The best Android tablet now has a cheaper and more affordable sibling

Hot off the heels of the OnePlus Pad 3 – one of the best Android tablets you can buy – there's a new tablet from OnePlus for those who can't quite stretch to the iPad Pro competitor.

The OnePlus Pad Lite comes in at £199 (€229) making it cheaper than any iPad and cheaper than many Samsung Tabs too.

In fact, the company has even swiped 15% off the price in an introductory offer, so you can snap it up for £169 right now.

The OnePlus Pad Lite design is closer to the OnePlus Pad 2, with a central camera on the rear, but with a two-tone finish to the back. It's a 16:10 aspect display, so great for watching movies on the move, and slightly different to the 7:5 aspect of the OnePlus Pad 3.

It's an 11-inch display with a 1920 x 1200 pixel resolution and support for 10-bit colour. Animation is kept smooth by the 90Hz tech that powers it, but it's not an IPS display like its bigger brother – it's an LCD display instead.

My first impressions of the display are that it's nice and vibrant, with plenty of punch to the colours.

To boost the watching experience, there are four speakers on this tablet, which should provide a nice directional sound field for immersive entertainment.

OnePlus is offering Wi-Fi and LTE versions of this tablet, with the Wi-Fi version offering a 6/128GB configuration and the LTE coming with 8/128GB.

There's a MediaTek Helio G100 chip powering this tablet, so the power fits its entry-level positioning, unlike the OnePlus Pad 3 which is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite for flagship power.

There's 33W charging (charger sold separately) which should top you up quickly and I'd expect the battery to last through 11 hours of video, or 54 days of standby.

While the hardware pulls this tablet into the affordable end of the spectrum, there are some attractive software features too. That's one of the best features of the OnePlus Pad 3 and we expect a similar level of cohesion here.

Open Canvas is a great approach to multitasking, letting you slide a screen off to the side until you want it back. Instead of squishing everything into smaller windows, you can move things around to cross reference and get stuff done.

There's also greater compatibility with Apple devices than we've seen in the past. This is something of a growing trend for Android devices, with O+ Connect allowing quick and easy file sharing with your iPhone or iPad.

If you're thinking of putting this into the hands of younger users, there's a Kids Mode with full parental controls, while the Folio Case for the OnePlus Pad Lite is only £35.

Pre-orders for the OnePlus Pad Lite open from 8 July and it comes in an Aero Blue colour.