Forget iPads: the Android tablet market could soon get much more exciting

Oppo
(Image credit: Future)

The Android tablet market is a quiet place with very few companies beyond Samsung and Amazon making much of an effort to compete with Apple and its iPad slates, but that might be about to change.

According to respected leaker Digital Chat Station, posting on Chinese social media app Weibo, Oppo "has planned tablet and notebook products and is expected to come out next year to grab the market".

This message has been machine-translated, so is a little garbled, but the meaning is clear - Oppo is about to jump into the tablet market.

Oppo is one of the bigger Chinese phone manufacturers, and it puts out some great devices that have graced our best phones list, including the Find X2 Pro and Reno 10x Zoom. It makes some other devices too, like the Oppo Watch, though tablets haven't been in its arsenal so far.

That could change, though, by the sounds of things. Oppo is particularly great for its display and camera technology, and we could see the former in particular utilized for some fantastic tablets. 

It's worth pointing out this rumor is just that, and not official news on the subject, so until we hear any concrete news on the devices, take this all with a pinch of salt.

Android tablets getting busy

If Oppo joins the Android tablet race, it's very possible two other companies will do the same: OnePlus and Realme. That's because all three are owned by the same parent company, and they often share technology (as well as sometimes putting out very similar devices).

We could see a OnePlus tablet or Realme tablet soon after Oppo then. The latter is particularly likely as in an interview we conducted with Realme's CEO he described the company's push to hit many new product verticals.

This multi-company change in the Android tablet market would almost certainly take a while, so we might not see a OnePlus tablet, for example, any time soon, if ever. But hopefully, if this leak is correct, we'll start hearing about an Oppo slate some time soon.

Via GSMArena

Tom Bedford
Contributor

Tom Bedford was deputy phones editor on TechRadar until late 2022, having worked his way up from staff writer. Though he specialized in phones and tablets, he also took on other tech like electric scooters, smartwatches, fitness, mobile gaming and more. He is based in London, UK and now works for the entertainment site What To Watch.


He graduated in American Literature and Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. Prior to working on TechRadar, he freelanced in tech, gaming and entertainment, and also spent many years working as a mixologist. He also currently works in film as a screenwriter, director and producer.