When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn't affect our editorial independence.
Chinese manufacturer Vivo’s 11 April event brought us the company’s first foldable, its new Note-branded phone and its first tablet, simply called the Vivo Pad.
The Vivo Pad was served up as a premium productivity device, paired with an optional keyboard cover, flip cover and a pressure-sensitive stylus. Here’s all you need to know.
Vivo confirmed that it would be unveiling the Viv o X Note, Vivo X Fold and Vivo Pad as part of its 11 April event, with the Pad moving to pre-order on the same day and local Chinese availability promised for only a few days later, on 15 April.
Here’s a teaser video of the Vivo Pad that the company released ahead of its unveiling:
As stated, right now the Vivo Pad looks to be a Chinese-only release and as such, we only have Chinese pricing, for the time being. The Vivo Pad comes in two storage flavours (both with 8GB of RAM), priced as follows:
As a rough guide, here’s how much some other recent Android tablets cost:
As suspected, Vivo has priced its Pad in the same ballpark as recent Chinese rivals, the Xiaomi Pad 5 series (namely the Pad 5 Pro, based on the spec) and the Oppo Pad line.
Vivo is selling the Vivo Pad direct from its own web store, but the tablet is also going to be made available through local retailers like T-Mall.
Like pricing, the Vivo Pad’s spec sheet falls somewhere between the hardware found across the Xiaomi Pad 5 and Pad 5 Pro, with similar traits like the former’s 13Mp main rear camera and the latter’s Snapdragon 870 chipset, splitting the difference on charging speeds, with 44W fast charging.
Here’s the full spec sheet as confirmed by Vivo:
The 6.55mm CNC-milled aluminium chassis doesn’t feature any visible break lines, thanks to proprietary Vivo technology that allowed the company to hide the Pad’s antennas behind the display.
Vivo also had to adapt its existing Origin OS user experience for the Vivo Pad’s larger 11in display size and aspect ratio, resulting in what it’s dubbed ‘OriginOS HD’. This variation on Origin OS offers easy split-screen multitasking and can even mirror your smartphone screen with quick pairing via NFC.
The Pad’s single USB-C port facilitates USB 3.1-certified transfer speeds up to 5Gbps, allowing you to connect external storage, while the company is also selling a separate Vivo Pad Stylus (¥349), Vivo Pad Smart Touch Keyboard – complete with a multitouch trackpad (¥599) and Vivo Pad Smart Cover (¥199) to expand the tablet’s productivity chops.
Whether the Vivo Pad makes it to markets elsewhere remains to be seen but if you’re curious to know what it’s up against, check out our guide to the best tablets and best Android tablets to see which rival devices you should also consider.
Also, check out episode 110 of our weekly podcast Fast Charge, where we discuss the launch of the Vivo Pad (along with the Vivo X Fold and X Note) in more depth.
Martyn has been involved with tech ever since the arrival of his ZX Spectrum back in the early 80s. He covers iOS, Android, Windows and macOS, writing tutorials, buying guides and reviews for Macworld and its sister site Tech Advisor.