realme Pad 2 Review Verdict Philippines: The realme Pad 2 is a big upgrade over realme’s first tablet, offering significant value for money for all the features it has to offer. All of those upgrades–along with better software optimization–make the realme Pad 2 the budget tablet to beat.

Pros

-Well-optimized internals

-Efficient battery life

-realmeUI properly optimized for tablet layout

Cons

-Non-unibody design

-Slow autofocus on main camera

Two years after realme entered the tablet market, the brand brought its proper successor to the Philippines with the Pad 2. While it’s positioned below the Pad X, the Pad 2 is realme’s biggest tablet in terms of display. With a lot of upgrades across the board, the Pad 2 aims to be the tablet to beat in the under Php 15k segment. Is this the best budget tablet to buy in the Philippines?

 

realme Pad 2 Review Philippines: Design

The Pad 2 has a complete design makeover that makes it look more unique than realme’s previous tablet offerings. You get a dual-texture design that’s a mix of anodized aluminum and brushed plastic. This sacrifices the sleek unibody look that is typical for most tablets. However, this is necessary for better signal reception–the Pad 2 has a SIM card slot, which allows it to connect via LTE/4G networks in case there’s no WiFi present in the area.

Our review unit is in Inspiration Green, which is a nice color option if you want a tablet that’s not as boring as the usual black or grey color. The realme Pad 2’s camera module is an eye-catcher because of its unusual circular shape. Despite having two circles inside, the Pad 2 only has one rear camera.

For the button and port layout, the top part has two speakers and the power button, while the bottom part has another set of speakers and a USB-C port. The left side houses the SIM card tray, while the right side has the volume controls.

 

realme Pad 2 Review Philippines: Display

At 11.5 inches, the Pad 2 has the biggest display on a realme tablet. Despite being bigger, the Pad 2 has the same 2000×1200 resolution as the Pad X, so pixel density is slightly lower. You also get a 120hz refresh rate on the Pad, and the UI experience feels very fluid.

Overall the Pad 2’s display is just as good as the Pad X. It has a a bright display that’s usable outdoors, and colors are vibrant for an IPS panel. You also get Widevine L1 certification with the Pad 2, allowing you to enjoy your favorite Netflix shows in Full HD.

The Pad 2 has a quad-speaker system that’s crisp and loud even if you crank up the volume. The overall soundstage is more focused on mids and highs, so vocals shine through with the Pad 2’s speakers. There’s also a decent amount of bass with the speakers, which is great considering that the Pad 2 is a budget tablet.

 

realme Pad 2 Review Philippines: Cameras

Like the Pad X, you also get an 8-megapixel shooter for the rear camera. While the colors are good, the Pad 2’s main camera has slow autofocus, so you will need to make sure your subject is in focus before taking the shot.

You still get good dynamic range with the Pad 2’s camera, but we advise that you have a steady pair of hands–and some patience with its autofocus–to get good shots out of it.

 

realme Pad 2 Review Philippines: Internals and Battery Life

As the proper successor to the original Pad, the Pad 2 gets better internals overall with a Helio G99 processor. There are two configurations to choose from: a 6GB/128GB variant and a higher-end 8GB/256GB variant, with both of them having expandable storage via MicroSD.

Budget tablets typically choose between the Snapdragon 680 and Helio G99, and realme made a good choice in going for the latter. MediaTek’s 4G chip packs a significantly better GPU than the Snapdragon 680, making it more capable of running graphics-intensive mobile games. We enjoyed playing Honkai Star Rail with the realme Pad 2, as it was able to run the turn-based RPG smoothly at medium graphics even with 60FPS mode enabled.

The Pad 2 comes with Android 13-based realmeUI 4.0 out of the box, though realme specifically tweaked the UI to make it more suitable for tablets. This is seen with the dock, which has a recently opened apps section and tablet-specific features like Split View, Flexible Windows, and Dual Windows.

What surprised us with the Pad 2 is its power efficiency. We managed to clock in 22 hours on PCMark’s battery test, making the Pad 2 one of the most battery-efficient tablets we’ve tested to date. Making that even more impressive is that we set the display at 120hz and that the Helio G99 is not as power-efficient as popular battery-efficient processors like the Snapdragon 680. The Pad 2’s large 8360mAh battery does play a factor, but we really think that realme’s optimizations with realmeUI 4.0 helped a lot with the Pad 2’s excellent battery life.

 

realme Pad 2 Review Philippines: Wrap-up and Conclusions

realme has come a long way since launching its first tablet back in 2021. The Pad 2 has all the necessary upgrades that make it one of the best budget tablets you can buy in the Philippines. Aside from the good hardware selection, the software also played a big factor, as realme joins other brands in providing a better Android tablet experience with an optimized UI.

realme Pad 2 Review Philippines: Price

The Pad 2 is priced at Php 13,999 for the 6GB/128GB model and Php 17,999 for the 8GB/256GB model.