realme launched the realme Pad X, the company’s third tablet in India, last month, soon after the launch of the realme Pad mini. This has a large 10.95-inch WUXGA+ display, features a sleek 7.1mm body, has quad speakers, and packs a 8340mAh battery. The Helio G80 SoC from the first realme Pad is replaced by Snapdragon 695, so there is also a 5G model. Is this the best tablet in the price range? Let us dive into the review to find out.
Box Contents
- realme Pad X 6GB + 128GB 5G in Glowing Grey colour
- 33W fast charger
- USB Type-C Cable
- SIM Ejector tool
Display, Hardware and Design
Starting with the display, the tablet has a 10.95-inch (2000×1200 pixels) WUXGA+ (Widescreen Ultra eXtended Graphics Array Plus) with a pixel density of 213 PPI and 84.6% screen-to-body ratio. The display is bright to view indoors since it has 450 nits brightness in the sunlight mode. The viewing angles are good as well, but the screen is glossy and is prone to fingerprints. There is reading mode which turns the display black and white and this is useful when you are reading books. The eye comfort mode cuts out the blue light.
The tablet is just 7.1mm thick and weighs 499 grams for the Wi-Fi version and 506 grams for the 5G version, even though it packs a huge, 8340mAh battery and has a large 10.95-inch screen.
The volume rockers are present on the top along with a microphone. The Hybrid SIM (nano + nano / microSD) expansion slot is on the opposite side. On the right side, you can see the USB Type-C port in the middle, along with speakers on both the sides. On the left, there is a power button, speakers and a microphone. The sides feel like it has a metal finish.
Compared to aluminum back in the realme Pad and the Pad mini, the Pad X has a plastic back, but this has a sparkling sand texturing and concave lens UV texturing that are layered for a glittering astral effect. This involves several rounds of color processing, said the company. This looks premium and doesn’t attract fingerprints easily.
There is a 13-megapixel camera on the corner along with AI branding. You can also see the small realme branding. It feels solid, offers a good grip and doesn’t slip easily. It also comes in Glacier Blue colour.
realme also sells realme Pencil and the realme Smart Keyboard separately. The stylus supports 4096-level pressure sensitivity, 240Hz touch sampling rate, 360° hidden button and has magnetic charging. The keyboard can pair with the tablet over Bluetooth, has 1.3mm key travel, comes with multi-function shortcut keys and is made of skin-friendly and environmentally friendly leather.
Camera
Coming to the camera, the tablet has an 13-megapixel rear camera on the back without flash. There is an 8-megapixel camera on the front which has 105° wide viewing angle. Both the cameras can record videos in up to 1080p 30 fps which is decent. The front camera is good for video calls, and the rear camera takes decent images.
It comes with new limelight function that offers intelligent movement tracking to keep the person in the centre of the frame, and the auto-framing feature simulates the focal length change when the camera is moving. This works for Zoom, Google Meet, and Google Duo, and the company said that it will be available soon on others as well.
The camera UI is just basic with option to take 1X, 2X, 5X and up to 6X for images, toggle to front and back, video mode, time-lapse, text scanner and slo-mo.
Check out the camera samples.
Software, UI and Apps
Coming to the software, the tablet runs Android 12 with realme UI 3.0 for Pad. It has Android security for May 2022. There are options like Multi-Window Mode that lets you run two apps side-by-side simultaneously. You also get Google Kids Space that has a range of applications, videos, and books suitable for children. Parents can set a screen usage limit and select which applications
The Multi-Screen Collaboration feature comes with realme Pad that allows smartphone users to cast their phones’ screens to the Pad X for copying text and transferring files. It works for realme GT 2 Pro, GT Neo 2, GT Neo 3, GT Neo 3T, and GT Master Edition, but the company will add support for more phones in the future.
The UI looks similar to the one on realme phones, but it has been improved a lot compared to first generation of realme UI for tablet. Apart from Google apps, it only has Facebook.
Out of 6GB LPDDR4x RAM, you get 5.4GB of usable RAM, and about 2.3GB of RAM is free when default apps are running in the background. Out of 128GB, you get about 105GB of free storage. The phone uses UFS 2.2 storage, but got sequential read speeds of about 486.18 MB/s.
Face unlock
The tablet doesn’t have a fingerprint scanner, so you have to rely on face unlock, which is quick to unlock the device. realme also says that you can use your Band/Watch to unlock the realme Pad instantly with Bluetooth.
Multimedia
YouTube Music is the default Music Player, and there is Dolby Atmos. It doesn’t have FM Radio support. Audio through the quad speakers is brilliant without any distortion even in full volume. Audio through earphones is decent.
This has Widevine L1 so that you can play HD content on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and other apps. Even though DRM info app shows that it has HDR support, it doesn’t work for Netflix or YouTube. Since this has 5:3 aspect ratio, you get a tiny black bar on the top and the bottom, but this is hardly noticeable. You can pinch to zoom.
Dual SIM and Connectivity
The realme Pad X comes in both Wi-Fi and 5G models. The 5G version we have has hybrid dual SIM support so that you can use dual SIM cards or a SIM and a microSD card. It has support for n1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20, 28, 38, 40, 41, 77, 78 and 66 5G bands. There is also 4G VoLTE with support for carrier aggregation.
There is Dual-Band Wi-Fi 802.11 ac (2.4GHz + 5GHz). Wi-Fi range is decent, but it is not the best. Other connectivity options include Bluetooth 5.1, GPS, GLONASS and also has USB OTG support to connect external drives. Moving on, the call quality is good, and we did not face any call drops and the volume from the speaker and when using a headset is good.
The reale Pad X’s body SAR is 1.15W/Kg which is slightly high compared to some phones, but it well under the limit in India which is 1.6 W/kg (over 1 g).
Performance
This is one of the first tablet to be powered by the Snapdragon 695 6nm SoC. It has 2.2 x A78 CPUs clocked at up to 2.2GHz, 6x A55 CPUs clocked at up to 1.8GHz. It has Adreno 618 GPU that promises up to 30% GPU performance increase compared to the predecessor. The tablet has up to 6GB LPDDR4X RAM.
We did not face any issues or frame drops in the graphic-intensive games. It gets a bit warm on intensive gaming for long, but it doesn’t get too hot.
Battery life
Coming to the battery life, the tablet packs a 8340mAh (typical) battery that promises up to 19 hours of video playback. Based on my use, I got over 15 hours of streaming videos on Netflix, YouTube and slight gaming. This might vary if you set the brightness to high. The tablet has support for 33W Dart Chart fast charging, compared to 18W in the older model. It takes about an hour to charge up to 50% and 100% charge takes over 2 hours. This is way better compared to older models, which take 3 hours for a full charge.
Conclusion
Overall, the realme Pad X is a good mid-range tablet compared to the older models at a slightly higher starting price of Rs. 19,999. The display is good, has a powerful Snapdragon 695 SoC, has quad speakers with Dolby Atmos and comes with a huge battery that offers a good battery life. There is also a 5G model, but you need to spend Rs. 6000, if you need it. The camera quality is average, there is no proper case available for the tablet.
If you spend more, you can get the Xiaomi Pad 5 with a 120Hz screen and a better build quality, but it doesn’t have 4G or 5G options.
Pricing and availability
The realme Pad X is priced at Rs. 19,999 for the 4GB + 64GB Wi-Fi, Rs. 25,999 for 4GB + 64GB 5G and Rs. 27,999 for the 6GB + 128GB 5G models. The realme Pencil costs Rs. 5,499 and the realme Smart Keyboard is priced at Rs. 4,999.
It is available from realme.com, Flipkart and offline stores. You can bank discount during sale that makes the tablet Rs. 2000 cheaper.
Pros
- Large high-resolution display
- Quad speakers with Dolby Atmos
- Good performance
- Ultra-sleek design
- Hybrid Dual SIM option in 5G model
- Long battery life
Cons
- Glossy display is not suitable for bright outdoors
- No cases for protection available at launch
- Average camera quality
