Oppo Pad Air review: Sleek and stylish but short on power

• Oppo launched its first Android tablet in India.
• Oppo Pad Air features Qualcomm Snapdragon 680, 2K display and 4GB RAM.
• Quad speakers with Dolby Atmos support and a 7,100 mAh battery make it an ideal pick at ₹15,999.

Oppo launched its first Android tablet in India earlier this month. The tab is called the Oppo Pad Air, and it is priced at ₹15,999 for the base model and goes up to ₹19,999 for its top variant. It packs an octa-core Snapdragon 680 processor paired with RAM Expansion technology that is not found on a tablet at this price segment.
Oppo is not the first to jump on the tablet segment this year. Recently, Xiaomi has released its tab, Realme is also expected to launch it, and rumors are that OnePlus will also debut its tab later this year. The sudden revival of tabs is because of the increased demand after the pandemic for children, commuting, and home use.
At ₹15,999 for the base model, Oppo Pad Air seems like an ideal tab for Android users who want to watch movies or videos and keeps jumping across social media apps. It can handle basic productivity but don’t expect flagship performance from it.
The question is whether it has anything special that could make it more than a media consumption device? Let’s find out in this review.

Reasons to buy

• Compact and lightweight
• Premium build quality and design
• Sound quality
• Micro SD slot

Reasons to avoid

• Cluttered user interface
• Average display
• 4GB Ram

Oppo Pad Air: Pricing and Availability

Oppo Pad Air comes in grey color and is priced at ₹15,999 for the 4GB + 64GB variant and ₹19,999 for the 4GB +128GB variant. You can buy it from Oppo online store, Flipkart, and select offline stores. The tablet is only available in a single color grey, and comes with a charger, USB Type- C charging cable, one sim ejector tool, and a quick and safety guide.
No accessories are available for Oppo Pad Air, but we may soon see a flip cover and stylus pen.

Oppo Pad Air specifications and software

The tablet runs on ColorOS 12 with features multi-device connection, two-finger split-screen, and dual windows.

Oppo Pad Air design

Starting with the design of this tablet, I will say it's interesting. The back of Oppo Pad Air is separated into two parts- one is a matte finish and another textured part which is said to be inspired by dunes at sunset. The texture can be felt while holding the tablet, but most of us would use a cover on it.
The Oppo Pad Air feels quite premium; it is 6.94mm thick and weighs about 440g, which I found to be lightweight. There is enough bezel around the screen, so I can hold the tablet without worrying about accidentally touching the screen.

But it’s too thick for 2022 standards, to be honest.
There is a power button on the top right corner and a two-volume button on the right. The back of the tablet doesn’t attract a lot of fingerprints. Although, I would still recommend a cover given the slippery surface. Besides this, the camera bump is a fair size and does not make the tablet too wobbly.

Oppo Pad Air performance: Processor, user-interface, display, audio, camera, and battery life

An entry-level chipset powers the Oppo Pad Air tablet, Qualcomm Snapdragon 680, announced back in 2021. The chipset is quite popular among under ₹20,000 smartphones.
The processor is coupled with 4GB of RAM, which seems a bit questionable, especially considering it’s meant for gaming and multitasking.
Since this is Oppo’s first tablet in India, I had little expectations from the software.
The navigation button has an option to be placed either on the left or right side, and there is a little arrow to switch its position quickly, you can switch to a split screen just by swiping two fingers down.
Although the tablet performed fairly well when doing less productivity, such as watching videos, checking emails, browsing social media content, and using apps on a split screen. But, the user interface left asking for more and did not allow seamless navigation across apps; you will experience slow load times and jitters in the animation.

The screen is not the best but it is acceptable for a tablet at this price. It uses a 10.36-inch 2K IPS LCD screen with a 1200 x 2000 pixels resolution. The display looks bright and shows fairly accurate colors. But, the auto brightness level is a bit tricky, it keeps the display dull at ideal levels, hence you need to keep adjusting the brightness level manually. Also, the display is fine for web browsing, reading and is fairly responsive when scrolling through social media or a website. But keeping the price range in mind and the 60Hz display, don’t expect much if you are considering gaming.

The device features quad speakers with Dolby Atmos support, because of which audio quality sounded immersive when listing to music and watching movies, so much so that I didn't feel the need to connect earphones. It misses out on a 3.5mm jack, so keep your wireless earphones handy if you wish to connect earphones.

The Oppo Pad Air has an 8MP rear camera and a 5MP front camera, but the device lacks an LED flash. The rear camera is ideal for scanning documents and some basic photography. The 5MP front camera does fine for video calls. The rear camera records at 1080p x 720p at 30fps, while the front camera records at 1080p at 30fps.

The 7,100mAh battery lasted for a day-and-a-half on a single charge when used casually, which involved 1-2 hours of YouTube, browsing social media content, and using Slack and two email accounts on sync in the background. The tab comes with an 18W wired charger, that takes 1.5 hours to charge the device from 10-100%.

Final verdict

Oppo Pad Air is an affordable tablet built to offer a quality viewing experience and the ability to do basic tasks, which is not commonly found at this price point. However, the device misses a few things, such as a 3.5mm headphone jack and LTE connectivity. But you get a good display, battery life, and a fancy and lightweight tablet.
The Oppo Pad Air is a good pick for those who want a tablet for educational and entertainment purposes.
The device will compete against Realme Pad X, Nokia T20 LTE, Lenovo Tab LTE, and Samsung Galaxy Tab A8, as these devices are available for under ₹20,000.
SEE ALSO:
Samsung teases its upcoming foldable phone - check out the expected design and features
Oppo Reno 8 Pro Review - Flagship performance with a stellar camera set-up