Oppo Pad Air vs Honor Pad 8: Which cheap Android tablet is best?

Mar 24, 2024

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The budget Android tablet market is a surprisingly competitive one, with plenty of brands vying for attention with their affordable, entry-level tablets. The Oppo Pad Air and Honor Pad 8 are two of the more tempting options at the price point – the question is, which is best?

While the Honor Pad 8 has a larger display and faster charging than the Oppo Pad Air, it’s not a clear-cut win; the Oppo Pad Air is much lighter than the Honor Pad 8, and the combination of a smaller display and identical resolution delivers a more pixel-packed display.

That’s where we at Trusted Reviews come in; we’ve reviewed both the Oppo Pad Air and Honor Pad 8, and here are the biggest differences between the two to help you decide which is best for your needs. For more budget inspiration, look at our complete guide to the best cheap tablets.

When it comes to sheer display size, the Honor Pad 8 is the clear winner with its 12-inch LCD panel.

The larger dimensions of the tablet mean it’s marginally better for split-screen multitasking, gaming and even binging series’ on Netflix with more screen space to play with. And, with a 2K resolution (1200 x 2000), the display is pixel-packed.

The bezels surrounding the display are also relatively slim for such a cheap tablet, sporting a rather impressive 87% screen-to-body ratio.

That’s not to say that the Oppo Pad Air’s slightly smaller 10.36-inch LCD display is inferior however; in fact, with an identical 2K resolution, the Oppo Pad Air has the higher pixel density of the two at 225ppi, which similarly provides a pixel-packed experience in everyday use.

The smaller dimensions of the display also make the Oppo Pad Air the more pocketable of the two, so it’s really down to whether you want a more portable tablet or an option with the biggest display possible.

Regardless of whether you opt for the Oppo Pad Air or Honor Pad 8, you can expect a similar level of performance. That’s because both budget tablets sport Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 680 – a rather entry-level chipset found in budget phones like the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11.

That’s paired with either 4- or 6GB of RAM and 64- or 128GB of storage depending on the variant you opt for.

What you shouldn’t expect, however, is the same level of processing power as an iPad. In our reviews of both tablets, we noted that while performance was just fine for browsing the web, streaming movies and scrolling through social media, gaming was a bit more of a challenge – especially with so many pixels to power.

Both tablets made a valiant effort with lower-quality 2D titles but struggled with higher quality 3D games like Roblox. High-end titles like Call of Duty Mobile are essentially a no-go unless run at the lowest possible settings.

With the Honor Pad 8 sporting a larger display than the Oppo Pad Air, it might not come as much surprise that the Oppo Pad Air is lighter than Honor’s budget tablet – and by quite a bit too.

While the Honor Pad 8 measures in at 520g, the Oppo Pad Air comes in at just 440g, a reduction of a not-insignificant 80g. In fact, it’s lighter than Apple’s latest iPad Air, which weighs in at 461g.

Paired with the slightly smaller 10.36-inch display, it should further improve just how portable Oppo’s tablet is. It also means a reduction in fatigue when holding the tablet in your hands over longer periods of time compared to holding the larger, heavier Honor Pad 8.

Despite the difference in overall dimensions, the Oppo Pad Air and Honor Pad 8 have similar-sized batteries at 7100mAh and 7250mAh respectively. This should mean that generally speaking, battery life should be on par with one another, though the smaller display of the Oppo Pad Air might translate to slightly better battery life.

However, when it comes to recharging a flat battery, the Honor Pad 8 takes charge with 22.5W wired charging. It’s not exactly fast compared to premium tablets like the Lenovo Tab Extreme and its 68W charging, but it’s faster than the 18W charging supported by the Oppo Pad Air.

Both tablets will still take a couple of hours to charge at such speeds, and neither will deliver enough charge for an emergency last-minute top-up before heading out, but the Honor Pad 8 will finish up slightly ahead of the Oppo Pad 8.

The Oppo Pad Air is the more budget-friendly option of the two tablets, but there isn’t much in it. The Oppo Pad Air is available to buy now with an RRP of £239, while the Honor Pad 8 has an RRP of £269.99.

However, it has been over a year since the tablets were released and both are regularly discounted over at Amazon. In fact, at the time of writing, the Honor Pad 8 is cheaper at £184, compared to the £209 Oppo Pad Air.

Founded in 2003, Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy.

Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year.

Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.

We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.

Founded in 2003, Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy.

Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year.

Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.

We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.