OnePlus Pad Review: Finally, a Great Android Tablet

Let’s be trustworthy, Android tablets have lengthy been a failure. It’s why the phrases pill and iPad are virtually synonymous today. Every 12 months, Apple made tweaks to its cell working system to optimize it for its tablets—going as far as to ultimately separate it out as a standalone OS known as iPadOS—whereas Google solely periodically supplied its consideration to the Android pill area.

I purchased the Nexus 7, certainly one of Google’s first tablets (made by Asus), again in 2013, and I used it to demise. It was compact and simple to make use of, and I by no means felt a related degree of attachment with one other Android pill since—till now, with the brand new OnePlus Pad. OnePlus’ first pill is a slick machine with highly effective {hardware} and the correct software program that encourages you to make use of it for extra than simply leisure. With this slate, Android tablets are beginning to lastly really feel like a viable various to the iPad and a pc you possibly can reliably use for work and play.

Clean Slate

Some of the success of the OnePlus Pad has to do with the working system itself. It runs Android 13, which, as promised by Google final 12 months, has a number of tablet-friendly optimizations that make interacting and multitasking with a bigger display a little simpler. That contains extra first-party apps designed to utilize the bigger display actual property.

That’s to not say OnePlus hasn’t added any of its personal perks. I’m scripting this assessment, as an illustration, on the Pad with split-screen mode turned on. I’ve one Chrome tab on the left of the display, and one other on the correct with reference materials. You can induce this split-screen mode fairly simply in any app with simply a two-finger swipe down on the display.

Apps also can float, not in contrast to Slide View on an iPad. There’s a little tray of (customizable) apps you possibly can pull out from the correct facet of the display. Tap on one, and the app will open as a floating window you possibly can partially resize. When I’m in split-screen mode, I open up Slack or Gmail in floating view as a third app to rapidly test a notification with out having to utterly depart the apps I’m working in. Multitasking feels fairly darn fluid on this machine, and that is essential. Before, working for lengthy stretches on an Android pill was a ache within the rear. Now, I really do not thoughts spending a workday on the OnePlus Pad.

It helps that each cameras are positioned within the heart too. Neither the 8-MP selfie digicam nor the 13-MP rear digicam are something to write down dwelling about (video high quality is enough), however the former is in a great place for video conferences and the digicam can observe your face in case you’re shifting round in your seat, like Center Stage on the iPad. This works in Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams. I took a assembly on the Pad with Microsoft Teams and the digicam stayed near my face, and I used the floating window mode for Google Docs to take notes on the similar time. It was easy.