Every few months, a new Android tablet shows up promising to take on the iPad. Most of them are either too big, too heavy, or cut too many corners to be genuinely exciting. The Oppo Pad Mini feels different.
After spending about a couple of days with it, my biggest takeaway wasn't just that Oppo built a good compact tablet. It's that the company built the kind of Android tablet I've wanted for years.
A Tablet That Doesn't Feel like Extra Baggage
The first thing that stood out was the size. At just 5.4 mm thick and 279 grams, the Oppo Pad Mini feels surprisingly light the moment you pick it up. For reference, the iPad Mini is about 6.3 mm thick and weighs about 293 grams.
Most tablets end up living in backpacks because they're just bulky enough to give you some wrist pain. That's exactly what happens with my personal Xiaomi Pad 5 a lot of times. Although I have gotten used to it, the Oppo Pad Mini is just closer to something I'd actually carry everywhere.
It slips into one hand comfortably, and I could easily see myself using it during flights, train rides, or while catching up on YouTube from the couch. The metal unibody design helps sell the premium feel, too. It doesn't feel like Oppo compromised just because it's called a "Mini."
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Oppo Pad Mini's OLED Display Steals the Show
The Oppo Pad Mini display is easily my favourite part. It's an 8.8-inch AMOLED panel with a 144 Hz refresh rate and a 2520 x 1680 resolution. It's also matte, keeping reflections from piercing through my eyeballs. Overall, it simply looks fantastic in person.
The bezels are incredibly slim, at around 3 mm, which makes the screen feel larger than it actually is. It also looks modern in a way many compact tablets don't.
Being the avid reader that I am, I absolutely love reading my favourite manga and books on this display. Everything is just so crisp, bright and a treat to the eyes.
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Not Mini on Performance
Oppo has paired the tablet with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chipset, and while I didn't spend enough time pushing it through heavy gaming sessions, performance felt effortless.
Apps opened quickly, scrolling stayed buttery smooth and the interface never felt sluggish, thanks to ColorOS 16. However, it will also get ColorOS 17, which is great.
I could open three apps side by side or even have one app open and the other two stacked below or over it. Then there's also the ability to use the tablet as a secondary screen for your Windows or Mac PC using the O+ Connect app. You can also share your iPhone files with the tablet, which comes in super handy.
A 8,000mAh battery with 67W fast charging also sounds like the kind of combination that makes this an easy travel companion.
Sure, the Oppo Pad Mini isn't perfect. There's no fingerprint scanner, no cellular variant and no official IP rating. But none of those sounds exactly like dealbreakers to me, especially for the price you pay.
If you ask me, the Oppo Pad Mini is a benchmark for what a compact Android tablet should feel like. It's thin, light, fast and backed by a gorgeous OLED display. More importantly, it feels like a device designed to be used everywhere instead of sitting forgotten in a bag. Simply put, it's the perfect iPad Mini alternative.
Now, with the Oppo Pad Mini having launched in India, it only makes sense for me to grab one for myself, and well, you probably should too.
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