OCT 18, 2023
NimishAndAkriti
For most of us, buying tablets is a simple equation:
Tablet = iPad
But though Apple's iPad has almost become generic (we have lost count of the number of times we have heard of people asking for "Samsung's iPad"), there are other players in the tab market too. One of the newest is OnePlus. The brand released the OnePlus Pad earlier this year, a rather premium offering targeted at the iPad. And now it has come out with a more affordable tab, the Pad Go
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The OnePlus Pad Go starts at a price that is almost half of the original OnePlus Pad - Rs 19,999 as compared to the Rs 39,999 of the latter. And considering the difference in price, the Pad Go looks good. The body and frame are not metal, but have got the same dual tone and curved sides that the OnePlus Pad had. Like the OG OP tablet, this one too comes in green , although it is slightly lighter shade and more shiny! At 6.9 mm, this is a lean machine!
There is some potential for meanness inside that slim frame, The rather big 11.35 inch display with 2408 x 1720 resolution is one of the best in this segment. OnePlus has persisted with a 7:5 screen aspect, making this a wider than usual tablet. That makes it very good for reading content on. You also get a MediaTek Helio G99 processor with 8 GB/ 128 GB and 8 GB/ 256 GB RAM and storage. And God be praised, there is a microSD card slot for more storage!
You get quad speakers with support for Dolby Atmos, although there is no 3.5 mm audio jack. That Helio G99 is a decent chip for gaming, so with that display and those speakers, the Pad Go could be a very good mid-segment gaming machine and should also be great for viewing shows and reading. A big surprise is that while the original OnePlus Pad was only Wi-Fi, the more affordable Pad Go comes with Wi-Fi as was LTE versions. So you can put a SIM in it!
The 8 megapixel camera on the back again is in that rather odd "in the middle of one side" place, while the similarly megapixelled one in front is good for video calls. Will we be using the one on the back much? Am not sure. Battery life is said to be close to 14-15 hours, and you get a 33W charger in the box. Handy. The UI is OnePlus' Oxygen OS tweaked for tabs on top of Android 13 - a little bland and not packed with features but clean and simple!
The pricing of the OnePlus Pad go is:
8 GB/ 128 B (Wi-Fi) - Rs 19,999
8 GB/ 128 GB (LTE) - Rs 21,999
12 GB/ 256 GB (LTE) - Rs 23,99
A downer for the productivity types is that there are no keyboard covers or styluses from OP for this. But even then, given its design and specs, OnePlus Pad GO has the potential to be the best tablet in the Rs 20,000 range. It could be THE tab to Go for those who want a good tablet at about half the price of an iPad.
And as always, feel free to drop us any queries you may have about the product. We will do our best to reply.
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