Realme Pad Review: A Budget Tablet : My Honest Review

Realme Pad Review: A Budget Tablet: My Honest Review

Realme Pad Review: A Budget Tablet: My Honest Review

It is quite tough to get an Android-powered tablet in India since most firms nowadays provide either poor or too pricey model solutions. In the development of Android, Google has not concentrated much on tablets. This makes it difficult for manufacturers that wish to provide a decent experience (with apps) at the correct price. So, every Android tablet has the same flaws, essentially (cheap or luxury) — poorly optimized user interfaces and apps and enough screen space. Compared to Apple iPads, the iPad OS and third-party app developers benefit.

So, what if a smartphone brand wants to launch a tablet with a better value than anything in the budget? Now, with the new Realme pad, that is Realme. After a week of use, I think that, although Android tablets are generally limited, their price is worth it to anyone who is solely seeking a budget tablet for media consumption.

Price and variations of the Realme Pad

The Realme Pad comes in three different configurations. In India, the 3GB RAM and 32GB stock base Wi-Fi model is Rs. 13,999. There is also the model Rs. 15,999 LTE base with 3GB of RAM and a storage volume of 32GB. Finally, the 17,999 high-end variants are available with a RAM of 4GB and a storage capacity of 64GB. In the two finishes for all three designs, Real Gold and Real Grey will be offered. I tested the 4GB RAM and 64GB storage models in Real Grey. Initially, LTE-enabled devices and then Wi-Fi devices will be available.

Design of the Realme Pad

The Realme Pad is quite compact despite its 10.4-inch display. In fact, I can handle my tablet like a smartphone just using my regular hand (vertically). At 6.9mm it's also really slim, although it's quite heavy at 440g.

The Realme Pad offers a sumptuous and modern look with its curved corners and flat sides. There were no apparent antenna lines on the matt-finished aluminum back panel of the LTE variant I received for assessment. This is due to the fact that all of the antennae are hidden beneath a color-matched plastic cap that rests atop a fine silver strip on the back (when held horizontally). This strip extends horizontally across the back of the phone, passing through the camera.

Realme Pad Review: A Budget Tablet: My Honest Review

The majority of the perforations and buttons on this plastic cap are located on the edges, as predicted (which should also make them more accessible during repair). The volume rocker is in the upper left corner, while the power button is on the left. Two microphones are located in the center, followed by the SIM card tray.

The USB Type-C connector is on the right side, while the headphone jack is in the bottom right corner, which is unusual. Most people would be holding a tablet in this region with one hand, and a headset's plug might get in the way.

When holding the tablet horizontally, the selfie camera is in the top center above the display, and the bezels are quite narrow. The rounded corners of the display appeal to me since they help it merge in with the tablet's general appearance. On the left and right sides of the device, there are two speakers apiece. Face recognition is the only option to rapidly unlock the cellphone because there is no fingerprint reader. Thankfully, it worked most of the time, whether the iPad was held vertically or horizontally.

The matte-finished back panel repels fingerprints well, but the display does not. The smudges from the front of Panda Glass were equally tough to remove.

Only the tablet, a charger, and a cable are included in the box. Surprisingly, Realme hasn't released any accessories to go along with the Realme Pad. There's no mention of soft cases or a keyboard cover as options. The display does not enable stylus input, according to Realme.

Specifications and software for the Realme Pad

Introduced in February 2020, the MediaTek Helio G80 SoC is featured in the Realme Pad. It has eight CPU cores and a maximum clock speed of 2GHz, making it ideal for gaming. The tablet has up to 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, but there is also the capacity for a microSD card for storage expansion (up to 1TB). Both data and voice calls are supported by 4G/LTE on the higher-priced models. Dual-band Wi-Fi ac and Bluetooth 5 are among the communication protocols. The Realme Pad battery is 7,100mAh and offers a quick load of 18W.

This is the first time I've seen Realme UI on a tablet, so I was excited to give it a try. Realme UI for Pad is the name of the UI, and it's based on Android 11. Unfortunately, it appears to be a pared-down version of the Realme UI on the company's smartphones. It appears to be basically stock (which isn't necessarily a bad thing), but it severely limits the customization choices available on cellphones. The UI preserves the traditional Realme iconography throughout the interface, including the Settings app, however, there is a lot missing if you have used a newly introduced Realme smartphone. Additionally, personalization choices are restricted. You can't modify the UI's color or theme, and you can't change the icon's form or size. There's also no right-swipe access to the Google News Feed.

Performance and battery life of the Realme Pad

The benefit of a stripped-down UI is that it feels lighter, and the software operated efficiently on my high-end review device even with only 4GB of RAM. Multitasking, on the other hand, proved to be a challenge. Despite the fact that most apps launched and exited immediately, there were a few cases where they crashed. These concerns should be remedied with software updates, and Realme has already stated that one is on the way that will enhance overall performance.

There is a significant shortage of apps specifically developed for tablets, as there is with any Android tablet available today. This isn't only a problem with third-party programs; it's also a problem with Google's own. The majority of them are exclusively designed for smartphone screens and will sprawl across the entire screen rather than scaling sensibly. While some programs continue to function properly, they do not make effective use of the available screen area.

The 10.4-inch WUXGA+ (2000x1200) display is vivid and bright enough to use outside. The colors appeared to be quite natural, which is a positive thing. What I didn't like about the Panda Glass was how quickly it gathered up fingerprints, which made it difficult to view the display outside. Netflix enables full-HD streaming with a Widevine L1 certification, but there is no HDR support. There's also a four-speaker configuration with Dolby Atmos capabilities. The audio is powerful enough to fill a small room, and Dolby Atmos adds to the immersive experience. During the course of the review, I only used headphones a handful of times. Indeed, in this price range, it's difficult to find a similar sonic offering. A 3.5mm headphone port is available for individuals who prefer a more private watching experience.

To test the two noise-canceling microphones, I placed a couple of cellular voice calls. The tablet doesn't totally remove noise, but it works to eliminate background noise, and I've heard loud and clear to the caller. The caller did not have any difficulties with my voice quality even if the tablet was put at arm's length on a table.

The Realme Pad gives a decent performance with its MediaTek Helio G80 and 4GB RAM processor. The tablet was performed well in our benchmark testing, providing performance equal to most smartphones on budget. In the single and multi-core tests of Geekbench, the Realme Pad managed 2.24.755 in AnTuTu, 345, and 1.305 in respectively.

The performance of gaming was not too high. Call of duty: Mobile has succeeded in maintaining it together, albeit with some frames. The device permitted high-frame and medium-graphics with toggles greyed off for every other effect (Depth of field, Bloom, Ragdoll). Asphalt 9: Legends also had some texture-grade problems. The game functioned most smoothly with the performance graphics (Low).

The Realme pad is equipped with 8 megapixels front and back. The interface of the camera is significantly different from what we see on smartphones Realme, with a simpler design and very basic menus and settings alone. However, Realme has sought to offer a range of options with an expert mode with ISO, shutter speed, white balance, autofocus, and exposure manual adjustments. The image quality was strictly ordinary because of the quite basic sensor utilized here. With an inexpensive smartphone, you can get much better images. Despite holding both hands on the tablet, the videos were quite unsteady. Not usable was low-light shots. The ultra-wide view of the front view of the camera was what I did like. The quality of this was acceptable if sufficient light existed.

The tablet has a battery of 7,100mAh and is supplied with an 18W charger. It lasted an hour and a half and was fairly decent with regular use, including an hour of gambling and several hours of video streaming. The charging speeds were an average of 22% in 30 minutes and 46% in an hour, with the whole charge completed for 3 hours and 5 minutes.

Verdict of the Realme Pad

In terms of the hardware it offers, the Realme Pad is a good first attempt at a tablet. Other than for serious productivity, this is a tablet with no peripherals (and no styles and keyboards), designed just for media consumption and easy communication programs. The Realme pad delivers respectable performance, a nice display, and an outstanding sound for its segment starting with Rs. 13,999 in India. No difficulty with everyday functioning and the ultra-wide selfie camera works well for video calls. There is little to complain about with the LTE-enabled model beginning with Rs. 15,999. This makes the Realme Pad sufficiently attractive given that you do not plan to conduct a job.