OnePlus' Pad 2 has a sharp display at a price that hurts

As an entertainment device, the new OnePlus Pad 2 shines. The display is dazzling, its speakers top-notch. In fact, the Android tablet is even more powerful than its predecessor for watching movies, listening to music, and playing games — so much so that, during my time testing the tablet, I had no desire to stream shows or listen to music on my 2022 iPad Air.

Unfortunately, that's not the whole story. The Pad 2 is also marketed as a productivity device, and so, as I'll explain, I found it lackluster. Add to that the fact that while the original OnePlus Pad (which, unfortunately, To be discontinued After selling out existing stock) provided impressive value for money, OnePlus has raised the cost of its new mid-range tablet by $70 to $549.99, making it harder to compete with similar Android tablets.

But admittedly, other similarly priced tablets can’t compete with the OnePlus Pad 2’s display specs either. Like its predecessor, the Pad 2 offers a higher 144Hz variable refresh rate than even the most expensive premium tablets from Apple and Samsung, allowing for smooth scrolling and easy navigation. The 3K LCD still supports Dolby Vision, but can now hit a peak brightness of 900 nits at a sharper 3000 x 2120 resolution. The impressively bright and sharp display makes movies come to life, with good contrast levels for an LCD. Colors are rich and vibrant, too, as long as you stay indoors.

With the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 mobile processor, twice the storage and more RAM (256GB SSD / 12GB RAM), apps (including games) load lightning fast and run smoothly. The improved performance doesn’t come at the expense of battery life either, which lasts just as long as its predecessor.

At 12.1 inches, the Pad 2’s display sits somewhere in between the latest 11- and 13-inch tablets from Apple, Samsung, and Google, and it’s also spacious and comfortable for consuming content thanks to its 7:5 aspect ratio. In contrast, the Samsung and Google tablets have a 16:10 aspect ratio, which can make reading or watching videos in landscape mode a challenge.

However, while the screen is spacious (about 584 grams), the weight of the tablet makes it difficult to read or watch movies comfortably for long periods. Add to that its size and the Pad 2 can be tiring to hold. I like to watch movies or read lying down, so this became a problem. I had to use the case to prop up the tablet.

Anyway, if you can look past that, you're getting a tablet that provides a great movie-watching experience that's made even better by its fantastic speakers. Interestingly, OnePlus has dropped support for Dolby Atmos, but its six speakers still deliver loud, full sound with OnePlus' take on spatial audio, Holo Audio. It automatically switches audio channels depending on whether you're in landscape or portrait mode, letting you enjoy immersive stereo sound that's hard to find on a tablet at this price. It's a shame there's no 3.5mm headphone jack, but then again, most tablets these days seem to only work with wireless headphones.

As an entertainment Android tablet, the OnePlus 2 is exceptional, but otherwise, it’s just okay. For example, one of the ways the OnePlus 2 is trying to present the Pad 2 as a productivity-focused tablet is by improving the tablet’s multitasking capabilities with the Open Canvas feature. The feature, which first debuted on the OnePlus Open, now lets you run three apps in split-screen and customize their layout; you can then save the trio as a group for quick access, making multitasking easier than before. Apple and Samsung tablets both offer more useful multitasking and window options, though.

Additionally, because OnePlus’ OxygenOS 14.1 software is built on top of Android 14, the feature is limited by the fact that many Android apps aren’t optimized for a tablet’s larger screen. Slack, for example, looks stretched out and lacks multi-column views, leaving a lot of empty space. Sharing the screen with two other apps using the Open Canvas feature made the app smaller and even harder to navigate, so I simply stopped using it altogether.

That’s not to say you can’t get any work done. The tablet works well for light productivity work. Google and Microsoft Office apps work well, and the recording app even lets you mark specific points. I like that OnePlus’s Notes app offers built-in notebooks with three different templates: one with bullets, a second with lines, and another with a grid. Note-taking e-readers like Kobo’s Elipsa 2E offer more options, but it’s still a nice touch for students or people like me who also use their tablets for journaling.

OnePlus is also promising to introduce plenty of new ai-powered features that are similar to the productivity-focused ones Google launched earlier this year. ai Recording Summary will summarize key points in long documents, while ai Speak will read text aloud and ai Writer will help you write content using text or image prompts. Maybe these features will help improve the tablet, but they’re certainly not here yet and what’s currently available won’t cut it if you want to get any real work done.

Aside from its software, OnePlus’ accessories also hold it back from being a serious productivity device. Along with the $39.99 OnePlus Folio Case 2, the company also sells the $149.99 OnePlus Smart Keyboard and the $99.99 OnePlus Stylo 2. I was able to test the latter two.

OnePlus’ detachable keyboard is fine, but it’s not up to the standards needed for true productivity. I had no issues using it to browse the web or send short emails. It’s small even for my small fingers, but it’s still comfortable to type on. The touchpad is also spacious and easy to navigate, with useful features like multi-finger gesture support. It does click very loudly, though, which made me uncomfortable in quieter, public settings.

My biggest complaint, though, is that the keyboard isn’t sturdy enough. The keyboard attaches magnetically to the Pad via three pogo pins and charges through the tablet relatively quickly. It bends to give a tilt ranging from 110 to 165 degrees, providing a decent amount of viewing angles. Unfortunately, the keyboard did slip off the pins a few times — once while resting on my lap and another time while at my desk. Thankfully, you don’t have to plug the keyboard into your tablet to use it because it supports Bluetooth — but that does hold it back from being a decent laptop replacement.

The stylus might just be OnePlus’ saving grace, though. Like the OnePlus Smart Keyboard, the new Stylo 2 charges quickly when magnetically attached to the Pad. It writes fluidly with no noticeable lag, and offers increased levels of pressure sensitivity, from 4,096 to 16,000. The new leather-like material offers better grip and is comfortable to hold, while OnePlus also added a new linear motor that makes the tip vibrate to simulate pen-and-paper writing. It definitely didn’t feel like I was writing on paper, but it did replicate the experience a little better than my USB-C Apple Pencil.

Overall, the OnePlus Pad 2 makes the most of its strengths, still offering high-end specs, with a stunning display that comparable tablets can't match. It's still not ideal for serious productivity or creation tasks, but it can handle light productivity tasks and is an excellent mid-range Android tablet for watching movies and consuming other types of entertainment. If you have a OnePlus phone, it's even more tempting, with added perks like hotspot sharing.

Compared with similar Android tablets, though, its $549.99 price tag is too high. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S9 FE Plus, which costs $50 more than the Pad 2, includes a stylus, waterproofing, optional cellular connectivity, and a better software policy; Samsung says the Tab S9 FE Plus will get four years of Android updates, as opposed to OnePlus’s promise of three, and five years (not four) of security updates. Even Google’s decent Pixel Tablet, which doesn’t offer as many features, will save you about $150 compared with the new Pad 2.

In other words, OnePlus is facing some real competition today. While the big screen and performance may be tempting, in my opinion, they aren't enough to justify the $70 price increase.

Photograph by Sheena Vasani/The Verge