OnePlus Pad hands-on: I did not know they still made

 Android tablets are set to make a comeback, and with Google's push for new software starting in 2021, we're also getting waves of new Android tablet hardware. One of the most anticipated is probably the OnePlus Pad, a mid-range tablet that, at $479, looks squarely aimed at the entry-level iPad. OnePlus was probably hoping that the headline 144Hz LCD would convert some buyers at this price point, but it's impossible to get a good 144Hz display at this price point. The OnePlus Pad display is dirty and unsightly and I wanted to put it down as soon as I picked it up.

The display looks fine as long as nothing is moving, but the second you have to scroll anywhere, everything turns to mush. The text on the display is a streaky, blurry mess in motion to the point where it's pretty hard to read smaller text until the scrolling stops. Smaller text becomes noticeably thinner and lighter as you scroll, usually going from solid black to shimmery gray. It seems that either the display has a weird subpixel layout that doesn't look good in motion, or the OnePlus software uses a weird anti-alias effect while scrolling that looks different than a static image.

Whatever happened here, the point is that scrolling a page of text on the OnePlus Pad is difficult to read and often physically uncomfortable. As one of the tablet's primary uses, it's a total solution and completely negates anything else going on here. The Apple range usually provides better component prices. Since the $449 base model iPad still comes with a smaller (10.9-inch) lower-resolution (2360x1640) display, OnePlus seems to be setting the spec sheet up to a 144Hz panel, 11.61-inch, and 2800×2000. it involved completely throwing picture quality out the window. Large displays are expensive and I don't think this display stat line works for this price right now.

By the way, according to the "Show framerate" view on the Android Developer Option, there's not much running at 144Hz. The base OS and most apps are limited to 120fps, the Play Store is limited to 90fps for some reason, and YouTube, even when you're not playing a video, is locked to 60fps. None of this is normal—for example, the Pixel runs every app at its maximum frame rate.

Even the MediaTek Dimensity 9000 SoC packed into the OnePlus Pad can't keep up with any of those speeds. To display smooth 60/120/144 fps scrolling, the SoC needs to be powerful enough to render images quickly. Android Developer Options can display a graph of how the SoC is performing through the "Inspect GPU rendering" option, and the OnePlus Pad will regularly produce some of the worst graphs I've ever seen. The vertical bars represent the time the GPU takes to draw the frame. The three horizontal bars represent the image rendering limits above: the bottom green horizontal line represents a 20 percent safety margin before the maximum image rendering time; the middle line represents rendering just in time to achieve a smooth frame rate; and the top red line is 1.5 times too slow.

Crossing that middle yellow line basically means you're skipping frames, just like in a slow motion video game. The OnePlus Pad's GPU graphics are a disaster as it regularly triples the middle bar. It keeps dropping frames, especially in heavy applications like YouTube. I only bring this up because scrolling in real life is terrible and these graphs help qualify it a bit. Scrolling is choppy due to the slow and streaky GPU, resulting in a terrible display.

The construction is nice though. You get a sturdy aluminum body and nice rounded edges. Strangely, there is no fingerprint reader, which is probably another decision made in an effort to keep the price down.

The folio keyboard is an extra $149 and feels like another budget option. The case is loaded with magnets and stands up by attaching it to the top of the tablet around the camera and then snapping the bottom edge into the magnetic slot on the keyboard. The good thing is that it doesn't take up the huge amount of space that the stand-style folio uses, so it works well on the lap. On the downside, the hinge is missing, so you can't adjust the angle of the tablet. A magnetic slot on the keyboard deck connects a set of pogo pins so the keyboard is powered by the tablet's battery.

Opening and closing the keyboard case is an awkward, two-handed affair. First, just opening the case is hard. Everything is securely magnetized together, and there's no see-through recess to poke your finger into to pry the case open. Usually, you just rake two smooth, flat aluminum edges and hope that the friction of your fingers is enough to separate them. Getting the keyboard to stand up or down will also always require two hands to either snap the tablet into the keyboard slot so it doesn't tip over, or to keep the slot magnet from breaking through when closing. I'm used to my Macbook Pro being specially tuned to open with one finger, and that's a lot more work.

The keyboard is squishy and has no backlight. The trackpad is small but has a nice click. Using Android with a keyboard and mouse is extremely weird, but you get most of the gestures you'd want. You can scroll with two fingers, and three fingers will make navigation gestures for Recent Apps, Home, and Back, just like on a touchscreen. Substituting an OS key between "Fn" and "Alt" opens Google Assistant, which doesn't seem particularly useful when "OK Google" does it too. I suppose the Android analog to the "Windows" key would be the app drawer button. That would probably be nice.