It’s Back to School again and it’s a perfect time to choose your gadgets for the new School Year 2025. As the Colleges and Universities have adopted into ebooks and online classes, it is imperative that our children get what they need for their academic requirements. Here’s one gadget that i can highly recommend to parents like me who are looking for something to give to their kids, or something thrifty and yet gives you what you need to perform your duties.
The TechLife Pad Plus 12 LTE emerges as a compelling contender in the budget tablet market, particularly for students, casual users, and those seeking a large-screen device for media consumption without breaking the bank. Launched recently in the Philippines, this tablet positions itself as an affordable workhorse, blending decent performance with a surprisingly expansive display and robust connectivity.
Just like me, a mobile warrior and office worker. This device works perfectly for me used for basic surfing requirements like social media surfing and posting, camera selfies, watching online shows, and playing games by yourself or with your clan!
This Handy Dandy tablet has a sleek design, the TechLife Pad Plus 12 LTE is housed in an aluminum body, which is i would say a better version of the realme Pad 2 as it is lighter and has a very good built-in battery of 8000mah. I have used this for watching videos and playing games, checking emails for more than a day!
Perfect Design and Build Quality, the TechLife Pad Plus 12 LTE sports a clean, minimalist design with a matte finish, available in elegant colors like Moonlight Silver, Storm Grey, and Sky Blue. Its chassis is predominantly made of aluminum alloy, which lends a premium feel that belies its affordable price point. At just 7.4mm to 7.6mm thick and weighing around 453g, it strikes a good balance between a large screen size and portability, minimizing fatigue during extended use. The squared, box-like shape with rounded corners enhances comfort, making it easy to hold with one or both hands. While the design is generally praised for its simplicity and sturdy feel, some users have noted that both the display and back panel can be prone to smudges. The placement of ports and buttons is standard, with the power button, volume rockers, microphone, and a hybrid SIM card tray (for 4G LTE connectivity and microSD expansion) located on the right edge. Notably, it lacks a 3.5mm audio jack, which might be a minor inconvenience for some users who prefer wired headphones.
Display and Multimedia Experience: One of the standout features of the TechLife Pad Plus 12 LTE is its generous 12-inch 2K (2000 x 1200) IPS LCD display. This expansive screen real estate is a significant advantage in the entry-level segment, offering an immersive viewing experience for movies, browsing, and multitasking. It boasts a 60Hz refresh rate and a 180Hz touch sampling rate, ensuring smooth scrolling and responsive touch interactions for everyday tasks and even light gaming. The display offers good viewing angles and decent color accuracy. It supports up to 2160p (4K) video streaming on platforms like YouTube, though videos are downscaled to its native 1080p+ resolution for crisp viewing. For DRM-protected content like Netflix, Widevine L1 certification ensures full HD streaming, a welcome feature for a budget device.
Brightness peaks at around 400-450 nits, which is sufficient for indoor use, providing clear visuals. However, direct sunlight can pose a challenge, making outdoor visibility somewhat limited. Complementing the visual experience are the quad stereo speakers, which deliver surprisingly loud and clear audio for its segment. While the sound can sometimes feel a bit flat, it significantly enhances the multimedia experience, making it suitable for sharing content or enjoying music without external speakers.
Performance and Software: Under the hood, the TechLife Pad Plus 12 LTE is powered by a MediaTek Helio G91 octa-core processor, built on a 12nm process and clocked at 2.0GHz. This is paired with 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM, expandable up to a total of 16GB through dynamic RAM expansion, and a generous 256GB of UFS 2.1 internal storage, which can be further expanded up to 1TB via a microSD card.
This configuration allows the tablet to handle casual to moderate tasks smoothly. Web browsing, media consumption, video calls, and light productivity work (like creating presentations or managing documents) are handled with ease. Multitasking, especially with the split-screen feature, is efficient, and the large display prevents a cramped feeling even with two apps open simultaneously.
For gaming, the Helio G91 can manage lighter 2D games and popular mobile titles like Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and Call of Duty Mobile at decent settings. While it may require dialing down graphics settings for more demanding games like Zenless Zone Zero, it generally offers a playable experience for most casual gamers. Benchmark scores, such as an AnTuTu v10 score of around 255,710, Geekbench 6.4.0 scores of 408 (Single-core) and 1,390 (Multi-core), and a PCMark Work 3.0 score of 7,883, indicate its capability as a reliable entry-level performer.
The tablet runs on Android 15 with TechLife’s custom Pad UI. The interface is described as simple, clean, and user-friendly, with minimal bloatware. It integrates Google’s Gemini AI capabilities, hinting at smarter interactions and productivity tools.
Cameras: The TechLife Pad Plus 12 LTE is equipped with a 13MP f/2.0 rear camera with autofocus and an 8MP front-facing camera. While tablet cameras are generally not their strongest suit, these sensors are more than capable for their intended purpose. The rear camera can capture decent quality images in well-lit conditions, suitable for scanning documents, casual everyday photography, or work-related snaps. Video recording is supported up to 1080p at 30fps. In low-light conditions, images may appear muddy with noticeable noise, and the lack of OIS means videos can be shaky. The 8MP front camera is well-suited for video calls, online classes, and selfies, especially in good lighting. Its wide-angle view is a plus for group video conferences.
Battery Life and Charging: Powering the device is a substantial 8,000mAh Li-Po battery. TechLife claims up to 12.7 hours of continuous music playback or almost a full day of mixed usage. In real-world testing, the battery generally holds up well, offering sufficient power for all-day use depending on intensity. For instance, two hours of Netflix streaming might consume around 25% of the battery.
The tablet supports 18W Type-C fast charging, which is an improvement over older budget tablets. However, fully charging the 8,000mAh battery can still take around 2 to 3.2 hours from empty. It also features 5W reverse charging, allowing it to act as a power bank for smaller devices, a convenient addition.
Connectivity and Other Features: The “LTE” in its name signifies its 4G LTE connectivity, allowing users to stay connected on the go with a single SIM slot. It also supports dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4GHz/5GHz) for stable internet connections, Bluetooth, and GPS. The inclusion of various sensors like accelerometer, gyroscope, light, proximity, orientation, sound, and magnetic field detection adds to its functionality. It lacks a side-mounted fingerprint sensor, relying on face unlock for biometric authentication, which might not be as secure.
The TechLife Pad Plus 12 LTE is a well-rounded and highly competitive offering in the budget tablet category. Its large 12-inch 2K display, capable MediaTek Helio G91 processor with ample RAM, generous storage, quad speakers, and reliable 4G LTE connectivity make it an excellent value proposition. While it has some limitations, such as average camera performance in low light, the absence of a 3.5mm audio jack, and a slower charging speed compared to higher-end devices, these are largely acceptable trade-offs given its price point, which is typically under PHP 10,000 (around $170 USD, as of June 2025).
It is particularly well-suited for students who need a device for online learning, research, and light productivity, as well as for families looking for an affordable tablet for media consumption, casual gaming, and video calls. The TechLife Pad Plus 12 LTE proves that you don’t need to spend a fortune to get a capable and enjoyable tablet experience.
TechLife Pad 12″ LTE versus realme Pad 2 11.5″ LTE
The Techlife Pad 12″ is the cousin of the realme Pad 2 LTE. They are like siblings when you look at the product side by side. The TechLife Pad 12″ is slightly bigger than the realme Pad 2 11.5″ by just 1/2 of an inch. But you can actually distinguish the difference with the weight as weight.
Although the realme Pad 2 has a built-in 8360mah battery versus the 8000mah of the TechLife Pad 12, both of them have good performance when it comes to watching videos.
So finally, realme makes TechLife Pad 12″ LTE your everyday driver for people on the go!
