Design

• New premium flat-edged design
• Less than 6mm thick
• Optional Keyboard Cover really enhances the experience

The OnePlus Pad 3 is a completely different beast from last year’s OnePlus Pad 2 when it comes to design. It’s not only bigger, with a larger 13.2-inch screen, but it also switches from rounded edges to flat alternatives for a better grip and an overall cleaner, more refined look. 

Even the rear camera housing has been redesigned, ditching the large – and arguably dated – centrally placed circular housing for a more compact alternative that now resides in the corner of the tablet.

It’d be easy to say that it looks like an iPad as a result, but realistically, basically every tablet looks like an iPad these days. 

Tablet design has homogenised into this fairly standard combination of metal and glass, with most tablets – both iPads and Android alternatives – leaning heavily into the flat-edge look. These are still curved-edge tablets, of course, but these are becoming less common. 

What’s more important is its reduction in thickness, measuring in just shy of 6mm at 5.97mm thick. 

That not only makes the Pad 3 10% thinner than the Pad 2, but also Apple’s competing 13-inch iPad Air, albeit by just over 0.1mm. At 675g, it’s a little heavier than Apple’s 616g alternative, but the tablet is still comfortable to hold and use, and it slips into a rucksack without much complaint. 

I’m also a massive fan of the deep blue finish of the OnePlus Pad 3, offering a nice alternative to the sea of grey tablets on the market – though you’re out of luck if you don’t, as it’s the only colour option available in the UK and EU. Combined with the matte finish and cool touch of the aluminium alloy frame, it looks and feels like a tablet that costs way more than £529/$699. 

It’s taken to the next step when paired with the optional OnePlus Pad 3 Smart Keyboard. 

Though a similar concept to last year’s Smart Keyboard, this year’s model has bigger keys, a full function row and an even larger trackpad to better emulate the traditional laptop experience – and it does so extremely well. It makes sending emails, writing reviews (like this one!) and general work way easier on the tablet.

The only real disappointment is that the new keyboard doesn’t offer Bluetooth connectivity like its predecessor did. The Pad 2 Keyboard’s ability to connect to the tablet from afar was one of the unsung features, in my opinion, allowing me to control my tablet from afar – great for watching movies and the like – but it’s not present in any shape or form here. That’s a little disappointing.

You also have the optional OnePlus Stylo 2 for writing and doodling, although a sample wasn’t provided for review. 

Screen

• Large 13.2-inch IPS LCD display
• 144Hz refresh rate
• 3.4K resolution

The OnePlus Pad 3 goes all-in on the big-screen tablet experience, jumping from 12.1 inches with the Pad 2 to a whopping 13.2-inch panel this time around. It’s not quite as extreme as the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra’s 14.6-inch panel, but OnePlus’ alternative is way easier to transport and use than the slightly unwieldy alternative. 

It also has a slightly boxier 7:5 aspect ratio than some of the competition. That does mean black bars appear when watching movies, but the benefit is that you can fit more on-screen – especially when split-screen multitasking, something that’s genuinely usable on such a large display.  

Size aside, the screen is packed with high-end tech including a pixel-packed 3.4K resolution, support for Dolby Vision HDR+ and HDR10+ and an impressive 12-bit colour depth that massively reduces the banding effect you sometimes see on cheaper tablets. 

It’s also paired with a faster-than-usual 144Hz refresh rate that ties well into the performance-focused nature of the tablet, offering the ability to display up to 144fps in supported games. 

It isn’t an LTPO panel unfortunately, but it does offer a seven-step refresh rate adjustment to help conserve power where possible. That said, I’ve forced the 144Hz refresh rate (possible via the Settings app) and not had any real issues with battery life, so you can essentially have your cake and eat it here. 

The catch? It is an IPS LCD display, unlike the OLED panels offered by the premium Galaxy Tab S10 collection and Apple’s top-end iPad Pro. However, I’d argue that, for the most part, the LCD panel here is a worthy alternative. 

Colours are still incredibly vibrant, and while there’s a hint of grey creeping into blacks in places, it’s not distracting at all when watching movies or playing games. It’s a gorgeously colourful, detailed, bright panel that’ll serve most users well, whether you’re watching David Attenborough’s Our Planet or playing Crashlands 2.

Would it have been nice to have an OLED display instead? Of course. But considering OLED-enabled tablets retail at much higher prices – the similar-size Galaxy Tab S10 Plus comes in at £1,099/$1,099, while the 13-inch iPad Pro comes in at £1,299/$1,299 – I’d argue that it’s a smart trade-off. I don’t think an OLED panel is worth paying more than double the price of the OnePlus Pad 3, anyway. 

Cameras

• 13MP rear and 8MP front-facing cameras
• Same setup as OnePlus Pad 2
• Fine for occasional snaps, but nothing more

Although the camera housing has been redesigned and relocated with the Pad 3, the actual camera hardware remains the same as that of the OnePlus Pad 2. That means you’re still getting a single 13MP rear camera – the other is a flash module – and an 8MP front-facing camera. 

While that might sound a tad disappointing, cameras tend to be a bit of an afterthought when it comes to tablets. The rear camera is primarily designed for occasional snaps or scanning documents, while the front-facing camera is focused mainly on video calls. For these purposes, the two cameras do the job just fine.

That said, these aren’t on the same level – or anywhere near, really – as the cameras you’ll find on even relatively cheap phones. The detail isn’t quite there, and unlike most modern smartphones, the lenses really struggle in low light. 

What I’m trying to say is, for any real photography, use the smartphone in your pocket. But, if you want to video chat on that huge screen or take a photo of your dog and don’t have your phone handy, the cameras of the OnePlus Pad 3 will suffice – as long as the lighting is decent. 

Performance

• Snapdragon 8 Elite
• One of few tablets to compete with iPad power
• Stays relatively cool under load

The OnePlus Pad 3 is one of vanishingly few Android tablets that can hold a candle to the performance of Apple’s iPad range – and I’m not talking about A-series chips here, I’m talking desktop-level M-series chips. 

Granted, the latest iPad Air M3 and iPad Pro M4 outperform the OnePlus Pad 3 in most benchmarking tests, but it can compete with older M-series iPads like the iPad Air M2, while also besting Apple’s latest iPad 11 and iPad mini in both the CPU and GPU departments.

The situation is even rosier when compared to the Android tablet competition. Despite its £529/$699 price tag, the OnePlus Pad 3 is comfortably more powerful than Samsung’s top-end Tab S10 Ultra, let alone the Exynos 1580-equipped Tab S10 Plus FE that’s closer in size and price to the Pad 3.

That’s because the OnePlus Pad 3 boasts the Snapdragon 8 Elite, Qualcomm’s top-end chipset of choice for flagships in 2025, and it delivers impressive performance across the board. Paired with either 12- or 16GB of RAM and either 256- or 512GB of storage, the Pad 3 is extremely well-equipped for its price tag. 

That translates to an ultra-smooth tablet experience, whether you’re playing a game of Call of Duty Mobile with high-end graphics enabled or running three apps simultaneously via the Pad’s Open Canvas multitasking software. 

It’s just as good as keeping cool during those high-pressure moments, thanks to a larger chassis and vapour cooling to dissipate heat. That meant that, even during our top-end Wildlife Extreme Stress Test that simulates high-end 4K gameplay for 20 minutes, the tablet merely got warm. 

Seriously, no matter what I threw at it, the OnePlus Pad 3 handled it with ease – and I can’t say that about many sub-£1000/$1000 Android tablets, let alone one that costs £529/$699. 

Software

• OxygenOS 15 based on Android 15
• Unique tablet-focused features
• Only three OS upgrades

Unlike some Android tablets that essentially provide the same functionality as smartphones, OnePlus has introduced a suite of new and upgraded features specifically to improve the tablet experience – and it helps the OnePlus Pad 3 stand out as a result. 

That starts with improved Open Canvas multitasking software. I’ve praised the feature in reviews of the OnePlus Pad 2 and OnePlus Open, as it allows you to use multiple apps in full-screen mode with a tap on the edge of the screen to switch views. It’s the first multitasking system that really makes sense, in my opinion.

Well, it’s even better this time around, with improved app support and a generally snappier feel. It’ll also proactively ask you if you want to display two apps side-by-side if you frequently switch between them, a nice quality-of-life update. 

That ties nicely into OnePlus’ new Dynamic Scaling tech that essentially resizes apps to better fit the large tablet screen in both landscape and portrait orientations. This does mean that apps without tablet support open in a more boxy aspect ratio, but you can disable it on a per-app basis in the Settings app if that’s not to your liking.

One of the biggest surprises was the boosted O+ Connect functionality. Other OnePlus and Oppo products have offered O+ connectivity that lets you share photos from an iPhone in an AirDrop-like action, but the Pad takes it to the next level – though surprisingly, it’s Mac users that benefit most. 

If you’ve got a Mac, you’ll be able to remotely access your desktop or laptop from afar, complete with touchpad and keyboard passthrough if paired with the new Smart Keyboard cover. It really is the complete experience, with audio passthrough, quick access to launchpad and other settings, and it’ll work everywhere. 

And, the icing on the cake? It’ll automatically enable privacy mode on your Mac, turning off the screen and muting the audio when connected remotely.   

It’s a shame that it’s not available for Windows, given Android’s tight integration with Windows and Microsoft, but I hope that it appears further down the road. 

More generally, the experience is a positive one. Android tablets have come a long way in the past few years, with most of the major apps available on iPads also available on Android devices. There are a few outliers – Procreate isn’t available on Android, for example – but you’ll find most productivity and entertainment apps on Google Play. 

OnePlus’s commitment to three OS upgrades and six years of security patches doesn’t quite match the seven years of OS upgrades offered by high-end Samsung tablets or Apple’s iPads, but that’s fairly standard for its mid-range price tag. 

Battery life

• Large 12,140mAh battery
• All-day use, and great standby time too
• Up to 80W fast charging

Battery life is another strong suit of the OnePlus Pad 3, offering a sizeable 12,140mAh battery that’s not only larger than the Pad 2’s 9510mAh cell but also tablets like the Tab S10 Plus and its 10,090mAh cell. 

As you might guess, that translates to impressive battery longevity. I used the OnePlus Pad 3 as my primary device for work for a day, using the tablet to write articles, check emails, and the like, and it still had 30% battery left at the end of the day. That was enough to tide me over the evening, using the tablet to watch Netflix and scroll through TikTok for a while before bed. 

To put that into context, the tablet drained just 6% when watching HDR10-enabled Netflix for an hour, while 30 minutes of gaming consumed just 4%. 

However, it’s when you use it more sporadically that battery life truly stands out. Once it ran flat, I recharged the tablet and didn’t use it for 5 days. To my surprise, it still had 82% charge left – essentially enough for a full day’s use, or sporadic use over a week or more. 

OnePlus claims that it can last up to 60 days on standby before running out of power, and based on my experience, I’d say that claim holds up pretty well. 

Typically, a large battery results in slower charge times, especially in the case of high-capacity batteries in tablets. However, OnePlus looks to address this issue with 80W SuperVOOC charging support. That makes it one of the speediest tablets around, besting the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra and even Apple’s top-end iPad Pro M4. 

The catch? There’s no charger in the box, so you’ll need to source one separately if you want to achieve the fastest speeds possible. That said, using the Anker Prime 250W charger, I still saw speeds of around 50W, which translated to a full charge in 97 minutes. That’s still pretty quick considering the large capacity on offer.

Should you buy it?

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