OnePlus Pad Go Review
The OnePlus Pad Go is a tempting tablet that offers LTE connectivity on a budget – but it has a challenger in the form of the full-fat OnePlus Pad.
Verdict
The OnePlus Pad Go is a budget alternative to the OnePlus Pad, while also offering a better experience than similarly priced tablets with elements like Dolby Atmos support, a 90Hz display and expandable storage. However, the OnePlus Pad’s heavy discount means it’s only slightly more expensive than the Pad Go, confusing what should be an easy recommendation.
Pros
- Premium look and feel
- LTE connectivity on a budget
- Smooth 90Hz refresh rate
Cons
- Occasional stutter in general use
- Only two OS upgrades
- No anti-reflective coating on the screen
Key Features
- 11.3-inch 90Hz displayOne of the key features of the OnePlus Pad Go is its 11.3-inch display, with a smooth 90Hz refresh rate making it great for watching Netflix on the go.
- All-day battery lifeWith an 8000mAh cell and a fairly power efficient chipset, the OnePlus Pad Go can last all day and then some.
- LTE connectivity as standardDespite the budget-focused price point, the OnePlus Pad Go comes with 4G LTE connectivity as standard.
Introduction
The OnePlus Pad is an affordable version of the OnePlus Pad, but there’s more to it than a cheaper price. Instead, it looks to stand out with the inclusion of LTE connectivity as standard, making its £299/$299 price tag all the more tempting.
There’s much more to it than LTE though; it has a solid 11.3-inch 90Hz display, a gorgeous design, exceptional battery life with fast charging to boot, and a nice software experience courtesy of OxygenOS 13. It may not be the fastest tablet around, but unless you’re playing high-end 3D games, you’ll unlikely notice the difference in everyday use.
The issue comes from OnePlus’ own OnePlus Pad. While it was initially released in early 2023 with a £449/$479 price tag, it has since dropped to as little as £359/$399. That means that, for a little bit more cash, you get a whole lot more tablet.
The question is, can the OnePlus Pad Go tempt when the OnePlus Pad is that cheap?
Design
- Similar design to the OnePlus Pad
- Horizontal focus
- LTE connectivity as standard
Being a cheaper version of the full-fat OnePlus Pad, the OnePlus Pad Go shares a lot of similarities with its bigger brother.
That’s particularly true of the design; while it’s different enough to be recognisable next to the OnePlus Pad, it’s clear that the two share the same core DNA, beyond the fact that both are available in the same attractive shade of (what I’ve unofficially dubbed) OnePlus Green.
However, instead of a pure aluminium back like the regular Pad, the Pad Go sports a glossy strip across the top side that encompasses the rear camera housing. It’s also a slightly lighter shade of green than the rest of the aluminium casing resulting in a nice two-tone look that’s officially dubbed Twin Mint.
That strip is made from plastic instead of glass, but that’s not a surprise at the price point. It’s a nice touch as it breaks up the usually bland tablet rear, giving it a level of personality you won’t find on an iPad.
It’s also worth noting that, as with the OnePlus Pad and recent iPads, the OnePlus Pad Go is designed to be used in horizontal aspect ratio, denoted by the selfie camera sitting above the long edge of the tablet’s screen, and the horizontal placement of the rear camera.
This makes a lot of sense for a tablet, allowing for a much more natural camera position when video calling – and that’s something I imagine a lot of people will be doing with the Pad Go, as with any tablet.
The tablet certainly fits its ‘Go’ branding with a thin and lightweight design, measuring in at 6.9mm and 532g respectively, but it’s the inclusion of a hybrid SIM & microSD tray on the left side of the tablet that elevates its portable nature.
This 4G LTE connectivity – available as standard – allows you to use the tablet when out and about, regardless of whether there’s Wi-Fi around. It’s a feature rarely seen at such an affordable price point.
Screen
- 11.3-inch 90Hz LCD display
- No anti-reflective coating
- Stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos
When it comes to screen tech, the OnePlus Pad Go sports an 11.3-inch IPS LCD display with a 90Hz refresh rate.
It also shares the same 7:5 aspect ratio as its more expensive sibling, and measures in at essentially the same size as an A4 piece of paper. This is a nice middle-ground between the 4:3 aspect ratio of most iPads and the 16:10 you find on many Android tablets, making it good for not only watching movies but split-screen multitasking and writing in particular.
It’s not exactly the most spectacular offering on paper, especially compared to the regular OnePlus Pad that boasts a 144Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ support, but I’ve found it to be more than detailed enough to enjoy streaming Netflix and playing the occasional game on the big screen.
It’s vibrant and colourful, though the exact hue can be tweaked in the Settings menu if not to your preference, and it also sports both hardware-level blue light reduction tech to be easier on your eyes.
The catch is that, as I’ll get into a little later, the processor isn’t the most powerful around, meaning that most games can’t fully take advantage of the potential 90fps performance on offer from the 90Hz display. Still, it feels buttery smooth in everyday use when scrolling through apps, helping the tablet feel more responsive than it actually is.
My biggest complaint about the screen is that it’s a little too reflective, with no anti-glare finish available. I kept having to adjust the angle of the tablet during a binge-watch on a plane because I could easily see the reflection of both myself and the cabin, and it’s a similar story when I tried to relax in the garden with an episode of Fallout on a sunny day.
That would’ve been somewhat negated if the screen was brighter, but at 400nits, it couldn’t quite win the battle. It means that, despite the Go’s portable nature, it can be pretty difficult to see the screen when outdoors in bright sunlight.
Elsewhere, you’ll find stereo speakers, but these aren’t your regular stereo speakers, boasting Dolby Atmos support. Stereo speaker output at the asking price would’ve been impressive enough, but the Dolby Atmos tuning really kicks the audio experience up a notch. Of course, it won’t replace dedicated headphones or a decent Bluetooth speaker, but they’re surprisingly capable.
Performance
- Helio G99 and 8GB of RAM
- Expand storage by up to 1TB via microSD
- Fairly responsive with occasional jitter
While the OnePlus Pad Go looks the part, it is still a budget-focused tablet and, as such, the spec reflects this. In this case, the tablet sports the 6nm Helio G99 SoC with 8GB of RAM and either 128- or 256GB of UFS 2.2 storage.
Even with a generous helping of 8GB of RAM that’s pretty rare at the sub-£300 price point, it’s still not exactly rapid compared to the regular £449 OnePlus Pad that features a faster 4nm Dimensity 8000 chipset, 12GB of RAM and UFS 3.1 storage. The only win that the OnePlus Pad Go scores in this respect is the inclusion of a microSD card slot to expand storage further down the line.
That’s even further complicated by the fact that OnePlus is currently selling the OnePlus Pad at a discounted £359/$399, meaning you can get a big boost to performance for only an extra £60/$100 – though you will lose out on the Go’s LTE connectivity as part of the trade.
That all said, I will say that during my time with the tablet, it has felt fairly responsive, though it does suffer from the occasional jitter or bit of lag, especially when opening and closing apps, and some particularly ad-heavy websites can make the Pad stutter. Still, that’s arguably more on terrible website UX designers than OnePlus.
Things, unsurprisingly, aren’t quite as rosy on the gaming front, especially when you look at our graphics-focused benchmark results, but it’s still capable of hitting a passable framerate in 3D games like Call of Duty Mobile – you just have to drop the graphics quality right down. If you’re primarily a casual gamer, focusing more on 2D titles like Candy Crush or Survivor.io, you won’t really notice these problems all that much.
There is one benefit to the low-powered chipset however; because it only very lightly sips power, it never gets hot under load and, as such, runs pretty consistently.
I ran a high-end stress test on the tablet for 40 minutes and it wasn’t warm to the touch – the downside is that it only managed a consistent 2.2fps. The FPS score is unsurprising given the test is primarily for top-end smartphones, but it’s interesting nonetheless.
App downloads and updates can sometimes take a little longer than I’m used to, utilising the slightly older Wi-Fi 5 connectivity, but unless you’ve experienced the newer Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 7, you likely won’t notice any difference.
Camera
- 8MP rear-facing camera
- 8MP selfie camera
- Good enough for video calls but not much else
As with most tablets, the OnePlus Pad Go sports a camera setup on both the front and rear, and, just like all the others, the camera setup isn’t that great. Photography just isn’t a huge focus for most tablet users beyond scanning the occasional document or taking a selfie, so it’s not worth manufacturers bumping up the price to include a decent camera setup.
In fact, the only real reason there’s a camera at all is for video calls, with the Pad Go’s 8MP horizontally oriented selfie camera serving this purpose pretty well. I looked pretty washed out in video calls on the tablet, but overall quality was good enough to check in with friends and family while on a work trip.
There’s a matching 8MP sensor on the rear, but like the selfie camera, the images produced can look a little washed out depending on the lighting. They’ll do a decent job at capturing documents for scanning or getting a quick snap of your dog doing something funny in the garden, but if you want great-quality photos, you’d be better off sticking with your smartphone.
Software
- OxygenOS 13 based on Android 13
- Slick software experience
- Only two OS upgrades
One oddity about the OnePlus Pad Go is its software; while OxygenOS 14, based on Android 14, is available on recent OnePlus releases like the OnePlus 12 and OnePlus Open (via OTA software update) the OnePlus Pad Go is still stuck on OxygenOS 13.2 based on Android 13.
It’s not exactly a huge deal as OxygenOS 14 doesn’t really introduce anything that revolutionary – it’s not iPadOS, which seems to change substantially each year – but it’s annoying that one of the two software updates promised will be used on the move to Android 14, an operating system that has been available for well over six months at this point.
That said, OxygenOS 13 does still provide a tidy Android tablet experience with tablet-focused features like a dock with shortcuts to favourite and recently used apps (similar to that you’ll find on the foldable OnePlus Open) that can be summoned even while in apps.
There’s also a nice multitasking system that supports both side-by-side and floating windows, and with an 11.3-inch 7:5 screen, split-screen apps are larger than what you’d find on many Android competitors.
More generally speaking, like most Android tablets, the OnePlus Pad Go doesn’t have access to quite the same level of tablet-focused apps as Apple’s iPad range, missing out on exclusive iPad apps like Procreate.
However, tablet support on the Android side of things has massively improved with the new push for Android tablets over the past few years, with very few popular Android apps now running in an awkward blown-up mobile app layout.
Battery life
- 8000mAh battery
- Potential for multi-day use
- Relatively slow charging
Elsewhere, you’ll find an 8000mAh battery that should get you through a day’s use and then some.
I used the tablet to watch four hours of Disney+ during my travels to Helsinki and it drained just 24% charge. In fact, I continued to use the tablet while in Helsinki for three days for video calls and catching up on emails, and then watched another 4 hours of Disney+ on my travels home, and only at that point did I get the 20% battery warning.
Of course, usage will vary depending on what exactly you’re up to – I’d expect the tablet to run out of juice a little quicker if you were gaming rather than streaming, for example – but for most people, it’ll be a multi-day device. It’ll even hold a charge when not in active use, with OnePlus claiming it can last up to 21 days on standby.
When it does need a top-up, the tablet sports 33W fast charging. That’s under half the 67W charging tech from the more premium OnePlus Pad, and it means that the tablet can take a while to charge as a result.
What’s more, with specifically SuperVOOC charging, you can’t use a regular USB-C PD charger to get the full charge speeds, and there isn’t a SuperVOOC charger in the box either. That’s fine if you’re already a OnePlus phone user as you’ll have one handy like I did, but it’s a further expense if you don’t.
Still, if you do fork out for a SuperVOOC charger, you’ll only be waiting around an hour and a half for a full charge, and at a price point where rivals can take anywhere from two to four hours to recharge, that’s pretty good.
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Should you buy it?
You want a budget tablet with LTE connectivity
The OnePlus Pad Go offers 4G LTE connectivity as standard, making it a great affordable option for those who want to use a tablet on the go.
You want the best performance possible
The budget nature of the OnePlus Pad Go is most evident with its chipset, with the occasional stutter in everyday use. If performance is important, consider paying a little more for the OnePlus Pad.
Final Thoughts
The £299/$299 OnePlus Pad Go is a solid alternative to the OnePlus Pad while offering a better experience than similarly priced cheap tablets with elements like LTE connectivity as standard, Dolby Atmos support, a 90Hz display and expandable storage.
It’s a great everyday tablet that, while not quite powerful enough for true 3D gaming, excels at 2D gaming, split-screen multitasking and doomscrolling on X and TikTok pretty well. The screen would’ve benefited from an anti-glare coating to improve viewability in bright environments, but it does the job well enough otherwise with a punchy, detailed, smooth 11.3-inch screen.
Importantly, the software experience is slick with various tablet-focused features like multi-app support, a handy toolbar and more – it’s just odd that it’s launching in the UK with OxygenOS 13 based on Android 13 when Android 14 is rolling out, or already available, on most other OnePlus products.
However, the seemingly straightforward buying decision is somewhat complicated by the fact that the regular OnePlus Pad can be found for only £359/$399 at OnePlus at the time of writing, meaning that for just £60/$100 more than the Pad Go’s RRP, you’ll get a better screen, faster processor and better accessories. You will lose out on LTE connectivity as a result, but for most, that’ll likely be an acceptable trade-off.
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FAQs
Despite supporting SuperVOOC charging, there’s no charger in the box. However, if you buy the tablet at OnePlus right now, the company will bundle one with the purchase free of charge.
It’ll get two major OS upgrades according to OnePlus, though it’s worth noting that one of those will be the update to the now-standard Android 14.
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We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
