OPPO Pad 2 – premium Android tablet with new format screen (review)

The OPPO Pad 2 is an Android tablet with a new 7:5 ratio screen it calls ‘ReadFit’. It has a premium processor and an impressive 11.61”, 2.8K, 10-bit/1.07 billion colour, 144Hz LTPS screen. All this for $699 – bargain.

Let’s explore that 7:5 screen – some call this the Golden Ratio. Most tablets have a 16:9 or 16:10 landscape ratio, which suits video content. This has 7:5 (12.6:9), which in portrait mode is closer to A4 paper width (297 x 210 or 7.05:5), which suits productivity.

If you play a 16:9 movie, you get smaller letterbox black lines, top and bottom, than on most tablets. If you add the powerhouse processor, decent 13+8MP cameras, massive battery, and quality build – well, we like it.

Australian review: OPPO Pad 2 Model X22N2

Website	Product page
Price	$699 Pencil $79 Smart Leather Case $79 Smart Touch Keyboard  $159
Colours	Grey
From	OPPO Online *
Warranty	2-years ACL
Country of Origin	China
Company	OPPO is now #2 in Australia for Android smartphone market share. It has achieved that through excellent product and after-sales service.
More	CyberShack OPPO news and reviews

We use Fail (below expectations), Passable (meets low expectations), Pass (meets expectations), Pass+ (near Exceed but not class-leading) and Exceed (surpasses expectations or is the class leader) against many of the items below.  You can click on most images for an enlargement.

* Grey Market

While not as critical with Wi-Fi-only tablets, the usual culprits (Kogan/Dick Smith/Etoren and many online stores) sell it. You can find if it is genuine by going to Settings>About Device>Regulatory> and you will find the R-NZ C-Tick. Only approved devices carry an Australian warranty and use Australian Wi-Fi 6 and 6E frequencies.

First Impression – larger screen than I imagined – Pass+

I am so used to the 16:10 Samsung Galaxy Tab screens that the 7:5 took me a little while to warm to. Not for any other reason, but it was different, and Android has yet to work out how to resize some Apps for landscape-mode tablets (most smartphones are 20:9 – tall and slim).

After a few days, I found I was using this far more as a portrait reader, perfect for digital newspapers and A4 or A5 documents.

Next, I found the beautiful clarity and pure colours a bonus compared to typically over-saturated colour tablets. It is easy on the eye.

The build quality is superb, with an Aluminium frame and back and tempered glass front. I have but one minor issue – the rear camera hump protrudes – not a problem if you use a case.

Screen – Pass+

It is an 11.61”, 2800 x 2000, 296ppi, 144Hz, LTPS (Low-Temperature Polysilicon or Poly-Si) TFT LCD. This provides a faster response (100x over a-Si), better blacks, more accurate colours and uses less energy.

Refresh rates are fixed 60Hz or Adaptive 30, 60, 90, 230 and 144Hz.

It is a 10-bit/1.07 billion colour screen. OPPO calibrate it to a Delta E <2 (<4 is good), hitting 98.4% DCI-P3 and 130% sRGB of the wide colour gamut. Samsung still uses 8-bit/16.7 million colour screens, and frankly, OPPO has the edge by a large margin. Read 8-bit versus 10-bit screen colours. What is the big deal?

It claims 500 nits typical (test 525) instead of the highly inflated and somewhat deceptive HBM or Peak nits used by other brands. This means it can play Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HDR10 and HDR, providing a decent HDR downmix – you get to see more details in the low and highlights.

Contrast if 1400:1 – it is almost day-light readable (you need OLED for that).

Summary: Magnificent screen, way better than iPad or Galaxy Tab.

Processor – Pass+

The MediaTek Dimensity 9000 is a 4nm System on a Chip (SoC) with 1 x 3.05GHz & 3 x 2.85GHz and 4 x 1.80 GHz cores. It has an ARM Mali G710 MC10 GPU. It also has on-die a 4/ 5G modem (not enabled) and GPS (enabled – rare for a Wi-Fi tablet).

We first saw this SoC in the OPPO Find N2, and it turns out to be an inspired choice. OPPO has excellent thermal management, and this powerhouse chip (often compared to the Qualcomm SD8 Gen 1) stays cool – never going over 36°.

It is married to 8GB LPDDR5 3200MHz (fastest) and can be virtually expanded to 16GB (like Windows swap space). It has 256GB UFS 3.1 (207GB free – fastest).

Tests

• Geekbench single/multi-core: 1080/3229
• OpenCL: 6049
• Vulkan: 5790
• CPDT sustained sequential read/write: 570/738 (It reaches 1312/862Mbps)
• CPDT OTG: Will not mount as live storage but can cut and paste to a 2TB SSD.

Throttle

• Maximum GIPS: 271,987
• Average GIPS: 264,915
• Minimum GIPS 240,980
• 0% CPU Throttling.

Comms – Pass+

It has:

• Wi-Fi 6E AXE (appears that 6E is not enabled in firmware). Wi-Fi 6 AX connects at 1201Mbps (maximum 5Ghz) out to 15 meters – excellent.
• BT 5.3 SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, LDAC, and LHDC 16-bit/44100/48000Hz. Includes aptX codecs – excellent.
• GPS dual band with 1m accuracy for high-speed in-car navigation – excellent
• USB-C 2.0 OTG for cut and paste to external flash drives and PCs. Using USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 for external USB-C to HDMI monitor support would have been nice.

Missing is NFC (not expected). In terms of sensors, it has an e-Compass, combo Accelerometer/Gyro, Ambient Light, Hall Effect, and Pedometer. It also has a colour temperature sensor to keep display colours accurate.

Battery – Pass+

It has a 9510mAh/36.99Wh Li-Po battery and 67W SuperVOOC charger inbox. You can use any USB-C PD (9V/1.5A/13.5A) and QC (9V/1.5A) charger. It is rated for 1000+ full battery recharges – excellent.

Tests (all using 144Hz Adaptive mode)

• Video Loop, 1080p, 50% volume/brightness, aeroplane mode: 19 hours (claim is 16 hours)
• PC Mark office tests: 17 hours and 3 minutes
• Accubattery general mixed use: 17 hours 49 minutes
• GFX Bench Manhattan (game): 235.3 minutes (3.92 hours), 3298 frames
• GFX Bench T-Rex (game): 991.1 minutes (16.52 hours) 3853 frames.
• Drain 100% Load screen on: 4 hours 20 minutes (Accubattery 5 hours)
• mA idle screen on: 500-500mA
• mA full load: 2100-2200mA
• Charge: 1 hour and 14 minutes

Summary: Excellent battery life for such a high-resolution screen. You can use any PD charger from 30W and get good charge times.

Options – Pass+

Unlike iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab, it has a 67W SuperVOOC charger and cable inbox. The three options include:

• $79 OPPO Pencil, 2ms, 4096 pressure levels, 240Mhz touch and 0-60° tilt (for writing). It wireless charges (off the tablet top) for approx. 11 hours of use. Size 165.32 x 8.88mm x 15.5g matte powder coat metal. It is an active stylus, but we are unsure of the digitiser standard.
• $79 Smart leather case 257.7 x 189.1 x 4.4mm x 233g
• $159 OPPO 64-key Keyboard 257.65 x 189.08 x 7.5mm x 360g. has a trackpad 81.30×43.00mm trackpad. It provides a 120° tilt (tablet). Uses a Magnetic Pogo pin connection.

Build – Exceed

Size: 258.0 x 189.39 x 6.54 x 552g.

It has scratch-resistant glass (brand not disclosed, but likely Panda or Dragontail). Read Smartphone screen protection – what you need to know.

It has an aluminium frame and back with a star trail engraving process for a polished, grippy, and fingerprint-resistant finish.

The warranty is two years.

Sound – Pass

OPPO has a sound heritage, and this tablet is one of the most listenable we have heard. It has four oversized 8cc speakers (two on each landscape side), reaching a maximum volume of 82dB – loud and low distortion.

The quad side-firing speakers and MediaTek SoC amp can decode Dolby Atmos (DA) and downmix, meaning they can decode DA and downmix to four channels.

It has mid-bass building from 80Hz and high-bass to 200Hz. It is relatively flat to 7kHz, then declines to 20kHz.

It has enough bass to satisfy and technically could be called a Warm and Sweet (bass/mid boosted, treble recessed), but mid is strongest. High treble (10-20kHz) is recessed, meaning that ‘air as if you were there” is missing.

The stereo soundstage is slightly wider than the tablet in landscape mode. When tested with DA content, the sound stage slightly widens, and you hear some added 3D directionality and height within the screen.

BT 5.3 SBC, SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, LDAC, and LHDC. Tests with BT headphones showed excellent left/right separation and directionality. DA content adds a wider headphone sound stage and vastly improved 3D spatial height sounds.

Sound Summary: One of the best tablet experiences focusing on music/movies rather than 1-4kHz clear voice.

Android 13 and ColorOS 13.1

OPPO has significantly reduced bloatware. It preinstalls Netflix. Most OPPO substitutes for Google Apps are gone, but a few OPPO device Apps like Clone Tablet, Files, Health Connect, Kids Space, WPS Office, and Tablet Management remain. These can be disabled.

We tested Google’s Switch in Android 13, which flawlessly copied from a Pixel Tab. See, Want a new Android phone? Old Android to Android 13 is easy.

Security Patch is July 2023 – as we expect from quarterly updates.

OS upgrade and Security Patch policy: 3 OS upgrades (to 16) and quarterly security updates for four years.

It has Face recognition (no fingerprint), which is remarkably accurate.

Pad 2 has implemented OPPO features over Android 13. This includes button-free mode, quick hide a window (in games mode), Share via a floating window, open from a sidebar, open with a swipe, drag to resize, double tap to enlarge, file share app, split screen and 4/5 finger pinch. These add value to Android and are useful for tablet devices.

You can also link to a PC with MultiScreen Connect 2.0 Apps for Windows.

Missing – not much

• Expandable microSD storage
• 3.5mm headphone port
• USB-C 3.1 Gen 1

OPPO Pad 2 Camera – Pass

The front selfie camera is a Sony IMX355, 8 MP, f/2.28, 1.12um, FF, FOV 103.4°, 1080p@30fps with manual screen fill. It is more for video conferencing and acceptable for selfies. It supports Photo, Video, Portrait, Panorama, Time-lapse, and Sticker.

The rear camera is a 13MP, f/2.2; 1.12um, FOV 80°, 4K@30fps or 1080p@30 with gyro-EIS and LED flash. It supports Photo, Video, Night, Panorama, Slow motion, Time-lapse, Sticker, and a Text scanner. It could be one of two sensors – Hynix Hi1336 or Sony IMX214.

For a tablet camera, it is remarkably solid. Shots have decent AI, auto HDR and access to the full OPPO camera App.

The rear has 1X, 2X and 10X digital zoom (no Ultra-wide or telephoto – not expected). It does not have a macro setting, but you can focus down to 4cm for excellent detailed shots – it will tell you when you are too close.

Camera Summary: Better than social media standards and with Google Lens and Text Scanner capabilities would be good in a classroom.

CyberShack’s view – OPPO Pad 2 is one of the most potent Android tablets

While the 7:5 ratio screen is nice, it is not the sole reason to buy. It is the whole package with a powerful SoC, decent speakers, a better-than-social media class camera, and, interestingly, dual-band GPS, which makes it great for in-car navigation.

The optional $159 keyboard and trackpad cover is a fraction of the price and as functional as Samsung’s $549 Tab S9 Book Keyboard cover. We did not test it, but it is highly recommended if you buy the tablet.

And let’s get back to reality. The $699 OPPO Tab 2 has a superior screen to all the Galaxy Tab S9 series, has better specs than the Tab S9 ($1499 Wi-Fi) and is pretty close to the Tab S9+ ($1899 Wi-Fi).

What is not to like? At the time of the review, OPPO Australia had sold out of the Pad 2, wildly exceeding sales expectations. I am glad word got around about a tablet with so many upsides and no downsides.

Would I buy the OPPO Pad 2?

Yes. It aces the feature/value equation in a market dominated by Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Ratings

• Features: 90 – sits between Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 and S9+ W-Fi models with a better screen, a 67W charger inbox, and reasonably priced accessories.
• Value: 95 – Less than half the price of its nearest competitor and has better specs.
• Performance: 90 – The MediaTek processor is a tablet powerhouse and suits content creators and consumers. The only caveat is that USB-C 2.0 precludes fast, mountable external storage and ALT DP video/audio/data connections to a screen.
• Ease of Use: 90 – A 2-year warranty and ColorOS 13.1 overlay adds value.
• Design: 90 – Tablets are tablets. Nice, rounded edges, fits well in hand, fingerprint resistant.