I prefer this OnePlus tablet over iPads for mobile entertainment – and it’s on sale
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. You also get to pick between one of two free gifts: the OnePlus Stylo 2 or the OnePlus Folio Case 2.
The Android tablet market has been in a weird place for a while. Companies either position them as regular iPad alternatives or try to add advanced productivity features to compete with the iPad Pro and Surface Pro. We’ve even seen tablets that turn into smart displays, such as the Google Pixel Tablet.
There are many ideas about what an Android tablet can be. The latest OnePlus Pad 2
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The display is quite good for an LCD. It measures 11.61 inches diagonally and features a 2800×2000 resolution, a 144Hz refresh rate, and 900 nits of brightness. OnePlus did a nice job calibrating the colors to appear accurate and properly saturated, making everything from movies to games look great. While I still think Apple offers the best LCDs on any tablet — the iPad Air is a perfect example — OnePlus comes in a close second.
If you’re enjoying that good-looking screen and forgot your headphones, the speakers will serve you well. OnePlus added a couple of extra speakers to the Pad 2 compared to the previous version, and they sound really good. Audio quality is full, gets really loud, and has plenty of rumbling bass for such a thin device. I played plenty of music on the tablet, and it all sounded great.
The OnePlus Pad 2 delivers flagship performance. Powered by a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, it offers blazing-fast speeds, smooth animations, and hiccup-free gaming thanks to OnePlus’ HyperBoosted optimizations. I’ve yet to encounter anything that slows it down, ensuring it’s powerful enough for today and years to come. The chipset is paired with 12GB of RAM, so you won’t have to worry about apps crashing in the background.
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OnePlus has done a lot of work to make multitasking easier. Through OxygenOS on top of Android 14, the Pad 2 supports Open Canvas, which originally debuted on the OnePlus Open last year. This set of software features lets you multitask like a champ. You can run three apps at the same time in a shifting tile-like layout, pull up more apps through the dock or floating app drawer, drag and drop files between apps, and more. It’s the most useful multitasking system I’ve ever used on an Android tablet.
OnePlus also includes special settings for optimizing apps that might not include tablet layouts by default. Your mileage will vary, and some apps don’t work well with these shoehorned layouts, but it’s at least handy if a simple app like a calendar or to-do list needs to be expanded to fill the entire screen.
What’ll be most useful to OnePlus smartphone users is the tight integration between them and the Pad 2. OnePlus allows you to place calls, send texts, sync your clipboard and notifications, and even remotely use apps installed on your phone right from the tablet. This obviously only applies to the few people who have invested in OnePlus’ ecosystem, but it’s a nice bonus nonetheless.
and $40 Folio Case 2 was also in the box, and it’s equally good.
Google has done a lot of work over the years to make Android on tablets a more pleasurable experience, but many apps still need to catch up to their iPadOS counterparts. Some are well-optimized for tablet layouts, while others insist on showing up as blown-up phone apps. Some are missing features, capabilities, and even a Play Store listing. Even Chrome refuses to load the desktop version of Google Search consistently, which is a royal pain when you’re trying to get work done.
and who shouldn’t. If you want a multimedia device with powerful performance, a nice screen, long battery life, and great speakers — and you don’t mind that it runs Android — the Pad 2 is an excellent choice.
If, however, you want a tablet that can turn into a laptop, you should consider more premium options like the iPad Pro. Regardless, at $549, the OnePlus Pad 2 is a fantastic tablet that delivers on various fronts, and the company continues to offer competitive trade-in and bundling deals to help you round out the experience for less money.
The recent US tariffs on imports from countries like China, Vietnam, and India aim to boost domestic manufacturing but are likely to drive up prices on consumer electronics. Products like smartphones, laptops, and TVs may become more expensive as companies rethink global supply chains and weigh the cost of shifting production.
Smartphones are among the most affected by the new US tariffs, with devices imported from China and Vietnam facing steep duties that could raise retail prices by 20% or more. Brands like Apple and Google, which rely heavily on Asian manufacturing, may either pass these costs on to consumers or absorb them at the expense of profit margins.
The tariffs could also lead to delays in product launches or shifts in where and how phones are made, forcing companies to diversify production to countries with more favorable trade conditions.
