IQOO Officially Launches the Pad Pro 8.8 in China as a More Affordable Alternative to the Pad Ultra

Following a series of teases earlier this month regarding a more budget-friendly sibling for its popular compact gaming tablet, iQOO has officially lifted the veil on the iQOO Pad Pro 8.8 in the Chinese market. Launched alongside the new iQOO Neo12 smartphone, the Pad Pro 8.8 retains a substantial portion of the high-end hardware and enthusiast-focused features that made its bigger sibling, the iQOO Pad Ultra, an intriguing device for mobile gamers. Most notably, the new compact tablet manages to preserve signature performance hardware, including an active internal cooling system, while stepping down to a slightly different processing configuration to achieve a much more accessible price point for consumers.

The newly announced iQOO Pad Pro 8.8 arrives equipped with an 8.8-inch AMOLED display featuring a resolution of 2304 by 1440 pixels. Designed with competitive mobile gaming in mind, the panel supports an impressive 165Hz refresh rate in supported gaming titles. Furthermore, the display boasts a 1,600-nit full-screen brightness alongside a peak local brightness of up to 4,500 nits, ensuring exceptional visibility even under harsh lighting conditions. Underneath its sleek exterior, the tablet is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, which works in tandem with iQOO’s proprietary Q3 dedicated gaming chip. This hardware combination is supported by up to 16GB of LPDDR5X Ultra RAM and up to 512GB of high-speed UFS 4.1 internal storage.

For multimedia capture and video communication, the device incorporates a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera capable of recording video in crisp 4K resolution, complemented by an 8-megapixel front-facing camera for selfies and video calls. Powering the entire system is a robust 9,020 mAh battery that supports 66W fast wired charging. On the software front, the tablet runs on OriginOS 7 HD, which is built upon the Android 17 operating system. Despite packing heavy-duty performance components and a large battery, the iQOO Pad Pro 8.8 maintains a remarkably slim profile, measuring just 5.74mm in thickness and tipping the scales at 298 grams, all housed within a premium metal unibody construction.

To ensure sustained peak performance during intense gaming sessions, the tablet features the advanced Ice Dome cooling system. This sophisticated thermal architecture combines a dedicated 30x30x3.5mm active cooling fan with dual vapor chambers and copper fins, culminating in a total heat dissipation area of 23,253 square millimeters. The built-in fan offers users three distinct speed modes to balance cooling efficiency and acoustics. Meanwhile, the integrated Q3 gaming chip takes charge of advanced visual features such as hardware-accelerated ray tracing, image upscaling, and frame interpolation in compatible games, significantly elevating the visual fidelity and fluidity of mobile entertainment.

Audio and tactile feedback have also received careful attention, with the tablet featuring symmetrical dual speakers, dual X-axis linear vibration motors for immersive haptics, and eye-catching RGB lighting integrated into the back panel. Connectivity options are similarly modern, including support for Wi-Fi 7 and a versatile USB 3.2 Gen 2 port. Software enhancements further bolster the gaming experience by introducing a built-in PC game emulator, game livestreaming capabilities, and a 4K in-game screenshot camera, though certain advanced features require configurations featuring at least 12GB of RAM. For users looking to expand their setup, iQOO offers dedicated accessories—including a magnetic grip kit and the iQOO Stretch Handle G1 controller—both of which are sold separately.

When compared directly to its high-end counterpart, the iQOO Pad Ultra, the Pad Pro shares several key physical and visual specifications. Both devices feature the exact same display panel, battery capacity, camera hardware, physical thickness, and overall weight. The primary divergences lie beneath the surface. While the premium Pad Ultra is driven by the more powerful Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 processor and the newer Q4 gaming chip, the Pad Pro relies on the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and the Q3 chip.

Memory and storage configurations also highlight the positioning of the two models. The Pad Pro starts its lineup at 8GB of RAM and caps out at 512GB of storage, whereas the Pad Ultra begins at 12GB of RAM and extends up to a massive 1TB of storage. More importantly, these internal adjustments translate to significant savings for the consumer. While a 12GB RAM and 256GB storage configuration of the Pad Ultra currently retails for CNY 6,499—roughly equivalent to $973 USD—the equivalent setup for the newly introduced iQOO Pad Pro costs CNY 4,699, which translates to approximately $703 USD, marking a substantial price drop for comparable everyday performance.

The iQOO Pad Pro is offered in two distinct colorways: blue and gray. Pricing varies depending on the chosen memory and storage tier. The base-level model featuring 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage starts at CNY 4,299, or about $643 USD. Stepping up to the 16GB RAM and 256GB storage version brings the price to CNY 5,099, roughly $763 USD. A configuration boasting 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage will set buyers back CNY 5,399, or approximately $808 USD. Finally, the top-tier model equipped with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage is priced at CNY 5,799, which is about $868 USD. As has been the case with the Pad Ultra, company representatives have not yet confirmed whether the iQOO Pad Pro will see an international release outside of the Chinese market.