iQOO Pad Air launched as an affordable gaming tablet with 44W fast charging

There aren’t many affordable tablets that can deliver good gaming performance. Most of the budget options come with either entry-level or lower-mid-range SoCs. Well, if you’re looking for something that can deliver good performance but won’t break the bank, you might want to consider the iQOO Pad Air.

The tablet made its Chinese debut last month and is now likely heading to international markets. Wondering what really sets the pad apart from other available options? This is the processor. While most budget tablets come with a low-powered MediaTek Helio SoC, this one packs the Snapdragon 870. Yes, this processor from Qualcomm is a little dated right now. But it was a flagship for its time, which means you’ll still get good performance while running games on it.

Key highlights of iQOO Pad Air

It’s not just the Snapdragon 870 that makes the iQOO Pad Air worth buying. iQOO has paired this SoC with up to 12GB of RAM, which is more than enough to run resource-intensive apps and games. You don’t have to worry much about the storage aspect. The maximum capacity of the tablet is 512 GB, which is enough to store many large files.

Additionally, the Pad Air packs a large 8,500mAh battery that can offer 44W flash charging. So you don’t have to be stuck near the socket while playing. Speaking of gaming, the tablet comes with a fairly large display on the front.

It’s an 11.5-inch LCD screen that runs at a resolution of 2880 x 1840, has a 144 Hz refresh rate, and can deliver up to 500 nits of brightness. Combined with the 3:2 aspect ratio, you can get an immersive gaming experience on the iQOO Pad Air.

However, the iQOO Pad Air is more than just a gaming tablet. It comes with all the things you’d want in a performance-focused pad. For example, you get support for iQOO Pencil and iQOO Keyboard Air. These two will allow you to do creative and office work on the tab without any problems.

It also has a capable camera setup. On the back, the Pad Air comes with an 8 MP camera that can offer smooth 1080p video recording and has multiple shooting modes. And on the front, you get a 5 MP camera that sits within the bezel.

Other highlights of the iQOO Pad Air include a quad-speaker system, dual-band WiFi, NFC, USB 3.2 Gen 1, Bluetooth 5.2and NFC support.

Prices and availability

The iQOO Pad Air made its debut in the Chinese market with a price of CNY 1,799 for the base variant, which is about $249. This variant comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The variant with the same amount of RAM but with 256 GB of storage is CNY1999, which is about $277.

Then there’s the Pad Air with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage, priced at CNY 2,299, about $319. The tablet with 12 GB RAM and 512 GB storage is CNY 2,599, which is about $361.

There is no official information about the global release of the iQOO Pad Air. But vivo already has something very similar for international markets with the same name.