Oppo’s accessory chaos is an expensive nuisance and a disaster for sustainability promises
With the new Pad 5 and Pad 5 Pro, Oppo is delivering two long-lasting mid-range tablets. The slim premium tablet, in particular, shines in our review with strong performance and spectacular battery life (prices start at around $800 at Trading Shenzhen). But the Pro model’s little brother also impresses with a fairly bright display that operates without PWM flickering.
However, a look at the company’s accessory policy raises some questions and even a bit of confusion - in both reviews. This is because last year’s Oppo Pencil 2 Pro doesn’t work with either the Pad 5 or the Pad 5 Pro. Buyers of an Oppo Pad 4 Pro and the same presumably applies to the new OnePlus Pad 4 and its predecessors including the OnePlus Stylo 2 will have to buy a new active stylus from the manufacturer when upgrading to the current tablet generation in order to take notes on the Pad 5 Pro’s 13.2-inch display. From the customer’s perspective, it’s more than frustrating that Oppo has rendered last year’s flagship stylus incompatible after just one year and hasn’t ensured backward compatibility.
Even the most affordable mid-range tablet takes a different approach
With the Pad 5, Oppo has once again opted for a different solution. Instead of supporting the older generation of styluses, it has introduced a new Pencil 2R, which in turn, is not compatible with Oppo’s Pro models or older tablets. It’s hard to find a plausible reason why the company’s own styluses aren’t backward compatible after just one year - even for basic functions. In an era when tech companies like to tout their commitments to sustainability and recycling, such an approach seems inconsistent. An expensive stylus should remain usable for significantly longer.
Oppo could take a cue from Samsung in this regard. The Samsung S Pen, with its passive induction technology from Wacom, enables basic writing and drawing functions across nearly all generations of Galaxy Tabs. Anyone upgrading from an older Galaxy Tab S7 to one of the manufacturer’s current high-end tablets, such as the Tab S11, can simply continue using their old stylus at least for the core functions of writing and drawing.
If you spend a lot of time working on your Android tablet or are looking for a long-lasting device with an XXL display for travel, the Pad 5 and especially the Pad 5 Pro offer a powerful and affordable alternative to the iPad models. Full details, you can find in our reviews.
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