OPPO Pad Mini Matte Display Edition review: a small wonder

The Pad Mini Matte Display Edition is OPPO’s answer to the Apple iPad mini. While OPPO may seem ambitious with its pricing, placing the tablet above Apple’s compact offering, it makes a strong case for the premium. The OPPO Pad Mini (as we’ll call it for the sake of brevity) offers 256GB of storage (double the iPad mini’s base 128GB storage), includes a complimentary Smart Case and Pencil 3 Pro worth Rs 11,998, and features an anti-reflective matte display. To get an equivalent configuration and accessories for the iPad mini, you would have to shell out Rs 1,27,300 – that too, without a charger in the box.

With that in mind, the OPPO Pad Mini Matte Display Edition might seem like a more lucrative deal. But is that enough to warrant a purchase? We find that out and more in this review. Keep reading.

Table of Contents

Design & audio

The OPPO Pad Mini boasts a simple yet sleek design that is worth admiring. The tablet features an aluminium casing with flat edges and nicely curved corners, enhancing its appeal while providing a comfortable and premium in-hand feel. OPPO offers the tablet in Lavender Purple, which looks serene, although I wish there were more colour options. The matte-finish rear panel helps keep fingerprints and smudges at bay, though it can pick up a few stains with regular use. Fortunately, buyers get a smart folio case bundled with the tablet.

Without the case, the Pad Mini measures 194.4 x 132.4 x 5.39mm and weighs approximately 279 grams. The device is certainly taller than the Vivo X Fold 6 (when unfolded), which I’m currently using as my primary device, but its width is almost equivalent to that of an adult hand. This sleek form factor makes the tablet easy to grip without compromising on durability. I’ve tossed it into my bag and even tried bending it, yet it has remained perfectly intact, with no creaks or cracks whatsoever.

The tablet features a USB Type-C port along the bottom edge, which could have been centre-aligned, though that’s a minor gripe since it gets the job done. There are also a couple of speaker grilles on both the top and bottom edges. However, only one grille on each edge houses a functional speaker, while the other is purely for aesthetic purposes. I don’t mind the dual-speaker setup instead of a quad setup on the tablet, given its size. The setup sounds impressive, although it may lose some clarity when pushed to maximum volume.

The OPPO Pad Mini’s speakers work perfectly well at 70–80 percent volume levels, prioritising bass while keeping vocals at a respectable level. The tablet offers a good multimedia experience. That said, users may take some time to get used to the volume rocker, which is positioned along the tablet’s top edge rather than its usual position on the right spine, owing to the placement of the OPPO Pencil 3 Pro charging pad.

OPPO has also moved the power button to the top edge, though it is easier to locate than the volume rocker. As long as you’re holding the tablet horizontally, you shouldn’t have trouble figuring out which button increases the volume. Moving on, I wish the power button also had a fingerprint scanner to securely unlock the Pad Mini. Right now, unlocking is limited to PIN, Pattern, and Face Unlock. The latter is still not as reliable as a fingerprint scanner and can struggle to detect faces in dimly lit environments.

Display

The OPPO Pad Mini sports an 8.8-inch AMOLED display with an adaptive 144Hz refresh rate, 2.5K (2,520 × 1,680p) resolution, Dolby Vision, HDR10+ support, and 1,800 nits HBM brightness. As impressive as they may sound, it is the matte finish atop the display that grabs attention and even inspired OPPO to name the tablet: OPPO Pad Mini Matte Display Edition. This is not a new innovation, but it is certainly a first from OPPO in the country.

The matte finish addresses the reflections commonly associated with standard glossy displays, which can affect the viewing experience. The OPPO Pad Mini does a good job of minimising reflections and glare from LED lighting or harsh sunlight, making the display feel almost like a sheet of paper. However, matte displays are often criticised for two reasons: they are more susceptible to scratches than glossy surfaces and tend to offer lower contrast.

While OPPO hasn’t specified the exact glass protection, the Pad Mini seems to have solid durability. Even after using a stylus and carrying the tablet around in my bag without a case, it hasn’t picked up any grooves or scratches. However, I would recommend getting a screen protector or using the tablet with a case, since there is no protective film guarding the screen.

As for picture quality, the OPPO Pad Mini does well, keeping colours vibrant and visuals sharp. Being an AMOLED panel, it also offers consistent colour reproduction, even when viewed from an angle. The display is backed by impressive brightness, ensuring a comfortable viewing experience for content consumption both indoors and outdoors.

For most casual users, this may not even matter, but the colours aren’t quite as punchy as you would expect from an OLED panel. There is slight colour degradation, which could be due to the matte finish. However, the difference is only noticeable when compared side-by-side with a comparable panel featuring a glossy finish.

Truth be told, I don’t mind these compromises, considering I could enjoy content without constantly adjusting the viewing angle to avoid glare. The OPPO Pad Mini’s display also resisted fingerprints during use, saving me the trouble of cleaning it every now and then.

Stylus

The matte finish also makes using the OPPO Pencil 3 Pro with the Pad Mini an enjoyable experience. The pencil pairs seamlessly with the tablet and supports 16,000 levels of pressure sensitivity. It’s pretty evident what OPPO is aiming for here: extending the paper-like viewing experience to writing as well.

To achieve this, the company includes a pre-installed ‘active-adaptive felt tip’ that makes writing on the tablet feel remarkably close to using a pencil on a sheet of paper. There is also subtle audio feedback, including pencil scribbling, brush strokes, and marker sounds as you write on the tablet. This should be particularly useful for students taking notes and artists drawing.

I’m neither a student nor an artist, so I preferred using the bundled soft nib with the tablet. There’s almost no noticeable latency with the Pencil 3 Pro, and the tablet is also well-optimised for palm rejection, ensuring precise input without accidental touches while using the stylus.

The OPPO Pencil 3 Pro is mostly round, with a small flat surface on one side that houses the charging contacts. It also features touch controls near the nib, which provide quick access to features such as AI Circle to mark anything on screen and take action, along with Laser Pointer for presentations, Quick Notes, and Annotate. These controls can be customised through the Settings app on the tablet, where you can also monitor the stylus’s battery level.

The Pencil 3 Pro promises up to 15.5 hours of continuous use on a single charge and attaches magnetically to the tablet’s right spine. However, the magnets aren’t particularly strong, and the stylus can easily come loose with a slight nudge. Nevertheless, it remains a convenient way to charge the accessory.

Battery

The OPPO Pad Mini Matte Display Edition packs an 8,000mAh battery, which looks quite promising on paper. It is backed by 67W SuperVOOC charging. OPPO is kind enough to include an 80W charger in the box, though the charging speed is limited to 67W, taking more than an hour to charge the tablet from 20 to 100 percent. That’s reasonable, and the Pad Mini is well-optimised to minimise battery drain when not in use. However, I would be a little more cautious about its endurance during active use, as was evident in both synthetic benchmarks and real-world tests.

The OPPO Pad Mini managed only 11 hours and 30 minutes in the PCMark battery test. Meanwhile, during our in-house video streaming and gaming tests, which ran for two hours, it consumed 18 percent of its battery. This is on the higher side, considering that it is a Wi-Fi-only tablet and, unlike an LTE variant, does not have to actively search for networks.

If you are a regular user with 4–5 hours of screen time spent on streaming, scrolling, and browsing, the OPPO Pad Mini will easily last you a day and a half. However, heavy users with 4K video editing and gaming thrown into the mix will need to charge the tablet by the end of the day.

Performance & software

At the heart of the OPPO Pad Mini Matte Display Edition lies a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 SoC, paired with 8GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB of UFS 4.1 storage. This is the only configuration available, with no option to expand storage. While the chipset may seem a generation old, it remains more than capable of handling everyday tasks as well as demanding workloads. I had absolutely no trouble using the tablet for daily activities, gaming, editing, and other intensive tasks.

The tablet can get warm during extended periods of heavy use, but temperatures remain perfectly manageable without any noticeable drop in performance. To test its thermal efficiency, we ran BGMI and Call of Duty: Mobile, two demanding mobile games, for 30 minutes each. The Pad Mini registered an average temperature increase of just 1.8 degrees Celsius. This is quite impressive, considering how slim the tablet is. Even some of the most thermally advanced gaming phones struggle to deliver such impressive thermal efficiency.

The tablet also managed to hit its maximum 144Hz refresh rate, which is only applicable for games, while playing COD: Mobile and other supported titles such as Subway Surfers.

On the software front, the OPPO Pad Mini runs Android 16-based ColorOS 16 out of the box. This was a bit surprising to me, considering the tablet was launched alongside the Find X10 series, which comes pre-loaded with the latest ColorOS 17. While you miss out on the new design, effects, animations, and features, the software manages to deliver a pleasing experience with no awkward app freezes or crashes.

The overall experience is similar to that of OPPO smartphones; however, I would have liked a more comprehensive multitasking experience. The tablet lets you run apps in split-screen mode and resize their windows, but it is limited to two apps at a time. Floating windows are the only other way to run more than two apps simultaneously, though the experience isn’t quite the same. OPPO should take inspiration from Vivo’s Origin Workbench to make multitasking more useful and intuitive on larger screens.

There is no official word on software support yet, but given that the OPPO Pad Mini is the company’s flagship tablet, it could receive three major OS upgrades and four years of security updates.

Camera

Tablets’ cameras aren’t meant for photography, and the OPPO Pad Mini is no exception. The tablet packs a 13MP primary camera with autofocus and an LED flash, while on the front, it features an 8MP sensor for selfies and video calling. It is mostly a reliable choice for scanning documents, provided you are in a well-lit environment; otherwise, the images will look grainy.

You can use the cameras for casual photography, though the results are comparable to what you’d get from a budget smartphone, with slow shutter speeds, overly processed images, and inconsistent focus.

Verdict

There aren’t many compact premium tablets in India, and the OPPO Pad Mini Matte Display Edition aims to fill that void. It may sell at a more premium price tag than the Apple iPad Mini, but the experience remains holistic and compelling. Its biggest highlight is undoubtedly the matte AMOLED display, which minimises glare and makes content consumption and writing more enjoyable.

The bundled OPPO Pencil 3 Pro further enhances the experience, offering a paper-like feel with minimal latency. Add to that a sleek and durable design, capable performance, and impressive thermal management, and you have a tablet that gets most things right. However, it’s not without its shortcomings. Battery life is underwhelming for an 8,000mAh tablet; the lack of a fingerprint scanner feels like a missed opportunity; and the multitasking experience could have been more comprehensive.

All things considered, OPPO delivers an attractive package, especially with the complimentary Pencil 3 Pro and Smart Case. If you’re looking for a compact tablet for reading, note-taking, content consumption, and occasional productivity, the OPPO Pad Mini Matte Display Edition is worth considering, even for Apple users who aren’t looking for an ecosystem-focused experience.

Editor’s review: 8.5/10

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Cons

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