Realme Pad review: Lightweight tablet good for learning and entertainment

Realme is steadily building its ecosystem products in India, making strides in categories other than smartphone. After foraying into the consumer PC market recently with the Realme Book Slim laptop (review), the Chinese electronics maker launched its debut tablet, the Realme Pad. With a price starting at Rs 13,999, it is an entry-level Android operating system-based tablet. With a big screen, quad-speaker set-up, and Wi-Fi and LTE connectivity, the Realme Pad seems to be an impressive tablet for people on-the-go, especially for learning and entertainment purposes.

Design

The Realme Pad is an entry-level tablet, but its design does not give away its humble roots. It boasts a thin (6.9mm) and lightweight (440g) metal body with rounded corners and tapered edges. The metal body gives it a premium look, and the rounded corners and tapered edges make it easy to hold and operate. Speaking of handling, the Realme Pad has thick screen bezels. While bezels are seen as an obstruction in smartphones, in tablets they give users some room to comfortably hold and operate the device without accidentally touching the screen. That said, the Realme Pad does not require you to make too many adjustments while handling.

Display and Audio

Tablets are called big-screen slates for a reason – their utility is derived primarily from screens. Thankfully, Realme has made no compromises here. The Realme Pad boasts a mammoth 10.4-inch screen of a 2000 x 1200 (WUXGA+) resolution. Though a TFT panel, the screen has modest brightness and contrast. Viewing angles are not great, but it is a smaller compromise here if you compare with other entry-level tablet offers. Complementing the viewing experience is the Dolby Atmos-powered quad-speaker with Hi-Res audio support. The speakers are loud and clear. They have some depth, too, for bass effect. Interestingly, the Realme Pad supports stereo-widening effect in both portrait and landscape orientations. One must give it to Realme for paying attention to details here; such small value-additions have a big impact on user experience. For these reasons, the Realme Pad makes a solid companion for entertainment purposes.

UI and Performance

The Realme Pad boots Android 11 operating system with Realme UI layered on top. There are two sides of the UI – Google and Realme. Starting with Google, the Android OS for tablets has not been worked upon for a long time. Therefore, the OS looks half-baked and similar to the Android for smartphones. This is where the Realme Pad’s limitations mostly stem from. For example, most Android apps are optimised for smartphones, not tablets. Therefore, they do not look great on the big screen. Likewise, the user interface elements like setting menu are layered and not optimised for a big-screen experience. A side-by-side view would have been ideal here. Coming to the Realme side of the UI, it is mostly good but there are some weak elements too. Realme has kept its custom skin free from bloatware and unnecessary stuffing of features – like it does also in its smartphones. But then, it has not polished the otherwise unbaked Android for tablet operating system. Some lessons from Samsung and its stellar Android tablets line-up may help Realme here, if the company is serious about taking the tabs line forward.

OS and UI details aside, the Realme Pad is a modest performer. It works fine for basic everyday tasks like video conferencing, web browsing, music streaming, video streaming and social media. It can support casual gaming too, but do not consider it for gaming purposes. The lack of additional accessories like keyboard cover hinders its productivity quotient, thus limiting its utility. That said, the Realme Pad is a good fit for someone looking for a big-screen device on budget for learning and entertainment purposes.

Camera

The Realme Pad sports an 8-megapixel camera on the front and back. Both cameras are satisfactory, not exceptional. These are good for daylight photography, but stutter in low light. They do, however, work fine for video-conferencing purposes.

Battery

Powering the Realme Pad is a 7,100 mAh battery, supported by an 18W fast charger. The on-battery time is good and the tablet keeps going for about a day easily on a single charge. Charging time is not great as the tab takes about four hours to charge fully.

Verdict

The Realme Pad is a solid entry-level tablet good for learning and entertainment purposes. Despite limitations, it is a solid debut for Realme in the tablets space because it scores well in areas that matter the most – screen, audio, build, design, performance, etc. With little to no competition in the entry-level tablets segment, the Realme Pad looks poised for success.

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