If you’re in the market for a solid Android tablet but don’t want to drop flagship cash, there’s a rare deal right now that almost seems like you’re gaming the system with the older OnePlus Pad 2. At typical sale prices today, it undercuts newer rivals even while offering performance, battery life, and multitasking chops that still seem pretty premium.
The Type of Performance That Still Feels Flagship
The Pad 2 is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC and plenty of RAM, which continues to be overkill for most tablet tasks. And we can’t forget about Qualcomm’s own platform disclosures or third-party benchmark aggregations courtesy of labs that track Geekbench and GFXBench, which both peg the 8 Gen 3 at the top of the Android stack for CPU and GPU throughput. In the real world, that means snappy launches, fluid app switching, and playing games without throttling dips in performance that midrange chips have historically experienced.
OnePlus relies on HyperBoost for sustaining that frame rate, and it rears its head in heavier titles. I’ve refrained from my normal stress testing while on travel, but I have run sprawling open-world games like “Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey” at high settings locked in a steady 60fps with no thermal drama after hour-long sessions. If you’re editing photos, managing multiple documents on the screen at once, or remote-desktoping into a workstation, that headroom is imbued with instant reassurance.
Display and audio quality that punch above price
The 12.1-inch panel with a 144Hz refresh rate is a low-key flex. A number of the tablets in this price bracket max out at 60–90Hz — which makes scrolling, handwriting, and gaming all feel noticeably smoother on the Pad 2. The 7:5 aspect ratio — which it inherits from the first time-tested OnePlus tablet — provides more vertical space for reading, drafting, and spreadsheets than a widescreen panel does, so you don’t feel like you’re always zooming or panning.
Quad speakers with Dolby Atmos support not only pump up the volume, they ensure the clarity can compete. Whether on a video call or streaming, the Pad 2’s soundstage exceeds what you get out of many slim competitors — something that’s borne out in independent audio measurements published by outlets that profile tablet acoustics.
Battery And Charging That Won’t Slow You Down
Thanks to a 9,510mAh battery, the Pad 2 is designed for all-day use. My “commute test” (email, Slack, browsing through two hours of video, and some split-screen work) consistently leaves me with headroom into the evening. When you do need to top it up, the 67W fast charger included will return the Pad 2’s battery to full in well under two hours — a scarcity given that most brands either neuter wattage or ship unaccompanied by a brick.
Research companies such as IDC also observe that larger display devices are inherently taskless and the time to readiness is an important factor, with fast charging significantly reducing downtime and extending the useful life of a device in consumers’ daily life.
Multitasking and ecosystem perks that add value
Pad users get what OnePlus calls OpenCanvas, which it describes as its “flexible multi-window system,” able to tile, float, and resize apps with less friction than many Android skins. It’s intuitive that I actually use multitasking, not just demo it. Clipboard sharing, notification mirroring, and seamless hotspot handoff with OnePlus phones are some helpful glue, while low-latency stylus support completes the productivity pitch for note-takers and annotators.
Though Apple’s Stage Manager and Samsung’s DeX compete well in different ways, OpenCanvas hits a sweet spot for a touch-first multitasking environment. The result is a tablet that acts like a tablet when you want it to — and, when you need it to be, a relatively light work machine.
How it compares with rivals at similar prices
Compared to similarly priced Android tablets, the Pad 2 and its 144Hz display and 8 Gen 3 silicon make an easy case. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S9 FE is solidly built and comes with an IP rating in the box, but with a midrange chipset and 90Hz panel, it feels one step behind for gaming and high-refresh workflows. (The two laptop makers point out that Lenovo’s value models are competitors on sticker price, though they often lag in update cadence and peak performance.)
On the iPad side, no other tablet can compete with the entry iPad’s library of software, though there are some trade-offs, like its 60Hz screen, a slow-charging base model, and accessory costs that add up in a hurry. If you care about high-refresh responsiveness, hardcore Android horsepower, and quick-charging convenience, the OnePlus route gives you more of what you actually want for less. According to market watchers such as Counterpoint Research, this is pretty much a continuation of the slow-burning, value-driven buyers’ movement to smartphones with “flagship-adjacent” specs at midrange prices — and that is exactly what the Pad 2 is.
Price reality and who should actually buy it now
Here’s the kicker: due to its age, the Pad 2 frequently flirts with the mid-$400 range during sales, occasionally coming bundled with a folio case or trade-in credits to sweeten the deal. At that price, it underprices a lot of its competitors while outperforming them in the ways you really feel day to day — speed, smoothness, battery, and charging.
If you’re looking for a general-purpose tablet for taking notes, entertainment, more casual creative work, and the occasional remote desktop session, this is the smarter purchase at the moment. You’re getting near-flagship hardware, thoughtful software, and a balanced accessory ecosystem without the flagship tax. So at this price, that’s why I suggest the older OnePlus Pad 2 above the others.