OnePlus Pad Lite vs iPad Mini: Battle of the pint-sized tablets

Price and Availability

At the time of writing, the OnePlus Pad Lite is available for pre-order at a discounted price of £169. Once the tablet is officially available from 19th August 2025, the price will then increase to £199.

Comparatively, the iPad Mini is significantly more expensive than the OnePlus Pad Lite, with a starting RRP of £449/$449 for the 128GB model. Keep in mind that this price doesn’t include any accessories like an Apple Pencil or a smart folio case. 

OnePlus Pad Lite has a larger display

As its name suggests, the iPad Mini is impressively small with just an 8.3-inch, Liquid Retina display. We hailed the display as “solid” and can deliver excellent detail and colours when streaming video. Plus, as its brightness can reach up to 500 nits, the iPad Mini can be used comfortably in sunlight. 

However, one frustrating point about the iPad Mini’s display is that it lacks ProMotion technology and instead, maxes out at just 60Hz. This is especially surprising considering the cheaper OnePlus Pad Lite boasts a refresh rate of 90Hz. 

Otherwise, the OnePlus Pad Lite is considerably larger than its iPad Mini counterpart, with an 11-inch LCD screen. Similarly, the OnePlus Pad boasts 500 nits of brightness, which should mean the device is usable outdoors. 

Unsurprisingly for their respective price points, both the OnePlus Pad Lite and iPad Mini run on smartphone chipsets.

MediaTek promises its Helio G100 chip, found in the OnePlus Pad Lite, offers “all-day gaming performance, outstanding battery life, enhanced camera capabilities, smooth display experiences and dependable global connectivity”. Unlike its flagship Dimensity counterpart, Helio doesn’t seem to focus on AI abilities and focuses on powerful everyday use instead.

The iPad Mini runs on Apple’s own A17 Pro bionic chip, which is also found in the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. The use of this chip not only means the tablet is speedy and able to cope with everyday tasks with ease, but it also enables the running of Apple Intelligence and supports higher-end gaming features like ray tracing too.

Whether Apple Intelligence, Apple’s AI toolkit, is worth opting for the iPad Mini alone is debatable. Sure, it includes some useful tools like Clean Up in photos, alongside Image Playground and an improved Siri experience, but how often you’ll really use the tools is down to you.

OnePlus Pad Lite supports file sharing between Androids and iPhones

The OnePlus Pad Lite promises that receiving and sharing files, videos and images from either an Android or an iPhone is simple and takes just a few taps. In addition, if you do have one of the best OnePlus phones, you’ll benefit from Screen Mirroring, which allows you to drag and drop files between tablet and phone.

Although naturally the iPad Mini can share and receive files much faster and easier with another Apple device, thanks to AirDrop, it’s worth noting that it is still possible to share with Androids too.

iPad Mini has a 12MP front camera with Center Stage

Tablets are rarely praised for their photography capabilities, but it’s always useful to at least have a decent front camera for video calls. With a 12MP front lens fitted with Apple’s Center Stage technology, which ensures you stay in frame as you move around, the iPad Mini is good for video calls and we found it offers “nice facial detail” too. 

Unlike newer iPads, like the iPad Pro, which now sport a landscape front camera, the iPad Mini’s remains on its short side. As the tablet is so small anyway, we’d argue this isn’t really a major issue as you’ll likely rarely use the device docked in a keyboard stand. 

The OnePlus Pad Lite instead has a 5MP front camera, much like the Amazon Fire HD 10. As we are yet to test the tablet, we can’t comment on how this camera performs in everyday use; however, it’s worth noting that we found the 5MP selfie camera of the Fire HD 10 able to produce “video with decent colour and low noise”, making it fine for taking the odd video call.

OnePlus Pad Lite can have two apps open simultaneously

Perhaps surprisingly for a budget tablet, the OnePlus Pad Lite supports Open Canvas. Essentially, Open Canvas allows you to split your screen and open two apps side-by-side for much easier multitasking. 

Instead, the iPad Mini doesn’t support Apple’s Stage Manager, which allows for resizable windows on the display. Having said that, considering the iPad Mini is just 8.3 inches, it’s arguably too small for such a tool to work well.

Early Verdict

As we haven’t reviewed the OnePlus Pad Lite yet, we can’t confirm how well it really performs in everyday use, but its initial specs are decent. If you’re after a tablet for under £200, that’s lightweight, should perform well across different tasks, including gaming and boasts multitasking tools, then the OnePlus Pad Lite is an easy winner.

We’ll be sure to update this versus once we review the OnePlus Pad Lite.