The $699.99 OnePlus Pad 3 is an attractive and powerful Android tablet. Its large and bright display, swift performance, sleek design, and effective software make it an excellent choice for both work and entertainment. It has quick Wi-Fi radios and loud speakers for watching video, though we wish it had some protection against dust and water, and that a stylus were included in the cost. If you've invested in OnePlus phones, you'll find plenty here to like. That said, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE+ has a similar design and performance, comes with an S Pen stylus, and is fully waterproof for $50 less, so it remains our Editors’ Choice winner for midrange Android tablets.

Design: Premium Looks 

The OnePlus Pad 3 looks and feels like a high-end device. It measures 11.40 by 8.25 by 0.24 inches (HWD) and weighs 1.49 lbs. This makes it taller and wider, but thinner and heavier than last year’s model (10.58 by 7.68 by 0.26 inches, 1.29 lbs). Meanwhile, the Galaxy Tab S10 FE+ (11.83 by 7.66 by 0.24 inches, 1.46 pounds) is slightly taller, but otherwise is similar in size and weight.

(Credit: Sarah Lord)

The aluminum frame features smooth, rounded edges, which give the tablet an elegant feel. If you hold it in portrait mode, you’ll find two speaker grilles at the top, along with the power button. The right side houses the volume up and down button as well as a small magnetic indentation where you can connect the optional OnePlus Stylo 2 ($99.99). Two more speaker grilles and a USB-C port for charging sit on the bottom edge. 

Slim black bezels are evenly spaced around the display. A small, circular cutout for the selfie camera sits on the right side of the tablet for video calls. Face Unlock, using the selfie camera, is the only form of biometric security. It works well, but it is not secure enough for banking or financial applications.

OnePlus calls the color of the rear panel Storm Blue, though it looks gray in most lighting conditions. The matte finish is unadorned, except for the OnePlus logo in the middle and a three-prong magnetic connector for the optional Pad 3 Smart Keyboard ($199.99). There’s a raised, oval-shaped camera module in the corner that houses the rear camera and flash. The back is slippery to hold and readily collects fingerprints, so you might want to put a case on it to prevent accidental spills. 

(Credit: Sarah Lord)

The OnePlus Pad 3 does not have an IP rating for water or dust protection. The Galaxy Tab S10 FE+, on the other hand, is fully waterproof with a rating of IP68. 

Display: Sharp and Bright

The Pad 3’s 13.2-inch LCD, up from the Pad 2's 12.1 inches, has a resolution of 3,392 by 2,400 pixels for a pixel density of 315 pixels per inch (ppi). It has an adaptive refresh rate of up to 144Hz and a default touch rate of 120Hz, which can be pushed up to 540Hz for gaming. The screen reaches an average brightness of 600 nits, but has a peak brightness of 900 nits.

(Credit: Sarah Lord)

The 13.1-inch LCD of the Tab S10 FE+ is not as sharp. It has a resolution of 2,880 by 1,800 pixels, with a slower 90Hz refresh rate. It is also not as bright, topping out at a peak of 800 nits. 

The Pad 3's screen is impressively bright indoors, with rich colors and deep blacks. It is slightly harder to see outside, due to glare. Even so, I still found it to be usable under direct sunlight. 

Performance: A Powerful Slate

The OnePlus Pad 3 has Qualcomm’s fastest Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, 12GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. OnePlus says it will eventually produce a model with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, though there is no word yet on its price or availability. 

(Credit: Geekbench/GFXBench/PCMag)

The tablet feels fast. Completing everyday tasks while multitasking is a breeze. I tested the CPU’s performance with Geekbench 6, which delivered a single-core score of 3,082 and a multi-core score of 9,040. This is much faster than the Tab S10 FE+ and its Samsung Exynos 1580 processor (1,358 and 3,886).

I tested GPU performance via the GFXBench Aztec Ruins suite. The OnePlus Pad 3 ran the test at 43fps. Comparatively, the Tab S10 FE+ only got 15fps on the same test.

This tablet can run AAA games with the best of them. The resource-heavy game Genshin Impact plays predictably well on it. The graphics look crisp and clear, even in moments of combat. The tablet does get slightly warm to the touch after about half an hour of gaming, but not overly hot. 

Battery Life: Competitive

Despite coming with a larger 12,140mAh battery, the OnePlus Pad 3 has shorter battery life than the Pad 2. To test battery life, I ran an HD video on a loop over Wi-Fi with the screen at full brightness until the battery completely drained. The Pad 3 lasted 8 hours and 53 minutes on a single charge. The Pad 2 and its 9,510 mAh battery lasted longer, at 11 hours and 43 minutes. Even with the decrease, which we might attribute to the larger and brighter screen, the Pad 3 still handily beats out the Tab S10 FE+ (7 hours and 45 minutes).

The Pad 3 comes with OnePlus’ SuperVOOC 80W fast charger. It took 1 hour and 50 minutes to completely charge the tablet from zero to 100%. The S10 FE+ charges at a slower 45W and doesn’t come with a power adapter in the box.

Connectivity: Fast Wi-Fi

The OnePlus Pad 3 ships with the latest Wi-Fi 7 radio, though I do all of my testing on a Wi-Fi 6 router. When close to the router, the tablet clocked download speeds of 556Mbps and upload speeds of 22.8Mbps. The Pad 2 reached only 105Mbps down and 21Mbps up when tested in the same location. Those speeds dipped toward the edge of the Wi-Fi network, where the tablet got 238Mbps down and 4.78Mbps up. Even so, you’ll have no problem streaming all of your favorite movies and shows. 

Audio: Strong for a Tablet

OnePlus loads eight speakers (four woofers and four tweeters) into the Pad 3. The sound is impressive for a tablet. I could hear all of the bass layers in our test track, “Silent Shout,” by The Knife. The tablet vibrated in my hand as the opening beats played. The sound is fairly balanced, with strong mids and highs, and gets decently loud, with enough volume to fill a small room at 93.8 dB. 

There’s no 3.5mm headphone jack on board, so you’ll need to rely on the Bluetooth speakers or headphones. The tablet supports Bluetooth 5.4, along with the AAC, aptX, aptX HD, LDAC, LHDC, and SBC codecs. 

Camera: Bright, But Blurry

The OnePlus Pad 3 has a 13MP rear camera and an 8MP front camera for selfies and video chats. I found it surprisingly difficult to take a photo that's entirely in focus. 

(Credit: Sarah Lord)

Many of the shots I took look like the one above: mostly in focus, but with noticeable blurring around the edges. 

(Credit: Sarah Lord)

The colors are artificially bright. The green leaves in the tree above have a neon green tint that is not present in real life. 

Of course, most people don’t take photos or videos with a tablet. Your phone or a dedicated camera will likely deliver better results. 

(Credit: Sarah Lord)

I was able to get this selfie of my dog in low light.

The Pad 3 is capable of recording 4K video at 30 fps, and it looks about as good as the pictures. It generates soft focus, and vibrations lead to noticeably shaky video.

Software: OxygenOS With a Dash of AI

The OnePlus Pad 3 features OnePlus’ OxygenOS 15 user interface, which is based on Android 15. It's a fairly uncluttered platform and has only one folder on the home screen with a few OnePlus specific apps. 

OxygenOS does have a few fun tricks when it comes to accessories, multitasking, and cross-platform integration. If you pay extra for a stylus, you can swipe from the top right corner to create a quick note or annotation. You can also start taking a note by simply writing on the screen, even when the screen is locked. 

(Credit: Sarah Lord)

Multitasking on the Pad 3 is similar to that of an iPad, where you can have two apps in a split-screen mode, with a third hovering over them. You can load equally sized panels and swipe through them on the screen. It’s easy to drag and drop apps into split view from the floating side menu. It’s a great way to move back and forth between various programs, and I enjoyed using it.

Perhaps the most exciting new software feature is the ability to connect your Pad 3 to your Mac or iPhone for file sharing or screen mirroring. This feature was previously available between OnePlus devices, but is now open to Apple products as well. All you need to do is download the O+ app for Mac or Windows from OnePlus’ website and log in using the same OnePlus account while on the same Wi-Fi network as your OnePlus device. This makes the tablet much more appealing to those who aren’t locked into the OnePlus ecosystem. 

(Credit: Sarah Lord)

Finally, there are some AI features on the Pad 3, but not a lot. There’s Circle to Search, and the Notes app has an AI assistant. That’s about it. Samsung offers far more in this regard, like AI-based photo-editing tools.

OnePlus is offering three OS updates and six years of security updates for the Pad 3. This is a far cry from the seven years of OS and security updates that Samsung promises for the Tab S10 FE+.