Oppo’s Pad 5 aims to compete with rivals through its large 12.1-inch display and attractive media features, but underwhelms in performance and design, making it a less compelling choice in the under-£500 segment.
Oppo’s Pad 5 arrives in a busy corner of the Android tablet market, aiming to tempt buyers who want a large screen and decent battery life without paying premium money. At £379 for the Wi-Fi version, or £459 for the 5G model, it sits in the same rough price band as rivals from Xiaomi and Lenovo, but the appeal here is simpler: a big 12.1-inch display, quad speakers and a clean software experience in a tablet that is clearly built for watching, reading and light everyday use.
That display is the Pad 5’s strongest card. Oppo has fitted a 12.1-inch 2.8K LCD panel with a 120Hz refresh rate, and although it cannot match OLED for contrast, it is colourful, sharp and well suited to films, streaming and general media. Trusted Reviews found the panel so vivid that it switched from the default vivid mode to a more subdued setting, while other reviews praised the same screen for its size and clarity. The quad speakers also help, giving the tablet enough spread and separation for video playback to feel genuinely enjoyable.
The rest of the hardware is less convincing. Oppo has used a MediaTek Dimensity 7300-Ultra chip with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, a combination that handles basic tasks without drama but falls behind stronger rivals when the tablet is pushed harder. Trusted Reviews described performance as underwhelming for the money, noting slower app switching and weaker gaming results than competing tablets such as the Xiaomi Pad 8 and Lenovo Idea Tab Pro. Even so, the software itself is a bright spot: ColorOS 16.1 on Android 16 is relatively tidy, with little bloatware and only modest AI tools, though the AI image features feel awkwardly bolted on.
Design is another area where Oppo plays it safe rather than standing out. The tablet uses a metal frame and a plastic back, but at 597g it is heavier than several rivals and does not feel especially premium for the price. Stylus support is also clumsy, because the compatible Oppo Pencil 2R was not available in the UK at the time of review. The cameras are exactly what you would expect from a budget tablet: an 8MP rear unit and an 8MP front camera that are fine for scanning documents and video calls, but little more.
Battery life is solid, with the 10,050mAh cell comfortably lasting a day of mixed use and stretching much further if the tablet is only used occasionally. Charging is less impressive, with 33W SuperVOOC topping up the battery at a respectable but not class-leading pace. Put together, the Oppo Pad 5 is a decent media tablet with a strong screen and sensible software, but not a particularly compelling all-round buy when stronger performance and lighter designs are available for similar money.
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