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Realme Pad X review: The iPad Air-inspired Android tablet but at half the price

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Android tablets have seen a resurgence in India during the pandemic. Since most of the people have been working or studying from home, the demand for smart devices with large screens has increased exponentially. While things are starting to get back to normal in 2022, companies continue to offer affordable Android tablets in India. One such Android tablet is the Realme Pad X, which was launched in July with a starting price of less than Rs. 20,000.

The Realme X panel It is currently the company’s most premium Android tablet in India. The unique proposition of the Realme Pad X is that it is designed for the creative crowd. From its large screen, to its thick battery and quad-speaker setup, to its magnetically charged stylus support — Realme wants this to be in every innovator’s travel bag. The tablet also has a 5G SoC. With the kind of hardware it offers for the price, should you consider buying the Realme Pad X? Here is our full review to help you decide.

Realme Pad X price in India

Realme Pad X is available in two models. The base Wi-Fi-only model has one variant with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage and is priced at Rs. 19,999. Their 5G model in the same configuration costs Rs. 25,999, and the higher-end variant with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage is priced at Rs. 27999.

The keyboard accessory for the Realme Pad X can be purchased separately for Rs. 4,999, while the Realme Pencil is priced at Rs. 5499.

Realme Pad X design.

Realme Pad X seems to have taken some inspiration from iPad Air 2022 (reconsidering) when it comes to design. The Android tablet features a flat frame with a plastic body. It’s somewhat on the heavier side at 506g, but the tablet is very sleek at just 7.1mm thick.

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Realme Pad X comes in two colors, both of which have a matte finish

Although the back cover is made of plastic, it does not look like it. I mistook it for glass while unboxing the Realme Pad X, but once I got hold of it, it was quickly apparent that it wasn’t. However, the tablet does not look cheap. Realme seems to have used some high-quality plastics for the tablet, and the glossy finish on the back panel makes it look very premium. The company calls it “incandescent lighting design.” We have the glowing gray, which has a frosted black tint. There’s also the Ice Blue finish, which should do a slightly better job of hiding fingerprints and smudges.

Up front, the Realme Pad X has a huge 10.95-inch IPS LCD display with a WUXGA+ resolution (1200 x 2000 pixels). Although the screen is of the LCD type, it provides a very good viewing experience. There’s hardly any visible discoloration when viewed from distant angles, and with a maximum brightness of 450 nits, the screen is easily readable under most lighting conditions.

Although, when I was outdoors, I preferred to keep the screen brightness at maximum for a better viewing experience. The symmetrical bezels around the screen are rather thin for an Android tablet at this price. I also liked how the company placed the front camera on the right bezel (landscape mode), something that is now also seen in The tenth generation of the iPad (reconsidering). This helps keep the user centered in the frame when using the tablet horizontally for video calls.

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The bezels around the Realme Pad X’s display are rather slim

There is support for Widevine L1 on the Realme Pad X, so apps like Netflix can play Full HD content. For its price, I wouldn’t expect an AMOLED screen, so typical LCD panel shortcomings like the lack of deep black levels or rich contrast are forgivable. Realme Pad X does not support HDR10 and this is most likely due to SoC limitations. There is no high refresh rate support as the Realme Pad X screen runs at the standard 60Hz. In comparison, more affordable redmi panel (reconsidering) provides a 90 Hz refresh rate display.

When held vertically, the top edge of the Realme Pad X houses two of the four speaker grilles and the power button. The bottom edge houses the other two speaker grilles and a USB Type-C port. On the right edge are the volume buttons, while on the left, you get the SIM tray, which also has space for a microSD card.

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Realme Pad X comes with a quad-speaker setup

The Realme Pad X supports the Realme Pencil, which can be attached to the right side of the tablet (when held vertically). There is also a keyboard cover, which comes with a built-in kickstand. There are no magnetic pins on the tablet to power the keyboard, which means it must be charged separately via its USB Type-C port. The keyboard does not have a trackpad. Both accessories are sold separately.

Realme Pad X specifications and software.

Realme Pad X is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 SoC. The chipset, which is based on a 6nm manufacturing process, is a very popular choice among smartphone brands under Rs. 20000. It is an octa core SoC with a maximum clock speed of 2.2GHz. The tablet also houses a powerful 8,340mAh battery with support for 33W fast charging. On the connectivity side, the tablet supports up to 5GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.1.

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Surprisingly, the Realme Pad X does not come with bloatware pre-installed

In terms of software, the Realme Pad X runs on Realme UI 3.0 which is based on Android 12 out of the box. The software experience is completely clean with no pre-installed bloatware. The software also comes with some useful features like split screen support, sidebar, and floating windows. Split screen can be enabled by swiping down with two fingers from the top of the screen. On the other hand, the sidebar lists some apps that support floating windows, which means you can place these apps anywhere on the screen while your primary app is running side by side.

Realme UI 3.0 also allows users to customize app icons, themes, wallpapers, etc. There is no word on long-term Android updates, but we can hope that the tablet will at least get the Android 13 update.

Renamed Performance Pad X

Realme Pad X provides a good experience when it comes to daily routine tasks. I didn’t experience any lag while switching between apps, or even when loading an app for that matter, which is something I expected to see from the Snapdragon 695 SoC. Sometimes, some apps reload in the background after I switched back to them. If you want the tablet to keep certain apps in memory, you can use the App Lock feature in the multitasking window. This can come in handy for slightly heavy games like Call of Duty: Mobile.

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Call of Duty: Mobile on the Realme Pad X.

The Realme Pad X, to my surprise, delivered a good gaming experience. Once you get used to the large form factor, playing games on this becomes a pleasure. Call of Duty: Mobile supports “Max” frame rate with “High” graphics. If you want the best graphics setting “Very High”, you’ll have to settle for the “Very High” frame rate setting. I chose the former and the gaming experience was very good.

Running a few benchmarks, the Realme Pad X scored 692 and 2,006 points in Geekbench’s single-core and multi-core tests, which was on par with phones featuring the same SoC. For example, file Moto G71 5G (reconsidering) scored 668 and 1900 points. In AnTuTu, the Realme Pad X scored 3,96,551 points, which is, once again, higher than some phones with the same SoC as the Redmi Note 11 Pro + 5G, which scored 365,861 points.

A factor in marginally higher scores could be the tablet’s better thermal management due to the larger size, which could have helped reduce throttling and better heat dissipation.

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Realme Pad X with keyboard accessory and Realme Pencil

I also used the Realme Pad X’s optional keyboard to present stories on Microsoft Word. While the key travel is good, there is no built-in trackpad. I often had to touch the screen to scroll up and down, which felt more of a chore than anything else. Therefore, this setup is definitely not an ideal replacement for a laptop. The pen works well but there is a noticeable lag when drawing or taking notes. You can magnetically attach the Pencil to the right edge of your tablet to charge it.

Moving on, I missed the presence of a fingerprint scanner on the Realme Pad X. Users will have to choose between the lock screen password and Face Unlock for authentication. There is no 3.5mm headphone jack, in case you were wondering. The tablet comes with four speakers that deliver great sound.

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Realme Pad X does not come with a fingerprint scanner

Realme Pad X has a solid battery life. The company claims that users can get up to 19 hours of playtime when playing videos. On our battery loop test, the device lasted 17 hours and 54 minutes, which is very close to the required time. In fact, the battery life is better than the more affordable Redmi Pad, but it has a slightly smaller battery. The battery on the Realme Pad X takes some time to charge from zero to 100 percent. With the 33W Dart charger provided in the box, it took over 2 hours and 30 minutes to fully charge the tablet.

Realme Pad X cameras.

Realme Pad X has two camera sensors. The rear camera uses a 13MP sensor which is good enough for scanning documents. There is no LED flash here. If you want to use the tablet for taking pictures, expect decent colors and dynamic range, but average detail. The rear camera can shoot videos at up to 1080p 60fps.

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Realme Pad X has a 13MP rear camera

Realme Pad X Shot

For selfies and video calls, the 8MP front camera is pretty average. Portraits are a bit grainy and there is noticeable noise in videos shot in indoor lighting.

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The front camera is placed on the right bezel when held in portrait mode

Realme Pad X Shot

There’s a feature called “Limelight” that keeps you in the center of the frame even when you’re moving around during video calls. This is basically Realme’s version of the iPad’s Center Stage feature. It is currently supported on three apps – Google Meet, Zoom, and Google Duo. The front camera can also record 1080p videos at 30fps.

Rule

The Realme X panel is a very strong offering in the budget Android tablet space. It provides a good multimedia experience and has a reliable performance unit. I also like how the company delivered a clean software experience while also customizing it enough to offer the most basic features. The Realme Pad X also gets a big thumbs up for its battery life. While I don’t expect tablets to offer good camera performance, I would have liked to see a better front camera.

Should you consider buying one? Realme Pad X Wi-Fi variant starts at Rs. 19,999, which is great value for money. However, our 5G variant has Rs. 27,999 cards. For that price, you can get stronger Xiaomi board 5It is currently available for Rs 26,999. The Android tablet comes with the powerful Snapdragon 870 SoC and a 120Hz refresh rate LCD display with Dolby Vision certification. The battery is also larger than the one in the Realme Pad X.


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