Six months ago, the Oppo Pad 4 Pro was released. With its large 13.2-inch screen and the outstanding smoothness of ColorOS 15, it received a lot of positive reviews. Half a year later, we welcome another flagship tablet, the Oppo Pad 5, equipped with the Dimensity 9400+ and ColorOS 16. What new experiences can it bring? Let’s get our hands on it and find out.
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Design and Display
The two models we have here are Purple and Silver. The former looks younger and more vibrant, while the latter is more minimalist and understated. In terms of appearance, it continues the design language of the previous generation of Oppo tablets, with an integrated metal body that feels delicate to the touch.
When you put this back texture next to an iPad, it’s hard to tell them apart. It has a thickness of 5.99mm, a 12.1-inch screen, and weighs 579 grams. The size is slightly smaller, and it’s also lighter. Lighting up the screen, the system is the foundation of the daily experience.
The screen’s viewing experience is absolutely crucial. It needs to be not only clear, bright, and color-accurate but, more importantly, easy on the eyes. In terms of resolution, the 304 PPI makes text in e-textbooks almost as clear as in a physical book. Even under sunlight, the viewing experience is still guaranteed. If you need to read text for long periods, this version is perfect. Hardware-level low blue light and full-range DC dimming.
For the media and entertainment, people’s needs are basically about the screen quality, speakers, and decent battery life. The Oppo Pad 5 can satisfy these well. 3K resolution, 144Hz refresh rate, Delta E of 0.7. Among LCD screens, its viewing performance is definitely top-tier. Although its symmetrical six-speaker system can’t compare to the iPad Pro, it’s a lot better than the Air.
Software – ColorOS 16
My first impression of ColorOS 16 is that it’s sufficiently smooth and reliable. First, there’s the new desktop transition animation for switching between portrait and landscape modes. Compared to traditional transition effects, it feels more seamless and silky smooth.
Secondly, there’s the parallel animation for app launches, ensuring that animations remain smooth even under extreme conditions. The well-regarded split-screen and floating window logic from Oppo’s foldable phones has also been very successfully ported to this large screen. Swipe up to the right for a floating window, and to the left for a split screen.
You can long-press and drag from both the bottom taskbar and the right sidebar to initiate split-screen. It supports three-way split-screen, smart switching, and creating a floating window by clicking in the sidebar, with the ability to freely adjust the proportions. It supports up to five windows simultaneously: a three-way split-screen plus two floating windows. Reasonable interactive gestures and instant animations improve window switching efficiency while also increasing the utilization of the large screen. However, most videos are in a 16:9 aspect ratio, which means the actual screen space they occupy is quite small.
A more practical approach is to hold the tablet vertically and use ColorOS’s stepless adjustment for the split-screen ratio, allowing the video to fill the top portion. This still leaves a large area for taking notes. ColorOS 16 goes a step further from the smoothness of version 15, with silky animations and significant advantages in multitasking.
In terms of software, it finally adds a PC-level version of WPS. From our tests, when paired with the keyboard, it’s sufficient for light text-based work.
Various efficient learning features are also maxed out. When you come across important content, you can long-press with three fingers to take screenshots in different shapes, which can be directly dragged into a note. A two-finger long-press extracts text with one tap. Taking notes is an exclusive advantage of a large-screen tablet.
Performance
After discussing the basic system features, I want to share my experience with the Oppo Pad 5 from the perspective of three major use cases for large-screen tablets. The first is gaming. To run games smoothly, a top-tier processor is essential; although it’s the standard version, it uses the flagship Dimensity 9400+ chip. Paired with the same sky cooling system as the previous generation, this tablet can deliver Pro-level gaming performance.
In our tests based on the latest system, with the help of the HyperEngine, PUBG can surprisingly run at an ultra-HD 3K resolution and a native 144Hz frame rate simultaneously. This allows you to see enemies clearly while maintaining smooth controls. During actual gameplay, we rarely experienced frame drops or heating issues. However, playing shooting games on a large screen can be quite tiring for the hands. There are many similar comments online.
But for games like Genshin Impact, this tablet is perfectly compatible with a controller. Enable controller mapping, connect a controller via Bluetooth, and turn on the auto-pickup and auto-release controls in the AI Lab for stable 120fps gameplay. Actually, the games best suited for the large screen are more casual types like Teamfight Tactics and rhythm games.
We also tested these two types of games, and the experience was very smooth. It also comes with a new version of the Game Assistant, which includes practical auxiliary functions like network optimization and timed release. To summarize briefly, the Dimensity 9400+ paired with the sky cooling system balances both game graphics and frame rate. The large screen, combined with the Game Assistant, provides a smooth experience for both competitive and casual games.
The ultra-thin body packs a large 10,420mAh battery with 67W fast charging. In our test, with manual brightness set to 500 nits and volume at 50%, playing a 4K HDR video for 30 minutes, the battery dropped from 25% to 20%. And in the same amount of time, the fast charge can go from 20% to 60%.
The new Pencil 2 Pro has lower latency and supports tilt and pressure sensitivity. The haptic feedback can simulate the feel of writing with different real pens, and there’s also real-time font beautification. As for the keyboard, it still offers two connection methods: elegant magnetic pogo pins and Bluetooth, with a detachable design. The back cover can be used as a standalone stand. The keys are silent, which is great for use in a library.
Final Verdict
If the Pad 4 Pro was Oppo’s first product to aim for the title of “Android Tablet King,” then the Pad 5 is the second step in its steady iteration. With its exquisite appearance, smooth OS, Pro-level chip, Rheinland eye-care certification, and compatibility with a keyboard and stylus. If you’re a student or a young professional whose daily routine involves watching online classes, taking notes, watching videos, playing some casual games, and you have some light office needs, the Oppo Pad 5 is definitely a smooth, large-screen tablet that can meet your demands.
This tablet, officially called the “Smooth Tablet King,” what do you all in front of the screen think? Feel free to leave your thoughts. Well, that’s all for this video. We’ll see you next time.
Related Android Tablet Reviews & Buyer Guides
If you are comparing display sizes, gaming chipsets, or battery endurance across other models, check out our hands-on tests of the Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro flagship tablet test and the Lenovo Legion Y700 Gen 4 gaming review. You can also browse our complete ranking of tested devices in the Tablet Reviews Hub.
