Realme Pad 2 Review: Fun, Work & Play- All The Big Way

Realme Pad 2 Review Summary:

Editor’s rating: 3.8/5

The last few years have been good in terms of Tablet options for consumers. Ever since the pandemic, the Tablet market has seen year-on-year growth. Earlier iPads had the strongest hold in this category but in the last few years, Android Tablet Market in India has grown manifold too.

In 2023 itself, two main Android Pads have shown up in India- OnePlus Pad and Xiaomi Pad 6. However, prices of these tabs starts at north of Rs 20,000. This is where Realme Pad 2 makes things easier as it is a quintessential tablet claimed to be affordable and efficient. Realme Pad 2 doesn’t promise top-notch specs or performance but promises to fulfill its part. Powered by Dimensity G99 chipset, with over 8000mAh battery, 4G connectivity, and a large display, specs seem decent enough on paper. But is Realme Pad 2 really worth spending 20k on? Let’s find out.

Realme Pad 2 Review: Design

Realme Pad 2 has a minimalistic and reliable design that exudes solidity. The tablet comes in 2 colors- Green and Gray, out of which I was loaned the Inspiration Green color varaint. The rear panel has a dual-tone color scheme and the feel is also different for both shades. The metallic finish on the back with the textured camera module end gives a subtle and noticeable contrast.

The matte portion houses a round camera module with an 8MP lens while Realme branding is engraved in the bottom right corner on the back. The tablet looks attractive from the back, so much so that one might mistake it for an expensive pad. This means Realme has done well in the aesthetics department.

The edges are flat and the pad has a sleek slate design for comfortable grip. Although weight distribution is ok, the total weight is 576 grams which makes the pad feel too heavy when held for a long duration. It is 7.2mm thick and the display size is huge which makes the pad uncomfortable to work on while held in hand. As for the button placement, the power button is placed on the top along with 2 speakers while the bottom edge houses a USB Type-C port and 2 more speakers. The right edge has volume rockers while the left side houses the dedicated SIM card slot.

The Realme Pad 2 doesn’t have a fingerprint sensor but relies on face unlock which is pretty much common with most pads in this price range. A 3.5mm headphone jack is also missing so it will be a problem for those who use wired earphones. For those who use TWS Bluetooth earbuds, it won’t be a concern. Pad 2 comes with an IP52 rating for water and dust resistance which means one can use it worry-free while traveling.

All in all, the design is good and the build is solid, but the bulkiness is a downside for Realme Pad 2.

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Realme Pad 2 Review: Display

The display is one of the most important features of the Realme Pad 2. Display is something which if good can attract new buyers to a Tablet. The brand claims that the Realme Pad 2 is made for work as well as fun and thus the brand has featured a 11.5-inch 2K LCD display with a 2000×1200 pixel resolution.

I watched videos on YouTube for hours and the experience was good as the display is massive which means large-size visuals along with good color accuracy and decent HDR results. It supports HD content for OTT apps like Prime Video and Netflix so now you don’t have to compromise in your viewing experience even while watching your favorites on a big screen. The low light shots also looked great on the screen, but the colors show a slight shift when viewed from angles, which means viewing angles could have been made better.

I am someone who likes to read e-books all the time and Realme Pad 2 didn’t disappoint the reader in me as reading books on amazon kindle was a satisfying experience on it, all thanks to the 120Hz refresh rate. The Pad 2 has been upgraded to a 120Hz refresh rate as opposed to its predecessor which had a 90Hz refresh rate. The higher refresh rate makes scrolling, reading, and gaming all much smoother. An adaptive refresh rate would have made things even better, but otherwise, the display is smooth.

 The tablet has 450 nits peak brightness which looks good indoors but turns out to be very underwhelming under bright sunlight. This is something that could have been made better. Moreover, the auto brightness feature is unreliable as it failed to adjust the brightness according to the content on the screen. The tablet is better off when the feature is disabled.

One more issue I faced was while using the keypad on the Realme Pad 2. It covers a huge area and I couldn’t type on it while holding the pad. Although it is ok if you keep it on a flat surface and then type but using voice prompts seems more comfortable with the Pad 2. There is no bundled stylus with Realme Pad 2 but then it is expected as the brand has kept the tablet in an affordable price bracket. The Pad does work with 3^rd party stylus so you can purchase it separately if you want to. All in all, the display of the Realme Pad 2 is a mixed bag.

Realme Pad 2 Review: Camera

Imaging and camera setups have never really been a strong point when it comes to budget tablets/pads and Realme Pad 2 has also done nothing in this regard. The Pad 2 comes with an 8MP camera at the back that is ok when you have to scan documents or video call anyone, but other than that don’t expect any good images from it. Although it has been tagged as the ‘super camera’ by Realme there’s hardly anything super about it. The shots above don’t have any details, the colors look oversaturated and the edges are distorted most of the time. You might get slightly better shots in good lighting conditions, but at night the camera is totally useless. Even the day shots are not even worthy of posting on social media.

At the front is an 8MP sensor that clicks decent selfies and allows you to attend video calls on the go. Although there are hardly any details in the selfies colors look cooler and the images are under-saturated, unlike the primary camera. The object is kept in focus and skin tones are also natural, but you will have to try a few times to get a usable selfie.

Selfie in daylight

Selfie at night time (low light)

The primary 8MP camera allows 1080p video recording at 30fps but just like photos, it lacks detailing and colors are warm.

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Realme Pad 2 Review: Performance

Performance is one of the biggest aspects for any device and to give a good one, Realme has equipped Realme Pad 2 with MediaTek Dimensity G99 chipset under the hood. G99 is one of the most commonly used SoCs in the budget tablet segment as Redmi Pad also uses the same chipset. The Realme Pad 2 gave a fast and efficient performance during my duration of usage.

It comes with two RAM and storage options and I received the higher 8GB RAM+256GB storage variant. 8GB RAM can handle almost all intensive tasks seamlessly, whether it is gaming, content consumption, video calling, listening to music, and more. Multitasking and switching between apps doesn’t pose any lags or hang-ups and there’s also an option to add 4GB virtual RAM. So in case you want faster multitasking, you can expand the RAM up to 12GB.  Switching between apps running in the background is also quite smooth.

As for gaming, I am someone who likes to play some light arcade and strategy games and such games run buttery smooth on Realme Pad 2. I played games like Township and Burger Shop 2 and the experience was decent. The large screen size added to the enjoyment of the games. However, this doesn’t mean that the Pad can’t handle heavier games even titles like COD mobile and BGMI Mobile. These games too ran well with good graphic settings and HD resolution. The only issue was the thermal performance as the Tablet starts warming up after 20 minutes of heavy gaming session.

As for storage, 256GB onboard capacity is adequate enough to store documents, videos, audio, pictures, and more. Around 30 movies in HD resolution can easily be stored without the tab showing any signs of slowing down. Benchmark tests below clearly indicate the performance of the Pad.

One feature which Realme Pad 2 has while its competitors don’t is a dedicated SIM card slot. The tablet supports 4G LTE voice calling and this means you can use your mobile number on the Pad to make and receive calls on the go. You don’t have to keep your smartphone too beside you when you are traveling with the Pad. The only disadvantage while calling is the pad’s heavy weight and large size. If you are using Realme Pad 2 to make calls, then using the speaker is a better option as placing such a huge pad over your ear to talk through the microphone feels very uncomfortable. Also holding it over your ear for a long phone call tends to tire out the arm due to bulkiness.

Complementing the good display is a quad speaker setup on the Realme Pad 2 which is pretty impressive. There are 4 speakers, two on top and two on bottom that deliver a substantially high volume and good sound distribution. The sound has some level of richness in low and mid-volume levels. The detailing starts getting lost at higher volume but that can be overlooked. Though the pad is bulky and large but audio quality during calls is decent.

Talking about software, the Realme Pad 2 runs Android 13 OS paired with Realme UI. The brand has optimized its UI skin to function seamlessly on a tablet providing an enhanced user experience. Widget optimization adds to usability a lot and the animations are in line with the classic Realme style. The best part is minimal bloatware on Realme Pad 2 as it comes with very basic apps and thus you can download whatever apps you really need. One small niggle is that some apps have size scaling issues and don’t seem compatible with the tablet experience, otherwise, UI is clean and user-friendly.

Realme Pad 2 also offers face unlock or pin as authentication methods for security.

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MotoTab G62 Review: Battery

Realme Pad 2 packs an 8360mAh battery under the hood which I must say is a resilient power house. I used the tablet to watch videos, type articles, video call my family, and more, and yet I had to charge it twice in 6 days. It was only when I used Instagram to watch reels did its battery drain faster than usual. Otherwise, for light users, the battery can last over 3 days, which is good.

The tablet supports 33W fast charging but since it’s a large battery, it slightly over two hours to charge from 0 to 100%. In today’s day and age when wired charging speeds are reaching up to 240W, charging time does feel long. A better charging speed would have been better.

Realme Pad 2 Review Verdict: Should you buy it?

Realme Pad 2 is not a high-end tablet but it is a good big-screen device for basic everyday needs like attending video calls, reading books, watching content, video calling, browsing social media, and more. It is sleek and comes with 4G LTE connectivity which makes it apt for small cities in India. Although the Pad is bulky and has a poor camera setup, otherwise it comes with an optimized OS and falls within the budget of an average consumer. If you are looking for a Tablet that is good for everyday use and doesn’t burn a hole in your pocket, then Realme Pad 2 can be your choice.