The tablet I am referring to doesn’t come with Apple’s logo or OLED marketing buzz, but it does come with a Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, a 13.2-inch high-resolution display, and the same kind of polish. This puts it well above most Android tablets. It is closer to the iPad Pro than you might expect.
But the most mind-boggling part is that it starts at just $700.
This is not a tablet that asks you to settle. It asks a much better question: Are high-end tablets overpriced?
The performance gap isn’t as wide as you’d think
The iPad Pro M4 is faster on paper, but in real-world use, the OnePlus Pad 3 delivers performance that feels just as fluid and capable for most tasks. | Image credit — PhoneArena
If you are familiar with the tablet scene, and if you have been reading our recent news and reviews, you probably already know the tablet I am talking about — the OnePlus Tab 3.
Let’s start with the iPad Pro’s biggest strength — its raw power. The iPad Pro M4 is the most powerful tablet on the market today, there’s no doubt about it. It reached a 13,280 score in our Geekbench 6 multi-core tests, easily outpacing every Android rival, including the OnePlus Pad 3, which scored just below 9,000.
But as usual, context matters. In day-to-day usage, you’d be hard-pressed to notice the difference. The Pad 3 delivers uncompromising performance—it stayed cool under stress and ran with the same fluidity we’ve come to expect from OnePlus phones. Unless you’re routinely editing 4K video with multiple camera feeds, the Snapdragon 8 Elite delivers more performance than most users will ever need.
Meanwhile, the iPad Pro M4 has the unfortunate (and well-known) problem of underutilized power. iPadOS is still restrictive, although this might be changing with iPadOS 26 — more on that later.
A sharper display with stellar contrast despite the lack of OLED
Apple’s big display upgrade in 2024 was the move to Tandem OLED, and the iPad Pro M4’s 13-inch Ultra Retina XDR panel is legitimately stunning. It hits up to 1,600 nits of HDR brightness and offers inky blacks that you could die for. But OnePlus has done an amazing job as well.
The Pad 3 features a sharp 13.2-inch LCD display with a crisp 3392 x 2400 resolution. Its 7:5 aspect ratio is more versatile than the iPad Pro’s 4:3, giving you extra room for multitasking and video while still feeling comfortable for reading and vertical use. And even though it’s not OLED, it is still sharp, vibrant, color-accurate, and plenty bright, peaking at 900 nits. You also get a 144Hz refresh rate, which is actually higher than Apple’s ProMotion 120Hz.
Battery life: OnePlus wins where it matters
Let’s talk longevity. The iPad Pro M4 13-inch lasted just 5 hours and 25 minutes on our custom battery score, with 10h and 54min of web browsing and 8h and 22min of video playback. Not bad, but not great either, especially considering Apple’s usual “all-day” promise. And with the M4 chip’s higher performance ceiling, battery drain during intensive tasks can drop those numbers fast.The OnePlus Pad 3, on the other hand, reached a 15-hour result in our browsing test, demolishing the iPad and even besting most Android rivals. Video and gaming results were also pretty solid.
As for the charging, OnePlus is unsurprisingly the winner thanks to its 80W charging, which was enough to charge the tablet 0-100% in just over 90 minutes. The iPad, on the other hand, takes two and a half hours, using a much slower 18W brick.
A better than expected audio experience
One thing that truly stood out in our OnePlus Pad 3 review was its audio performance. Eight speakers — including four woofers and four tweeters — deliver booming sound with surprising bass depth. It’s not just loud, the audio profile is immersive. So much so that watching movies or playing games without headphones feels oddly complete.
Apple’s speakers are good — might even be the best, in fact — but the new Pro lost some bass due to its slimmer build. It’s still detailed and clean, but for a device that costs $600 less, the Pad 3 comes dangerously close. OnePlus definitely knew what it was doing here.
Accessories comparison: cheaper, but they do the job
OnePlus Pad 3 accessories are cheaper than Apple’s, but their lower build quality and input performance leave room for improvement. | Image credit — PhoneArena
This is one area where OnePlus still feels a step behind. While the Pad 3’s accessories are more affordable than Apple’s — $200 vs $349 for the keyboard and $100 vs $129 for the stylus — they also fall short in terms of polish. The keyboard’s trackpad has inconsistent pointer behavior, and the stylus still lags behind Apple’s Pencil or Samsung’s S Pen when it comes to responsiveness and palm rejection. For a tablet with such premium hardware, the input experience should match.That said, it’s a welcome gesture that OnePlus lets you choose a free OnePlus Pad 3 Folio Case or Stylo 2 if you order the tablet early. It softens the blow and gives new users a chance to get started without shelling out extra. But going forward, OnePlus needs to bring its accessories up to the same standard as the tablet itself.
iPadOS vs. OxygenOS
iPadOS is sleeker and more professional, but OxygenOS on the OnePlus Pad 3 offers greater freedom, flexibility, and fewer ecosystem constraints. | Image credit — PhoneArena
I think the difference between iPadOS and OxygenOS is this: Apple offers a polished, consistent experience with carefully integrated features, while OnePlus has a more sandbox approach that gives you control and flexibility.
iPadOS 26 introduces a sleek new interface, better external display support, and powerful tools like Stage Manager 2. And to Apple’s credit, the tablet runs professional apps like Final Cut Pro and Photoshop, which blur the line between tablet and desktop computing.
That said, iPadOS still enforces some frustrating limits. There’s no open file system, app workflows can be fragile (as we saw in our iPad Pro M4 review, where minimizing an app mid-export caused a failure), and you’re locked into Apple’s tight ecosystem.
By contrast, OxygenOS on the OnePlus Pad 3 may not be as refined, but it gives you more breathing room. You can install full Android apps without gatekeeping, work with files more freely, and use clever features like Open Canvas for multitasking. It even borrows a few tricks from Oppo’s ecosystem for better integration with Macs and PCs.
The verdict?
The iPad Pro M4 is a technical masterpiece. But the OnePlus Pad 3 is a pragmatic, and a great bang for your buck solution. For about half the price, you get a tablet that trades blows with Apple’s best on display quality, performance, and battery life. It offers better charging, similar audio, and arguably more flexibility for casual and power users alike.Yes, you give up OLED, some ecosystem perks, and Apple’s five-year software update promise, but what you get in return is value that feels almost disruptive.
OnePlus didn’t just build a great Android tablet. It gave us the best way to save on new iPad Pro.
