Introduction and specs
The Oppo Pad Air and the Realme Pad X are both BBK Electronics-made tablets released a couple of days apart, but key hardware differences set them apart. Also, while the Pad X is an India-only device, Oppo's device is also available in Europe. It's a budget tablet, this one. At first glance, it seems to be a multimedia-focused tablet as opposed to Realme's extended capabilities provided by a magnetic keyboard and stylus. Pad Air supports only stylus input.
Powered by the Snapdragon 680, the Pad Air runs on a relatively big 10.36-inch IPS LCD panel, which takes things one step further compared to the Realme Pad X by offering 10-bit color depth (1 billion colors). For a complete multimedia experience, the Pad Air offers a set of four stereo speakers tuned by Dolby Atmos. It's worth noting, though, that the 10-bit color depth is not true 10-bit. It's 8-bit hardware + 2-bit software implementation.
Introduction and specs
Oppo Pad Air specs at a glance:
- Body: 245.1x154.8x6.9mm, 440g; ; Stylus support.
- Display: 10.36" IPS LCD, 1B colors, 360 nits (typ), 1200x2000px resolution, 15:9 aspect ratio, 225ppi.
- Chipset: Qualcomm SM6225 Snapdragon 680 4G (6 nm): Octa-core (4x2.4 GHz Kryo 265 Gold & 4x1.9 GHz Kryo 265 Silver); Adreno 610.
- Memory: 64GB 4GB RAM, 128GB 4GB RAM, 128GB 6GB RAM; UFS 2.2; microSDXC.
- OS/Software: Android 12, ColorOS 12.
- Rear camera: 8 MP, f/2.0.
- Front camera: 5 MP, f/2.2.
- Video capture: Rear camera: 1080p@30fps; Front camera: 1080p@30fps.
- Battery: 7100mAh; Fast charging 18W, USB Power Delivery, Reverse charging.
- Misc: Accelerometer, gyro, compass; stereo speakers (4 speakers).
Everything is powered by a more than reasonable 7,100 mAh battery supporting 18W fast charging over the Power Delivery standard. And if you run out of juice on one of your devices, the Pad Air will gladly share some using a cable.
Oppo's latest ColorOS 12, based on Android 12, ties the whole room together by offering advanced multi-tasking features, which should work great on the 5:3 display.
But it's not all specs and hardware, especially when tablets are involved, so there's a lot more to explore beneath the surface. Make sure you check out the rest of the pages, as our thorough testing will likely answer your question about whether the Pad Air is the right choice for you.
Unboxing the Oppo Pad Air
The Oppo Pad Air comes in a relatively big retail box containing the usual user manuals and a chunky 18W charger along with a USB-A to USB-C cable used for charging and data transfer.
The tablet can also be coupled with a stylus, but you have to buy it separately.
Design and ergonomics
The Oppo Pad Air's design is a bit out of the ordinary in a way, as it has a two-tone design on the back. And even though it's a budget tablet, Oppo was able to put it together using mostly aluminum and glass. The side frame and most of the back is made of anodized aluminum, while the strip alongside the right edge is plastic with "Sunset Dune 3D" texture. It looks cool in the photos, but it also feels quite cheap to the touch. Maybe a full aluminum body would have been nice.
Unlike the Realme's Pad X, the Pad Air is lighter, and it's sensibly thinner too, measuring just 6.9 mm in thickness. The Pad Air tips the scale at just 440 grams.
Aside from the strip on the back, there's nothing out of the ordinary. The camera lens sticks out ever so slightly, and there's no camera bump at all. We like that.
Just like the Realme Pad X, the Oppo Pad Air is meant to be used in landscape mode. When holding it horizontally, the selfie camera is located in the middle of the long bezel, while the power button is positioned near the top-left edge, on the left-hand side.
The USB-C connector is placed between the two speaker grilles on the right. Since the tablet has four speakers, it has two grilles on each side.
Oppo Pad Air
Speaking of bezels, they are pretty thin and symmetrical and make the tablet look nice overall. Still, they are wide enough to provide a comfortable grip without accidental touches.
Overall, we liked the design and kudos to Oppo for using aluminum for most of the Pad Air's build. The company has also fitted the 10.36-inch screen into a rather compact, portable body. It feels quite light, too. We are not big fans of the "Dune" strip; it makes the device feel cheap.
IPS LCD panel with 1 billion colors, sortof
The display is business as usual, and it's not all that different from what the competition has to offer. The Oppo Pad Air has a 10.36-inch IPS LCD panel with 1200 x 200px resolution, which is a 5:3 aspect ratio.
We were able to measure a maximum brightness of 352 nits; there's no additional boost in brightness in bright light. So 352 nits of peak brightness might not be enough for a comfortable viewing experience outside on a bright sunny day. In terms of contrast, the Pad Air is also slightly behind the competition with a 1:1391 contrast ratio.
The display is cited as having 10bit color support however, it's not HDR10 video compliant and the hardware only supports 8 bits with the other 2 bits realized by software.
However, the bigger issue with this screen is the prominent contrast shift when viewing the display at an angle, suggesting a low-quality IPS panel. The Realme Pad X, for instance, didn't have any contrast shifting.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, |
White, |
||
| 0.282 | 522 | 1851:1 | |
| 0.457 | 513 | 1123:1 | |
| 0.298 | 496 | 1664:1 | |
| 0.376 | 478 | 1271:1 | |
| 0.229 | 432 | 1886:1 | |
| 0.263 | 402 | 1529:1 | |
| 0.267 | 392 | 1468:1 | |
| 0.253 | 352 | 1391:1 | |
As far as color accuracy is concerned, we found that the best option is to opt for the Warm color preset in Settings since the whites and grays have a strong blue tinge by default. Then again, whites and grays turn a bit green-ish, and there's no option to fine tune the color temperature to mitigate that.
Battery life
One would expect extra long battery life from a system that runs on a 7,100 mAh battery and not-so-demanding Snapdragon 680 chipset. Well, the results from our tests show a bit underwhelming endurance.
Both the web browsing and video playback scores were around the 10-hour mark, while most competitors easily push beyond 10 hours. Even the 12-inch Honor Pad 8, which features a similar 7,250 mAh battery and the same chipset, got more than 11 hours on the web browsing test.
On the other hand, those runtimes should be more than enough to get you through a full workday away from the charger, depending on the screen brightness, of course.
Charging speed
Charging speed isn't one of the Pad Air's strongest suits. The 18W-rated charger restored just 25% of the 7,100 mAh battery in the first 30 minutes, while a complete charge took almost two and a half hours. That's easily the slowest charging speed among the tablets we've reviewed recently. Even the Xiaomi Redmi Pad achieved slightly better charging times with a significantly bigger 8,000 mAh battery.
30min charging test (from 0%)
Higher is better
- Apple iPad mini (2021)
35% - Honor Pad 8
35% - Realme Pad X
30% - Xiaomi Redmi Pad
25% - Oppo Pad Air
25% - Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE
18%
Time to full charge (from 0%)
Lower is better
- Apple iPad mini (2021)
1:57h - Honor Pad 8
1:57h - Realme Pad X
2:00h - Xiaomi Redmi Pad
2:21h - Oppo Pad Air
2:25h - Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE
3:05h
Speakers
The Oppo Pad Air features a total of four speakers tuned to be compliant with the Dolby Atmos standard, but to our surprise, we weren't impressed with the quality or loudness. Our test returned a somewhat underwhelming result of -28.3 LUFS of loudness, while depth was also lacking. Vocals sound decent, and overall sound clarity is okay, but the bass is virtually non-existent.
Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.
ColorOS 12 for Pad on top of Android 12
The tablet runs on Oppo's latest ColorOS 12 for Pad, which is based on Android 12. It's indistinguishable from the smartphone version of the software, and it's also nearly identical to Realme's Realme UI 3.0, which we saw on the Realme Pad X.
Overall appearance and aesthetics are pretty close to stock Android, but colors, iconography and some small UI elements are easily distinguishable. The notification shade and the recent apps menu are business as usual.
Perhaps one of the centerpiece features of the software is the multi-tasking capabilities. The so-called Flexible Window feature is present on Realme's smartphones, but it works better on a bigger screen. There's a customizable sidebar, which you can pull out and tap on an app that supports Flexible Window. The app will then run in a small, interactable window, which can be minimized in the same sidebar tray. There's also a quick shortcut to Flexible Window in the recent apps menu.
Multi-tasking features
However, we found that you can run only one app in a window and another one that's full-screen. Opening a second app, say a file explorer and Chrome, would minimize the previously opened app. A bit limiting for a multitasking feature. Then again, you can run two instances of the same app simultaneously, which is quite convenient in some scenarios. You can keep two Chrome instances open simultaneously, for example.
There's also the Multi-Screen connect, which has been a thing on Honor and Huawei devices for quite some time now. It allows you to seamlessly share files with your phone and even share screens. Think of it as an extra small monitor for extra screen real estate as you work. Interestingly enough, while Realme's Multi-Screen Collaboration is limited to just a few Realme models at the moment, Oppo's Multi-Screen Connect should, in theory, work with every phone running ColorOS 12.1 and above.
Home screen, recent apps, app drawer, noptification shade
A well-known feature but worthy of a mention is the Reading Mode. The standard LCD panel could be tiring to your eyes if you have an e-book or long documents to read. That's why Reading Mode adjusts the display's color tone and contrast to mimic reading paper. There are two modes - Eye Comfort Mode that adjusts color temperature while the Dark Mode is more suitable for really dark environments.
General settings and customization options
Other notable options include customizations of icons, accent color and quick toggle shapes, as well as notification handling. An experimental feature under the Realme Lab tab allows you to stream audio simultaneously through two pairs of headphones - one wired and one via Bluetooth.
Performance and benchmarks
The Snapdragon 680 chipset powering up the Oppo Pad Air provides just enough performance for rather trouble-less and decently fast operations. However, there are more powerful alternatives on the market. The lack of 4K video recording shouldn't be an issue for a tablet in this class, though.
The chip is based on TSMC's 6nm manufacturing process and consists of 4x2.4 GHz Kryo 265 Gold & 4x1.9 GHz Kryo 265 Silver CPU cores. The GPU is Adreno 610.
GeekBench 5 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- Huawei MatePad 11 (2021)
3282 - Xiaomi Pad 5
2583 - Realme Pad X
2026 - Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE 5G
1904 - Xiaomi Redmi Pad
1852 - Oppo Pad Air
1661 - Honor Pad 8
1545
GeekBench 5 (single-core)
Higher is better
- Huawei MatePad 11 (2021)
920 - Xiaomi Pad 5
743 - Realme Pad X
691 - Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE 5G
615 - Xiaomi Redmi Pad
554 - Oppo Pad Air
384 - Honor Pad 8
376
AnTuTu 9
Higher is better
- Huawei MatePad 11 (2021)
639631 - Xiaomi Pad 5
555079 - Realme Pad X
395824 - Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE 5G
355430 - Xiaomi Redmi Pad
319077 - Honor Pad 8
279242 - Oppo Pad Air
249172
GFX Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Huawei MatePad 11 (2021)
20 - Xiaomi Pad 5
16 - Realme Pad X
12 - Xiaomi Redmi Pad
8.3 - Oppo Pad Air
4.9 - Honor Pad 8
4.8
GFX Aztek Vulkan High (offscreen 1440p)
Higher is better
- Huawei MatePad 11 (2021)
21 - Xiaomi Pad 5
19 - Realme Pad X
8.2 - Xiaomi Redmi Pad
5.5 - Honor Pad 8
3.2 - Oppo Pad Air
3.2
GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Huawei MatePad 11 (2021)
44 - Xiaomi Pad 5
35 - Realme Pad X
31 - Xiaomi Redmi Pad
22 - Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE 5G
16 - Honor Pad 8
13 - Oppo Pad Air
13
GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)
Higher is better
- Huawei MatePad 11 (2021)
86 - Xiaomi Pad 5
43 - Realme Pad X
34 - Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE 5G
31 - Xiaomi Redmi Pad
25 - Honor Pad 8
15 - Oppo Pad Air
15
3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)
Higher is better
- Huawei MatePad 11 (2021)
3797 - Xiaomi Pad 5
3396 - Xiaomi Redmi Pad
1242 - Realme Pad X
1217 - Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE 5G
1092 - Honor Pad 8
450 - Oppo Pad Air
450
As you can see, the Oppo Pad Air falls short of the competition in terms of raw horsepower, even though the Snapdragon 680 is capable enough to provide a rather smooth day-to-day experience. Still, we would have wished for a bit more powerful SoC, like the Snapdragon 695 powering up the Realme Pad X, for example.
8MP on the back and 5MP on the front
As it's usually the case with tablets, the camera setup isn't anything to write home about. There's only one camera on the back - 8MP, f/2.0 with autofocus, while the front has a 5MP, f/2.2. They both do just fine for general use, like video calls or sending pictures over messaging apps.
We took a couple of samples with the back camera to see how it performs, but we were kind of disappointed, even for a tablet. Compared to most competitors, Pad Air fails to deliver decent enough images. Saturation is lacking, contrast is low and dynamic range is narrow. And those photos were taken on a nice, sunny day.
Main camera samples
The front-facing camera isn't impressive either, but in good lighting conditions, it can get the job done for casual video calls. Still a bit too fuzzy, though.
Selfie
Video recording capabilities cap at 1080@30fps, and the result is also underwhelming. The video is barely usable - it's extremely soft, with a narrow dynamic range and washed-out colors.
Verdict
The Oppo Pad Air is a budget tablet making it a bit hard for us to complain, but at the same time, the device doesn't really stand out from the crowd with memorable features or hardware. The Pad Air is okay in most aspects and drags behind the competition in others.
The display has a contrast shift at an angle, and it's 60Hz only; the camera image quality is appalling, battery life is below average, and even the charging speed isn't competitive. The set of four speakers failed to impress as well.
On the other hand, the build quality is nice; it has a microSD card slot, performance is mostly on par with the competition, it's lightweight, and it has capable software with some advanced multitasking functionalities.
Unfortunately, it's hard to recommend the tablet at the current price. At INR17,000 in India, it's a direct competitor to the Redmi Pad and it's a much better choice. At €300 in Europe for 4/64GB, it's downright expensive as there is a small gap within reach of the Xiaomi Pad 5, which is a device in a whole different market segment. Not to mention the older Realme Pad, which at least as good and costs a lot less.
Pros
- Nice build quality, thin and lightweight design.
- microSD card slot, USB OTG with reverse charging.
- Feature-rich and highly customizable ColorOS 12 based on Android 12.
Cons
- Display is not very high quality.
- Battery life and charging speed not great.
- Camera image quality is poor.
- Speakers sound dull and not very loud.
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