iQOO launches compact OLED gaming tablet with next-gen flagship Snapdragon SoC

iQOO has launched the Pad Ultra in China, which stands as the first gaming tablet that's powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6. It will be competing against the upcoming Lenovo Legion Tab Gen 6 and the successor of the RedMagic Astra 2, which are also expected to be powered by the same flagship Qualcomm SoC.

This new flagship gaming tablet pairs the next-gen SoC with an active cooler, and iQOO highlights that the setup has a 0.94CFM extra-large fan. With 23,253mm² heat dissipation area, this setup promises better thermal management.

On the front, there's an 8.8-inch OLED display with a 165Hz refresh rate, a 4,500 nits peak brightness rating, 100% DCI-P3 color coverage, and HDR10+ support. This screen size makes the iQOO Pad Ultra as compact as the Lenovo Legion Tab Gen 5 (curr. $679.99 on Lenovo).

The company further highlights that the gaming tablet has a slim and lightweight design. iQOO claims that it measures 5.74mm thick and weighs 298 grams (about 10.51oz). There's a 9,020mAh battery inside, which is claimed to deliver up to 25 hours of runtime while streaming online video.

Just like last-gen gaming tablets, the iQOO Pad Ultra comes with a PC game emulator pre-installed. The company is also offering accessories that are designed to enhance the experience on the tablet, including a telescopic controller that's similar to the Legion GamePad G3.

Other highlights include the Q4 chipset for further gaming enhancements, a WiFi enhancement chip for stable wireless connectivity, RGB lights on the back, and 66W fast charging support. iQOO is offering the Pad Ultra with up to 16GB of LPDDR5x RAM and 1TB of UFS 4.1 storage.

The base configuration has 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, and it costs CNY 6,499, around $968. As for the upper-end config, it costs CNY 8,999, about $1,341. There's no word on the global launch yet, but the company is expected to release the iQOO 16 and Pad Ultra soon outside the Chinese market.