OnePlus Pad 4 launches in India with a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and 13,380mAh battery

UPDATED · News · 2 May 2026 · MTW News Desk

OnePlus Pad 4 is the 30 April India launch story that finally puts a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 tablet into a real shopping bracket. OnePlus India confirmed the OnePlus Pad 4 launches at ₹59,999 for the 8GB/256GB version and ₹64,999 for the 12GB/512GB variant, with sales starting 5 May 2026 through OnePlus.in.

Why the OnePlus Pad 4 launch matters for UK buyers

The OnePlus Pad 4 lands as an India-first device, but the spec sheet is interesting for anyone watching the Android tablet market mature. A 13.2-inch panel at 3,392 x 2,400 with 144Hz refresh and Dolby Vision is genuine flagship territory. Pair that with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 – the same silicon driving the OnePlus 15 phone – and a 13,380mAh battery and the OnePlus Pad 4 reads as a credible iPad Air alternative on paper. The UK question is whether OnePlus brings it here at all. The 9to5Google reporting suggests global rollout remains vague while OnePlus restructures and merges with Realme, but pressure on Samsung’s Tab S range and on the iPad Air should push that decision faster than usual.

For now, the OnePlus Pad 4 looks like the most aggressive Android tablet of 2026 in the markets where it actually ships. Buyers in India get a tablet that, on paper, beats the OnePlus Pad 3 across every meaningful axis – faster SoC, larger battery, larger display, better stylus, and a keyboard cover with a pin-pogo connector that no longer fights Bluetooth pairing. The OnePlus Pad 4 also sets a benchmark against which we should read the next Samsung Galaxy Tab refresh and the 2026 iPad lineup.

OnePlus Pad 4 specs and accessories that matter

The OnePlus Pad 4 leans on the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 – a 3nm chip with two prime cores at 4.61 GHz, six performance cores at 3.63 GHz and the Adreno 840 GPU. For a tablet, this is overkill, and that is the point: it gives the OnePlus Pad 4 a longevity story Samsung’s slower Tab Plus models cannot match. RAM tops out at 12GB LPDDR5X, with storage at 512GB UFS 4.0. The 13.2-inch LCD is rated for 1,000-nit HBM brightness, 144Hz refresh, Dolby Vision support and 12-bit colour through 8-bit hardware plus 4-bit FRC. There is a single rear camera and a front-facing camera positioned for landscape video calls.

The battery is the other headline: 13,380mAh, up from the OnePlus Pad 3’s 12,140mAh, paired with 80W SUPERVOOC. OnePlus claims up to 54 hours of standby, 20 hours of video playback and 7 hours of gaming. The OnePlus Stylo Pro stylus is the more interesting accessory than the spec sheet suggests, with 16,000 pressure levels and dual-tip support, and the new keyboard cover uses a pin-connector that bypasses Bluetooth entirely – exactly the change the OnePlus Pad 3 was hammered for missing. The OnePlus Pad 4 ships with OxygenOS 16 on Android 16 from day one.

OnePlus Pad 4 versus the obvious alternatives

The notable OnePlus Pad 4 downgrade is the base RAM. OnePlus removed the 16GB option entirely and dropped the entry tier to 8GB. That is a clear concession to the wider DRAM shortage that has DDR5 prices doubling UK-wide and has been pushing OEMs to ration high-memory SKUs. For the OnePlus Pad 4, 8GB is enough for content consumption and basic multitasking, but power users who want the device as a laptop replacement should pay for the 12GB version. That is the OnePlus Pad 4 buyer who should be watching the global launch news most closely.

What the OnePlus Pad 4 means for the UK Android tablet market

UK buyers are stuck waiting. OnePlus has not committed to a UK release, and the brand’s own statements describe European availability as “under evaluation”. The OnePlus Pad 3 only formally landed in a small subset of EU markets, so the OnePlus Pad 4 may follow the same pattern. The pragmatic position is to track Amazon UK Marketplace listings – several India OnePlus releases have arrived as grey imports within four to six weeks – and to assume an official European launch follows OnePlus and Realme’s mid-year restructuring announcements rather than preceding them.

The bigger story is what the OnePlus Pad 4 forces Samsung and Apple to defend. The Galaxy Tab S11 series has the AMOLED advantage and the S Pen ecosystem, but Samsung will not be able to ignore a 13.2-inch tablet that pairs a 13,380mAh battery and the same Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 silicon as its Galaxy S26 Ultra at materially lower money. Apple’s iPad Air M3 still wins on app library, but the OnePlus Pad 4 is the first Android tablet that feels genuinely competitive on hardware against an M-series iPad on the desktop-replacement chart – a comparison ARM-on-Windows laptops are still trying to win, as our ARM vs x86 laptop buyer’s guide set out earlier in the year.

The OnePlus Pad 4 is the most credible Android tablet of 2026 so far, and the launch timing is no accident. OnePlus knew Samsung would tease AI glasses and bigger ambitions in late April, knew Apple would post a record Q2 result a day later, and dropped a flagship tablet into the gap with a price that undercuts both. The remaining question is shipping geography. If OnePlus commits to the UK by Q3, the OnePlus Pad 4 will reshape the £500-£700 tablet conversation. If it does not, the OnePlus Pad 4 becomes a tantalising “what if” for British buyers who are once again forced to import the more interesting Android hardware.