Realme Pad Review: A Solid Budget Tablet with Room for Improvement

Realme Pad Review: A Solid Budget Tablet with Room for Improvement

The Realme Pad makes a strong entry into the budget tablet market, offering a combination of a premium aluminum design, impressive audio, and respectable performance at a competitive price. While it stands out with its build quality and software experience, there are notable areas where it could improve, such as adopting an AMOLED display, enhancing the charging speed, and boosting camera performance.

Design and Build

The Realme Pad boasts an all-aluminum unibody with squared-off edges that feels both sturdy and elegant. Its brushed metal back resists fingerprints and smudges, while the tablet remains slim at just 6.9mm and lightweight at 440 grams. Available in Real Gold and Real Grey, the design includes a subtle dual-tone accent on the rear. Buttons are well-placed, offering good tactile feedback, with the volume rocker, hybrid SIM tray, and power button positioned for easy access. The headphone jack sits conveniently on the left edge.

Display

The tablet features a 10.4-inch IPS LCD panel with a WUXGA+ resolution (2000 x 1200 pixels) and a 60Hz refresh rate. While the display offers decent color balance and wide viewing angles, the absence of an AMOLED panel is a noticeable drawback. Brightness reaches up to 360 nits, with a minimum of just 1.7 nits in Night mode, suitable primarily for indoor use. The lack of a screen protector in the box is a minor oversight given the tablet's large, sleek form factor.

Performance

Powered by the MediaTek Helio G80 chipset and available with 3GB or 4GB of RAM, the Realme Pad handles everyday tasks smoothly, though some jelly scrolling can occur. It supports up to five apps in memory and performs well for light gaming, with PUBG Mobile running at HD graphics and Call of Duty: Mobile at Medium settings. The tablet runs Android 11 with Realme UI for Pad 1.0, which is free of bloatware and offers a near-stock experience, though it lacks advanced customization options found in Realme smartphones.

Battery and Audio

With a substantial 7100mAh battery, the Realme Pad easily lasts nearly two days of heavy use or up to five to six days on lighter usage. However, charging is handled by an 18W adapter, requiring around two hours and forty-five minutes for a full charge, which feels slow by today's standards. The standout feature is its quad-speaker setup with Dolby Atmos and Hi-Res Audio support, delivering rich, loud audio with a good stereo effect, though distortion can occur at maximum volume.

Camera

The tablet features an 8MP rear camera and an 8MP front camera. The rear camera produces decent images in well-lit conditions with good contrast but struggles with exposure in sunny or sky-filled scenes. The front camera, positioned in the right bezel for landscape mode selfies, offers natural-looking photos but suffers from exposure issues. Both cameras are adequate for video calls and casual photography but do not stand out in this category.

Verdict

The Realme Pad presents itself as a strong contender in the budget tablet space, particularly with its premium build, excellent audio, and clean software experience. While it faces competition from devices like the Xiaomi Mi Pad 5 and Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE, it offers exceptional value for money at its price point. Prospective buyers should weigh its strengths against the limitations of its IPS display, modest camera capabilities, and relatively slow charging speed.