TechLife Pad Review

TechLife, while relatively new in the market as one of a few realme divisions like Dizo, is known for providing reliable, budget-friendly devices. At the time of writing, the brand is set to release their first-ever tablet—the TechLife Pad.

This tablet is equipped with a 10.36-inch 2K display, powered by a modest UNISOC T606 chipset. We managed to snag a unit, so we’ll be diving deep to see what it offers for today’s review.

For reference, our unit has a configuration of 8GB of RAM with 128GB of internal storage. Let’s find out if the TechLife Pad delivers on providing users with entertainment made easy!

Design and Construction

The TechLife Pad has a relatively muted design, with a deceptively heavy yet slim form factor. This tablet is 7.4 millimeters thin, but weighs 453 grams.

Our review unit came in Graphite Grey, sporting a smooth aluminum back panel with TechLife branding on the lower right. The metal chassis felt firm when held, complementing the polished surface without being slippery.

I took an initial liking to the tablet with how minimal it was, and then the rose-colored glasses came off. I noticed that both the display and back panel were a bit smudge prone.

I considered that it might’ve been moisture from the cold room and weather, but I digress.

Moving on, the camera sensor is situated on the top left of the back panel with a LED flash below. Up front, we have the tablet’s display panel with the camera situated on the right side when held in portrait orientation.

I appreciate how manufacturers place cameras for tablets these days. Since tablets are held under the landscape orientation during calls or when watching videos, this is a nice touch.

For buttons and ports, the power switch and volume rocker can be found on the upper right side. Meanwhile, the left side is clean from anything on it.

At the bottom, we have a 3.5mm audio port, two stereo speakers, a Type-C port, and a hybrid SIM slot. On top, we have two more stereo speakers. The speaker placement is great for an immersive experience, but we’ll go into detail in the next segment.

Aside from the tablet being smudge prone, I’d say I’m happy with the design-side of things. It’s pretty straightforward, and was made considerably well for an entry-level device.

Display, Multimedia, and Biometrics

The tablet features a large 10.36-inch display with a 2K resolution and 60Hz refresh rate. Users will also get quad-stereo speakers for an immersive audio experience.

Personally, I find the pixel density from watching videos on the device a bit lacking. It’s surely reliable, yet feels limited. But hey, at least scrolling around with the TechLife Pad feels good.

Readers should also take note that when on YouTube, the tablet can only view up to 720p for videos. On the plus side, the display panel does offer a really bright screen.

As for audio, there’s certainly room for improvement. With four speakers, my expectations with how loud it was were met. However, clarity in the sound stage needs some polishing.

Biometrics include pattern, numeric, alphanumeric, and face unlock. While these are trivial means of security, I was genuinely surprised at how fast face unlock worked for the device.

Apart from that, I’d say that TechLife needs a bit more work on everything else under this segment.

Cameras

For cameras, the TechLife Pad is equipped with a 8-megapixel main shooter and a 5-megapixel selfie shooter. Admittedly, my expectations for tablet cameras are low, and these performed as you would expect them to.

Photos are a bit grainy, but then again, people surely won’t use their tablets for photos on social media anyway. It’s not meant to produce flagship-level photos. After all, it is under a budgeted segment for tablets.

However, these are fairly passable. I’d rather have these shots in comparison to photos taken with aggressive HDR or beauty mode on. If we consider that tablets don’t really aim too high for this segment, this is okay.

OS, Apps, and UI

The tablet runs Android 14 out of the box, using Google’s suite in place of the usual dedicated apps. To elaborate, it doesn’t have a dedicated photo gallery, instead using Google Photos.

Since this is plain vanilla software without skins, readers might think it’s pretty vanilla. I honestly wasn’t pleased, but it did grow on me over time. But other than that, I don’t have anything software-specific to nitpick from.

Users should also take note that the base Android 14 does not have ANY bloatware installed.

The user interface is what you would expect from standard Android devices. My general consensus under this segment is that the tablet does okay. It’s not terrible, but it’s certainly not great either.

Performance and Benchmarks

Powering the TechLife Pad is a UNISOC T606 chipset and an ARM Mali-G57 GPU. These are paired with a configuration of 8GB of RAM with 128GB of internal storage.

The tablet was able to handle light games like Teamfight Tactics with minimal frame drops. It didn’t really heat up though, which is great. But when playing heavier games like League of Legends: Wild Rift, there’s noticeable lag.

For those interested, we’ll be leaving our synthetic benchmark scores below.

These numbers are expected, since the device falls under the entry-level segment. Although I must say, it provided decent numbers for storage speeds.

Battery and Connectivity

The tablet packs a beefy 7,000mAh battery with 10W of wired charging support via USB Type-C. Depending on your habits, this should be enough for day-to-day usage.

We took the tablet for battery testing and had some interesting findings. First of all, the TechLife Pad can’t run PC Mark at all. It couldn’t be downloaded from the Play Store, and failed to run even with the APK download.

In our video loop test, the tablet managed to pump 7 hours and 47 minutes of video playback. The test was conducted by playing a full HD movie with 50% brightness, volume muted, and in airplane mode.

For the gaming test, the TechLife Pad put up 6 hours and 40 minutes of gameplay. The gaming test was conducted with brightness and volume set to 50% over a WiFi connection.

For charging, the tablet takes 1 hour and 36 minutes to charge from 0% to full power. This was done by using the provided adapter that came with the device.

Judging from the results, the TechLife Pad excels by providing end users with video playback. While it’s not the best numbers out there, it’s alright when users keep its price range in mind.

For connectivity, the TechLife Pad offers WiFi 5, Bluetooth 5.0, and LTE/VoLTE. There’s no issues with retaining connections over the device.

In addition, call quality is fairly decent. No lags from my end, nor the person I converse with. Of course, this comes with making sure you have a good enough connection to begin with.

Pricing and Conclusion

This tablet has a suggested retail price of PHP 8,999USD 153INR 13,000EUR 146CNY 1,117. Readers may also find the TechLife Pad with an initial promo price of PHP 8,499USD 145INR 12,278EUR 138CNY 1,055 in TikTok and Lazada.

At the time of writing, the promo is ongoing until June 30, 2024. If interested readers act now, they also get TechLife Wireless Earbuds worth PHP 999USD 17INR 1,443EUR 16CNY 124.

The TechLife Pad is positioned to be a great find for those who value entertainment without having to shell out much. After all, the device is equipped with a large display, decent chipset, and fair battery life.

What we liked:
Large display
Decent performance
Face unlock response time

What we didn’t like:
Smudge prone
Audio
Battery life

TechLife Pad specs:
10.36-inch 2K display
60Hz refresh rate
UNISOC T606 chipset
2x Cortex-A75 @ 1.6GHz
6x Cortex-A55 @ 1.6GHz
ARM Mali-G57 GPU
8GB LPDDR4X RAM
128GB internal storage
microSD card support (up to 1TB)
8MP main camera
5MP front camera
LTE, VoLTE
USB Type-C
Quad stereo speakers
WiFi 5
Bluetooth 5.0
Android 14
7,000mAh Li-ion battery
10W wired charging
7.44mm thin (dimensions)
453 grams (weight)
Graphite Blue, Graphite Grey (colors)