OPPO Pad 5 Matte Edition Display Review

The tablet market is seemingly getting bigger and bigger every year, and what we have here today is the OPPO Pad 5 Matte Display Edition with 5G cellular.

Those two features alone already hint who this tablet is designed for. But out in the sea of tablet options out there, is this thing worth checking out? You’re about to find out in this review.

Let’s dive right in!

Design and Construction

At first glance, I would say the OPPO Pad 5 definitely shows off a premium vibe. Our unit is in the Starlight Black colorway sporting a metallic, satin-like finish across the back panel. There’s also another color variant that is available which is the Aurora Pink.

However, my one gripe is it tends to be a fingerprint magnet, so I’d suggest slapping on a case whenever possible. Thankfully, I always have my handy fiber cloth with me, so in this case, I’ve been wiping it clean religiously from time to time.

And one thing I admire with this Pad, despite the large size, having a 12.1-inch display, the tablet is still pretty lightweight. It weighs only 597 grams and measures 6.83 mm thin.

The tablet doesn’t come with any ingress protection though which I already expected since most tablets out there don’t really have extra protection in mind. So, be mindful.

For buttons and ports, in landscape orientation facing the screen, the power button, two speaker grilles, and the SIM tray are all found on the left side.

Meanwhile on the right, it has a USB-C in between the two more speaker grilles. Up top, there’s the volume rocker on the left part, and there’s nothing on the bottom.

Display, Multimedia, and Biometrics

Flipping it over to the front, not gonna lie, the display is one of the tablet’s strongest suits.

Again, it features a 12.1-inch IPS LCD panel with a sharp 2.8K resolution and a smooth 120Hz refresh rate. Of course, let’s not forget that anti-glare matte display, which I find genuinely useful and effective at reducing reflections, especially when using the tablet outdoors.

It can reach up to 900 nits in High Brightness Mode (HBM), so visibility under direct sunlight remains surprisingly good. Plus, the bezels are thin and uniform all around, making the overall viewing experience feel more immersive.

Viewing angles are also excellent for an IPS panel. Colors stay fairly consistent even when viewed from the sides, with only minimal brightness and contrast shifting at extreme angles. The matte coating helps here too since it diffuses harsh reflections that would normally become distracting on glossy displays.

Unfortunately, our unit didn’t come with accessories such as a stylus or keyboard case, so there’s not much to say yet about palm rejection or how satisfying handwriting would feel on this matte surface. But from the texture alone, it already feels closer to writing on paper compared to traditional glossy tablets.

Now, talking about the multimedia experience, it has been absolutely great, and I’m not even exaggerating here. I genuinely enjoyed watching movies, scrolling through socials, and listening to music on this tablet.

It has a quad-speaker setup with Dolby Atmos support, and in my experience, the audio quality is loud and immersive, with punchy bass that doesn’t muddy the mids, while vocals and highs remain detailed.

The tablet also supports Widevine L1 certification, which means streaming apps like Netflix and Disney+ can play content in HD resolution instead of being limited to standard definition. As for YouTube, videos can go up to 2160p or 4K playback, which really helps maximize the sharpness of the 2.8K panel when watching high-resolution content.

Now, for biometrics, OPPO Pad 5 only supports face unlock that generally works reliably and quickly. Just make sure to set up either a pattern or passcode as an added layer of security.

Cameras

Moving on to cameras, this segment isn’t really a priority when it comes to tablets, and it shows. The OPPO Pad 5 features an 8-megapixel sensor for both the rear and front-facing cameras.

Looking at our sample shots, these are serviceable at best. Clarity is not the best since there’s no autofocus here, and the color reproduction is a hit or miss, generally looking a bit flat. And the dynamic range isn’t as wide with mostly blown out highlights and crushed shadows.

Selfies are okay, able to produce natural skin tones and a more acceptable exposure. However, the quality degrades drastically once you use it in dim environments.

Thankfully, with all the AI tools available on the Photos app, you can enhance and make your images better. For video capture, both the front and rear cameras can record up to a max 1080p at 30 frames per second (fps).

And as you would’ve guessed already, the video quality is okay as long as you have steady hands. It’s lacking any form of stabilization, so expect most of your videos are shaky. Also, the output looks weirdly a bit gray-ish.

With all that said, these cameras will still come in handy for quick snaps, document scanning, and of course, online meetings.

Here’s the sample snaps we have taken by the OPPO Pad 5:

OPPO Pad 5

May 18 – 21

Performance and Benchmarks

Powering the OPPO Pad 5 is the MediaTek Dimensity 7300-Ultra chipset combined with 8GB of RAM (LPDDR5X) and 256GB (UFS 3.1) of expandable storage.

Yes, you heard that right, this tablet comes with a dedicated microSD card slot, at least for the cellular unit that we have.

Going back to performance, the tablet delivers well for the most part. Navigation around is smooth, app loading times are fairly quick, and jumping from different apps didn’t cause any obvious slow downs.

Looking at our benchmark results, the tablet managed to get solid numbers. In AnTuTu version 11, it almost hit a million points (982,220), and in a graphical test like 3DMark, it was able to pass about 19 fps of average frame rate.

For those interested in the numbers, look at the numbers down below.

That says a lot already about its gaming performance.

Playing MOBA and shooter games like Mobile Legends and Call of Duty Mobile, these games ran smoothly even if the graphics settings were set to Ultra.

Meanwhile, for more demanding games like Genshin Impact and Wuthering Waves, the average frame rate hovered around 40 FPS in Low to Medium graphics with minimal stutters.

The backplate warmed up for a bit during sustained gameplay, but it didn’t reach a point when it was uncomfortably hot to the touch.

OS, UI, and Apps

Now jumping on to the software side, the OPPO Pad 5 runs on the latest ColorOS 16 built on top of Android 16.

In terms of UI design, ColorOS looks very modern having sleek animations all through the system. I also like that you’d get so many customization options like changing the app icons, experimenting with different themes, and personalizing the lock screen.

First-party OPPO apps are present here along with a few bloatware apps that you can easily remove if you want to.

Aside from customization, the tablet also has AI tools available to help boost productivity. There’s AI Writer, AI Translate, and AI VoiceScribe, alongside Google Gemini, Circle to Search, and some AI Editing tools present inside the Photos app.

Aside from the tools present for productivity, the split-screen and floating window features were very helpful for professionals like us who do multi-task.

Using it for everyday work while juggling a lot of tasks, helps me accomplish a lot of projects. But one thing I noticed from doing this, the tablet lags after a long time. Especially when you load game apps in the background. With its floating window feature, it’s only limited to one floating window.

As per its software support, the OPPO Pad 5 is promised to get 2 major OS upgrades and three years of security patches.

Connectivity and Battery Life

When it comes to tablet experience, having a long battery life is pretty much a necessity.

The OPPO Pad 5 Matte Display Edition packs a 10,050 mAh battery paired with 33W of wired charging. With that massive capacity, I really had high expectations.

In our PCMark battery life test, the tablet only lasted 14 hours and 28 minutes. That number is quite underwhelming, but considering this tablet has a massive screen, that result kind of makes sense.

On the bright side, our video loop test did it some justice. It passed 19 hours and 49 minutes of uptime which is significantly a better result. What’s a bit of a letdown is the absence of a power brick, and only included a USB-A to -C cable in the box.

Connectivity-wise, our unit supports 5G cellular, Wi-Fi 6, and Bluetooth 5.4.

Pricing

Before going into our verdict, let’s talk about the price. The OPPO Pad 5 Matte Display Edition retails for PHP 25,999 for the Wi-Fi Variant, and PHP 28,999 for the 5G cellular variant, each comes with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage.

Conclusion

The OPPO Pad 5 Matte Display Edition is one prime example that OPPO can make a tablet that feels premium, powerful, and fun to use, all achievable in the midrange scene.

From its large and smooth display to its loud quad speakers, the experience feels immersive whether you’re watching movies, attending classes, working on tasks, or playing games.

Overall performance is also reliable, handling everyday use and even heavy gaming on the side without major problems. Plus, the sleek design makes it look more expensive than it actually is.

At its price, the tablet delivers a balanced package for students, casual users, gamers, and even content creators-alike who want a stylish and dependable companion for both productivity and entertainment on the go, every day.

And that’s it! What do you think of the OPPO Pad 5 Matte Display Edition? Will you purchase it for your daily grind? Share your thoughts down below!

What we liked:

• Lightweight
• Anti-Glare Matte Display
• Quad-Speaker setup

What we don’t like:

• Battery Life
• Fingerprint Magnet Back Display
• Camera quality

OPPO Pad 5 Matte Display Specs:
12.1-inch LCD Display
2800 × 1980 pixels, 120Hz Refresh rate, 900 nits HBM
MediaTek Dimensity 7300-Ultra
Arm Mali-G615 MC2 GPU
8GB LPDDR5X RAM
256GB UFS Storage
8MP (f/2.0) Rear Camera
8MP (f/2.0) Front Camera
Wi-Fi 6 (for Wi-Fi version only)
ColorOS 16.0
10,050mAh Battery
33W SUPERVOOC wired charging
266.01 × 192.77 × 6.83 mm (dimensions)
597 grams (weight)
Starlight Black, Aurora Pink (colors)