With its new OnePlus Pad 2 tablet, the manufacturer aims to shake up the digital slate market with a product that is as stylish as it is powerful, equipped with a bright screen. All this for less than $600! Too good to not test it and check if the promises are kept.

The high-end and mid-range tablet market is dominated by Apple, closely followed by Samsung, Xiaomi and other Chinese manufacturers. In this context, OnePlus is looking to make a place for itself by extending its smartphone philosophy to tablets. The manufacturer is banking on a polished design, combined with a technical sheet capable of guaranteeing smooth use without fear of slowdowns.

The OnePlus Pad 2 is priced at €549, with a 12.1-inch screen and a configuration of 12GB of RAM + 256GB of storage. An already competitive price, especially when you consider that it is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor and an Adreno 750 GPU.

Technical sheet

Model	OnePlus Pad 2
Dimensions	195.06 cm x 268.66 mm
Screen size	12.1 inches
Definition	3000 x 2120 pixels
Pixel density	303 dpi
Screen technology	LCD
Processor model	Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
Random Access Memory (RAM)	12 GB
Internal memory	256 GB
Camera (back)	13 Mp
Camera (front)	8 Mp
Video recording	4K@30 IPS
Wifi	Wi-Fi 7 (be)
Bluetooth	5.4
NFC	Unknown
Waterproof	No
Weight	584 grams
Colors	Gray

Design

The OnePlus Pad 2 is positioned as a 12.1-inch tablet with fairly well-controlled dimensions. Thus, we have a product that displays measurements of 268.66 mm x 195.05 mm x 6.49 mm for a weight of 584 g.

The screen is 12.1 inches and it occupies 84.9% of the front surface. The borders are present, but not excessively, especially compared to the competition, even more high-end. Note the front camera which is placed in the center of the upper border in landscape mode.

Moving on to the back, which is flat and has a surface made of aluminum, with a Nimbus Gray finish by sandblasting and anodizing.

Many words to describe a smooth surface, offering a pleasant, soft touch, without being slippery. As a bonus, it has the good taste of not collecting fingerprints, unless you use it while eating fried foods.

The optical block knows how to get noticed: it integrates very naturally into the design of the back and displays a thickness that is not excessive. However, laid flat, this does not make it very stable for typing text, for example.

In landscape mode, the side edges are equipped with six Hi-Res certified speakers, which theoretically deliver spatial sound. On the left edge is also the standby button, while those dedicated to volume management are located on the upper edge.

OnePlus has produced a very well-designed tablet here, with flawless manufacturing quality. All it lacks is IP67 certification. However, let’s applaud the fact that it is IPX5, so it will withstand splashes or more, failing immersion in water.

Getting started

Laid flat, the tablet isn’t perfectly stable. If you plan on using it like this for typing, it’s still doable, but it’s not the most comfortable. If you add a back cover, things get back to normal.

In hand, the tablet is pleasant to the touch, and its rounded edges fit the curves of our hands well. We have a product with a balanced design and weight, which allows it to be held in hand for a long time while minimizing fatigue, especially at the wrists. We appreciated that the back does not keep too many fingerprints, which is not the case for the screen.

The pencil

The OnePlus Stylo 2 is a beautiful object, which offers a solid grip. It offers 16,000 levels of sensitivity, which should please drawing enthusiasts. We did not notice any particular problems: the glide is good and the sensations between the fingers are pleasant.

The stylus is responsive, accurate, and should satisfy most uses. Its only flaw is the implementation of shortcuts in the touch area above the tip. This is sometimes messy, and mistakes are not uncommon. Getting the hang of it requires daily use.

Note that if you already own the OnePlus Stylo 1, it may not be necessary to invest in this second iteration, as it is compatible with this tablet.

The keyboard

The OnePlus Smart Keyboard is divided into two parts. First, a cover that completely covers the back, and the keyboard itself that connects to the proprietary magnetic connector in the center of the bottom edge of the Pad 2.

This way we can get a tilt of 110 or 165 degrees. And if you prefer to move away from the screen a little, you can disconnect the keyboard and continue typing remotely.

We liked the responsive keys, which take up space on the keyboard well. In addition, the touchpad is very large and is both fast and accurate.

However, the main flaw of this keyboard remains the absence of an AZERTY version.

Screen

The 12.4-inch LCD panel that equips the OnePlus Pad 2 displays a 3K resolution (3000 x 2120 pixels). We have a very good level of display finesse with a resolution of 303 pixels per inch. In addition, we are entitled to an adaptable refresh rate of 30 Hz to 144 Hz.

With our probe and Portrait Displays’ Calman software, we measured the default display mode called “Natural”. It displays a Delta E of 3.78, compared to 3 for the reference value, and a color temperature of 7377 K, compared to 6500 K for the reference value. There is therefore a color rendering that pulls towards blue, a classic defect on this type of product, especially with an LCD panel.

We also have a pretty good colorimetric rendering, with a color space coverage rate of 142% for the sRGB space, 95% for DCI-P3, and 64% for BT.2020.

Brightness is decent with 601 nits in SDR, but we were hoping for better. This allows it to be used in most situations, but in full sunlight, it will be difficult, especially with the reflections generated by the glass that protects the screen.

In addition, this level of light output is a little low to take advantage of the Dolby Vision that the screen supports.

Software

Here we have OxygenOS associated with Android 14, an interface that offers beautiful readability without compromising on elegance, as with the time display where the number 1 is always in red. Add to that many customization options, and this set has everything to please.

OnePlus is pushing its AI features a lot. We have AI Speaker to read documents aloud, or AI Writer to, for example, write quick replies to an email. Unfortunately, these features are currently only available in English and Chinese.

On the other hand, the AI Erase tool, the equivalent of the magic eraser of Google Pixels, is activated without language limitation. It allows you to erase people and objects from a photo.

When you say tablet, you say large display surface. OnePlus allows you to take advantage of it with the Open Canvas function. It allows you to place two applications side by side on the screen with a simple swipe of your finger. In addition, it is possible to customize this display window by window.

Performances

The OnePlus Pad 2 is built around a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, accompanied by an Adreno 750 GPU at 903 MHz, 12 GB of LPDDR5 RAM (at 3686.4 MHz) and 256 GB of storage. A robust configuration

Model	OnePlus Pad 2
AnTuTu 10	1632533
AnTuTu CPU	331637
AnTuTu GPU	806641
AnTuTu MEM	222750
AnTuTu UX	271505
PC Mark 3.0	11557
3DMark Wild Life average framerate	27.49 FPS
3DMark Wild Life Extreme	4590
Geekbench 6 Single-core	920
Geekbench 6 Multi-core	4595
Sequential read/write	678 / 907 MB/s

In terms of raw power, we have no worries. Usage confirms our expectations with Android 14 and OxygenOS 14 still fluid, without any apparent slowdown. This is also the case when you launch heavy applications such as photo editing or video editing.

On the video game side, the experience is also very pleasant. The most resource-intensive titles are very well supported, such as Fortnite , which runs at 60 fps in Epic graphics mode. Genshin Impact does the same and we reach 120 fps on Call of Duty .

Photo and video

OnePlus has lined up two photo sensors for its Pad 2:

A first at the rear of 13 Mpx;
The second one at the front (Selfie) of 8 Mpx.

For a tablet, this Pad 2 does quite well. However, it’s hard to be ecstatic about the result. At first glance, the capture is good, as long as you don’t dwell on it. Otherwise, very quickly we notice a failing sharpness. If the colorimetry holds up pretty well, the level of detail is really low.

Added to this is an overexposure in light or bright areas. There is clearly a deficiency here, quite common on tablets like the latest iPad Air M2.

Video

The rear sensor can record 4K videos at up to 30 FPS, which is also the case in 1080p and 720p. The video quality is honorable, but nothing more, and we find the problems of overexposure.

Audio

Here we have six speakers placed on the side edges when we hold the tablet in landscape mode. The rendering is very honorable, but it is worth saying right away: forget the hopes of real spatialization of the sound. The Holo Audio function valiantly tries to restore 3D sound, but without much success.

On the other hand, we have a fairly balanced rendering, with bass that holds up, even if it does not go very low. The treble is quite good, although lacking a little precision. We appreciated the mids, which allow the voices to stand out well. However, avoid pushing the volume beyond 50%, otherwise the distortion makes the whole thing unpleasant.

Network and communication

No cellular connectivity here, we are entitled to Wi-Fi 6E, and especially Wi-Fi 7 which is a nice surprise. This is complemented by Bluetooth 5.4 which supports SBC, AAC, aptx, aptX HD and LDAC codecs.

Battery

In mixed usage, this tablet can reach up to 10 hours of battery life. However, this drops to 7 to 8 hours if you are more productive.

The same goes for gaming. For example, after 20 minutes of Fortnite with all quality settings at maximum, we lost 7% of battery, which is respectable, but not exceptional. However, it is in the good average for digital tablets.