OnePlus Pad Go 2 review: the Android world alternative to a regular iPad

Introduction

OnePlus really stepped up its tablet game in 2025, with the Pad Lite showing other budget tablets what a difference streamlined software and a big battery could make, and the Pad 3 pushing further into premium territory than its predecessors ever dared to. That left a gap in the mid-range that the Pad Go 2 is now here to fill.

The restyled slate upgrades on the original OnePlus Pad Go with a better display, bigger battery, newer chipset and much better software support. It lands at $400/£319 for 128GB Wi-Fi model, or £399 for the (currently UK-exclusive) 256GB version with built-in 5G, which naturally sandwiches it between the OnePlus Pad 3 and OnePlus Pad Lite.

More interestingly, that also puts it directly up against a vanilla iPad. Having now used one for the past few weeks, I have a feeling Android fans that would’ve previously headed to an Apple store for their tablet fix will now want to reconsider.

Design & build: keeping up appearances

At a little under 7mm this is a slimmer slate than its predecessor. At 597g it’s noticeably heavier than an iPad, but then you’re getting a fair bit more usable screen space. Personally I think this is the tablet sweet spot, being small enough to slip in a bag and use one-handed but still have enough screen space for two apps side-by-side.

With their central rear cameras and earthy green tones, previous OnePlus tablets stood out from their rivals. The Pad Go 2 is a bit more subdued, even if you pick one up in the Lavender Drift colour. My Shadow Black review unit’s flat sides, matte finish and corner camera placement could easily have come from any other brand. Though on the plus side, that does include Apple…

That pair of 8MP cameras – one front and one rear – are good for document scanning, but not much else. The front cam being positioned centrally hints at it video calling being its only speciality.

The Pad Go 2 is smaller and more manageable one-handed than a Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE+, with screen bezels that aren’t too chunky and leave just enough room to rest your fingers without triggering the touchscreen. They’re evenly spaced on all four sides, too. The rear panel can pick up fingerprints quite quickly, so while they’re easily buffed out, I preferred to keep the tablet inside the official Folio cover.

I did miss having a fingerprint sensor. Sure, there’s facial recognition – but you’ll still need your PIN or password to authenticate secure apps like banking. OnePlus hasn’t added any kind of water resistance here either; the Galaxy Tab S10 FE has IP68 for added peace of mind around the swimming pool.

Creative types will appreciate the OnePlsu Pad Go 2 Stylo, which pairs over Bluetooth and is good for around 20 hours of scribbling or note-taking between charges. It has a USB-C port built into the side rather than drawing power from the tablet itself, which isn’t quite as convenient, and means buying a second stylus if you upgrade to a OnePlus Pad 3. It worked well in my testing, though, with low latency and a tip that had just enough give on the glass display to feel natural.

Screen & sound: better across the board

The original Pad Go’s screen was merely OK, so OnePlus has really stepped things up for the sequel. It’s larger, up from 11.35in to 12.1in, has a higher resolution, and is brighter to boot. It even plays nicely with Dolby Vision HDR content, while the 7:5 aspect ratio is a sweet spot between Apple’s boxy 4:3 and Samsung’s more TV-friendly 16:10. Side-by-side multitasking is a breeze.

It sticks with LCD panel tech, but looks perfectly sharp, has decent enough viewing angles, and the 600 nit average was more than enough for me to see clearly while in direct sunlight. The 120Hz adaptive refresh rate is also perfectly smooth and reacts quickly to motion. It only dips down to 30Hz for static content rather than 1Hz, but that’s a minor quibble.

You’re admittedly not getting OLED levels of contrast or particularly deep blacks, but the Pad Go 2 gets closer than most. Colours have a great amount of saturation and HDR footage properly pops. A Natural preset dials things back a bit if you prefer, and colour temperature is fully customisable in the settings menus. It’s a very convincing screen for the cash.

The four speaker stereo setup also deliver the goods, with ample volume and good overall clarity even at lower levels, so you don’t need to crank things up for clear speech.

Software experience: open canvas makes the difference

With almost zero bloat and a streamlined interface, OnePlus’ take on Android is always a treat to use. The Pad Go 2 arrives with OxygenOS 16 running atop Android 16, meaning it’s on par with the flagship Pad 3 rather than being a generation behind – a tactic some rival brands use for their budget-minded tablets.

It’s also set to get some of the most extensive long-term software support of any OnePlus device yet, current top-tier phones included. Five years of new Android generations and six of security patches are promised, which is getting towards Samsung and Apple-levels of commitment.

That’s great for the future, but in the present it was Open Canvas that stood out the most to me. OnePlus’ window management and multitasking tech is so good Google has basically incorporated a version of it into Android now, with the 90/10 split. Here you can have one app fill the majority of the screen, then swap them with a tap. That’s your limit, though: a OnePlus Pad can have three open at once.

O Plus Connect is then the firm’s take on Samsung’s DeX desktop-style working, which can be handy when paired to an external display. Elsewhere cross-platform sharing speeds up file transfers between devices. It works best if you’re also rocking a OnePlus phone.

Gemini voice assistant and Circle to Search naturally both make the cut, and OnePlus has added a few productivity-minded AI features of its own. The voice recorder can summarise and transcribe meetings rather effectively, there’s live foreign language translation, and the AI writer tool can rewrite text to be more succinct or professional. Crucially, it all fades into the background if you’re not a fan.

Performance & battery life: look beyond the numbers

Focus purely on the benchmark scores I’ve listed below and you’ll be underwhelmed by the OnePlus Pad Go 2’s performance. The MediaTek Dimensity 7300 ultra chipset it’s running doesn’t look very impressive at all on paper, losing ground to cheaper Snapdragon-powered tablets like the Poco Pad M1.

Simply put, this isn’t a gaming machine, with most Play Store titles defaulting to lower graphics settings and frame rates not being nearly as consistent as on a more expensive tablet. The power gap to an iPad, which is using a flagship-grade chip (albeit one that’s a few years old by this point), is huge. And even with 8GB of RAM and some of the 128 or 256GB of on-board storage set aside for virtual memory, it struggled to keep certain apps live when multitasking. I’d need to manually return to the streaming show I was watching rather than have it resume seamlessly.

That said, it coped well enough with virtually everything else I threw at it. From web browsing and ebook reading to productivity apps and image editing, it ran as well as I’d expect in daily use from a mid-tier tablet. Android felt very smooth in general use, and apps didn’t take too long to open or refresh either.

It also proved perfectly stable over time, not getting too hot or dropping performance in games during longer play sessions. As long as you’re not expecting explosive power, I think you’ll still be quite happy with the Pad Go 2’s day-to-day ability.

I’m also positive you’ll appreciate its battery life, which is excellent. The 10,050mAh cell is a sizeable increase over the previous version, and means this tablet can nudge 15 hours of streaming video playback. I regularly saw twelve hours of screen-on time between charges, which worked out to around two or three days of actual use. Standby battery life is excellent as well, dropping very slowly while sat in a desk drawer.

The only thing worth grumbling about here is the relatively slow 33W charging. OnePlus’ flagship model can manage a rapid 80W, and even Samsung – hardly known for pushing battery boundaries these days – manages 45W on the Tab S10 FE. Top-ups took me about two hours.

OnePlus Pad Go 2 verdict

Middling benchmark scores aside, there aren’t many areas I can say the OnePlus Pad Go 2 has truly let the side down – and even then its real-world performance is very respectable indeed. A fingerprint sensor and faster charging speeds would’ve been nice, but are the only real compromises in the name of price. The better screen, bigger battery and upgraded chipset all justify the price creep over its predecessor, and the firm’s take on Android is fantastic for productivity.

A Galaxy Tab S10 FE could be an option if you’re already invested in Samsung’s ecosystem, but it costs considerably more. So while Android still has a long way to go to catch Apple’s unrivalled connectivity and third-party app support, the Pad Go 2’s long-lasting software support and official stylus accessory make it the vanilla iPad alternative most folks have been waiting for.

OnePlus Pad Go 2 technical specifications