivity.
When held horizontally, the power and volume controls are located in the top left corner. A pull-out tray is also provided at the top, but it's only for microSD card support.
Regarding the tablet's display, it has thin bezels and round cutouts at the corners that match the curves of the tablet's frame. Speaker grilles are located on the sides, and the USB Type-C port is located on the right side. The company offers a single accessory with the tablet, called the Oppo Life Smart Stylus Pen. It can be purchased by spending Rs 3,999.
Oppo Pad Air specifications and software
The device uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 chip, which is built using a 6nm fabrication process. The tablet packs 4GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB of UFS 2.2 storage. It also has an expandable RAM feature, allowing you to expand the storage space.
Connectivity options include Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5.1, but lacks GPS. However, basic sensors like an accelerometer, ambient light, and a gyroscope are available. Its battery is 7,100mAh, with an 18W PD charger bundled within the package. LTE support is absent, and there's no fingerprint scanner. It features 2D face unlock, which doesn't always perform well. In addition to the two storage options, the tablet also supports microSD cards up to 512GB.
It runs on Oppo's ColorOS 12.1, which is based on Android 12. It looks similar to the ColorOS 12.1 found on the smartphone. The surprising thing here is that Oppo has included live wallpapers in addition to many static wallpapers, which look quite good, but the system found them a bit cumbersome to handle. There
are also many customization options, including an auto theme engine. This version of ColorOS takes up 14GB of the tab's internal storage, leaving around 47GB for apps, games, and photos. The only third-party app available on the tab was Netflix.
In the Settings app, I found a floating window feature called Flexible Window under Special Features. It allowed me to open supported apps in a small floating window and adjust its size. It worked smoothly, but you can only open a small app in a floating window with a full-screen app running in the background. There was also a split-screen option called Dual Window, but I couldn't adjust its size to my liking.
Oppo Pad Air performance
The Oppo Pad Air's performance was good, with some minor lags. Multitasking wasn't great, but the expandable RAM allowed me to keep a few apps open in the background. Simply put, every fourth app restarted, but loading was quick.
In terms of benchmark scores, the tablet scored 253,080 points on AnTuTu. It scored 384 and 1,618 points in Geekbench's single- and multicore tests, respectively. In GFXBench, it scored 37fps, 14fps, and 7.6fps in the T-Rex, Manhattan 3.1, and Car Chase tests, respectively.
The tablet isn't designed for gaming, but I tried playing Asphalt 9: Legends on it. The default settings and textures appeared to be pixel-torn, but the game was playable after a few frame skips. Casual games like Subway Surfers did well.
The Oppo Pad Air features a 10.36-inch IPS LCD display with a resolution of 2,000x1,200 pixels. Such a high resolution is rare in this segment. The display is quite sharp, with text and images clearly visible, and colors appearing natural. The display performs less well outdoors than indoors, with colors appearing washed out. The cover glass is highly reflective, making it difficult to watch movies or videos in direct sunlight.
The Pad Air has Widevine L1 certification, which is good for FullHD video playback. SD content looks quite sharp, but black levels needed improvement. Its quad-speaker system is quite loud, so much so that I didn't miss the 3.5mm headphone jack.
Camera performance is below average. Photos are dull and lack detail, even in daylight. The 5-megapixel selfie camera produces relatively good photos. The front camera is good for video calls. Video recording with the primary camera is very weak.
Since gaming was limited to basic games and the camera was useless, I mostly used it for watching movies, browsing the web, and using everyday social media applications. With this much usage, the tablet easily lasted for a day and a half. And if I had only watched offline movies on it, it could have lasted for two days. In the HD video loop test, the Pad Air lasted for 18 hours and 40 minutes, which is quite impressive for a tablet. With the 18W charger, its battery took 2 hours and 34 minutes to fully charge.
Our decision
Oppo's attempt to release a tablet for the Indian market was quite promising. Being a budget device, it meets all the requirements for daily use and is reasonably priced. It lacks a 4G/LTE radio and a headphone jack, but the expandable RAM and 128GB of storage make up for it. Overall, if you're buying it for movies, web browsing, or checking email, it fits the bill, but it's not designed for gaming or productivity.
Unfortunately for Oppo, the Realme Pad offers similar specifications in the same form factor at a lower price. It also has a 4G/LTE variant and starts at ₹15,999. Realme's software experience is also better than Oppo's, as it's optimized for tablets. If you can spend a little more, there's also the Lenovo Yoga Tab 11, which offers a good design and build quality. This tablet is quite ahead in terms of entertainment, in which the speakers are very good and loud enough for a small room.
