The Pad 2 is Chinese smartphone maker Realme’s middleweight tablet in India, at Rs 19,999 onwards. The tablet boasts an 11.5-inch 2K LCD display of 120Hz refresh rate, quad-speaker system with support for Dolby Atmos, up to 8GB RAM and 256GB on-board storage, and 4G LTE network connectivity. Powered by MediaTek Helio G99 system-on-chip, the Realme Pad 2 is positioned by the company as a big screen tablet good for entertainment and productivity-related workloads. Is it? Let us find out:
Design
The Realme Pad 2 has a generic tablet design, and for better. The tablet looks premium despite featuring a mix of plastic and metal body. It boasts a thin-and-lightweight construction that makes it easy to hold and operate. However, it is cumbersome to use the tablet with it placed on flat surfaces, such as table top, since it wobbles due to protruding circular camera island on the back.
The Realme Pad 2 seems to have been designed for use in horizontal orientation. Its front camera placement, for example, is centre aligned on the top display bezel in horizontal orientation. For horizontal orientation use, however, the power button (upward on the left side) and volume rocker keys (on the top left side) placement is not proper. A left-handed person might see no flaw there since these buttons are easily accessible from the left hand in horizontal orientation, but a right-handed person would have to make some effort to reach them. Important to note, the Realme Pad 2 does not have a fingerprint sensor for the screen unlock mechanism. There is support for screen unlock through face detection, but it is inconsistent.
Display and audio
The Realme Pad 2 sports an 11.5-inch 2K LCD display of 120Hz refresh rate. The display is modest in terms of colours and brightness, but the contrast is mediocre. Moreover, there is a visible shift in colours when viewed from angles. Wearing a glossy glass, the display is quite reflective and attracts fingerprints. These affect the display readability, thus hampering sunlight legibility. That said, the display is decent for routine everyday use such as reading online articles, watching short form videos, and scrolling through social media feeds. It is, however, not suited for watching high dynamic range content.
Compensating for the mediocre display is the impeccable sound offered by the quad-speaker system. The speakers are loud, clear, and balanced. Powered by Dolby Atmos, the speakers are tuned for wide sound stage that is apparent even in tracks that are not natively supported. The tablet lacks 3.5mm audio out, but supports Hi-Res audio over wireless.
Camera
Imaging has not been the strong selling point for budget and midrange tablets, and the Realme Pad 2 is no different. It has an 8-megapixel camera on the back that proves useful in everyday chores such as scanning documents and video calls, but do not expect anything beyond. Likewise, the front 5MP camera sensor is decent to attend video calls on the go.
Performance
Powered by MediaTek Dimensity G99 system-on-chip, the Realme Pad 2 is not a performance powerhouse. But it works fine for routine everyday tasks such as checking emails, scrolling through social media feeds, reading articles online, streaming videos, etc. Lifting the experience, however, is the Realme UI 4 for Pad interface – based on Android 13. Unlike its smartphones, the interface is clean with no instances of third-party bloatware and ads. However, the interface is not optimised for tablet experience. Many apps, including Realme apps, are marred with size scaling issues and seem not compatible for tablet experience. Nevertheless, Realme has not cut corners on the fundamentals. There is support for split window for multitasking, and the apps dock is but good additions.
Battery
Among the Realme Pad 2 strengths is the on-battery life. As a companion big screen device with 4G LTE network support, the Realme Pad 2 easily sails through a week on a single charge. Extensive usage, including power- and graphic- intensive workloads, drain the battery quickly. Yet, it manages to deliver a day’s on-battery time on a single charge. The tablet ships with a 33W fast charger, which takes about two hours to charge the battery fully.
Verdict
The Realme Pad 2 is a no-frill tablet good as a companion big screen device for basic everyday tasks such as attending video calls, checking emails, scrolling social media feeds, reading books, attending online classes, etc. The tablet thin and lightweight construction makes it easy to carry, thus aids portability. However, it is not the device to consider for multimedia experience. Not that it is incapable, but the experience leaves one asking for more.
