Nubia Pad Pro review
Nubia Pad Pro pros and cons
Pros
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip - whilst not the latest - delivers flagship-grade performance.
144Hz display and quad-speaker setup hits right notes for visual and audio.
Simply compelling in terms of value for money.
Cons
Rear camera a clear compromise with 13-megapixel sensor.
An odd combination of simplistic UX and bloatware in the MyOS Android interface.
The Nubia Pad Pro is a confident Android tablet that offers premium performance, a decent display and heaps of battery life, all with that familiar adage of trying not to break the bank.
As Nubia’s first-ever tablet, it makes a strong debut in a crowded market without falling into niche territory.
Starting at under £400 and borrowing liberally from the gamer-centric RedMagic Nova (reviewed here) both inside and out, the result is a device worthy of cost-conscious consideration.
Check out more in our review.
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Design and build
At first glance, the Nubia Pad Pro looks much like any other slim, well-built Android tablet.
Pick it up, however, and things get interesting as the flat metal edges, matte rear and minimalist industrial design are nearly identical - bar the protruding camera array - to the RedMagic Nova, launched earlier this year.
In fact, the two devices share dimensions and form in pretty much every category, even down to weight and thickness...with the Pad Pro eschewing its sibling's bright RGB lights, transparent casing and gamer cred, replacing them with decidedly more reserved Android stylings.
It measures 7.3mm and weighs a shade over 520 grams, making it both portable and well balanced for portrait and landscape use alike, as well as handheld or docked on a stand.
Rounding out the body are pin connectors for the keyboard accessory on the 'bottom', as well as a magnetic recess along the landscape 'top' (same edge as the selfie camera) to house a stylus.
Internally, it runs on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, paired with varying amounts of LPDDR5X RAM and storage depending on pricepoint and preferences (more on these later).
Connectivity includes USB-C 3.2 and Bluetooth 5.4 support, as well as for Wi-Fi 6. The bright red power button on the 'top' edge when in portrait doubles as a fast and fairly reliable fingerprint sensor.
The tablet runs MyOS 15, based on Android 14. It is clean and responsive, if a little light on polish compared to more mature Android skins and there's a little bloatware to get rid of and ensure optimal use.
That being said, it's significantly easier to use and more refined that what's found on RedMagic devices, so a wise deviation for Nubia to bring their own interface when it came to the software stakes.
The Pad Pro is available in two finishes: Black (reviewed) and Silver. Both offer a smooth matte texture that tries to resist fingerprints (with varying degrees of success) and adds to the overall premium impression - albeit with the silver model limited to the higher specced variants.
So a good looking - albeit familiar - debut tablet from Nubia starting things off strongly.
Display and audio
The display is a genuine highlight. At 10.9 inches, the IPS LCD panel delivers crisp detail, vibrant colour and excellent smoothness thanks to its 2880 by 1800 resolution and 144Hz refresh rate.
It is the exact same panel used in the RedMagic Nova, and the quality shows. Everything from scrolling to gaming to sketching feels fast, fluid and beautifully sharp.
Brightness peaks around 550 nits, which is more than enough for use indoors and manageable outdoors. Input latency is low, and touch response is excellent. It is a screen that performs consistently, whether in productivity mode or streaming Sky Go in bed.
Audio performance is equally strong. The Pad Pro features four speakers housed on each corner of the device, each tuned with the DTS:X Ultra audio format, and positioned to deliver true stereo sound regardless of how you hold it.
This is the same speaker setup as the Nova, and the result is a rich, balanced soundstage with excellent clarity.
Volume is high, spatial separation is impressive, and the result is immersive enough to replace a Bluetooth speaker in many situations.
Speaking of Bluetooth, headphone jacks becoming a thing of the past means that wireless audio is the only way you're hearing the Pad Pro...very much the way of the world.
Camera capabilities
Tablet cameras are rarely the headline feature, and the Nubia Pad Pro certainly pares things back here to deliver those important cost savings.
The rear camera is a 13 megapixel effort that works well enough - albeit fairly noisily - for casual snaps or document scanning, but admittedly does not handle general image capture, nor low light settings particularly well.
The Nova features a more capable 50 megapixel rear sensor, so this clearly one of the few hardware concessions made by Nubia.
The 20-megapixel front camera, however, is centered on the front of the device when in landscape mode, as opposed to the corner-placement of the rear, as well as producing a clean, sharp image for meetings and calls, with face unlock working quickly and effectively in most conditions.
So for meetings, calls and scanning duties, the Pad Pro performs serviceably. So long as expectations and suitably tempered in terms of what the rear-facing camera on Nubia's Android tablet can deliver in the photography stakes, there's scope to avoid disappointment in this department.
Performance and software
Daily performance is one area where the Nubia Pad Pro truly flexes its muscles.
Armed with the flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset (although not the Nova's Leading Version of the popular Android innards), the tablet is more than capable of powering through demanding tasks.
Paired with up to 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage, it delivers performance that feels rapid across the board.
Opening large apps, switching between creative tools and running split-screen workloads - supported in limited capacity by the OS - all happen with impressive smoothness.
Whether you are using the tablet for high-end gaming, productivity, or creative software like illustration or light video editing, the Pad Pro handles it all effortlessly.
Frame rates remain high and consistent in the variety of games tested - ZZZ, Infiniti Nikki, Barbie Dreamhouse Adventures and Red's First Flight (classic Angry Birds remains the best!) - even on maximum settings where applicable with barely a stutter.
Transitions and animations remain slick, and multitasking is impressively responsive even when several heavy apps are running simultaneously.
What helps the Nubia Pad Pro stand out is the Nebula Performance Scheduling Engine, an intelligent system-level resource manager that optimises workload distribution across the CPU and GPU.
Rather than running all cores at maximum at all times, it selectively boosts performance when required, reducing unnecessary battery drain and heat generation - resulting in sustained speed without compromise.
The same cooling system as the RedMagic Nova is present here: a six-layer thermal design with a large vapour chamber and active airflow management.
This hardware, working in concert with the Nebula engine, keeps the tablet feeling slick after multiple hours of use.
Thermal efficiency is excellent, and the surface of the device remains cool to the touch even during intense gaming or rendering tasks.
The result is a user experience that does feels high-end more often than not. The tablet mirrors the performance of more expensive Android flagships, so for anyone looking for something approaching desktop-grade responsiveness on a portable device, Nubia's Pad Pro delivers with surprising levels of consistency.
Battery
The Nubia Pad Pro comes equipped with a 10,100mAh battery that comfortably handles a full day of heavy use. Whether you're gaming, streaming, video calling or bouncing between productivity apps, you can expect up to 11 hours of real-world usage on a single charge. That number rises with lighter use - easily stretching to a couple of real world days when restricted to web browsing, document editing and occasional YouTube playback.
Nubia's Performance Scheduling Engine also plays a role in power management. It reduces background app activity, optimises refresh rate scaling and adjusts CPU power delivery based on how you are using the tablet.
The result is better endurance, even with the bright 144Hz display engaged. Standby time is excellent too, with minimal drain overnight or while idling on a desk.
Charging is rated at 66W with the bundled adapter, which tops up the battery from zero to full in just under an hour. A 30-minute charge restores around 60 percent, making it practical for on-the-go top-ups. While the RedMagic Nova supports technically faster 80W charging, the difference in day-to-day use is negligible.
There is no wireless charging, but for a tablet at this price point, the inclusion of fast, efficient wired charging is more important.
Overall, the Pad Pro strikes a smart balance between battery capacity, charging speed and runtime - one that holds up well whether you are using it for entertainment, work or both throughout the day.
Nubia Pad Pro UK pricing and availability
The Nubia Pad Pro is currently available in three storage configurations and two colour combinations for the UK market.
The base model with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage starts at £359.
The 12GB RAM version with the same 256GB of storage is priced at £429, while the highest specced model sporting both 16GB of RAM and 512GB storage lands at £499.
Available in both black and silver (quick reminder that the silver variant is both limited to the 12GB RAM model and above, as well as limited availability in the 16GB/512GB model) from the Nubia website, at the time of writing, there's also a back-to-school promotion, offering a £40 discount to all versions, using the code BTSPAD.
That being said, both keyboard case and stylus (which we unfortunately weren't able to check out) are sold separately at another £90 and £70 respectively - meaning there's another roughly £150 more to add on if you want to kit the Pad Pro out properly for productivity.
Final verdict
The Nubia Pad Pro is one of the most complete Android tablets under £400. It delivers high-end performance, an outstanding display, loud and immersive audio alongside strong battery life.
Sharp pricing and launch discounts mean that whilst it looks and feels premium, the price remains anything but - albeit with a raft of additional accessories needed to take it to the professional heights befitting its name.
As this review can attest, it's difficult to overstate just how slavishly the Pad Pro borrows from slightly more expensive RedMagic Nova - from the display and very similar processor to its quad-speaker array and thermal cooling layout.
But it reworks that hardware into something cleaner, more versatile and broadly appealing. The camera may be a step down and the software could use a little refinement, but there is very little to complain about.
If you are after a powerful Android tablet with both proper flagship specs and a serious value proposition, the Nubia Pad Pro is a solid recommendation.
