the new benchmark inexpensive tablet

The pandemic has increased the uptime of many electronic devices, but except in work or study environments, PCs have not been the most in demand. Tablets are experiencing a resurgence that we’ve talked about several times, and brands don’t want to miss the opportunity. One of those which brought Europe a new proposal in this area is in fact that with the Realme Pad It offers a device not as powerful as Xiaomi’s bet, but not as expensive either.

Realme Pad Features

High level design

One of the things that attracts the most attention in this tablet is its design. Being a cheap tablet, we might expect too big frames or plastic materials. Neither.

The realme Pad uses an industrial design with straight edges, contained bezels and an aluminum back which gives a pretty nice quality feel. Plus, it doesn’t catch fingerprints, which is always appreciated.

We have a USB C charger and a headphone jack on one of the short sides, as well as two of the four speakers. On the other side, we have two more.

The power button is in a corner, next to the volume buttons, and they work well, although the first one lacks a fingerprint sensor. Yes, we have the face unlock, but it still would have been a nice addition.

As for the cameras, we have one in front and one behind, both with 8 Mpx and with adequate behavior for what a tablet is. We’re not going to take pictures with her on the street, are we?

Ideal for light gaming and multimedia consumption

Realme bragged about the processor used in this tablet, the Helio P80. It’s not a bad chipset, but it’s not designed to move very demanding games. It’s not for nothing that this is a mid-range processor. The 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal memory of the model we tested seem sufficient for this type of device, and when using apps or games we corroborate this.

We have tried tracks like Honkai Impact Third, but the feeling is not as good as we would like. It can be used, yes, but at times we went back to mobile because the fluidity was not adequate.

This, yes, in other titles like HearthStone, we enjoyed much more because it’s a slower game that takes up a lot of screen time.

The inclusion of the headphone jack is appreciated, although it is in such a special place as a corner of the sides. The model we tested also has 4G, which can sometimes be very attractive.

However, the best is the 4 speaker sound system, two on each side minor. The sound is clean and loud, although in the first 50% it seems to be at low volume. When we go up from there we see that it is not like that, although it is sometimes misleading.

We did not work with this tablet beca use it is not a device designed for it, although with some peripherals it can get us out of trouble, especially when we are on the go and have something similar to a laptop.

A mid-range screen, quite good

The realme Pad relies on an LCD panel with an FHD + resolution, with very good colors so as not to be an OLED. It is not a screen comparable to that of high-end tablets, but for the price it is more than adequate.

In addition, we can use gestures to control apps, besides changing some functions like interface tones to rest our eyes if we read for a long time.

Of course, there is something strange about the behavior of the tablet with YouTube. When we open the app and play a video, it automatically appears in 720p resolution. It is possible to manually change it to 1080p, to squeeze the panel, which, as we said, has FHD + resolution. But the appropriate thing would be that, by default, it appears at this resolution as long as the video is at it.

Two cameras are enough

As we mentioned earlier, the realme Pad has dual 8MP cameras. Both perform well in light and are excellent for making video calls or taking the occasional photo.

Of course, in low light the quality and detail drops, which is understandable since there is no night mode, HDR, or advanced stabilization system. To be a tablet, this section is consistent, honestly.

A large battery with an average autonomy

Tablets take much longer to charge than mobiles because their batteries are much larger. In this case we exceed 7000 mAh, which gives us between 10 and 12 hours of use, depending on what we are doing.

We refer to tasks such as browsing, social networks or playing videos. If we play or use more intense applications, the autonomy obviously decreases.

Charging time is close to three hours and we have 18W fast charging, but with such a big battery we need a lot of charger connection time.

The interface is quite minimalist

Realme named the interface of this tablet as Realme UI for Pad. The reality is that we don’t have many of the features available on cell phones, but that’s understandable.

We say this because the processor it has is not the best for performing demanding functions. The brand has therefore decided, with great criteria, to lighten the interface as much as possible.

So we have an interface based on Android 11 with a few additions, ideal for smooth everyday use, with some minor additional functions, like face unlock, something we really appreciate.

conclusion

The realme Pad is for sale in Europe, although at the time of publication of this review only in its 4 + 64 GB variant with Wifi, not with 4G. The price is a little higher than 250 dollars, although on sale it has come to be seen less than 200 dollars.

In the coming weeks we will have more options:

• Realme Pad WiFi 3 + 32 GB: 239 dollars
• Realme Pad WiFi 4 + 64 GB: 259 dollars
• Realme Pad WiFi 6 + 128 GB: 289 dollars
• Realme Pad LTE 6 + 128 GB: 309 dollars

Buying a tablet today in Europe is almost certainly buying a device for multimedia consumption, for watching videos, making a video call, etc. And over there the realme Pad is absolutely right, by the screen, by the sound and the battery.

And of course to be able to count on Google’s services and applications, which guarantee access to services like Netflix, Disney + or Filmin, to name a few.

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