Realme Pad 2 Review: A Tablet For the Masses

Two years after the launch of the first-generation Realme Pad, its successor has arrived. The Realme Pad 2 builds on the outgoing model with a more refined design, a bigger battery, LTE support, and a faster display, among other things. The sub-Rs 20,000 tablet category is teeming with options from Redmi, Motorola, Oppo, and more — can the Realme Pad 2 stand out? And more importantly, is it a good buy for you? Read on to find out.

Realme Pad 2 Review: Pricing and storage variants breakdown

The Realme Pad 2 is available in two configurations and can be bought from Flipkart or Realme’s online store. Both variants support 4G LTE, which is a plus point.

6GB + 128GB: Rs 19,999 — The base variant of this tablet should ideally suffice most people who are looking for a large screen for their content consumption needs.

8GB + 256GB: Rs 22,999 — The highest variant of the Realme Pad 2 is targeted more towards consumers who primarily multitask and require more storage. However, at this price, it opens up to more competition — which we will discuss shortly.

Realme Pad 2 Review: Design and build quality

• The Realme Pad 2’s design looks more appealing than its predecessor

• The build quality of the tablet is quite sturdy

The Realme Pad 2 does not deter much from its predecessor in terms of the form factor. It features a flat body with curved edges that help with the grip. At 7.2mm in thickness, the tablet is relatively thin and showcases a proper slate-like design. You can pick it up in grey and green hues. We recommend going with the latter if a bit of bling is your thing.

The back panel is an amalgamation of metal and polycarbonate, with a bit of brushed texture on the latter. This approach provides a good contrast of colours and also helps with a better grip at times. Moreover, the build quality of the tablet is also quite sturdy. The camera module at the rear features a single lens, despite the dual-camera-like look. It protrudes slightly but does not cause any wobbles when the device is kept on flat surfaces.

While the Realme Pad 2 is ergonomic, it weighs on the heavier side at 518 grams. This made it a bit uncomfortable to hold for longer hours, as our wrists cried for help. The right side of the tablet features the volume rocker with two microphone holes, while the top portion houses the power button and two speaker grille.

The buttons have good tactile feedback. A SIM tray slot with an option to add a microSD card can be found on the left side. The bottom portion has a USB Type-C port and another set of speaker grille.

Realme Pad 2 Review: Display and audio

• The tablet sports an 11.5-inch 2K display

• It comes with a quad-speaker setup

Coming to the front, the bezels on all four sides are slightly prominent but do not cause any distraction. The selfie camera is neatly placed on the right bezel, so you can attend video calls in the landscape mode too.

The inclusion of a faster display was a good way to go, as it aids smoother experience in daily use. This also gives it an upper hand over the similarly-priced Redmi Pad that comes with a 90Hz display.

Additionally, the higher-resolution display showcased crips details. This was prominent when reading articles or when scrolling through social media. That said, the display is fairly reflective and is a fingerprint magnet, so you might have to keep a cloth handy.

Despite the LCD panel, the vibrance and contrast levels were well maintained. However, the viewing angles are not the best. The screen gets bright enough indoors, but using it under direct sunlight can be a task.

The Realme Pad 2 comes with Widevine L1 certification, so watching movies and TV shows at full HD resolution on OTT platforms was possible. Shows like Breaking Bad and Big Bang Theory looked good on the slate’s panel.

Accompanying the visuals is a quad-speaker setup, which was quite impressive. It can get loud, without losing details. The sound output is clear and also has decent bass. While the speaker output is good, some may feel the absence of a headphone jack a bit disappointing, especially if they want to use the Realme Pad 2 as an entertainment device.

Realme Pad 2 Review: Hardware and software

• A MediaTek Helio G99 powers the Realme Pad 2

• It comes with realme UI 4.0

The Helio G99 chipset is usually found in smartphones priced below Rs 15,000. The same can also be found in the Redmi Pad (Review). This processor is a step up from the Helio G80 found in the tablet’s predecessor.

As for connectivity, the Realme Pad 2 supports dual-band WiFi, Bluetooth 5.2, and GPS. The slate lacks a fingerprint sensor but uses face unlock for security. It works properly in well-lit conditions. The uses LPDDR4X RAM and UFS 2.2 storage tech, ensuring smooth multitasking and fast transfer speeds.

As mentioned before, the Realme Pad 2 comes with a SIM slot, which is something not many manufacturers often implement. This means you can use the tablet for calls and other purposes. The microSD card slot can take up to 1TB expansion — though we doubt you’ll ever need that much.

While the benchmark numbers are not impressive, the tablet performs well without many issues in day-to-day usage. Moreover, it doesn’t show any stutter in challenging situations either, such as multitasking with various apps.

While gaming on a large screen has never been our forte, BGMI on it looks quite good. You can go up to HD graphics and High frame rate. The experience was decent and we did not notice any major frame drops during our deathmatch session. Less intensive games such as Subway Surfers and Angry Birds are also fun on such a large screen.

The Realme Pad 2 runs Realme UI 4.0 based on Android 13. On the surface, it looks very much like the interface on Realme smartphones, the company has made slight changes to harness the tablet experience.

A dock that features six essential apps and three recent apps can be seen on the home screen. We found this quite useful. Sadly though, it can only be accessed from the home screen, and not when you are using some other app.

Realme’s Pad 2 also comes with a multi-screen connect feature, which lets you connect to a select smartphone using Bluetooth. This way you can share your smartphone screen on the tablet, sync clipboard content, and more. While it is useful, the set-up process can be a bit painful as you are asked to allow a million permissions when we tried this on the OnePlus 11.

Besides that, you can find the usual split screen, dual windows, flexible windows, smart sidebar, etc. in the special features tab. The software utilises the screen estate properly and third-party apps like Instagram also work well. Moreover, the slate does not come with any bloatware, which is great. The Realme Pad 2 can also act as a laptop if you connect it with Bluetooth-enabled peripherals.

Realme Pad 2 Review: Camera

• It features an 8-megapixel camera at the back

• You get a 5-megapixel front camera for selfies and video calls

Cameras on budget tablets are not really their strongest suit. It’s highly unlikely you will find someone taking photos using a tablet out in the wild — if you find someone doing that, we would urge you to maintain a safe distance.

Jokes aside, you get two serviceable cameras on either side of the tablet. Images captured using the rear camera are enough to serve the purpose — as long as there is an ample amount of light.

The photo lacks enough details rendering it to look like a watercolour painting. The colours are oversaturated and the overall image is not very satisfactory.

While you won’t be using the cameras for landscape shots, document scanning is something that the tablet does well. You get a dedicated text scanner mode in the camera settings. The rear camera can record videos at 1080p 30fps.

In good lighting conditions, the selfie camera can take decent photos. It’s also placed properly in the centre, helping you take photos in landscape mode. It also works well if your primary usage involves a lot of video calls.

Realme Pad 2 Review: Battery

• It comes with a huge 8360mAh battery

• You get a 33W charger in the box

The Realme Pad 2 gets a noticeable upgrade in terms of the power backup over its previous iteration. The 8360mAh battery easily lasted us four days with moderate-to-light usage and a bit of standby time. If you are a heavy user, the tablet might last you around two to three days. The battery has been optimised well and is quite reliable.

The 33W charger inside the box takes about two hours to completely refill from zero charge.

Realme Pad 2 Review: Verdict

The second iteration of the Realme Pad excels at many things and is without a doubt a huge upgrade. The large, fast, and more importantly, crisp display is great for consuming content — be it video or text. Complimenting this is the impressive quad-speaker setup. The software optimisation for the tablet experience is also commendable.

The Realme Pad 2 comes with LTE support, so you can use it for calls and mobile data, which is a handy feature for the masses. While the charging speeds are nothing to write home about, the battery backup is pretty decent,

While all that’s good, the Realme Pad 2 comes with bare-average cameras and also misses out on a headphone jack. The latter is something most people would find a sore point, considering a tablet should serve all content consumption needs.

Regardless, at Rs 19,999, the 128GB variant of the Realme Pad 2 is a worthy choice if you are in the market for an Android tablet. However, if you plan on splurging more and are looking for a more performance-focused tablet for your gaming needs, the Xiaomi Pad 6 (Review) deserves a look.