Manufacturer cuts back on a key component in its tablets to cope with the DRAM crisis

With the Pad 5 and Pad 5 Pro, Oppo offers good tablets in the upper-midrange and premium price segments. However, the manufacturer appears to be responding to the ongoing DRAM shortage and the resulting high prices by cutting costs on the speakers, at least, that’s what our test data suggest. Rather than simply raising the prices of its new tablets, Oppo appears to be cutting corners on sound quality, which is typically a strength of large tablets. There’s no other way to explain this phenomenon, as the Pad 5 Pro actually performs slightly worse than the “regular” Pad 5 in our pink-noise measurement.

A look at the measurement data from our Oppo tablet reviews clearly shows how far the Pad 5 falls behind audio-focused competitors such as the Honor MagicPad 4 and the Oppo Pad 4 Pro from 2025. The new Oppo generation is particularly uneven across the mid- and high-frequency ranges - the Pro model even more than the Pad 5. We also find the sound lacking in bass and depth. At high volumes, both tablets lack presence and sound somewhat flat.