There is a trend among Chinese handset makers in recent years and that is taking tablets seriously. I believe it started when Xiaomi “returns to the tablet market”. When I said “taking tablets seriously”, it means giving the tablets what they deserved: flagship specs and features.
The Vivo Pad 2 is one such example (of a serious tablet). And it is looking fairly sleek too – thanks to its 6.59 mm ultra-thin metal unibody construction. While the bezel isn’t the narrowest at 6.9 mm by number, it is fairly narrow in contrast to its massive iPad Pro-competing size and screen.
Speaking of the screen, the new Vivo Pad 2 is outfitted with a 144 Hz 12.1” 2.8K (2,800 x 1,968 pixels, 284 ppi) display with 600 nit brightness, 1 billion colors, HDR 10 support, and in 7:5 AR (vs Pad’s 16:10). The screen is not just that. It also touts a so-called “chip-level” intelligent anti-blue light, natural light brightness adjustment, and comfortable natural color temperature adjustment.
It is not only the display that went big in every way; the sound gets a boost too from 4 custom full-range drivers plus 2 tweeters, bolstered by a 10.2cc super large sound cavity, which is 10x the size of the typical smartphone’s sound cavity and so-called “Super Audio” computational audio.
The device is powered by MediaTek’s flagship chip, the 4 nm process Dimensity 9000 SoC, featuring an octacore processor with up to 3.05 GHz clock speed, 10-core 848 MHz Mali-G710 GPU, up to 12 GB LPDDR5 RAM and up to 512 UFS 3.1 storage.
Imaging is nothing perfunctory either. The new Vivo Pad 2 is rocking a dual camera setup featuring a 13 MP main camera (1.12µm, f2.2, 5P lens) that supports 4K videoing and a 2 MP macro camera (21 mm focal length, 4 cm macro, 1.75µm, f2.4). Meanwhile, around the front, there is an 8 MP camera (1.12µm, f2.0) capable of FHD recording.
Other notables include a large 10,000 mAh battery with 44 W flash charge, a USB 3.2 Gen1 port with USB Type-C interface, NFC, supports display out of up to 4K 60 Hz, dual-band WiFi 6 (wireless 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax), Bluetooth 5.3, and it runs on OriginOS 3 on top of Android 13.
Like many tablets introduced in recent years, this device also touts productivity through connection with a smartphone and PC to realize features like touch-to-transfer files, cross-display document management, remote PC access, et cetera.
That said, it naturally comes with optional accessories that include a smart keyboard folio/stand featuring a large 6,531 mm2 touchpad and a new stylus, Vivo Pencil 2. The latter features a replaceable tip, 4,096 levels of pressure, and magnetically attaches to the side of Vivo Pad 2 to recharge.
The new Vivo Pad 2 is available in 8 GB+128 GB, 8 GB+256 GB, 12 GB+256 GB, and 12 GB+512 GB configurations, and in three finishes, with a starting price of 2,499 yuan which works out to be around US$363 based on the current going rate. The second-gen stylus sells for 499 yuan (around US$72) while the smart keyboard folio goes for 599 yuan (about US$87).
Images: Vivo [CH].
