Two minute review
The Realme Pad is the burgeoning Chinese tech company's first attempt to dive into the world of Android tablets, after Nokia and Xiaomi recently joined, or returned, to the block-rejuvenated tech category.
The Realme Pad is no match for Apple's iPad line, as it is an inexpensive slate with a low cost and average specs, but it is a very well built Android tablet on its own. Everything, and its very existence could mean some cool things for the low-end slate market, which traditionally hasn't been as competitive as the affordable phone segment.
It seems that the Realme Pad is aimed at students taking classes online or those who prefer to watch movies and shows on a screen larger than a mobile, as its screen is arguably its best specification: l The screen measures 10,4 inches in diameter and it has a 2K Resolution, which means that there is a lot of detail in the images.
It's not the perfect display as it doesn't support HDR and it detects smudges very easily, but the resolution and size can make these little issues easy to miss.
The tablet's four Dolby Atmos powered speakers underscore the power of the Realme Pad as a low-cost entertainment device, as they are loud and reasonably sound, meaning that watching movies is a pleasure.
In terms of design, this is a sleek and elegant slate, which makes it easy to transport; Realme seems to have taken notes on Apple's recent redesign of its iPad mini. It is quite slim, so it can easily slip into your backpack, although we recommend that you carry a case to protect its fragile form.
Oh, uh... a deal? It could be a problem. Realme doesn't sell any accessories at the moment, and since it's the company's first tablet, there aren't many third-party ones either. It might be worth buying a protective wallet for the thing when you carry it with you.
The tablet has a large battery that will last at least a day with heavy use and could last up to two days depending on how you treat it. This is enough for a full day of class or work, which is useful because the board is quite slow to load.
Perhaps one of the weakest aspects of the tablet is its performance, as the Realme Pad is slower than a similarly priced smartphone, and we saw noticeable jerks even when scrolling through menus, not to mention gaming or using apps. .
Of course, there aren't really low-budget Android tablets, so if you need a lot of processing power, we recommend spending a bit more on the Huawei MatePad 11 or Xiaomi Pad 5. But this is the case. that is why we recommend it. Like a useful education or a job screen, word processing isn't exactly an intensive process.
The Realme Pad is therefore a solid, but not perfect, low-cost slate. It's a shame the device isn't more competitive, as the brand's budget and mid-range smartphones may be, and we're curious to see how much consumers are enjoying Realme's first outing in the tablet arena.
Realme Pad price and availability
We only have the Euro price of the Realme Pad at the moment, so it is only labeled as a practice test, not a full review.
In Europe, the tablet starts at € 239 (around € 200, € 270, AU € 370), giving you 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage.
There's a 4GB / 64GB tablet for € 259 (about € 220, € 290, AU € 400) and a 6GB / 128GB model for € 289 (about € 240, € 330, AU € 450), and if you will use the tablet to work or study, we recommend this latest version.
We don't know yet when the tablet will launch in the UK or Australia, but it is unlikely to launch in the US since Realme doesn't sell its technology there.
Integrated
While the Realme Pad is not a high-end tablet, its design can go awry, as it feels quite stylish when held in hand, thanks to its build quality and sleek frame. It is only 6,9mm thick and weighs 440g, making it delicate compared to many other slates.
If you like what Apple has done with its recent iPhones, making them thinner with flat edges and small bezels, you will like the look of the Realme Pad.
The tablet has an aluminum body and frame so it's pretty sturdy and could probably withstand a drop or two (which we don't recommend testing). However, there is no IP rating against water or dust, so keep it safe.
If you hold the tablet in landscape mode, you get the power button on the upper left edge, the volume controls on the left side of the upper edge, and the hybrid SIM slot is present on the upper right. On the right side, you get a USB-C port for charging, and just below that is a 3.5mm headphone jack tucked away in the corner of the frame.
The front-facing camera snaps onto the top frame of the tablet when you hold down the tab in landscape orientation, making it convenient for online lessons and meetings. On the back there is a silver line running through the rear camera and then there is a Realme logo.
One potential issue could be the single rear camera, which protrudes quite a bit from the back of the tablet. You feel in danger if you drop the board, so...don't. Or put the thing in a case.
The Realme Pad is available in gray and gold color options; you will see the gray variant in this review.
Since our days with the tablet, we've found it comfortable to hold, even for long periods of time, thanks to its lightweight build and premium design; it is also easy to carry in a bag without taking up too much space.
As of now, there are no proprietary accessories like a sleeve or keyboard cover; you will need to find some good third party accessories after purchasing the device, which may be limited at the beginning of the period.
Monitor
Just because a tablet is cheap doesn't mean its screen is bad, and the Realme Pad proves that theory... most of the time. The Slate has a 10,4-inch LCD display, with a 1200 x 2000 resolution, a maximum brightness of 360 nits, and a 60Hz refresh rate.
We were happy with what the tablet had to offer when we watched shows or attended meetings, indoors at least, although outdoors that relatively low maximum brightness meant we were having a hard time at times. The screen is quite vibrant, but not to the level that an AMOLED panel would offer.
Another brightness issue we had was that the automatic brightness could take some time to respond, and we found ourselves reverting to manually changing it.
There are various modes such as reading mode, night mode, dark mode, and solar mode. The reading mode is useful if you like to read e-books on the tablet as it heats up the color tint, while the night mode will reduce the screen brightness to a minimum of 2 nits, a useful feature if you are a night owl and it does not. . wants to hit his retinas.
Be careful sliding your finger across the screen - we found that it picks up our fingerprints and leaves visible smudges, which we often had to clean up.
Ultimately, if your use is primarily for classroom and indoor entertainment purposes, the Realme Pad will not disappoint. In outdoor conditions this becomes tricky as the screen is highly reflective and easily attracts smudges.
Performance, specs and camera
Most budget tablets suffer in terms of performance and tend to feel sluggish and choppy - the Realme Pad isn't quite as slimy for navigation as some of the other similarly priced rivals we've seen, but it's not really a powerhouse either.
The MediaTek Helio G80 sits at the heart of the slate, and we've never seen this on a tablet before, but it has been used in phones like the Samsung Galaxy A22 and Xiaomi Redmi 9. It's a processor. Fairly low-end, though at the MediaTek's, the chipsets are generally at least passable.
When we put the Pad through the Geekbench benchmarking test, it returned a multi-core score of 1286, not exactly a high score, below the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite which scored 1313, and in line with the Moto G30 smartphone. low cost that reached 1267.
Performance isn't great on the tablet, but it's not very sharp either. Small apps were quick to open, but multitasking quickly became hectic when there were too many apps in the background. Moving from application to application, we noticed how slow the chipset came into play, and high-end games brought a cacophony of stuttering and lag.
The Realme Pad comes in three variations: 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, or 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. People who just want a streaming entertainment device probably only need the lowest model, but if you want more RAM for particular applications, it may be worth increasing the size.
There is also support for microSD cards up to 1TB in all three variants. You might run out of space on the 32GB variant pretty quickly if you plan to store a lot of video files, or even a lot of work documents or applications.
The Realme Pad features a four-speaker setup with Dolby Atmos technology, with two speakers on each side. The volume got surprisingly loud and the quality wasn't that great, although sometimes on voice calls the tone was quite robotic. It's adequate for streaming, though a decent pair of headphones would be preferable, especially thanks to the tablet's 3,5mm jack for wired cans.
In terms of cameras, you get an 8 MP front camera which is useful for video calls and meetings, and it did a good job. While it doesn't deliver sharp video, it did a good job in terms of field of view, as the lens covers 105 degrees.
The 8MP rear camera is good enough for scanning documents or taking photos when needed, but it's not exactly a tool for fine art photography. There's also no flash, which means it's difficult to take pictures in dark conditions.
