Design and Display: Premium Hardware With a Productivity Focus
The OnePlus Pad 4 stays close to its predecessor’s aesthetic, but that is not a complaint. Its slim 5.94 mm metal unibody and 672 g weight feel decidedly premium, while the clean lines and even bezels make it look modern on a desk or in the hand. The 13.2‑inch 3.4K LCD is the clear hardware highlight: at 315 PPI, text and icons look razor‑sharp, and the 7:5 aspect ratio gives extra vertical room that suits documents, note‑taking and split‑screen work. Typical brightness reaches 700 nits with a peak of 1000 nits in high brightness mode, keeping the screen usable in strong light. A 144 Hz-capable panel (120 Hz by default) makes scrolling and animations feel exceptionally fluid. You do miss the deep blacks of OLED and HDR support in some streaming apps, but overall colour, clarity and smoothness are excellent for both work and entertainment.
Performance: Snapdragon Muscle Delivers a Faster Android Tablet
Under the hood, the OnePlus Pad 4’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset is the main reason this generation feels faster. Paired with up to 12 GB of LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.1 storage, the tablet breezes through everyday apps, demanding games and heavy multitasking. Switching between multiple split‑screen apps is smooth, and the high refresh rate display keeps everything feeling responsive. Compared with the previous Pad, you can expect noticeably quicker app launches, more stable performance in intensive games and better handling of several floating windows at once. The refined OxygenOS animations complement the hardware well, so performance never feels jerky or inconsistent. While benchmark numbers are not the focus here, the real‑world Android tablet performance is clearly flagship‑class, putting the Pad 4 in the same conversation as other premium tablets for productivity, media consumption and creative work with the Stylo Pro.
Battery Life and Charging: A Massive Cell That Really Lasts
OnePlus has packed a substantial 13,380 mAh battery into a chassis that remains surprisingly thin, and the payoff is obvious in day‑to‑day use. The Pad 4 is built to comfortably last through long workdays and extended streaming sessions, and light users can reasonably stretch it across multiple days between charges. This directly addresses one of the key expectations for any large-screen device: tablet battery life that matches its multitasking ambitions. When you finally do need to plug in, 80W SUPERVOOC charging gets you back up quickly, reducing downtime and making it a practical travel companion. Crucially, the huge battery does not make the tablet unwieldy; weight distribution and the slim profile keep it comfortable for couch use, while it feels right at home on a desk paired with the keyboard and stylus for more serious productivity sessions.
OxygenOS 16: Polished Software and New OxygenOS Features
OxygenOS 16 is where the OnePlus Pad 4 pulls meaningfully ahead of its predecessor. Built on Android 16 with a promised four major OS updates and six years of security patches, it feels like a platform designed to last. The interface is visually cleaner, with smoother transitions, a refreshed dock and a tidier app drawer that makes navigation feel effortless. Live Space is the standout change, replacing static notifications with dynamic, expandable cards that can grow into full‑screen views, while the new media player integrates neatly into this system with fluid animations. Recent software updates have also added more OnePlus AI features and better control over home screen layouts in both landscape and portrait orientations, alongside improved floating window behaviour. The result is a tablet‑first OxygenOS experience that feels cohesive, powerful and competitive with other premium Android tablets.
Verdict: Incremental but Meaningful Upgrade for Existing Pad Owners
The OnePlus Pad 4 does not radically reinvent the company’s tablet formula, but it meaningfully improves almost every area that matters. The faster Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset boosts Android tablet performance, the huge 13,380 mAh battery significantly extends tablet battery life, and OxygenOS 16 brings genuinely useful OxygenOS features such as Live Space, a smarter media player and ongoing AI‑driven refinements. Add in the sharp 13.2‑inch 3.4K display, excellent eight‑speaker setup and strong stylus support, and you get one of the smoothest Android tablets currently available. There are still compromises, including the lack of a fingerprint scanner, cellular variant and only average cameras, but these are easy to accept if your priority is speed, screen and software. For owners of the original OnePlus Pad, this is an incremental upgrade that feels genuinely worthwhile rather than merely cosmetic.
