iQOO has launched the Pad 5c in China, and the new iQOO Pad 5c is aimed squarely at the ”do a bit of everything” crowd: streaming, gaming, note-taking, and the usual tablet work. It lands with a Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chip, a 12.1-inch 144Hz display, and a 10,000mAh battery, which is a fairly aggressive mix for a tablet that sits below the usual flagship price brackets.
The bigger story is less about novelty and more about packaging. iQOO appears to be leaning on a familiar hardware formula and pushing it into a faster, more productivity-friendly shell, just as rivals keep using tablets to sell a hybrid ”laptop-lite” experience without the laptop price tag.
iQOO Pad 5c specifications
The Pad 5c uses LPDDR5X RAM, with UFS 3.1 storage on the 128GB version and UFS 4.1 on the 256GB models. iQOO gives buyers a 12.1-inch LCD panel with 2.8K resolution and a 144Hz refresh rate, plus a body that measures 6.62mm thick and weighs 584g. That’s slim enough for a large Android tablet, though not exactly featherweight.
- Chipset: Snapdragon 8s Gen 3
- Display: 12.1-inch LCD, 2.8K, 144Hz
- Battery: 10,000mAh with 44W wired charging
- Cameras: 5-megapixel front, 8-megapixel rear
- Audio: quad speakers
- Ports and connectivity: USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4
OriginOS 6 and AI productivity tools
Software is where iQOO tries to make the Pad 5c feel more than just a spec sheet. It runs OriginOS 6 for tablets and includes face unlock, PC-grade WPS, AI PPT Assistant, multi-screen collaboration, wireless printing, document scanning, and gaming tools such as game super resolution and a live streaming assistant. There is also an advanced cooling system with a large graphite heat dissipation area, which is exactly the sort of line that matters to anyone planning to keep a game or video call running for hours.
The tablet’s design is also a giveaway: this is basically a rebranded iQOO Pad 5e, which itself arrived as the vivo Pad 5e last year. That kind of reuse is common in the Android tablet world, where brands often trade a little freshness for faster launches and lower engineering costs. Apple may set the pace at the top end, but in the midrange the real competition is who can bundle the best display, battery, and software tricks without overcharging for the privilege.
iQOO Pad 5c price and colors
- 8GB+128GB: 2,699 Yuan
- 8GB+256GB: 2,999 Yuan
- 12GB+256GB: 3,499 Yuan
Buyers can pick Silver Wing or Grey Crystal, and the tablet is scheduled to go on sale in China this month. iQOO has not confirmed any global release yet, which is hardly surprising for a Chinese launch, but it does leave the door open for regional rebranding if demand is strong enough.
If the Pad 5c gets one thing right, it is balance: a fast chip, a high-refresh display, and a battery large enough to survive a long day without drama. The real question is whether that familiar formula is enough to stand out once more tablets in this price range start chasing the same AI-and-productivity pitch.