iQOO Pad Pro brings the Ultra's 165Hz screen and big battery for less

iQOO teased a more affordable sibling for its compact gaming tablet earlier this month, and today the iQOO Pad Pro 8.8 became official in China. It launched alongside the iQOO Neo12 and keeps most of what makes the iQOO Pad Ultra interesting, including an active cooling fan, but with a different chipset.

The iQOO Pad Pro 8.8 comes with an 8.8-inch 2304x1440 AMOLED screen with a 165Hz refresh rate (in supported games), 1,600-nit full-screen and 4,500-nit peak local brightness, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset paired with iQOO's own Q3 gaming chip, up to 16GB of LPDDR5X Ultra RAM and 512GB of UFS 4.1 storage, a 13MP rear camera that records 4K video, an 8MP selfie camera, and a 9,020 mAh battery with 66W wired charging. It runs OriginOS 7 HD based on Android 17, and it measures 5.74mm thick and weighs 298g, with a metal unibody.

iQOO Pad Pro official images

Keeping things cool is the Ice Dome system, which combines a 30x30x3.5mm fan with dual vapor chambers and copper fins for a total heat dissipation area of 23,253mm², and the fan has three speed modes. The Q3 chip handles ray tracing, upscaling, and frame interpolation in supported games. There are also symmetrical dual speakers, two X-axis linear vibration motors, RGB lights on the back, Wi-Fi 7, and a USB 3.2 Gen 2 port.

A PC game emulator, game livestreaming, and a 4K in-game screenshot camera are among the software features, though some of them are limited to versions with at least 12GB of RAM. Accessories include a magnetic grip kit and the iQOO Stretch Handle G1 controller, both sold separately.

The iQOO Pad Pro has the same screen, battery, cameras, thickness and weight as the iQOO Pad Ultra. The difference is under the hood: the Ultra has the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 and the newer Q4 gaming chip, while the Pro makes do with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and Q3.

The Pro also starts with 8GB of RAM and tops out at 512GB of storage, whereas the Ultra starts at 12GB and goes up to 1TB. And the Pro is much cheaper - with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, it costs CNY 4,699 (about $703), while the same configuration of the Ultra now costs CNY 6,499 ($973).

The iQOO Pad Pro comes in blue and gray. The base 8GB/256GB model costs CNY 4,299 ($643), the 16GB/256GB version is CNY 5,099 ($763), 12GB/512GB will set you back CNY 5,399 ($808), and the top 16GB/512GB model is priced at CNY 5,799 ($868). Like with the Ultra, it's unclear if it will ever be sold outside of China.

Source (in Chinese)