Review Verdict: As their third tablet in the Philippines, the Pad Plus 12 is TechLife’s most refined offering to date. At under Php 10,000, it’s a great tablet for binging on your favorite Netflix shows, and having a SIM slot lets you use it anywhere even without a WiFi signal.

Pros

• Good display and speakers for its price
• Stock Android that’s optimized for tablets
• LTE connectivity

Cons

• eMMC storage
• Display is only at 60hz

After the Pad and Pad Neo, TechLife expands its tablet offerings with the Pad Plus 12 as its most premium offering. With a price of under Php 10,000, double the RAM and storage as its predecessors, and a bigger display, the Pad Plus 12 might be a great budget option for those who love to binge on Netflix for hours.

TechLife Pad Plus 12 Review: Design

Like TechLife’s other tablets, you get an aluminum unibody chassis for the Pad Plus 12, with a plastic tab on top for the antennas since it also has 4G connectivity. The aluminum unibody has a solid build, and you get four speaker grilles this time.

The plastic tab has the power, volume controls and the SIM tray–the latter also having a slot for a MicroSD card. It is sleek at 7.6mm thin, and our unit looks nice in Moonight Silver. You can also choose between Storm Grey and Sky Blue if you want other color options.

TechLife Pad Plus 12 Review: Display

As the name implies, you get a 12-inch IPS display with a 2000×1200 resolution and decent brightness for general use. You only get a 60hz refresh rate, but we found the display to be responsive. Unlike TechLife’s other tablets, the Pad Plus 12 comes with Widevine L1 certification, which lets you enjoy watching Netflix shows in Full HD. This makes the Pad Plus 12 one of the most affordable tablets to have Widevine L1.

Another upgrade on the Pad Plus 12 is its stereo speakers, which is now a 4-speaker setup. Comparing it to the TechLife Pad’s dual speaker setup, the one on the Pad Plus 12 has more detail and better audio fidelity even at higher volume. The compromise to that is you lose the headphone jack, which should not be a big deal since you can use USB-C or wireless headphones.

TechLife Pad Plus 12 Review: Camera

The Pad Plus 12 has a familiar camera setup that consists of a 13-megapixel rear camera and an 8-megapixel front camera.

While you’d less likely use a table to take photos, the cameras on the Pad Plus 12 is more usable for social media compared to its siblings, provided that you shoot with good lighting. For videos, the selfie camera is limited to 720p resolution, while the front camera can shoot at Full HD resolution.

TechLife Pad Plus 12 Review: Internals and Battery Life

The Pad Plus 12 comes with a Helio G91 processor that’s paired with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. The internals are similar to what you’d see on the realme C75, though the Pad Plus 12 only uses eMMC storage. That may sound like a big compromise, but the target market of the Pad Plus 12 is those who want a tablet they can use for watching videos–in my experience, it does a good job at that aspect.

The use of a Helio G91 processor is better than the Unisoc chips used on previous TechLife tablets, though it trails behind other commonly-used chips like the Snapdragon 685–though you’d barely feel the difference. You also get Android 15 out of the box with the TechLife Pad Plus 12, and the UI feels more refined compared to its siblings–and still maintains its clean, stock Android look with the necessary tablet features like Desktop Mode.

The Pad Plus 12 gets a bigger battery at 8000mAh, and TechLife gave it 18w charging for quicker top ups. Battery life is also decent: I watched the full season of Friendly Rivalry with the Pad Plus 12, which consists of 16 episodes at 30 minutes each–and was still left with around 20% charge.

TechLife Pad Plus 12 Review: Wrap-up and Conclusions

The Pad Plus 12 is TechLife’s most refined tablet to date, offering a balanced set of specs at an under Php 10,000 price point. I appreciate the improvements made especially with its display and speakers, and its UI feels more refined as well. The under Php 10,000 segment for tablets is competitive, but the Pad Plus 12 has what it takes to be a solid option for watching videos.

TechLife Pad Plus 12 Review: Price

The Pad Plus 12 is priced at Php 9,999 and is available at TechLife’s Shopee store.