While there is no shortage of good-budget Android tablets, most of these options barely offer any software customisation, which just makes them stretched-out smartphones. When I started to use the Honor Pad x8a, an affordable Android tablet, I was expecting a similar experience. However, since I started exploring it, it was evident that it’s unlike most budget Android tablets, especially when it comes to software experience.
The Honor Pad X8a has been my companion for watching movies, web series, and browsing the web for almost over three weeks, and here is what it was like to use this tablet on a day-to-day basis.
A medium-sized Android tablet
The tablet comes with a free tri-fold case. (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)
With its 11-inch screen, it’s definitely smaller than the OnePlus Pad 2 (review) that I recently reviewed, but it is good enough for every usage. While this isn’t the thinnest tablet that I have tested, it’s light, and Honor includes a tri-fold hard case, which also doubles as a kickstand, which helps in using a tablet like a laptop by pairing it with a wireless mouse and keyboard.
A display that’s bright and vivid
The display is sharp and bright enough for indoor use. (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)
The 11-inch touchscreen display on the Honor Pad X8a is easily one of the best you can get at this price. It’s sharp with FHD+ (1920*1200p) resolution and has a higher refresh rate of 90Hz, which makes everything on the tablet feel smooth, including the gaming experience. This display is coupled with a quad-speaker setup, and no smartphone can match the movie-watching experience of the Honor Pad x8a. In fact, every time I wanted to watch something on YouTube, I preferred the Honor Pad X8a over my Galaxy S23 Ultra, which again has an excellent 2K display.
If you are an audiophile, then you will definitely appreciate the fact that the Honor Pad X8a is a Hi-Res AUDIO Gold Standard certified tablet, which simply means, it can play high-resolution audio via the USB-C port, and it is also compatible with Hi-Res AUDIO Wireless Gold Standard.
The tablet can stream FHD-resolution videos on all the major platforms. However, I did notice a bit of a jitter while playing videos on YouTube, especially for the first few seconds.
This combination of display, speakers, and high-resolution audio support makes the Honor Pad X8a an excellent tablet for multimedia consumption. From watching YouTube videos to binge-watching the latest releases on Prime Video and Disney+ Hotstar, the tablet served me well. However, even in the default mode, the display is tuned to be a little vibrant, which boosts colours like red and green, making them look artificial.
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Performance is a bit of an issue, but not a deal breaker
The tablet is powered by dated Snapdragon 680 SoC. (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)
The Honor Pad X8a is an entry-level tablet and this becomes very evident with its Snapdragon 680 chip and 4 GB RAM. While it can easily handle most tasks like web browsing, and video streaming without any issue, when it comes to gaming, especially on titles like BGMI or COD: Mobile, the tablet seems less impressive, especially at higher graphics settings.
Out of the box, it offers 128 GB of internal storage, out of which around 102 GB is available for users. For those, who need more storage, the tablet has a microSD card slot, which can accept memory cards with up to 1 TB of storage.
However, toning down the graphics seems to fix most of these issues, and due to limited RAM, only three to four apps remain in the memory, while the rest need to be reloaded.
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Stellar software, excellent multi-tasking
The tablet runs Android 14-based MagicOS. (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)
The Honor Pad X8a runs on Android 14-based Magic OS, and it is easily one of the best tablet OSes that I have tested this year with plenty of multitasking features. The tablet makes it easy to open multiple apps at the same time, although it’s quite common to see these features on most modern tablets, the way it has been implemented on the Honor Pad X8a makes it a lot easier to take advantage of the big 11-inch screen.
The tablet makes it easy to use two apps at once with support for features like resizable windows, and there is also an option to save app pairs for easy access. Even with continued video streaming, there were no signs of heating, and the tablet can easily last for over a day on a single charge.
A compelling budget tablet package
An excellent budget Android tablet. (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)
This is possibly the best tablet under Rs 15,000 in India, which seems to have almost everything that one can expect from a tablet. For anyone who needs a tablet for personal or professional usage and doesn’t have much of a budget, this is the one tablet that you should consider.
| Honor Pad X8a | |
| Pros | Cons |
| Easy to use | Limited RAM |
| Portable | |
|
Great for watching videos |
|
|
Affordable options available |
|
| Good battery life |
