This year, OnePlus launched two new tablets, a more premium OnePlus Pad earlier in February and a OnePlus Pad Go a few weeks ago. This one is a more affordable tablet from the Chinese tech company priced around 20k. To meet the pricing, the corporation made several settlements. The OnePlus latest low-cost tablet is a must-have if you’re seeking a multimedia tablet for your children to use for online classes or office work without breaking the bank. So let’s see how good the OnePlus Pad Go tablet is for this price segment in our review.

OnePlus Pad Go Review: Design and Display

So first let’s talk about the design aspect of this tablet. It is worth noting that there are many design similarities, especially with the camera module, which has a striking resemblance to the more expensive OnePlus Pad. In comparison to other tablets on the market, it is very lightweight due to its extremely slim chassis. Since this is a budget tablet, the fact that the bezels are not particularly tiny is understandable. They are positioned to provide you with the ideal amount of room to hold it without obstructing the screen on all sides. Overall, there is nothing wrong with this tablet.

The in-hand feel of the tablet is good and has a nice overall fit and finish. We appreciate that it has round curve edges since they make it much more comfortable to grip and use for extended periods. This tablet feels much lighter because of its excellent and balanced weight management.

The volume rocker key is available on the right side of the frame. The antennas on both corners are also visible. There is a two-speaker grille and a USB Type-C port at the bottom. By the way, there is a quad speaker system; the other two speakers are on the other side at the top along with a hybrid SIM tray (two nano SIMs or one nano SIM and a micro SD card) and the power button. Unfortunately, unlike the more expensive OnePlus Pad, the OnePlus Pad Go lacks a stylus and isn’t compatible with the OnePlus keyboard; nevertheless, you may use any third-party keyboard.

The back panel has a meta chassis with a dual-tone finish and OnePlus is calling this Twin Mint. When the tablet is held horizontally, the centre of the device features a camera module with a shiny finish, and the company’s logo is located directly beneath it. There are some fingerprints and smudges drawn to the glossy part. Also, the positioning of the camera is perfect when you want to record in landscape mode and do video calling.

Moving on to the display, now OnePlus Pad Go comes with an 11.35-inch 2.4K LCD with 2,408 x 1,720 pixels of resolution. The screen features a 90Hz refresh rate, a 7.5 aspect ratio and a touch sampling rate of 180Hz. Furthermore, the panel has a pixel density of 220 ppi and a peak brightness of 400 nits. The display supports Dolby Vision and HDR10+ and is protected against blue light with TuV Rheinland filters.

The display size is ideal when using a Word document or browsing the web. More information can be displayed on the screen due to the increased amount of vertical space available.

Regarding its audio, the tablet has a quad-speaker setup (as said) that is supported by Dolby Atmos. The resonance is top-notch and gives spectacular sound to any type of viewing.

OnePlus Pad Go Review: Performance and Cameras

The OnePlus Pad Go is powered by MediaTek Helio G99 octa-core SoC with Mali-G57 MP2 GPU. It will be available in Wi-Fi and LTE variants with up to 8GB LPDDR4X RAM with 256GB UFS 2.2 storage options. It operates on Android 13-based OxygenOS 13.1. The OxygenOS feels like a stock Android. There are no unwanted bloatware apps and overall users get a very smooth experience. 

Given that it is a tablet the operating system OxygenOS is kind of optimised for the tablet experience and comes with some extra capabilities like split screen, play through, and screen mirroring—features that are typically found on OnePlus devices. 

The UI experience is more akin to that of OnePlus phones. Customising the lock screen and home screen is quite easy. There is an option called special features offering features like a Taskbar for seeing recently opened apps. In addition to this, there is a Split screen option for easy multitasking, flexible windows, dual windows and even more.

As we mentioned earlier the tablet supports screen mirroring, which mirrors your OnePlus device for quick access. The OnePlus cross-device function will allow you to copy and paste stuff from one device to another, manage Gallery, and open apps. The tablet also comes with all the Google App Suite and even Microsoft Office apps- Word, Excel and PowerPoint which we are pretty much sure most people are going to use.

OnePlus Pad Go is an excellent tablet available for watching movies and entertainment purposes. Full-resolution streaming of Netflix and Prime Videos is made possible via Widevine L1 certification. It features an excellent, sharp, and crisp display in addition to very outstanding sound quality, even while streaming over-the-top content. 

By the way, the OnePlus Pad Go has one of the largest displays available in this price range, so it’s rather excellent in terms of visual experience. It performs well in terms of brightness levels. 

Because of the excellent, vivid, and colourful display, this tablet is primarily focused on multimedia. 

Also Read: OnePlus Pad review: The Android tablet we’ve all been waiting for!

The quad speakers with Dolby Atmos capabilities enhance the experience. The sound quality is outstanding and the performance is excellent for entertainment purposes. It’s amazing how well the instrument’s separation from the vocals is clear.  Also, the speakers adjust their position based on how the tablet is held giving you a completely immersive experience. 

However, the device lacks a fingerprint scanner and uses face unlocking. Therefore, one has to depend on the face unlock or PIN/pattern.   

Since the Helio G99 is not a performance-focused chip, its performance is kind of mediocre. Saying that it does a great job managing all your day-to-day tasks like browsing, using Word Documents and binge-watching well. The apps open instantly, multitasking is excellent and launching multiple apps and Windows functions flawlessly. Also, most recently used apps are always stored in memory. When compared to the OnePlus Pad, navigating between the apps and other features was not the best experience. Furthermore, OnePlus markets this one as an entertainment tablet rather than a performance tablet. So bear that in mind when purchasing.

When it comes to the aforementioned tasks, it does rather well; however, gaming is not its strong suit. Though we did play BGMI, the Helio G99’s performance is not suited for high-end gaming, hence it is not a gaming device. There were no lags or frame dropouts, and we were able to achieve roughly 30FPS. Thus, you will experience a weak performance if you plan to run a lot of high-end games and editing apps. 

Due to the tablet’s 4G connectivity and dialer application, calls can be placed and received using it. 

Now let’s talk about the cameras, here you get a single 8-megapixel sensor placed right at the rear centre and a front-facing 8-megapixel selfie camera. We did give it a quick test for WhatsApp and Google Meet. There was hardly any noise and the video quality was crystal clear and clean. Additionally, it features a wide viewing angle in case there are more participants in the video chat. Of course, this can be used for video calls, but tablets aren’t meant for taking pictures. The cameras are of very average quality however 1080p video may be recorded with both the front and rear cameras.

Also Read: Xiaomi Pad 6 Review: Is this the best midrange Android tablet around?

Let’s now talk about endurance. The OnePlus Pad Go packs an 8,000mAh with 33W SuperVOOC charging support. The 33W charger took about two hours to fully charge the tablet; there was no problem with the charging process. Though the charging speed is not the fastest available, this is still acceptable. We are also impressed with the battery’s endurance. It easily lasted us for 2-3 days with average to high usage. 

Verdict

The OnePlus Pad Go bridges the gap between high-end and low-cost tablets. Essentially, the multimedia experience is its primary focus, and it truly shines in that area. In terms of split screen, mirroring, copy and paste, gallery access, opening apps, and other functions, this OnePlus device is fairly good. 

Both the front and rear cameras produce average-quality photos, although the tablet camera’s primary function is making video calls. You also get a good battery life if you travel a lot and consume OTT content. 

OnePlus Pad Go is undoubtedly an excellent tablet if you’re looking for one for everyday use. For those who want a performance-oriented tablet, this is not the one to go for. The OnePlus Pad Go is one of the best available in the market in the mid to budget segment. 

Pros

• Sleek metallic design
• Good build quality
• Crisp display 
• Software experience is also good
• Long battery life

Cons

• Above average performance
• Only 400 nits of peak brightness
• Not a gaming tablet
• Average camera performance