OPPO Pad Air is a rather interesting tablet for everyday use. The manufacturer offers an 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 680, a 2K display with a very good IPS matrix at its core, of course, the ability to expand the built-in memory and, what is also nice, an extremely thin metal body. But what else is interesting “under the hood” and how well it all “gets along” with each other, we will see later in the review.
The box
Okay, let’s take it one step at a time. First, of course, is the unpackaging. The user will receive the product in a medium-sized cardboard box. The material used is extremely durable, so you don’t have to worry about the safety of the product inside during transportation – everything is reliable in this regard.
Of course, the packaging from a product is something that is usually sent for recycling immediately (or almost immediately) after unpacking. But regardless of the fate of the Pad Air box, we recommend that you spend time studying the data on the walls, because some useful information is already included here. But we will talk about this in the next section of the review. Don’t switch to the other side!
Information from the box walls
Designers of boxes for OPPO mobile equipment are minimalist in their solutions. We have been familiarizing ourselves with the company’s products for many years now, so this conclusion is quite meaningful. Is this a disadvantage? Personally, I don’t think so, and the argument here is simple: first of all, we buy a product, not a box. What is notable on the walls and worthy of your attention is the detailed illustration of the product – you can get acquainted with the design without even taking the tablet out of the box. It’s on the top wall or the lid, whichever you prefer.
There are two stickers on the back with technical data about the model: the marking, the version with the amount of RAM and built-in memory, and some other technical data.
The scope of delivery
Having familiarized ourselves with the box itself and the information on its walls, let’s move on to examine the package contents. So, what is inside:
- OPPO Pad Air tablet;
- a short user manual in several languages;
- a paper clip to access the memory card slot;
- USB/USB Type C cable;
- charger adapter.
OPPO Pad Air specifications
- Dimensions: 245×154.8×6.94 mm;
- Weight – 400 g;
- Display diagonal – 10.36 inches, screen ratio – 83.50%, resolution – 2000×1200 pixels, refresh rate – 60Hz, pressure sampling rate – 120Hz, color gamut – NTSC TYP 71%, color depth – 1 billion shades, density – 225 ppi, brightness – 360 nits, panel – LCD (IPS);
- Camera – main – 8 MP, f/2.0, field of view 78°, 4P lens, CAF supported;
- front camera – 5MP (f/2.2), viewing angle 77°, 3P lens, FF supported;
- Hardware – 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 + Adreno 610@1115MHz graphics + 4GB RAM + 64/128GB ROM + MicroSD (up to 512GB) + USB OTG;
- Battery – 7100 mAh;
- Fast charging – PD (9V/2A);
- Connection – WLAN: Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), 802.11a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi 2.4GHz, Wi-Fi 5.1GHz, Wi-Fi 5.8GHz, Wi-Fi display and Wi-Fi modem mode, Bluetooth – Bluetooth 5.1 and Bluetooth Low Energy, Bluetooth audio codec (SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, and LDAC), USB interface (USB Type-C).
Body materials
The OPPO Pad Air body is a combination of metal, a small amount of plastic and protective glass. The latter completely covers the front panel. The rest of the body, with some exceptions in the form of an insert at the back, is metal. As for the insert, it is plastic, with a relief, behind which, relatively speaking, a double “load” was “fixed” – style and convenience, because the grip of the fingers while working with the device occurs precisely by these “bumps”. And this is reliable.
Build quality
I’ll say a somewhat pretentious, though fair, “thing” – I personally believe that the glass+metal tandem is the best solution for the case of any mobile (and not only) device. It’s a stylish and, moreover, reliable format, including if you work with the gadget every day. Reliable, and even somewhat status. This is evidence of high taste and there are simply no alternatives. At least not in this price segment.
Can you speak for any shortcomings in the assembly of the OPPO Pad Air! Personally, I did not notice such examples, although I had a lot of time to look for them. In short, the highest score without discounts or conventions.
Thoughts on design
OPPO Pad Air is designed to be an everyday tablet. Thin, metal with a protective glass. It will not “fall to pieces” either tomorrow or in a year or two of daily work “battles”. In reality, we have a thing worthy of attention.
To the question of ergonomics
Based on the placement of the front camera and speakers in OPPO Pad Air, we can confidently say that the manufacturer is orienting this model primarily for use in a horizontal format. This is how we will study the ergonomics.
So, the front panel is a large display, three classic touch buttons that are placed on the screen part, as well as the front camera mentioned above.
Behind the plastic part is the main 8MP camera, and approximately in the center is a sticker with various technical data and the manufacturer’s logo.
On the side panel on the right is a USB Type-C port plus grilles for two of the four built-in speakers.
The opposite side of the case has two more speakers and the power on/off button.
Finally, there are two volume buttons on the upper end, a “seat” for a memory card, and a tiny slot for the built-in microphone.
Display
OPPO Pad Air has a display with a diagonal of 10.36 inches. The manufacturer does not use what can be called a bezel-less screen format here – the user will easily notice the large bezels on each side.
- The screen-to-panel ratio is 83.50%.
- The declared resolution is 2000×1200 pixels, or 2K.
- The refresh rate is 60Hz and the color gamut is NTSC TYP 71%. The color depth is 1 billion shades.
- The density is 280ppi.
- In terms of brightness, we are talking about 360 nits.
- At the heart of it is an IPS-matrix.
Impressions of working with the screen and basic settings
The responsiveness of the screen is excellent – the reaction is noticeable, even to cursory presses, and scientists say you can’t argue with this fact. This is the first advantage of the display.
The second is 10-finger control. While smartphone screens need it only indirectly, in the case of a tablet, support for 10-finger control at the same time no longer looks like an overtly marketing decision, because the range of tasks for a 10+ inch tablet is much wider than in the case of a smartphone screen.
The data is perfectly readable, even at the maximum tilt angle, both vertically and horizontally. I did not notice any noticeable “overflow” towards white or blue shades.
I won’t say much about the “behavior” of the screen when bright sunlight hits the panel – everything is fine here as well – the corresponding sensor works correctly.
A few words about the settings. In the corresponding submenu, the user can select a mode (light or dark), adjust the brightness (manual and automatic format), adjust the colors (although it is probably more correct to say shades) on the appropriate scale from cold to warm, adjust the fonts, etc.
Speakers
OPPO Pad Air has four speakers – two on the right and left side panels. Dolby Atmos is labeled next to one pair.
Basic sound settings
First of all, what is Dolby Atmos? In practice, it is a surround sound technology developed by Dolby Laboratories. This technology is “trained” to expand the capabilities of existing surround sound systems by adding height channels, which allows you to interpret sounds as three-dimensional objects. In a separate section, the manufacturer has even “reserved” an entire setting item for this technology – see the illustrations for details.
Among other interesting “things”, it is worth paying attention to the “More” section. There are three items in it:
- “volume button function” – you can set up the volume of the melody or multimedia to be increased/decreased;
- “default device” – allows you to set up the use of a peripheral device or make the choice automatic;
- “personal monitoring”.
See the illustrations below for a more detailed “exploration” of the arsenal of possibilities.
Sound quality
As for the sound quality, everything is great. No, not even that, everything is very, very cool, and even in comparison with the sound of some much more expensive laptops. Excellent volume and detail, clear mids, and pretty good bass. In short, at least in this regard, I am personally very satisfied.
Built-in memory
OPPO Pad Air is available in two versions with 64 GB and 128 GB of internal storage.
Personally, we had the “older” version in our office. Below, in the illustrations, we offer to see how much space the OS and technical files take up, and how much of the declared is available to the user out of the box.
Expansion options
The user can expand the tablet’s built-in memory with an external microSD drive with a maximum capacity of 512 GB. In addition, with the help of a USB OTG adapter, you can also connect a USB flash drive with the same maximum capacity.
Battery
The capacity of the built-in battery is 7100 mAh.
The battery life was tested using the Battery HD application. So, the phone works without charging:
- listening music in the Wi-Fi network – 34 h;
- watching video in the Wi-Fi network – 5 h;
- LED frashligt – 3.5 h;
- Wi-Fi Internet – 7 h;
- the mobile Internet – 4 h 40 m;
- talking – 7 h 55 m;
- VOIP in Wi-Fi – 9 h 14 m.
Operating system
The software platform under the hood of OPPO Pad Air is the ColorOS 13 operating system, which includes a number of key features of Android 13. In addition, a completely new and unique interface is on board, and thanks to truly technological innovations, ColorOS 13 features allow you to connect to different devices faster to further improve productivity.
The hardware
The heart of the system is an 8-core Snapdragon 680 processor with a frequency of up to 2 GHz. It has Adreno 610 graphics and 4 GB of RAM. In addition, the latter can be expanded by another 4 GB.
The performance
The performance was evaluated using a number of popular tester applications. Let’s get acquainted with the results below.
Camera capabilities
The main camera of the tablet is 8 megapixels, the front camera is 5 megapixels.
The settings are shown in the illustrations. However, there is little point in shooting with such cameras.
Expert opinion
In the end, we have an excellent 10-inch tablet for every day use with good performance, the same battery life, and a surprisingly good screen.
The estimated cost of the model with 4 GB RAM/128 GB ROM is 8,500 UAH (230 USD).
Product provided by OPPO press service.
