When Realme introduced the Realme Pad in Malaysia back in November last year, it launched to quite a bit of fanfare. Deemed as a solid entry level tablet for anyone seeking a cheap and cheerful Android tablet, Najib of SoyaCincau BM even gave it a good review. However, anyone seeking out a Realme Pad for themselves might want to take note that it seeming won’t be getting upgraded to Android 12, despite only launching here just two months ago.
This information came to light following a new community post on the Realme India forums, with forum administrator Aayushii answering some common questions. One of them was if the Realme Pad will be updated to Android 12, to which Aayushii replied no it will not. He does add on though that Realme will still provide security and performance updates throughout its software lifecycle. Realme generally keeps a two year lifespan for security updates on its Android devices, and so Realme Pad owners can expect them until late 2023.
Aayushii unfortunately didn’t provide any more info about why the Realme Pad won’t get Android 12. If we had to take an educated guess though it could be due to the MediaTek Helio G80 processor powering the Realme Pad. The Helio G80 has been around since February 2020, meaning that it’s not exactly cutting edge anymore. MediaTek chips also has a reputation for being difficult for manufacturers to update, leading to late OS updates compared to devices with Snapdragon chips. Xiaomi executive Li Ming has even previously explained that MediaTek themselves take a long time to prepare Android updates for its hardware partners compared to Qualcomm.
As for Realme, the lack of an upgrade path to Android 12 will certainly blemish what is otherwise a fairly reasonable package. Starting at just RM899, you’ll get a 10.4-inch WUXGA+ LCD display with a quad-speaker setup with Dolby Atmos. The Helio G80 chipset meanwhile is mated to up to 6GB of RAM and up to 128GB of storage. There’s even a large 7,100mAh battery that Realme claims will last up to 12 hours of video playback, with 18W fast charging too.
It’s just a shame then that the Realme Pad will be stuck on Android 11 for the considerable future, especially when you consider that Google’s even planning a special feature drop for Android 12 called Android 12L. Android 12L is being designed specifically with large screen devices like tablets in mind. It would’ve brought new features like two-column notification shades and easier split screen multitasking. If you’re planning to get the Realme Pad then, you should perhaps take Aayushii’s announcement into account.
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