Rating: 4/5
Price: Rs 17,999
A few years ago it seemed like tablets were a dying breed. But working/learning/enjoying local culture caused by the pandemic seems to have led to a resurgence of this category. Many are considering tablets as an alternative to laptops for attending online lectures. Some find it better for group video calls due to the larger screen real estate. And they have always served as an extra screen at home for personal entertainment.
Popular smartphone brand Realme has entered the budget tablet segment with a product that promises to offer more than the incumbents in the sub-Rs 20,000 segment. The Realme Pad looks impressive on paper. Time to find out what’s good about it, what’s not, and if it’s actually one of the best options on this budget.
The Realme Pad. Image courtesy: realme.com
Realme Pad: Theme
Although this is a budget tablet, the design has more than a touch of style. The champagne gold aluminum frame and back look elegant, and the tablet is less than 7mm thin; probably slimmer than all realme phones if i remember correctly. You also get a metallic gray color here. It weighs around 440 grams but is not too heavy in the hand. If there’s one thing I would change about the design, it would be the bezels; They could have been thinner than they are, and yet you can comfortably grab the tablet from the sides.
The champagne gold aluminum frame and back look elegant, and the tablet is less than 7mm thin; probably slimmer than all Realme phones
The Realme Pad is meant to be used in landscape mode rather than portrait mode. The company hints at this by placing the front camera in the middle of the longer edge of the tablet. You get a power button, volume rocker, SIM/microSD card tray, USB-C port, and a couple of mics around the edges and a couple of speakers on either side of the screen (in landscape mode). There is an 8 MP camera on the back of the tablet.
Realme Pad: Display
The Realme Pad features a 10.4-inch 8-bit WUXGA+ display with a resolution of 2000 x 1200 pixels. Simply put, a screen with a slightly higher resolution than Full HD and the ability to display 16.7 million shades of color, which is very good for a budget tablet. I believe it uses an IPS panel and the viewing angles are pretty good. It has a standard 60Hz refresh rate, and scrolling just feels a little stuttery, or maybe I’ve been spoiled by 90Hz and 120Hz refresh rate displays on phones in the last year or so.
The Realme Pad features a 10.4-inch 8-bit WUXGA+ display with a resolution of 2000 x 1200 pixels.
The screen has a nominal brightness of 360 nits and is bright enough indoors and just about bright enough outdoors. The contrast is impressive and so is the color reproduction. Although HDR isn’t supported, colors feel vibrant without looking overdone. It is compatible with Widevine L1, which means you can watch Full HD content on OTT platforms like Netflix on this tablet. The screen is protected by some sort of scratch-resistant glass (brand not specified), but it certainly doesn’t have an oleophobic coating and attracts a lot of smudges. You need to wipe it off from time to time.
It is compatible with Widevine L1, which means you can watch Full HD content on OTT platforms like Netflix on this tablet
Realme Pad: specifications and main features
The Realme Pad is powered by a Mediatek Helio G80 SoC with Mali-G52 MC2 GPU and you have a choice of 3GB RAM with 32GB internal storage or 4GB RAM with 64GB storage. You can expand it up to 1TB with a microSD card, which is a good option. You get either a WiFi-only variant (3GB/32GB) of this tablet, or a WiFi + LTE variant with a 4G SIM slot for calls and mobile data. We got the latter with 64 GB of storage for testing. Wireless connectivity options include Bluetooth 5.0 and dual-band WiFi with support for 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks.
The tablet has two 8 MP cameras, one on the front and the other on the back. The rear camera is for basic use only and not for serious photography. The front camera features an ultra-wide-angle lens with a 105-degree field of view, which comes in handy for video calls. As I mentioned earlier, the Realme Pad’s quad speakers are Dolby Atmos compatible and the output is surprisingly loud and punchy at near max volume. One thing I missed here is a fingerprint scanner to unlock the screen. I still prefer it over face unlock or passcodes/patterns. However, I’m not sure if too many tablets in this segment have it.
Realme Pad: software and interface
This tablet runs Android 11 with Realme UI for Pad. The UI here is much closer to stock Android than the Realme UI you get on their phones. Either way, that’s not a bad thing. The user interface is clean, slick, and fairly free of bloatware. In fact, most of the pre-installed apps are Google services, with the possible exception of Facebook. Given the clear possibility that this tablet will be used by kids, you also have a few kid-friendly apps like Kids Space and YT Kids. You can choose who (adults or children) will use the tablet during setup and it will be configured accordingly.
The user interface is clean, smooth and free from bloatware
Realme Pad: Performance
The general performance of this tablet is perfectly fine. The G80 processor is powerful enough for everyday tasks like browsing, watching videos, video calls or listening to music. It tends to get a bit sluggish if you open too many apps at once, but that has more to do with the limited RAM. Also, don’t be fooled by the mention of the Helio G80 as a gaming processor on this tablet’s listing page. While it can easily handle some casual or less graphics-intensive games, don’t expect games like Asphalt 9 to run smoothly on high visual settings.
Typing articles on a tablet is not my thing, nor is it very comfortable on the Realme Pad. There are no keyboard accessories announced by Realme for this tablet. In fact, I don’t think the company is making accessories available anymore. There is no cover either. This tablet is not ideal for content creation or using productivity apps. But when it comes to content consumption, this product is a great option.
Watching content on Netflix or Prime Video on this tablet was an enjoyable experience. While you can always use Bluetooth headphones with it, I often found myself watching videos without headphones. The four speakers present here do a great job most of the time when you crank the volume closer to 90 per cent or beyond, and Dolby Atmos compliance gives it a wider soundstage than you’d expect from built-in speakers on a tablet. Being an Android tablet gives you the option to cast the content to larger screens of compatible TVs.
The four speakers and Dolby Atmos compliance give it a wider soundstage than you’d expect from built-in speakers on a tablet
Surfing the Internet or reading e-books also runs smoothly here. The screen offers multiple display modes for different lighting and activities. You get Reading Mode, Night Mode, More Darkness, and Sunlight Mode. While it doesn’t turn the screen into a Kindle, the first two modes are much easier on the eyes when reading in a dimly lit environment. Video calls are handled well too, and the larger screen gives you a lot more breathing room for multi-party group calls.
While the front camera is good enough for video calls, the rear camera is nothing special. It’s only there for basic use when you urgently need to record something on the tablet and not as an alternative for your phone camera. With the LTE variants of the Realme Pad, you can add a 4G SIM and make voice calls. It doesn’t have a handset like phones, but the built-in microphones and speakers handle calls surprisingly well. You can always use a Bluetooth headset for better call quality or privacy.
Realme Pad: battery life
The Realme Pad has a 7100mAh battery that during testing gave it about two days of moderate use, including a couple of hours of watching content on Netflix, two hours of browsing and reading e-books, and 30 minutes video calls daily. That’s a pretty decent backup battery. It supports 18W fast charging and the included charger takes almost 3 hours to fully charge it, which isn’t great. The tablet supports reverse charging and can be used as a power bank to charge other devices.
Realme Pad: price and verdict
The Realme Pad is available for Rs 13,999 for the WiFi-only variant with 3GB RAM and 32GB storage and goes up to Rs 17,999 for the WiFi + LTE variant with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage. Prices are pretty decent as the competition, mainly from Samsung and Lenovo, doesn’t offer anything significantly better under Rs 20,000. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a category-defining product, but it’s a well-rounded tablet that’s great for media consumption, reading and video calls, runs a newer version of Android, offers decent battery backup and is worth the asking price.
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