OPPO Pad SE Review - Affordable AI matte eye care display and more

After a few months, here's our full review of the only affordable glare-free AI productivity tablet in the Philippines—the OPPO Pad SE.

The OPPO Pad SE

To recall, the OPPO Pad SE features an 11.5-inch LCD with eye-protection soft light screen (matte), 2.2GHz 6nm Helio G100 8-core chip with Mali-G57 MC2 GPU, 4GB + 4GB dynamic RAM, and 128GB UFS 2.2 storage, a 9,340mAh battery, and runs on Android 15 with ColorOS 15.0.1.

For our review part 1: OPPO Pad SE Unboxing, First Impressions - Budget Matte display with AI productivity

And now, let's take a deeper look at what the tablet can offer.

Multimedia Experience

The display

The tablet boasts an 11.5-inch LCD (IPS) screen with 1920 x 1200 resolution, 206 ppi, 90Hz refresh rate, and 500 nits peak brightness.

Impressive display qualities for the price

Its highlight feature is the anti-reflective matte coating that reduces 97 percent of glare thanks to the nano-etching technology. It's as if you are looking at a paper, making it a lot healthier for the user's eyes, especially during extended usage.

As OPPO mentioned, it is truly an Immersive Eye-Care display, earning a TUV Rheinland Reflection Free Certification and Paper-Like Display Certification.

Furthermore, it even has Bedtime Mode with automatic adjustment of its brightness depending on the environment, thus offering adequate protection to your eyes at any time of the day.

Large and clear display

In terms of display quality, the tablet provides a large viewing experience with high-definition quality, while it's not as punchy as those of AMOLED or OLED, it is certainly clear enough for our daily multimedia tasks.

The colors are still accurate and rich for an LCD, plus, of course, this is definitely good for its price range.

Meanwhile, it has 500 nits of peak brightness, which is sufficient for indoor usage, though it may not be suitable for outdoor environments like al fresco dining or similar.

Quad speaker setup

In terms of audio, the tablet boasts a quad-speaker setup improved by Omnibearing Sound Field technology. OPPO says it intelligently adapts to surround sound stereo.

In our experience, it really provides loud and clear audio, which can easily fill our living room with ease. The mids and highs are decent, while there's minimal thump on the bass when playing music.

Cameras

The camera

For cameras, the OPPO Pad SE uses a 5MP camera on both the rear and front.

Camera Samples

Outdoor shot sample

Outdoor 1x

Outdoor 2x

Selfie outdoor

Selfie indoor

As you can see, these are only basic sensors; after all, the tablet is meant for watching or productivity.

It provides average quality, just enough to take quick shots of the scenery when needed, but do not expect similar performance to a smartphone.

For selfies and video calls, the 5MP sensor performs decently in well-lit environments. We tested it in various settings—hotels, coffee shops, malls, and at home—and found it delivers usable quality for video conferences and online meetings.

Performance

Inside the OPPO Pad SE is the 2.2GHz MediaTek Helio G100 octa-core chip with Mali-G57 MC2 GPU, 6GB or 8GB LPDDR4X RAM, and 128GB storage.

This is expected for an entry-level device, and in fact, a decent chip with good performance for your daily tasks, gaming, or productivity.

OPPO Pad SE benchmarks:

The benchmarks

1. AnTuTu - 431,526 points
2. Geekbench 6 - 704 (single core), 1,833 (multi-core)
3. CPDT - 302MB/s sequential write speeds, 628MB/s sequential read speeds

These scores are on the average side, which allowed us to run our usual apps like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Notes, and Chrome with ease.

Decent performance for the price

In terms of gaming, the tablet is capable of running Mobile Legends: Bang Bang in Ultra graphics and 90Hz refresh rate. Though there are noticeable minimal drops in intense clashes. For a more consistent gameplay, we highly suggest staying at the 60 fps setting, which is the standard for this type of game.

The game settings

We also used it in Asphalt Legends with custom settings of high visual quality, 60 fps, very high shadows, and everything set on low.

Since the game is not that demanding, it performed nicely on typical races. But snowy or watery maps will give you some FPS dips, so you might want to sacrifice a little bit of visuals for better gameplay.

We also observed that it doesn't heat up during our gameplay, so that's a plus. Additionally, the size of the tablet contributes to this area, which is why we think the heat is distributed properly.

We also noticed that the tablet doesn't heat up during gameplay—a definite plus. We believe its larger size helps distribute heat more effectively, keeping temperatures in check even during extended use.

Battery life is where the OPPO Pad SE truly shines.

On a single charge, it easily lasts until the next day before needing a recharge.

In our testing, we recorded approximately 19 hours of continuous use before the battery dropped to 20 percent, though our PC Mark benchmark tests kept failing due to the tablet's aggressive battery optimization.

Standby time is equally impressive, with the device losing only a minimal amount of charge over an entire week when left idle.

Charging the tablet's 9,340mAh battery took around two hours, which is understandable given its size. 

However, keep in mind it doesn't come with a charger supplied out of the box. Fortunately, we had some spare time to use from our old OPPO devices. By the way, it only supports up to 33W.

In terms of connectivity, we experience no problems with its WiFi and Bluetooth, with zero drops when streaming videos or gaming. 

The OPPO Pad SE also supports O+ Connect to instantly transfer photos and videos to iOS devices easily.

If you own another OPPO phone, you can actually access a cool trick called Communication Sharing. As the name suggests, it allows your tablet to actually tap into your smartphone's data connectivity and even GPS. 

Keep in mind that this sweet feature only works for the WiFi version of the tablet.

Of course, you can also easily drag and drop files between the two OPPO devices, as well as screen mirroring and content sync.

ColorOS 15.0 UI

For software, the device runs on Android 15 with ColorOS 15.0 skin on top.

It comes with pretty handy AI features designed to aid users in productivity.

If you are a student or young professional, you will get Document Summary, which precisely lets us extract information from our documents. Additionally, it can also identify the main source when you want further data.

AI features

The AI Rewrite feature is like having a personal writer on the go. You can extract the sentence or paragraph you want to be rewritten and then just wait a few seconds to get results. Of course, you'll still have to proofread and edit to ensure you can get your desired tone for your work.

The AI feature also lets you format, polish, continue writing, elaborate, shorten, or make your work sound formal, and even clean it up.

Google Gemini

Apart from productivity, the OPPO Pad SE also has an AI editor for photos. You can remove reflections, unblur, enhance the image, or erase depending on your preference.

Do keep in mind that you'll still need internet connectivity to access the AI features.

Pros - Affordable PaperMatte Eye-Care panel, large display, quad speakers,  decent performance, plenty of AI features

Cons: Could use a bigger RAM, no charger included, no fingerprint sensor

OPPO Pad SE Specs

Display: 11-inch LCD screen w/ 90Hz refresh rate, WUXGA 1920 x 1200 resolution at 206 ppi

CPU: 2.2GHz 6nm MediaTek Helio G100 octa-core processor

GPU: Mali-G57 MC2

RAM: 6GB/8GB LPDDR4X

ROM: 128GB/256GB

Back Camera: 5MP

Selfie Camera: 5MP

Battery: 9,340mAh w/ 33W fast charging

OS: Android 15 w/ ColorOS 15.0

Connectivity: WiFi (2.4GHz/5GHz), Bluetooth 5.4

Others: Quad speakers,  Colors: Starlight Silver, Twilight Blue

Dimensions: 254.91 x 166.46 x 7.3 mm

Weight: 527 g (Soft Light), 530 g (Standard)

Price: PHP 9,999

Verdict

With its price of under PHP 10K, OPPO managed to offer a matte panel in entry entry-level category, which we've never seen on any brand before.

It comes with an FHD+ eye care and decent-sized display and strong, good-sounding speakers for multimedia activities, decent performance, long battery life, and several AI features made to enhance your productivity on the go.

That being said, if these are your priorities for a tablet, the OPPO Pad SE can be the device you are looking for.

What do you guys think?