Design and Build: Aesthetics Meets Practicality
Crafted from a single block of aluminum, the Realme Pad exudes a premium feel that belies its budget-friendly positioning. With a slim 6.9mm profile and a weight of just 440 grams for the Wi-Fi model, it strikes an impressive balance between sturdiness and portability. The device is comfortable to hold for extended periods, whether reading an e-book or watching a movie. The minimalist design is punctuated by a distinctive camera module on the rear, featuring a singular lens that aligns with Realme’s aesthetic language. Available in Grey and Gold, the finish is understated yet elegant, resisting fingerprints reasonably well. All physical buttons—the power and volume rocker—offer a satisfying click and are placed ergonomically on the top-right edge when held in landscape mode. You’ll find a USB-C port for charging and data transfer, a 3.5mm headphone jack—a welcome inclusion for audio purists—and a microSD card slot that supports expansion up to 512GB, addressing a key limitation of many base-model tablets.
Display: Immersive Visuals for Entertainment
The centerpiece of the Realme Pad is its 10.4-inch WUXGA+ IPS LCD display. With a resolution of 2000 x 1200 pixels, it delivers a pixel density of approximately 224 PPI, resulting in sharp text and vibrant imagery. The screen boasts a commendable 82.5% screen-to-body ratio, with relatively slim bezels that enhance the viewing experience without being so thin that they cause accidental palm touches. While it doesn’t feature the deep blacks of an OLED panel, the LCD is well-calibrated, offering accurate colors and good brightness levels—peaking at around 360 nits. This makes it suitable for indoor use, though direct sunlight can pose a challenge. The display supports Realme’s ‘Dark Mode’ and ‘Eye Comfort’ settings, which reduce blue light emission. For multimedia consumption, the screen is a standout feature, providing an excellent canvas for streaming HD content from Netflix, YouTube, and Amazon Prime Video. The wide viewing angles ensure that colors remain consistent even when sharing the screen with others.
Performance and Hardware: The Helio G80 Powerhouse
At the heart of the Realme Pad lies the MediaTek Helio G80 chipset, a 12nm processor renowned for its efficiency and reliable performance in the budget segment. This octa-core CPU, comprising two Cortex-A75 performance cores and six Cortex-A55 efficiency cores, is paired with a capable Mali-G52 MC2 GPU. The tablet is offered in three configurations: 3GB RAM with 32GB storage, 4GB RAM with 64GB storage, and an LTE variant of the 4GB/64GB model. In daily use, the Realme Pad handles typical tablet tasks with aplomb. Social media scrolling, web browsing with multiple tabs, and email management are fluid and largely stutter-free. The 4GB RAM variant, in particular, demonstrates competent multi-tasking, allowing users to switch between apps without frequent reloads.
For gaming, the Helio G80 and Mali-G52 combination is capable. Casual titles like Among Us or Candy Crush run flawlessly. More graphically intensive games such as Call of Duty: Mobile and Genshin Impact are playable, but require settings to be tuned to medium or low to maintain a stable frame rate. The tablet does warm up under sustained heavy load, but it never becomes uncomfortably hot. A significant performance differentiator is Realme’s ‘Smart Performance Boost’ feature, which dynamically allocates resources to open applications. The overall user experience is snappy and responsive, firmly positioning the Realme Pad as a device optimized for entertainment and productivity, rather than hardcore mobile gaming.
Software Experience: Clean Android with Useful Additions
The Realme Pad launches with Realme UI for Pad, built upon Android 11. This is a significant advantage, as the software experience is clean, bloatware-free, and very close to stock Android. Realme has intelligently adapted the interface for the larger screen, avoiding the clunky phone-ui-stretched-to-a-tablet problem that plagues many budget alternatives. Key features enhance productivity and entertainment. ‘Focus Mode’ helps minimize distractions by pausing selected apps for a set period. ‘Screen-Off Memo’ allows you to quickly jot down notes by double-tapping the screen with the stylus while the display is off—though a compatible stylus must be purchased separately.
A standout software feature is ‘Dual Mode Music Sharing,’ which enables audio output to two Bluetooth devices simultaneously—perfect for sharing a movie or music with a friend. The absence of heavy customizations means the interface is intuitive for anyone familiar with Android, and it contributes to the tablet’s generally smooth performance. However, the commitment to future Android version updates remains a question mark typical of the budget segment.
Cameras: Adequate for a Tablet
Tablet cameras are seldom primary selling points, and the Realme Pad’s setup is functional and meets basic expectations. The rear features an 8MP autofocus camera that can capture decent shots in well-lit conditions. Images exhibit acceptable detail and color accuracy for documenting whiteboards, scanning documents, or the occasional outdoor snapshot. It can also record 1080p video at 30fps. The 8MP ultra-wide front-facing camera, housed in the landscape bezel, is the more strategically important sensor. It is explicitly designed for video calls and conferences, providing a wider field of view that can comfortably fit multiple people into the frame. Features like ‘Realme Selfie Glow’ use the screen to provide soft, front-facing fill light in low-light conditions, enhancing video call clarity. For its intended purposes—Zoom, Google Meet, and casual selfies—the camera system is more than sufficient.
Battery Life and Charging: All-Day Endurance
Powering the device is a substantial 7,100mAh battery, which is one of its strongest assets. Under typical usage patterns involving web browsing, video streaming, and light gaming, the Realme Pad consistently delivers between two to three days of use on a single charge. In a continuous video playback test with brightness set at 50%, the tablet easily surpassed 12 hours, underscoring its prowess as a media consumption device. This exceptional endurance makes it an ideal companion for long journeys or a full day of work and entertainment without needing a power bank.
Where the tablet shows its budget constraints is in charging speed. It supports 18W Quick Charge via the USB-C port, but the included charger in the box is only rated for 15W. From 0 to 100%, a full charge takes approximately 3 hours. While the slow charging is a trade-off for the price, the phenomenal battery life means most users will be charging overnight, mitigating this inconvenience for daily use.
Audio, Connectivity, and Accessories
The Realme Pad features a quad-speaker setup that is both powerful and intelligently designed. With a speaker on each corner, the tablet provides a truly immersive stereo experience regardless of its orientation—landscape or portrait. The speakers are tuned by Dolby Atmos, offering support for various audio profiles like Movie, Music, and Game. The sound output is clear, sufficiently loud, and possesses a surprising amount of bass for a device in this category. While audiophiles will still prefer high-quality headphones, the built-in audio system is a highlight for casual listening and movie watching.
Connectivity options are comprehensive. The Wi-Fi model supports dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, ensuring stable and fast internet connections. The optional LTE model includes dual-SIM support (one Nano-SIM and one eSIM), allowing for always-on connectivity, which is a boon for users on the move. Bluetooth 5.0 ensures stable connections to peripherals. A notable accessory is the ‘Realme Pad Stylus,’ which offers 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity and low latency for note-taking and sketching. It magnetically attaches to the side of the tablet for storage and charging. Similarly, a keyboard folio case is available to transform the Pad into a rudimentary laptop replacement for light productivity tasks, though the software lacks the sophisticated multi-window capabilities of more premium OS offerings like iPadOS or Samsung’s DeX.