OnePlus Pad 2 Review: Better than Samsung and Apple?

The OnePlus Pad 2 offers a powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, a 12.1-inch display with 3K resolution and 144Hz, as well as an optional stylus and keyboard. Nevertheless, the MSRP is only $549, which makes it almost half the price of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9+. Something’s not right, is it? That’s what we’ll find out in this review.

Hardware & Performance

OnePlus has equipped the Pad 2 with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, which is supported by 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. There is no version with LTE or 5G.

In my Geekbench 5 and 6 benchmark, it performed very poorly at the beginning – worse than tablets with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, even though it’s older. In fact, the performance is throttled out of the box. In the settings, you can switch on “high performance mode” under the “battery” menu and only then is the full performance of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 used.

OnePlus automatically uses the full power when playing games and also when running graphics benchmarks like 3D Mark. I think most people will never need to actively switch on high-performance mode, because OnePlus should regulate quite intelligently. But for synthetic benchmarks, it is definitely important.

In the Geekbench 5 benchmark, the Pad 2 is actually more powerful than the Apple iPad 10 and also faster than the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9+. The S9+ is significantly more expensive. However, tablets with the Apple M1 chipset or newer are still better.

The 3D-Mark Wild Life Extreme and Solar Bay comparison, which tests graphics performance, is also very exciting. Here, the Pad 2 is again more powerful than the iPad 10 and Galaxy Tab S9+. The iPad Air with M2 is stronger, but not that much stronger.

Gaming Test

I immediately tried a whole range of games and Disney’s Multiverse runs very smoothly and looks good too. I can say the same about Asphalt Unite. The game runs smoothly and the graphics are high-resolution with good effects. That’s how it should be with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.

That’s why you can also play PUBG Mobile with high UltraHD settings and the shooter runs wonderfully. I also had to try Fortnite, of course. It actually runs at between 60 and 90fps with the highest graphics settings. So, graphics on Epic, 3D resolution at 100%, and the frame rate at 90. Really great.

Zenless Zero also runs great at the highest graphics settings. I observed between 40 and 60fps here.

Display: 12.1-Inches with 144Hz

With the OnePlus Pad 2, we get a 12.1-inch display, which is a LCD and not an OLED. So that’s a big difference to the flagships from Apple and Samsung. Nevertheless, the resolution is very high at 3000 x 2120 pixels, and texts and icons look razor sharp.

I also think it’s great that it is very bright at 600 nits, as bright as the LCD of the 11-inch iPad Pro with M2 or the new iPad Air tablets. This is really great for an Android device and it even looks slightly brighter than the Galaxy Tab S9+. The latter has a much better and deeper black thanks to the AMOLED. With OnePlus, it’s more of a dark gray.

HDR is supported and can reach up to 900 nits. Currently, you can watch YouTube videos in HDR, but not Netflix. However, this may still come. You can watch Netflix in HD resolution and higher, so it has a Widevine level of L1.

Another positive thing about the Pad 2 is that it supports up to 144Hz. This is especially great for gamers.

I also think it’s great that it has a total of six speakers on the sides, which get loud and deliver a pleasant bass. Compared to Samsung, I couldn’t find any significant differences, so it’s at a flagship level.

Stylus: OnePlus Stylo 2

You can buy the OnePlus Stylo 2 for the tablet separately or, if you’re lucky, you’ll also find a good bundle deal.

The Stylo 2 is the size of the Apple Pencil Pro and therefore a little larger and more comfortable to hold than a normal S Pen. Although the case is made of plastic and sometimes feels a little cheap, it’s covered with a grippy surface that allows you to hold it securely and comfortably. It’s charged by induction on the tablet.

Like Apple’s, the tip is hard and supports 16,000 levels of pressure sensitivity. That’s a lot and means that you can use the pen and especially the pressure sensitivity particularly well. In fact, I enjoyed handwriting and drawing. The pen is very precise, reacts very quickly, especially in the in-house note-taking app, and feels comfortable. It also recognizes when you hold the stylus at an angle, which is good for shading.

The pen has a capacitive area on the side that can be used to change tools using gestures.

The software supports some useful features. For example, if you swipe the pen from the upper right corner to the center, you can start a sticky note or take a screenshot and annotate it. Handwriting recognition is also built in and, like Samsung, there is a screen-off note function. This allows you to quickly start a note even when the display is off.

The presentation mode can be useful. When you activate it, the pen turns into a laser pointer and you can guide through a presentation. You can also use gestures to draw something live on your presentation and that works well. You can connect external monitors or projectors using USB C for this.

So I have a lot of praise for the Stylo 2, but actually also criticism. During my time with the pen, I noticed again and again how it makes a wrong entry when writing, almost snaps and writes where I didn’t touch the display at all. This happened only rarely, but often enough to make it reproducible for the video. Either a software bug or a problem with my model.

Android 14 & OxygenOS

OnePlus ships the Pad 2 with Android 14 and its own OxygenOS interface. There is a rumor circulating online that it should receive major updates for three years, but I couldn’t find any real confirmation of this. OnePlus has also been in the tablet market for too short a time to be able to evaluate its real update policy.

I like OxygenOS, I think it’s clear and pleasant to use. You can do that either by gestures or by using the three standard Android buttons. The taskbar, which has been around since Android 12L, is also built in – but hidden. You can bring it up by tapping and holding on the bottom gesture line. A desktop mode is missing.

On the software side, OnePlus has built in some cool features. For example, you can pull out a kind of dock from the side, from which you can open all apps for multitasking. There is also the file dock, a kind of history for texts, photos and other files. For example, you can copy various elements in the browser and save them there and then share them in Messenger or e-mails at once. I find this very useful.

The Open Canvas feature is also interesting. It allows you to open three apps side by side, with only two of them being visible at a time. If you zoom out, you can use all of them. Incidentally, Samsung also allows you to open three apps at the same time by default, and the multitasking features on Samsung, including the DeX desktop mode, are a good deal better.

Design & Build Quality

I think the OnePlus Pad 2 looks pretty nice. It is made entirely of aluminum, is only 6.49 mm thin and weighs less than 600g. That’s how it should be with a 12-inch tablet.

On the sides, we get a power button, volume controls and a USB 3.2 Gen 1 port. You can also connect external monitors to it, but the screen is only mirrored here and not extended. There is no headphone jack and no MicroSD card slot.

The front camera has a resolution of 8 megapixels and takes solid photos in good light, which is definitely sufficient for video chats. But it could also be sharper. The same applies to the 13-megapixel camera on the back. Photos and videos are usable and I would describe them as “good” overall. But the iPad Pro, in particular, takes significantly better photos.

I think it’s a shame that there is no fingerprint reader. You can unlock it using facial recognition, but this only uses the front camera, which isn’t particularly secure.

Keyboard Cover

If you want, you can buy a OnePlus Pad Smart Keyboard, which is a keyboard cover. It consists of two parts: a cover for the back with a built-in folding stand and then the keyboard with a built-in touchpad. Both are magnetically connected to the tablet, but the magnets of the back cover are quite weak.

I think it’s really cool that the keyboard can be connected to the tablet not only physically but also via Bluetooth. This means you can also use the keyboard separately from the tablet. We have already seen this in some Lenovo devices and it can be really useful on planes and trains.

It’s a shame that it has no backlight.

Battery Life

In my battery test, the OnePlus Pad 2 lasted 7.25 hours. For this test, I always run an HD YouTube video in an endless loop at maximum brightness. In this case, at 144Hz and with high-performance mode turned on. The battery lasted the same with performance mode turned off, so no differences there.

OnePlus Pad 2 Review: My Conclusion

I think the OnePlus Pad 2 is an excellent tablet if you want to save some money over the iPad Pro and Galaxy Tab S9+ but don’t want to miss out on flagship hardware. The processor and graphics performance are excellent and I like that we get such a high-resolution yet bright display. The stylus is also great and OnePlus has built in some cool software features.

Compared to Samsung and Apple, however, some premium features are missing, such as an OLED, fingerprint reader, better multitasking, and optional 5G. If you are interested in these things, it’s worth taking a look at my review of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9+, because the tablet is a bit older and prices have already fallen quite a bit.