“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.”
― Charles Dickens, ‘A Tale of Two Cities’
AFTER two years, millions of facemask-wearing students finally trooped back to school last week for their first face-to-face classes—armed with the knowledge they gained from modules, online classes, and, for many, the school of Tiktok.
And with it comes the return of the perennial problems of our educational system—overcrowding, classroom shortages, lack/damaged school facilities, overworked teachers, and now you can add “lingering Covid-19 fears” to the list.
But there’s also another problem being faced by the young students who enrolled this school year. According to a recent news report, nine out of 10 Filipino children are still struggling to read simple texts by age 10. That makes the Philippines one of the countries with the highest rates of “learning poverty” in the East Asia and Pacific region and among lower-middle-income economies, the World Bank said in a report.
Based on World Bank estimates, as many as 91 percent of children in the Philippines at late primary age “are not proficient in reading.” Compared with our neighbors in the region, the Philippine learning poverty rate was higher by 56.4 points and more than double the regional average of 34.5 percent.
Does that mean our Filipino students are becoming stupid? That’s highly unlikely, but when you’re leaving your child to the care of TikTok and its algorithms (not the educational ones), don’t expect them to bring medals. And when all they know are the viral challenges and they start using or saying “Forda Ferson,” it’s time to take their phones away and start throwing books at them (to read) instead.
REALME MAKES ITS MARK WITH THE PAD X
WHEN I was six, my aunt would buy me a book almost every month, and that’s what started my fascination for the written word. I remember reading 20 volumes of an encyclopedia (a gift from my mom) from cover to cover when I was in Grade 2 just because I was challenged by my teacher.
I know books have become quite expensive, but you can get a tablet instead, download lots of free books (some even interactive ones) and let them use it for schoolwork as well.
I would actually suggest giving a young kid a tablet instead of a smartphone as it would be more useful. The bigger screen will make it easier for them to read ebooks and browse web sites with useful content. Moreover, if you get one with pen support, pre-schoolers could even learn how to write and draw with it. And because it has a bigger screen than a smartphone, you can easily monitor what videos or sites they are watching.
The good news is that there’s an Android tablet for every price point and if you are planning on getting one that is future-proof you might want to consider the realme Pad X. This tablet supports Google Kids Space that offers a range of kid-friendly apps, videos and books all in a colorful, vibrant, and easy-to-navigate interface that makes reading and learning fun.
In celebration of the realme fanfest 2022 and the fifth consecutive quarter of being the Philippines’s No. 1 smartphone brand, realme expands its TechLife ecosystem portfolio with the realme Pad X.
The realme Pad X has a 10.95” 2K FullView Display, Dolby Atmos Quad Speakers, Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 5G Processor, and 8,340mAh Battery with 33W Dart Charge support. The 13MP AI Camera can be used for photos and the 105° Wide Front Camera is best for those online classes or even your Zoom meetings. The realme Pad X comes with a 6GB+128GB configuration, and 5G support for both sim card slots making it one of the few future-proof tablets because of this feature.
I’ve been using the realme Pad X for the past few weeks and I must say that this is the best tablet offering from the brand and well worth its P15,999 price tag.
Much like the realme Pad and realme Pad mini, the Pad X follows the same design principle and has a solid build, despite only having a polycarbonate body unlike the previous two.
The realme Pad X measures just 7.1mm and weighs well under 500 grams. This makes it still quite portable if you need to bring it to school or for remote work. The device ships with two speaker grills which are positioned on either side of the tablet’s frame. The power button is on top while the volume rocker, microphone, and magnetic pin for the realme Pencil are on the right side. There is no headphone jack or fingerprint scanner on the Pad X—meaning you’ll have to use either face unlock or PIN code for security.
For the display, the Pad X has a 10.95” 2K FullView Display offering a resolution of 2,000 x 1,200 pixels with a screen-to-body ratio of 84.6 percent. The screen is sharp with vibrant colors, and good viewing angles with a maximum brightness that can reach up to 450 Nits.
The only downside is that it only has a 60Hz panel, and if you’re used to the higher refresh rates on your smartphone, you might notice that the animations and browsing experience aren’t that smooth. Still, it doesn’t ruin the experience.
For audio, the quad Dolby Speaker setup on the realme Pad X is among the best ones you can find on a tablet at this price point. It’s loud, and produces crisp sounds with minimal distortion even with the volume at max. There’s also a decent amount of bass, which means you are guaranteed an immersive video-watching experience even without headphones or Bluetooth speakers.
As we always say, don’t buy a tablet for its cameras, as using it to take pictures is both awkward and difficult. But in case you do need to take a snap, the realme Pad X has a capable 13MP Al Camera with an aperture of f/2.2, focal length of 33.7mm, and x6 Zoom. For the front cam, the 8MP Al Camera has a 105° Wide Front Camera that can take a wider image for groufies, or if you need to fit in a few other people during video calls. Photo quality isn’t the best but given the right lighting conditions and the help of AI, photos are still usable. Worth mentioning is the Limelight feature of the front camera, which is supported on Google Meet, Zoom, and Google Duo. It automatically tracks the user’s face and crops them in and out as they move around the frame. The functionality works well with even five people in the frame.
The realme Pad X is also a capable alternative to a PC or laptop because of its Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 processor, a popular SoC which has been used by several other Android phones. This power-efficient Qualcomm processor comes with two Cortex-A78, and six Cortex-A55 Cores, and is paired with an Adreno 619 GPU. The 6GB RAM plus up to 5GB Dynamic RAM expansion allows for easy multi-tasking even when multiple apps are open in the background. All these make for an efficient multitasking performance so you can use it for entertainment and gaming, and at the same time be your ultimate productivity companion for school and work. Now that I’m also attending face-to-face events again, I’ve used the realme Pad X to blog, edit photos and videos, and create content, and I was able to do everything without wishing for my laptop.
Lastly, in terms of battery life, the realme Pad X has an 8,340mAh battery which is just right for its size. Never did I need to reach for the charger while using it throughout the day. It also comes with a 33W charger inside the box that should fully charge it in about two hours.
Like I said earlier, the realme Pad X is the best tablet offering from the brand, and it ticks all the right boxes when it comes to display, sound and performance. The only thing stopping me from telling you to get one now is because realme has yet to release their official keyboard and realme Pencil.
