Oppo Pad Neo Review

If there’s one segment that becomes more and more competitive each year, it’s the budget tablet market. While older tablets could barely run games, that isn’t the case today.

One good example of a new budget tablet is the new Oppo Pad Neo. If you’re familiar with OPPO’s lineup of tablets, you can think of this as the entry-level model.

It only packs a Helio G99 processor and 8GB of RAM, but if you just need a tablet to watch movies or videos and play light games, it’s more than enough. With an SRP of just PHP 15,999, it’s also very affordable.

Given how competitive the market is though, is it a budget tablet you should consider buying? Well, I suggest you read on to find out.

Design and Construction

While the OPPO Pad Neo might be a budget tablet, it is by no means lacking in quality. The Pad Neo features a similar design language to that of its more powerful and larger siblings.

You get an all-metallic frame design with a minimalist-looking back panel. The back panel features a matte finish, but the top part is reflective, which is not as smudge-resistant. Aside from the single rear camera, the only other design cue is the OPPO logo at the center.

The minimalist design does help the tablet look a lot more premium despite its affordable price point. Not to mention it also comes with four speakers to work with. Our review unit even has a provision for a sim slot. Other than that, you do get a single USB-C port at the bottom.

In terms of size, the Pad Neo is a lot smallest member of their tablet lineup. It only measures 255.12 x 188.04 x 6.89mm. It’s relatively light too weighing just 538g.

This makes the tablet easy to carry around and bring wherever you want. It can easily fit in your bag, and for better reference, it even fits inside my crossbody bag.

With that, I can say the OPPO Pad Neo doesn’t feel like a budget tablet of the past. Since it’s light and easy to carry around, you can easily take it with you to work on the go.

Display and Multimedia

Open up the OPPO Pad Neo, and you’re greeted by an 11.4-inch display with a 90Hz refresh rate. It’s not the best display out there when it comes to tablets since it only uses an IPS LCD panel.

Despite that, the colors are rather decent and they are rather vibrant for an IPS display. Not to mention they’re quite accurate too when you want to look at nice photos or watch movies.

The only downside is using it outdoors and under the sun. It only has 400 nits of peak brightness, which I find quite lacking. This made the tablet hard to use under direct sunlight, especially now that it’s summer.

The Pad Neo also has relatively thick borders all around, but at least they’re equally thick. You do get decent viewing angles. When watching videos, the animations are smooth even with only a 90Hz refresh rate.

However, gamers will find it lacking, but then again, this isn’t a gaming tablet. I must say, it is great for typing though. In fact, a good chunk of this review was written while I was outside using the Pad Neo. I didn’t even have to use a Bluetooth keyboard.

The speakers do lack bass for my liking, but you do get good clarity and a decent sound stage. Not to mention it’s also tuned by Dolby Atmos. They’re also quite loud, making it great for watching with friends.

Overall, the display isn’t the best but you do have to set your expectations. Still, I do wish OPPO fitted a brighter screen just to make it a bit more usable when you’re out and about.

Cameras

As with most tablet cameras, I didn’t expect too much on the OPPO Pad Neo. Then again, tablets don’t exactly have the best camera systems either.

You get a single 8MP rear shooter and an 8MP selfie cam at the front. They’re okay if you want to take photos, but don’t expect too much. But if you’re using it just for video calls or take Zoom meetings, then it should be more than enough.

The photos are decent during the day or in well lit environments, and they’re somewhat sharp. Although if you look closely, you will notice that the images do have some grain and don’t have the best clarity. The colors aren’t as accurate too.

At night or in low light conditions, the images become barely usable. The images are overly grainy, and the camera has a hard time focusing on the subject.

The front camera is decent enough for selfies in the day though, although they are soft for my liking. You can even hold meetings with it.

In terms of video, you can record at a maximum of 1080P@30FPS using both the front and rear cameras. The rear camera also comes with EIS to help stabilize videos. Like the photos though, they’re workable during the day, but not exactly at night.

Honestly, if you want to take photos or videos, I’d recommend using your phone instead. Aside from getting better shots, you won’t get judging looks from people either taking photos or videos with a tablet.

To give you an idea though, check out some of the images and video we were able to take using the OPPO Pad Neo in the gallery below.

Performance and Benchmarks

Under the hood, the OPPO Pad Neo is powered by a MediaTek Helio G99 chipset. Our unit comes with 8GB of RAM with an additional 8GB via RAM Expansion and 128GB of internal storage.

For those who find the 128GB of storage lacking, you can expand memory further via a microSD slot. And if you plan on downloading lots of files or apps, you will find space lacking really quickly.

The Helio G99 chipset is decent enough if you mainly use the Pad Neo for mainly for work or to be productive. I didn’t experience any lag or slowing down even if I had several apps running in the background, multitasking, and even while using the split screen function

It’s even decent enough to run games. You can run the usual light games such as Mobile Legends and Asphalt 9, but what surprised me is the tablet’s capability to run Genshin Impact.

Yes, this tablet can run Genshin Impact even on max graphics and 60fps. Although with the graphics maxed out, it does suffer from heavy frame rate drops and lags. If you adjust the settings to medium-low, you can have a decent gaming experience.

Although the tablet does heat up easily when playing Genshin, so do keep that in mind. With that, I recommend adjusting the graphics to medium to have a more enjoyable gaming experience, especially with Genshin. Still, it’s surprising considering this is a budget tablet. I wasn’t expecting it to run Genshin, more so on max settings.

We also ran our usual list of benchmarking apps, which you can check out below.

OS, Apps, and UI

The OPPO Pad Neo runs on Android 13 skinned with Color OS 13.2. If you’ve ever used Color OS before, then you’re bound to enjoy it on this tablet.

Perhaps what I really enjoyed about the OS is the lack of bloatware. Usually, OPPO smartphones come with a host of bloatware that I end up deleting. But the Pad Neo has none of those.

You get several multitasking features including split view, flexible windows, and dual windows. I ended up using dual windows the most since you can have two apps running at the same time.

I could have videos playing on one side while working on the other. With flexible windows, I could even have a floating tab for whatever I wanted.

These features make it much easier to be productive with the Pad Neo. It’s also why I brought it around often so I could get work done wherever I am.

Battery and Connectivity

The battery on the OPPO Pad Neo is an 8,000mAh unit, which does last a very long time. Despite using it for an entire day to work, write reviews, watch videos, and even play games, I got home with around 40 percent of battery life remaining. I even forgot to charge it the next day, and I was still able to be productive outside of the office.

But to give you a better idea, we ran PC Mark’s Work 3.0 Battery Test on airplane mode, volume off and 50 percent brightness, and we managed to get a result of 18 hours and 45 minutes. Using our video loop test, we were able to record around 19 hours and 32 minutes.

Based on these results, it goes to show just how power-efficient the OPPO Pad Neo is. When you do need to recharge though, the Pad Neo comes with 33W SUPERVOOC fast charging. It’s not the fastest charging tablet out there, but given the long battery life, you won’t need to be charging this tablet as often as you think.

In terms of connectivity, the supports LTE (assuming you have a SIM card installed), dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.2, and GPS.

Conclusion

Overall, the OPPO Pad Neo is a great budget tablet for those who just need one to be productive outdoors, but don’t want to spend too much money on a high-end tablet.

At the price of PHP 15,999, it does offer great value for money since it can play most games, has a decent display, and more than adequate speakers. Most importantly, the Pad Neo can help you get work done.

If you have an extra SIM lying around, you can even have it connected to LTE, and not be dependent on WiFi. It also has stylus support for those who want to draw or be creative. In addition, you also have the useful features of ColorOS 13.2.

The only downside is that the screen isn’t exactly the best. With only 400 nits of brightness to work with, you might have a hard time seeing things especially when it’s really sunny outside. The 90Hz refresh rate might also be a factor for some. Not to mention, you don’t have the best cameras either.

But what do you think of the OPPO Pad Neo? Is it a tablet you’ll consider buying this 2024? Share your thoughts below.

What we liked:
* Long battery life
* Decent performance
* Nice design

What we didn’t like:
* Cameras aren’t the best
* Performance could be better
* Low brightness display

OPPO Pad Neo specs:
11.35-inch (2408 x 1720) 2.4K LCD @ 260ppi
90Hz refresh rate, 180Hz touch sampling
400 nits (peak brightness)
MediaTek Helio G99 (6nm)
Mali-G57 MC2 GPU
6GB, 8GB RAM
128GB, 256GB UFS 2.2 storage
8MP (f/2.0) rear camera w/ EIS
8MP (f/2.0) front camera
Quad speakers w/ Dolby Atmos
USB Type-C
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band
Bluetooth 5.2
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo
Face unlock
Android 13, ColorOS 13.2
8,000mAh non-removable battery, 33W SUPERVOOC charging
255.12 x 188.04 x 6.89mm (dimensions)
538 grams (weight)
Gray (color)