Artist Review: OnePlus Pad 2 with OnePlus Stylo 2

Not a sponsored review

OnePlus Pad 2 was announced in July 2024 is now available for sale. Price of the tablet has increased from USD 479 to USD 549. Price increase is quite substantial, but you do get improvements in several areas. The OnePlus Stylo 2 is priced at USD 99.

Here in Singapore, the retail price is SGD 729 and 129 for the tablet and stylus respectively. I had bought mine from Shopee SG for SGD 719 after discount.

I had reviewed the first OnePlus Pad in June 2023. And I'm reviewing this 2nd gen tablet because of numerous requests to do so. If you want to support the work I do here, consider donating.

This tablet competes with the Samsung Tab S9 FE+ which was released in October 2023 and the USD 499 iPad with 256 storage.

Video review

Bottom line

The first OnePlus Pad has good hardware. This new model has better hardware which is great but there's also the price increase.

You now get Snapdragon 8 gen 3 which is the latest processor, slightly larger display and an increase in storage from 128GB to 256GB. There was actually 256GB storage for the previous model but it wasn't easy to find.

The main selling point for me is still the 7:5 aspect ratio which is great for work, but less so for media consumption since there will be thick black bars at the top and bottom when watching videos.

The pen performance has some issues, and overall drawing experience also varies with the app used. More on that later. For note taking purposes, the pen works well enough. For drawing, I'll probably rank the Xiaomi Focus Pen above, and the Apple Pencil and Samsung S Pen at the top.

The closest competitor at this price category will be the Xiaomi Pad 6S Pro and the iPad 2022 (USD 499 + 99 Apple Pencil) with 4GB RAM and 256GB storage. OnePlus and Xiaomi hardware are comparable and both better than Apple's so the differentiating factor really comes down to the OS. Between OnePlus and the Xiaomi, I may prefer the OnePlus because of the 7:5 aspect ratio, but ask me some other day I may say Xiaomi. It's a tough choice between these two.

For drawing purchases, you can't go wrong with the Samsung S Pen.

Things included

• OnePlus Pad 2
• USB-A to USB-C charging cable
• Quick start guide
• Warranty info

The tablet supports 67W charging but there's no charger included in the rather flat box. OnePlus Stylo 2 is sold separately for USD 99.

OnePlus charger is probably needed for the 67W charging because I was only able to get 32W maximum charging with my own charger.

Design of the OnePlus Pad 2 is clean and simple. The body and LCD display have rounded corners Sides are also rounded. The landscape 8MP f/2.3 front camera can be used for face unlock. Note that this face unlock cannot be used for high security apps, e.g. bank apps.

Build quality is solid and feels premium.

The metal frame is slightly higher than the glass and that can be felt all the time while holding the tablet. That's the first thing I felt when holding the tablet for the first time. In the photo above, you can see the frame reflecting light. OnePlus should have made the metal frame flush completely with the glass. Or maybe it's a manufacturing issue with this particular tablet I have.

Weight of the tablet is 584g. The tablet can be heavy to hold with one hand while drawing on it. Add a case and it will be even heavier.

For drawing or writing purposes, it's better to have this tablet on some sort of support, a table.

Handling is affected by the weight and having to balance the tablet with one hand which is not easy for a heavier tablet. When reading or watching videos, it's more comfortable to hold the tablet with two hands.

Weight and size are the reasons why I switched from an iPad Pro 12.9 to iPad Pro 11 (444g).

The smooth matte metallic sides and back don't have much grip so be careful not to have the tablet slip off your hands.

The tablet is bigger compared to an A5-sized sketchbook (14.8 x 21cm) and the drawing area is almost similar to a 16 x 24 cm sketchbook (shown above).

The drawing area is spacious especially when used with apps with minimal user interface such as Infinite Painter, Sketchbook, Concepts or even Medibang.

There's still a good amount of space to work with even with one column of palette by the side with apps such as Krita or Clip Studio Paint. However, the space becomes noticeably constrained with two columns of palettes.

The 7:5 aspect ratio is a huge selling point for me. This aspect ratio is great for work because you get more vertical resolution, working area, given the fixed width. I use the tablet in vertical format quite frequently when using it as an exterior display because it displays webpages well thanks to the extra width in portrait mode.

The back has one 23mm f/2.2 13MP camera that can record up to 4K 30FPS with electronic stabilisation.

This design is similar to the Oppo Pad 2. And in case you don't know, Oppo is the parent company of OnePlus.

OnePlus has increased the number of speakers from 4 to 6. Interestingly, OnePlus no longer uses Dolby Atmos. Anyway, audio still sounds loud and has depth. I don't have the previous tablet anymore so I can't say whether audio quality is an upgrade or downgrade.

The power button does not support fingerprint unlock.

USB-C port has USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5Gbps) transfer speeds. The USB-C port can output video but it can only mirror since there's no desktop mode.

There is no 3.5mm audio jack.

The 12.1-inch LCD display has 3000 x 2120 (303 PPI), up to 144Hz adaptive refresh rate, 600 nits brightness up to 900 nits high brightness mode.

Colours on this LCD display look fantastic. Three colour modes are available: Natural, Pro (DC65 colour temperature) and Vivid. Natural colour mode looks the best.

There's the Adaptive Tone feature which will adjust the colour temperature based on ambient lighting. However, I don't find Adaptive Tone to work well. The colour temperature can shift quite dramatically due to changes in surrounding brightness even if the environment colour temperature is consistent. It may be better to adjust the colour temperature manually.

OnePlus actually advertised Delta E of 0.7. Delta E is the variance between the input and output colours. Anything less than 2 is good, and less than 1 is great. However, it doesn't really matter here because tablets can't be manually colour calibrated so you can't check the calibration anyway.

There are many who think OLED is superior to LCD. Maybe. But a good LCD can still look great, and this is a great looking LCD.

Colour shift is minimal with viewing from extreme angles, but unfortunately there's no anti-reflective coating so the display is very reflective.

The display is laminated with no gap between the glass and the LCD. When drawing, there's no gap between the line and the pen.

OnePlus Stylo 2 is the pen that works with OnePlus Pad 2. One replacement pen tip is included in the box. At the time of writing, there are still no pen tip replacements available for sale so this is a major downside considering the first pen has been out for more than a year.

I no longer have the previous tablet and pen so I can't say if this new pen is compatible with the old tablet, or if the old pen is compatible with this new tablet.

The pen is made with plastic and feels quite solid. The surface is textured like leather and provides good grip.

OnePlus Stylo 2 is almost cylindrical in design except there's a flat side to attach to the tablet for charging and Bluetooth pairing. If you have the pen by the side, I recommend getting a case that can prevent the pen from dislodging accidentally. It's an expensive pen to damage or lose.

The pen supports tilt, 16K levels of pressure sensitivity (up for 4K) and palm rejection.

Additional features are double tap shortcuts, haptic feedback and presentation mode where you can move a cursor wirelessly. These pen features only work with OnePlus apps and do not work with third party apps. There's still the hover feature though.

OnePlus does not provide pressure sensitivity adjustment so you'll have to rely on your drawing app for that.

I don't know the battery life of the pen but battery life should not be a problem as long as the pen is always attached by the side.

OnePlus did not advertise the latency of the new pen, but if it's similar to the previous pen then it's 2ms. You can only get the best latency performance with OnePlus apps, e.g. OnePlus Notes app. With most drawing apps, you will still notice the latency gap while drawing or writing despite the 2ms latency or 144Hz refresh rate.

Latency with OnePlus Notes app is noticeable in this case because I was drawing very fast for exaggerated effect. When writing with this app, I don't really notice the latency.

Handwriting and note taking performance will vary depending on the app used. Nebo works fine but my handwriting was more untidy. Microsoft OneNote still has the jitter effect before letter settle. Concepts (above) was able to capture my handwriting quite well. OnePlus Notes has minimal features so I don't think many will be using that.

See my handwriting and note taking video review here:

Latency with Medibang Paint is more noticeable. And this is quite similar with other drawing apps.

Pen tip is smooth and can be slippery on the glass surface. Pen tip is firm and has no movement when in contact with the glass.

The replacement pen tip is the screw on type, and looks similar to the one use by OnePlus Stylo 1.

Drawing apps

There are many good drawing apps available from the Google Play Store. Some are:

• ArtFlow
• Clip Studio Paint
• Concepts
• Infinite Painter
• Krita
• Medibang Paint
• Sketchbook
• Tayasui Sketches
• ibis Paint X

The main downside for Android tablets when it comes to creating art is there's a lack of graphic design apps that handle typography, layout and vector. The only decent vector app I know of is Vector Ink but it's a subscription app.

OS

OnePlus Pad 2 is now running OxygenOS 14.1 and there's Google Play Store.

There are some useful features like double tap to lock or wake the tablet, split screen and triple split screen mode.

Are the issues with OnePlus Pad 1 and OxygenOS 13.1 resolved?

Listed below are the user experience issues I encountered (in bold) and whether they were resolved (non-bold).

1. File manager has no integration with Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive and Dropbox
No improvement.

2. Swipe Up or Alt+Tab is not useful as it shows a huge thumbnail instead of multiple smaller thumbnails.
Improved. Six active apps are now shown at a glance, in 3 x 2 rows.

3. There's no desktop UI mode, and no external display support
No improvement. Not having a desktop mode is not a downside if the desktop mode is not as good as SamsungDex.

4. Number of Android keyboard shortcuts are limited compared to other Android tablets
No improvement.

• Go to home screen: Cmd + D, Cmd + H, Cmd + Enter
• Lock screen: Cmd + L
• Switch languages: Ctrl + Spacebar
• Back: Cmd + Backspace
• Recent tasks: Alt + Tab
• Open recent tasks: Cmd + Tab
• Notification drawer: Cmd + N
• View shortcut keys: Cmd + /
• Change keyboard layouy: Cmd + Spacebar
• Take full screenshot: Cmd + A
• Wake Google Assistant: Cmd
• Open browser: Cmd + B
• Open email app: Cmd + E

5. Vertical Android apps cannot run vertically in tablet landscape mode.
Same. E.g. Shopee.

This is a phone app blown up to fill the display.

When the tablet is rotated, the app cannot be rotated, and there's no OS settings to rotate the app even if it means having a vertical app in landscape orientation.

And as usual there are phone apps that are just not optimised for tablets. Same can be said for the iPad has well after years.

6. Only six apps can be added to the dock/taskbar
Slight improvement. The dock can still hold six app shortcuts, 3 recent apps but they have added App Folder and Recent App shortcuts by the left.

7. Default screen recorder best settings is 1920 x 1372 resolution at 16Mbps
Improved. There are now more video recording options:

• FPS: 15, 24, 30 60 FPS
• Bitrate: Up to 32Mbps
• Resolution: Up to 2038 x 1440
• Codec: H.264, H.265
• Show screen touches
• Record microphone sound

If you use a OnePlus phone, you get additional features, such as being able to copy, paste, or open files from the tablet/phone.

OnePlus Open Canvas multi-tasking works well once you get the hang of it. It's possible to split three apps with this feature.

Backup

There are two options for backup and both do not provide full backups. This is a potential dealbreaker for me.

The first option from OnePlus only backups contacts, messages, call logs, preference settings and apps (excluding data). Some apps may save files inside the app. E.g. Infinite Painter. Those files will not have backups so you will have to handle backup for those files manually, if you can actually remember to do so for the many apps you use. This backup will be a local backup that you have to transfer externally.

The second option is Google Drive backup. This does not backup the files within apps. The picture above shows that I've only used 22MB of storage from 36 apps, but have over 700MB of artworks from Infinite Painter.

Even when I first setup this OnePlus tablet by copying the files from my Samsung tablet, the Infinite Painter files located within the Android folders did not get copied over.

For peace of mind, it's best to use apps that save directly to the cloud. You really do not want to have a lost or damaged tablet with all your files gone.

Line tests

Let's talk about the pen performance issues with the previous models first. The previous pen was able to draw rather straight diagonal lines. There were some problems with line tapers with certain apps and it wasn't possible to change the tilt while drawing.

This new pen still line taper problems with some apps. Tilt performance has improved. Palm rejection does not work well. And sad to say, there are also jitter issues with slow diagonal lines.

Those issues may affect drawing more than writing.

When a pen works fine, I usually just test with one drawing app, Medibang Paint. But when I see issues, I will test with more apps. This time I have tested with Medibang Paint, Infinite Painter, Krita, Concepts and Sketchbook.

Let's look at the line tests for Medibang Paint first. For the other apps with the same line tests, I'll just point out the problems.

1. Thin lines can be drawn when you're very conscious about drawing them. When drawing the boxes in test #6, the lines are much thicker even though I was drawing with a light touch.

There's also slight jitter with slow diagonal lines. I actually had to watch my video review for the previous tablet and pen to double check.

2. Lines are able to taper smoothly and sharply.

3. Line transition from thin to thick looks smooth.

4. Lines with consistent width can be drawn easily by maintaing consistent pressure.

5. Dots can be drawn easily.

6. Even though I was drawing the boxes with light pressure, the lines came out thicker than I expected.

Clip Studio Paint has the same diagonal line jitter or wobble which also affects test #3 and #4. Dots sometimes do not appear when tapping the pen. I've adjusted the pressure curve for test #6 and can draw the thin and thick lines more easily.

Sketchbook has the same diagonal line jitter or wobble which also affects test #3 and #4. Lines taper with shoelace effect. It's not easy to maintain consistent line width even though it can be done (test #4) if you're very careful.

This app supports tilt and the tilt transition looks smooth with this app.

Infinite Painter has the same diagonal line jitter or wobble. Lines can taper but not always sharply. Jitter and wobble affects the line in tests #3 and #4. Dots sometimes do not appear when tapping the pen

Infinite Painter actually supports tilt for certain brushes, but tilt does not work well with this app.

Krita is affected by diagonal line jitter or wobble. Tilt works fine. Cursor was able to follow the direction of the pen.

Concepts line quality usually isn't as good compared to raster drawing apps. But here it works fine and performance is comparable with other tablets I've tested. Tilt works fine. The abrupt transition for tilt is normal for Concepts, unfortunately.

Drawing experience

All the sketches below were drawn on location. I've tested with Medibang Paint, Infinite Painter and Concepts. I did not use Clip Studio Paint because I don't have the subscription plan.

This was drawn with Medibang Paint. Line tests show diagonal line jitter or wobble, but I don't really see that in real life.

One issue that's quite apparent is how difficult it is to draw expressive lines with thin and thick strokes. The width for the lines in the sketch above are quite uniform and look boring. The OnePlus Stylo 2 may support 16K levels of pressure sensitivity, but the pen seems to have difficulty detecting minor changes in pressure to create thin and thick lines.

So while you can create line tests to show thin and thick lines, when you're actually drawing in real life, it is more difficult to get thin and thick lines unless you're very conscious about how you apply pressure.

By comparison, the Apple Pencil and Samsung S Pen with lower pressure sensitivity can actually produced more expressive lines.

This was drawn with Concepts and there are no issues.

This was drawn with Concepts and there are no issues.

This was drawn with Infinite Painter.

This was drawn with Infinite Painter.

Infinite Painter seems to have more issues with diagonal line jitter and wobble. You can see that more clearly with the sketch a the train station with the diagonal lines.

I could draw thin and thick lines more easily compared to Medibang Paint but it's only because I've adjusted the pressure curve. Infinite Painter also has problems with tilt brushes.

Other issues and notes

The pen tip is quite slippery on the display so the pen can be difficult to control at times. This will probably take time to get used to so it's not a big issue.

Palm rejection works but I do get the occasional undo or activate some other gestures unknowingly.

OnePlus has a system gesture where you can swipe from the bottom to left and right and switch apps. My palm resting on the display would activate that quite often and it's incredibly annoying. There's no way to disable that feature unless you choose not to have any navigation gestures.

The display brightness of 600 nits is good enough for outdoor sketching as long as you're not directly under the sun. The tablet does not get that warm while drawing.

For some reason, automatic brightness actually uses the main camera rather than the selfie camera. When holding the tablet while drawing, if my hands cover the main camera, the display will become dim. This is not a problem can replicate consistently so I'm not sure what's wrong.

Battery life

Battery capacity is 9510 mAh and the tablet supports 67W fast charging which can charge from 0% to 80% in 80 minutes.

Battery life is about 10 - 11 hours, but that will of course depend on the brightness of the display and what you're doing.

Conclusion

The pen performance issues will affect accuracy when drawing. That is obviously a potential deal breaker. It's difficult to get varied strokes with Medibang Paint. Clip Studio Paint has more latency. Infinite Painter has more wobbly lines. The strange thing is Infinite Painter actually worked quite well with the previous tablet.

The other potential deal breaker is the backup options that do not offer full and complete backup of the tablet. Why would you not offer a full and complete backup?

When compared to other tablets, I would still rank the iPad and Samsung tablets at the top, that's followed by the Xiaomi Pad 6S Pro with Xiaomi Focus Pen. The Xiaomi tablet and pen really surprised me at how good it is.

So what's the main selling point of the OnePlus Pad? For me it's the 7:5 aspect ratio but it's not great for video consumption. If you want a good tablet, this is a good tablet, it's just that for drawing purposes, there are other tablets with better pen performance.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Beautiful design
+ Premium feel
+ Comfortable to hold in hand
+ 7:5 aspect ratio is good productivity with landscape and portrait orientation
+ Fantastic sound quality
+ Fast, smooth, responsive performance
+ Good gaming performance
+ Big. vibrant, bright, sharp display
+ 144Hz refresh rate
+ Face unlock is effective and fast
+ At least 10 hours battery life
+ Full charge under 2 hours
+ Pen can be attached to the tablet for charging and pairing
+ 8GB or 12GB RAM options
+ Android 14
- Auto-brightness uses the main camera and not selfie cam
- Tablet body can be slippery
- Slight jitter or wobble with diagonal lines
- Pen has difficult detecting minor changes in pressure
- Palm rejection is not flawless
- Weight can be an issue when holding for long
- Adaptive Tone does not work well
- Tablet is only available in Nimbus Gray
- No headphone jack
- No full backup options
- Oxygen OS as a tablet OS has very basic features
- Pen is sold separately
- No microSD card slot
- File browser has no integration with cloud storage services
- Most apps cannot take advantage of the 2ms pen latency
- 7:5 aspect ratio will have huge black bars at the top and bottom for 16:9 video content
- Face unlock cannot be used with high security apps, e.g. bank apps

Availability

If you have intention to buy the tablet, consider using the affiliate links below to make your purchase. I earn some commission but at no extra cost to you.

OnePlus Pad 2 is available from Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | ES | IT | JP | Shopee SG | Lazada SG | AliExpress

OnePlus Stylo 2 is available from Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | ES | IT | JP | Shopee SG | Lazada SG

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