at a glance
expert evaluation
Strong Points
- classy design
- decent stereo speakers
- strong battery life
Cons
- no fingerprint sensor
- moderate performance
- ColorOS is not the best UI
our verdict
The Oppo Pad Air is just as good as the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8, but with a better display, making it a great casual or secondary tablet. It’s not a performance genius and could do with a fingerprint sensor, but Oppo’s western tablet debut is ideal for those who shop on a budget.
Oppo has clearly been thinking long and hard about how to debut a tablet here in the West. Rather than rushing to grab a singing and dancing flagship tablet, the Oppo Pad Air turned out to be a very affordable competitor to the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8.
With the Apple iPad range dominating the market, all possibilities are down the ladder and there are few standout contenders for the tablet throne like £200. So is the Oppo Pad Air screaming?
It certainly makes a good first impression with its sleek design, decent display and good performance.
design and build
- slim and light design
- Plain
- no fingerprint sensor
Just looking at or holding the Oppo Pad Air doesn’t necessarily make you think it’s a £239 tablet. This is a classy kit with slim (6.9mm) all-metal construction and attractive iPad-style flat edges. In that sense, it’s very similar to the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8.
John Mundy / Foundry
Where the Oppo Pad Air stands out from its Android tablet rivals is a small visual flourish in the upper rear half. It is also comfortable to hold when you hold it.
As for how to hold the Oppo Pad Air, it’s significantly lighter than the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 at 440g (vs. 509g). This should become apparent during long reading, web browsing, or gaming sessions.
John Mundy / Foundry
The color choices are a bit overwhelming, either gray or silver, but the overall impression this conveys is a calming professional for adults rather than the “my first tablet” vibe of other affordable options. It’s a tablet.
The Pad Air’s affordability feature is evident in the lack of a fingerprint sensor. This omission is common with the Galaxy Tab A8, but it’s a shame it doesn’t include this basic biometric feature. , is not completely reliable.
screen & speaker
- vivid lcd display
- 60Hz refresh rate only
- 4 stereo speakers
The Oppo Pad Air features a 10.36 inch IPS LCD with a resolution of 2000 x 1200. This is a significant step up from the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8’s inferior TFT and 1920 x 1080 resolution, with more vibrant colors and excellent viewing angles.
John Mundy / Foundry
With up to 355 nits of brightness, it’s not particularly bright, but it also beats Samsung’s rivals. Area coverage beats the Galaxy Tab A8, and an average Delta E of 2.74 is far from par, but comfortably outperforms lower-end rivals.
It’s a shame the display’s refresh rate doesn’t exceed 60Hz, but that’s not what you’d expect from such an affordable tablet at this point. Apple still supplies his iPad and iPad Air with those specs, and they sell for hundreds of dollars more. That being said, the Redmi Pad will launch with a 90 Hz screen and cost a little more (£269).
John Mundy / Foundry
Overall, this is a solid canvas for video and web-based media content. This is further enhanced by the Oppo Pad Air’s stereo speakers. There are four of them, two on each end when laid horizontally, and they sound good for the price.
Specs & Performance
- Basic Snapdragon chipset
- Suitable for simple games
- 64GB base storage
Oppo has a Snapdragon 680 4G processor in its tablet. This is the chip we’re used to seeing in budget phones like the Realme 9 4G and Redmi Note 11.
It’s not a very powerful component, but it doesn’t have to be. There’s no pretending that this is a power user’s tool, and there’s no need for the processor to drive a high refresh rate display.
In terms of benchmarks, the Oppo Pad Air comfortably beats the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 in the CPU-focused Geekbench 5, but loses in all of the GPU-focused GFXBench tests. It’s worth remembering that the Pad Air drives a higher resolution display than its more affordable rivals. This definitely comes at a cost. Overall it scores higher than the Nokia T20.
When it comes to gaming, the Oppo Pad Air is good for light 2D fare. Even when you’re running something like Slay the Spire, you’ll see a distinct pause when you’re on the verge of death that definitely lets you know you’re playing on modest hardware. If you need more power, the next best thing on Android is the Xiaomi Pad 5, starting at £369.
Apart from the Snapdragon 680 4G, the Oppo Pad Air comes with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. Its entry-level storage offering is double that offered by the Galaxy Tab A8, which is another tick in Oppo’s favor. There is also
camera
- Garbage 8Mp rear camera
- Basic 5Mp selfie camera
- OK for video calls, but not much else
A quick summary of the Oppo Pad Air’s standalone 8Mp rear camera. It’s pretty bad, but don’t worry.
John Mundy / Foundry
Unlike smartphones, the camera is the least important component of a tablet, especially when it comes to such an affordable tablet.
This is good news. Because the bare minimum is exactly what you get here. In the few snaps I took with his Oppo Pad Air, the camera turned out to have poor detail, the exposure was off, the sensor struggled with dynamic range, and it sometimes focused correctly I couldn’t.
Elsewhere doesn’t have a dedicated night mode, and shooting in less than optimal lighting results in a lot of noise.
There’s a 5Mp selfie camera on the front, but you shouldn’t rely on it for anything other than video calls.
Battery life and charging
- Large capacity battery for the price
- Charges faster than other budget rivals
The Oppo Pad Air’s 7040 mAh battery is a good size for such a modest 10-inch tablet. If you’re a light user, it will last a few days between charges, but I was impressed with how little power it used when left untouched for a few days. The perfect tablet for
Our usual PCMark 3.0 battery life test didn’t go through with the Pad Air. This seems to be caused by an annoying low battery notification that kills the app at a crucial moment. It turns out to be visible.
John Mundy / Foundry
That puts it a little behind the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8, well ahead of the Nokia T20, and roughly on par with the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite.
Oppo offers an 18W wired charger for the tablet. This is good for charging a tablet from 0 to 23% in 30 minutes. It’s hardly great, but it’s significantly faster than the Galaxy Tab A8.
software
- Shipped with Android 12
- Runs Oppo’s heavy ColorOS skin
Oppo has brought Android 12 to its tablets. It’s no longer the latest version of Google’s OS, but with Oppo’s heavy ColorOS 12 skin smeared on top, it doesn’t really matter.
ColorOS, with its clean design and simple icons, is less desirable. However, the notification bar and settings menu have changed significantly, making it a little more off-the-shelf Android than we’d like.
John Mundy / Foundry
Luckily, bloatware can never be too taxing. Aside from the usual suite of self-made tool apps (calculator, compass, etc.), there are few irrelevant provisions. Netflix comes pre-installed, but it’s legitimate to include this in a device built for casual video streaming.
Pricing and Availability
The Oppo Pad Air can be purchased from Oppo’s website and Amazon. At the time of writing, it’s available from Oppo for £199, with a suggested retail price of £239.
Only the 64GB model is available for purchase in the UK, but the specs list on Oppo’s UK website lists a 128GB option.
There doesn’t seem to be any plans to launch the Oppo Pad Air in the US, but if that changes at any point, we’ll update this review.
John Mundy / Foundry
If you’re still not sure, check out our ranking of the best budget tablets to see what else is out there.
verdict
The Oppo Pad Air is a great full-sized affordable tablet that in many ways matches and outperforms its main rival, the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8. With a metal body and quad stereo speakers, everything feels complete.
However, its IPS LCD display is sharper and has better quality, giving Oppo’s tablet a better look and feel, from playing media to surfing the web to gaming. Performance is pretty mediocre, but it’s perfectly capable of handling the casual tasks required of the Pad Air.
The battery life is great, and the Oppo Pad Air’s impressive ability to juice itself when not in use makes it a reliable tablet that I have to hold in my hand for occasional use. If you’re budgeting less than £250 for a tablet, the Oppo Pad Air does the job with a fair amount of composure.
specification
- Android 12 and ColorOS 12
- 10.36″, 2K, IPS LCD, 60Hz, flat display
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 4G
- 4GB LPDDR4X RAM
- 64/128GB storage
- 8Mp, f/2.0 main camera
- 5Mp front-facing camera
- 4 x stereo speakers
- Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
- bluetooth 5.1
- 7100mAh battery
- 18W charging
- 245.08×154.84×6.94mm
- 440g
- Launch Colors: Gray, Silver
