This one has been in the rumor mill for years, but we started seeing credible/plausible rumors about 18 months ago.
According to one Vietnamese customer of ours that got a very quick look at one, will have “new very high-quality screen tech” and will be priced “significantly below Samsungs’ S Tabs”
It’s also pen enabled “the stylo” according to Engadget though the actual pen tech is still unknown.
It also has the MediaTek Dimensity 9000 chip set which is an upper tier performer though it doesn’t compete with the SnapDragon 8CX gen series.
OnePlus has been aggressive in their pricing especially with “new” devices, so it’s bears watching. The customer I mentioned has soft committed to purchasing some, so we likely will be testing it for them.
The 7:5 aspect ratio is unique as far as I can tell and there is only one OEM producing such a panel and the only information they have is “coming soon”
Interesting straddle. I don’t NEED a large format Android tablet, and the OS software issues w/ Android are still a YUGE PITA. When I’m EOL with the Duo Deux, I’m not sure I want the hassle of keeping up with Android.
It wasn’t in the engadget article and I forget where I actually read it, but the display was supposedly specifically designed for a “digital moleskin” type of application based on a common type of personal notebook used by secondary school age students in China
Considering they mention 2ms response time, I bet the stylus will be art-grade. It looks pretty interesting — I feel like the nib will surely be something you insert rather than screw on, as it appears to be about half the size of the Apple Pencil nib but the whole stylus is obviously going for that same school of design.
I wish I could wait for it to come out to try it, but I think I’m already set for the Galaxy ecosystem.
The other thing is, even though the screen and orientation are really cool, I gather from the photos that it is just too small for me, even though I really do get into that spunky little sketchbook feel. I just need the big beefy widescreen Tab Ultras at the end of the day.
I’d really like to get this tablet in our test bench, but alas I’m at the mercy of our customers in that I have to wait/hope one will submit them for our certification testing.
The pen and the fairly unique aspect ratio of the display both intrigue me.
I admit, I’m intrigued by the aspect ratio and the potential for a new contender in pen tech. It’s been some weeks and pricing was supposed to be announced in “weeks”. Anyone heard anything on pricing yet?
Direct 5G data access from your phone that bypasses the hotspot? I wonder how they’ll get that past the cellular companies here in the US. They make a lot of money charging high prices for meager data allowances on their hotspots.
I haven’t gotten a 100% confirmed answer from OnePlus, but the initial response I got makes me think it to be a OnePlus customized version of the software that Samsung uses for their S phones and Tabs (which they license from a 3rd party). And sadly it may only be 100% functional with OnePlus phones.
TLDR It’s not any software/hardware that would eliminate the need for a phone with hotspot functionality
PS: We have a customer that has committed to trialing these when they actually release, so we will be putting them through our certification tests.
PPS: I can’t find it now since I don’t recall where I read it, but there was some talk of a 5G enabled version specifically for the US market, and likely a T-mobile exclusive
Wow, that’s some heavy duty marketing twist if so.
OnePlus: “Skip the hotspot and share 5G mobile data with your phone under the same secure account.”
How they can go from that claim to “no, you still need an active hotspot and it’s limited to your hotspot data allowance” is kinda amazing… and drops my opinion of OnePlus a notch.
If it’s T-Mobile exclusive, that’s probably how they’re getting around the “hotspot” idea. At least for my plan, T-Mobile doesn’t charge anything for using my phone as a Hotspot already.
I suspect the ARS reviewer got a defective unit given that other reviews seem at least ok with the display.
OTOH as TV and other Android phone makers a few years ago learned the hard way, having a good high refresh rate display is more than just cranking up the hertz, but needs software changes too.
As a follow up on this tablet, customer submitted one for our certification tests last Thursday.
We haven’t completed testing yet but overall I’d say it’s a decent tablet considering the price, but Samsung and Apple won’t lose any sleep over it.
We didn’t see any of the display issues that ARS saw with their unit, which supports my belief that they just got a bad unit.
OTOH. overall the display is good but not great. On the positive side it’s reasonably color accurate out of the box, but the default setting seems to be a bit dark for most users and linearity is mediocre which could present issues with editing color photos.
We don’t go in depth on pen testing, but simply verify basic functionality. Experientially, it seems in line with the Surface Pro 7 with the standard pen and is multiple steps back from Samsung’s Tab S or Apple’s iPads.
Performance is mid range at best overall though good considering the price.
One last thing is that OnePlus still needs to do some tweaking of their software IMHO as there are still lots of odd bugs such as the occasional excessive delay opening apps (so much so you start to think the tablet has locked up).
And significantly more than Android tablets generally, many apps don’t seem to know how to display properly with the aspect ratio/dpi with many apps either reverting to phone mode or in some cases missing parts of the UI as they seem to be “off screen” for practical purposes.
I do like the keyboard feel though I’m more mixed on the trackpad which takes too much click pressure while at the same time being overly prone to false touches.
PS: The Amazon Kindle App on the One Plus is the first besides the iPad that supports pen markup in supported books/docs, but OTOH often have really weird formatting including a single narrow column in landscape mode.
I’ve forwarded the bugs we found to Amazon but have not gotten a response yet.
