Realme Pad X review

Realme UI 3.0 for Pad on top of Android 12

The tablet runs on Realme's latest Realme UI 3.0 for Pad, which is based on Android 12. It's indistinguishable from the smartphone version of the software, and it's also nearly identical to Oppo's ColorOS 12.

Overall appearance and aesthetics are pretty close to stock Android, but colors, iconography and some small UI elements are easily distinguishable as custom. The notification shade and the recent apps menu are business as usual.

Perhaps one of the centerpiece features of the software is the multi-tasking capabilities. The so-called Flexible Window feature is present on Realme's smartphones, but it works better on a bigger screen. There's a customizable sidebar, which houses a dock of apps that support Flexible Window. These apps will run in a small, interactable window, which can be minimized in the same sidebar tray. There's also a quick shortcut to Flexible Window in the recent apps menu.

Sidebar, Flexible Window, Split-screen multi-tasking

However, we found that you can run only one app in a window and another full-screen one. Opening a second app, say a file explorer and Chrome, would minimize the previously opened app. A bit limiting for a multitasking feature.

There's also the Multi-Screen Collaboration, which has been a thing on Honor and Huawei devices for quite some time now. It allows you to seamlessly share files with your phone and even share screens. Think of it as an extra small monitor for extra screen real estate as you work. Sadly, Realme says that only a handful of Realme smartphones support the feature so far - GT 2 Pro, GT Neo2 5G, GT Neo3, GT Neo3T and GT Master Edition.

A well-known feature but worthy of a mention is the Reading Mode. The standard LCD panel could be tiring to your eyes if you have an e-book or long documents to read. Reading Mode adjusts the display's color tone and contrast to mimic reading paper. There are two modes - Eye Comfort Mode that adjusts color temperature while the Dark Mode is more suitable for really dark environments.

Home screen, recent apps, app drawer, notification shade

Another standout feature is Limelight - an answer to Apple's popular Spotlight feature. It uses the front-facing 8MP camera, which has a wide-angle 105-degree field of view. A machine learning algorithm tracks you during a conference call, for example, and keeps your face in focus and zoomed in while cutting the excess frame around you. It can track the position and movement of more than one person too. It supports popular software such as Google Duo, Google Meet and Zoom at 1080@30fps video quality.

General settings and personalization options

Other notable options include customizations regarding icons, accent color and quick toggle shapes, as well as notification handling. An experimental feature under the Realme Lab tab allows you to stream audio simultaneously through two pairs of headphones - one wired and one via Bluetooth.

Performance and benchmarks

The Realme Pad X runs on the Snapdragon 695 chipset, which is often criticized in our reviews for not having the ability to record 4K videos. But since this a tablet implementation, our biggest complaint is no longer valid. After all, the Snapdragon 695 chipset has plenty of horsepower for your everyday tasks, and we didn't notice any performance issues throughout our testing.

The chip is based on the 6nm manufacturing node and has two Kryo 660 Gold (Cortex-A78) cores clocked at 2.2 GHz, while the six energy-efficient Kryo 560 Silver (Cortex-A55) are clocked at 1.7 GHz. The Adreno 619 takes care of the graphically-intensive tasks, and the SD695 now supports faster LPDDR4X memory at 2133 MHz.

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Huawei MatePad 11 (2021)
  3282
• Xiaomi Pad 5
  2583
• Realme Pad X
  2026
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE 5G
  1904
• Xiaomi Redmi Pad
  1852
• Oppo Pad Air
  1661
• Honor Pad 8
  1545

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Huawei MatePad 11 (2021)
  920
• Xiaomi Pad 5
  743
• Realme Pad X
  691
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE 5G
  615
• Xiaomi Redmi Pad
  554
• Oppo Pad Air
  384
• Honor Pad 8
  376

AnTuTu 9

Higher is better

• Huawei MatePad 11 (2021)
  639631
• Xiaomi Pad 5
  555079
• Realme Pad X
  395824
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE 5G
  355430
• Xiaomi Redmi Pad
  319077
• Honor Pad 8
  279242
• Oppo Pad Air
  249172

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Huawei MatePad 11 (2021)
  20
• Xiaomi Pad 5
  16
• Realme Pad X
  12
• Xiaomi Redmi Pad
  8.3
• Oppo Pad Air
  4.9
• Honor Pad 8
  4.8

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Huawei MatePad 11 (2021)
  21
• Xiaomi Pad 5
  19
• Realme Pad X
  8.2
• Xiaomi Redmi Pad
  5.5
• Honor Pad 8
  3.2
• Oppo Pad Air
  3.2

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Huawei MatePad 11 (2021)
  44
• Xiaomi Pad 5
  35
• Realme Pad X
  31
• Xiaomi Redmi Pad
  22
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE 5G
  16
• Honor Pad 8
  13
• Oppo Pad Air
  13

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Huawei MatePad 11 (2021)
  86
• Xiaomi Pad 5
  43
• Realme Pad X
  34
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE 5G
  31
• Xiaomi Redmi Pad
  25
• Honor Pad 8
  15
• Oppo Pad Air
  15

3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Huawei MatePad 11 (2021)
  3797
• Xiaomi Pad 5
  3396
• Xiaomi Redmi Pad
  1242
• Realme Pad X
  1217
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE 5G
  1092
• Honor Pad 8
  450
• Oppo Pad Air
  450

It appears that the Realme Pad X offers a proper implementation of the Snapdragon 695 chipset, and it's also one of the better performers in this price range, losing the race only to more expensive tablets such as the Xiaomi Pad 5, for example, which is running the Snapdragon 860 SoC.