Realme Pad Review, Pros, and Cons: A Good Starter Tablet

Realme Pad is the company’s first tablet in the market. It was launched in India recently alongside a bunch of other products. Realme aims this tablet for entertainment and e-learning. As such, spoiler alert: it is specced and priced to fit the bill of its prospective buyer. Now to know if that’s you and if this is the tablet you are looking for, read on.

For starters, here’s a ready reckoner of all you get with the package:

Realme Pad Unboxing

Realme Pad comes in a big white box with the Pad’s image and details imprinted over it. Here are its in-box contents:

• 18W Adapter
• Important Info booklet with Warranty Card
• Type-C cable
• SIM Card Tool
• Quick Guide

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Contents

• Realme Pad Design
• Realme Pad Audiovisual
• Realme Pad Connectivity
• Realme Pad Performance
• Realme Pad Battery
• Realme Pad Camera
• Realme Pad Review Verdict

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Realme Pad Indian price and specs

Dimensions and Weight: 246.1 x 156 x 6.9 mm; About 440g
Screen: 10.4 inches, IPS LCD, 2000×1200 WUXGA+, 60Hz, 360 nits brightness
CPU: MediaTek Helio G80
GPU: Mali-G52
RAM: 3GB/4GB LPDDR4x
Storage: 32GB/64GB eMMC 5.1; Up to 1TB Memory Expansion
Rear cameras: 8MP HD Camera; 1080P 30fps
Front camera: 8MP HD Camera 105° wide-angle; 1080P 30fps
Battery: 7100mAh with 18W fast charging; Reverse charging
OS: Android 11
Misc: Stereo Quad Speakers, Dolby Atmos, 2 Microphones, Dual-mic Noise Cancellation, Dual-band WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth 5.0, Dual 4G VoLTE (model-specific)
Realme Pad India Price: INR 13,999 (3+32GB, WiFi-only); LTE: INR 15,999 (3+32GB), and INR 17,999 (4+64GB)

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Let’s now get on with the Smartprix review of the Realme Pad.

Realme Pad has got a good industrial design with squared-off edges and curved corners. It feels prim and proper in looks. And in hand too, the mass and measurements are done well to feel well.

You can pick the Pad in Gold and Grey Colors. Both appear to be elegant choices. I have the “Real” Gold variant which is rather subdued to match my taste. But, it does show sweat stains on the back. Even the front is a smudge-magnet, just so you know.

On both sides, there are 8MP cameras. The front one is positioned to facilitate landscape video calls. We will talk a bit more about these sensors’ results and relevance in the latter half.

Now above the front camera, on the frame, there is a volume rocker, multiple mic openings, and a SIM tray. The other side is empty.

Then while held in the portrait orientation, you’d find the power key and speaker pores on one side while the other also has speaker grilles, a USB-C socket, and a 3.5mm audio jack. Although as you see in the image, it is placed weirdly, the insertion has to be normal.

Let’s see how the thing sounds and displays in the following segment:

As mentioned in the beginning, this thing is made for cinema consumption and school activities. Both of those depend a lot on the screen and sound setup.

Well, the 10.4inch panel with its unusual 2000×1200 (WUXGA+) pixel resolution and acceptably thick bezels, is plenty big and apt for media viewing be it movies, series, reading ebooks, manga, and everything you do while browsing the web. It is LCD, so don’t expect AMOLED levels of contrasts and colors. But things are clear and crisp enough for the most part. Not a fault of it, but Instagram and other image floating sites would appear pixelated in places.

The display is fairly legible outdoors. Yea, there is a Sunlight mode for a bump in brightness under the scorching Sun. The Adaptive Brightness was a lil wonky though. So, I turned it off.

There are a few other tricks in the Display settings like Dark Mode, Eye Comfort (blue light filter), Reading mode (monochrome screen), etc.

There is Widevine L1 certification for DRM content on Netflix and Prime Video. But I couldn’t get HD playback on Prime Video at the time of testing. Could change with a software patch though.

Now whatever you play on-screen is greatly complemented by the Dolby Atmos-backed quad speakers. I mean they are loud and banging. There’s a toggle within Sound Enhancement settings for boosting the volume further. But if you want to listen over an earphone, there’s a headphone jack for that too.

Now that multimedia is covered, let’s move on to the regular telephony experience.

Realme Pad Connectivity

Yeah, Realme Pad (4GB+64GB model) has cellular support ie dual 4G VoLTE, VoWiFi calling, so and so things. Not every tablet offers this. Not even the base 3GB+32GB variant of this has that facility. Do note this difference. And in case you’re wondering, the call quality is fine too.

Other connectivity thingies like GPS, Dual-band WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0 also work fast and stable. Didn‘t come across any issues.

While we are here, know that the tab comes with a Smart Connect feature that lets you unlock the tab using a realme watch/band without needing to enter a password or pattern. Btw, the face unlocking works fast too regardless of the orientation you hold the device.

This Smart connect feature also lets you cast your screen to Realme TV. Good to see Realme’s smart ecosystem play here.

Anyway, let’s get to the workings of the Pad on a regular day —

Realme Pad is configured with a 12nm Mediatek Helio G80 processor that consists of two high-performing A75 cores running at 2.0GHz and six A55 efficiency cores clocked at 1.7GHz. This is sufficiently powerful to carry the day. This is aided by 4GB of LPDDR4x RAM which also ensures things run smoothly for the most part. I say so because I have come across occasional jankiness. And if you think, coming from the smartphone space, that RAM size and the 64GB storage are less, know that in this part of the tablet world, it is a standard affair.

Anyways, there is an expandable storage option of up to 1 terabyte as a hybrid slot. You can store downloaded movies and other media here.

In case you are looking for ’em, here are the synthetic test results:

A good thing about Realme Pad is that the software takes the bare minimum and there’s no nagging bloatware or ad-injecting processes here. Claps for that.

Now if you are thinking that’s very uncharacteristic of 3rd party skins, yes for both good and bad, that’s the case here. The overlay on top of Android 11 is called Realme UI for Pad, but it is very much vanilla Android. So, pure minimal software enthusiasts would appreciate it. I do too. There are Google apps for calls, messages, browsing, navigation, payment, file management, gallery, assistance, and other things.

But, there is no Google Discover page on the left side swipe from the homescreen. And the default QuickStep launcher is so basic that I wished I could try Nova or Niagra. But they weren’t displaying the recents menu properly. And speaking of recents menu, from here you can open two apps on split-screen for multitasking. That’s about it. I wish Realme had some more custom features to enhance our navigation and multitasking on such a large real estate. You could always try 3rd party sidebar or Assistive Ball or other such convenience tools from the Play Store.

I also missed the Game Space and its features like the fps meter. Yeah, this isn’t meant for hardcore gaming or anything but you can occasionally, casually play Asphalt 9, Call of Duty Mobile, and BGMI. But the real fun is in titles like Fruit Ninja, Angry Birds, etc which I am sure kids at your home would love on this big screen.

For kids, there’s a dedicated Kids Mode that requires registration and features parental controls too.

You could also read books, manga, comics, color, or paint things on this canvas. Even writing and editing on WordPress Gutenberg, browsing Chrome in its tabbed layout, etc is a pleasure phones can’t offer.

Heck, I could even run Whatsapp multi-device on this tablet (web.whatsapp.com in desktop mode) without having the original phone online. This is a workaround that works impressively.

Such use cases come up because of the large screen at your disposal and performance doesn’t sweat either. So…

Now that you know about performance, here’s how long it would last —

Realme Pad boasts a 7100mAh cell which ran for 5 Hr 35 Min in the PCMark Work 3.0 Battery Life test. That involves a constant loop of things running on the screen at full brightness. In regular use too, I was getting a screen on time of around 5 Hr 15 Min. That involved a lot of video viewing, but if you are more conservative, you can easily get a few more hours out of it on a single charge. And when it loses its steam, you can replenish the juice back to full in about 3 hours with the supplied 18W charger.

Moving on…

Realme Pad comes with two 8MP cameras, one on each side. The front one offers a 105° Wide-angle for video calls and the quality is serviceable. You also get to shoot 1080p@30fps videos which let’s just say, aren’t worth writing home about. Both in stills and clips you also get to capture in 2x and 5x digital zoom levels.

Rest, the camera app includes an Expert mode. That’s all the features to talk about here. It’s barebones exactly as you’d expect out of a tablet.

Still, some stills —

In the evening light, the phone clicks came out okayish if you want to record something in memory or to show someone something. There was a weird halo on the frame. Not just poor dynamic range and details, even colors were washed out in some cases. And for obvious reasons, I didn’t force the camera to struggle in the night.

So, that webcam is the saving grace of the camera department. And that should be more than enough as hardly anyone’s buying a tablet for its cameras. Hopefully, some of the aforementioned things get fixed with software updates.

Anyways, with that, we are at the end. It’s time for —

Realme Pad is a respectable offering from the brand considering it is its maiden product. The tablet is built industrially and looks suave. It’s slim and portable too. But the highlight qualities of it are its large screen and loudspeakers. You will have a good time viewing and listening to various media. You can hand it to kids too and ensure they consume only safe-for-children content with the built-in parental controls and dedicated apps for that intent. And if you are buying this for yourself or kids at your home for educational or work purposes, then that can also be done. The video call quality is agreeable for the new normal life requirements.

Now, the internal specs aren’t the big selling points here as you don’t need much horsepower for the use cases this tablet is purposed for. So, if you don’t push it with demanding tasks, the Helio G80 + 4GB RAM combination should be up to snuff. I can’t say how the 3GB RAM variant would fare though. And if I had to speak of areas that need work, my wishlist would include more multitasking features tailored for a tab and better cameras.

Still and all, for the asking price of ₹17,999, Realme Pad is very competitively put together, thus making it is a good starter tablet. If you are interested, you can check it out on realme.com, Flipkart, and mainline channels. The lower 3GB RAM+ 32GB storage model comes in both WiFi-only (sans LTE connectivity) at ₹13,999 and an LTE one at ₹15,999, which is something to keep in mind while making the purchase decision.