Moto Pad 2026 Is Motorola's First Tablet In 15 Years—Can It Challenge The iPad?
Remember the Motorola Xoom tablet much? Yeah, neither do I, but that was 15 years ago—an eternity in the land of technology. Fast forward to now, however, and Motorola has decided to re-enter the American tablet market with the Moto Pad 2026. Based on the numbers, it's decidedly mid, but that's okay, actually.
Alongside the updated Moto G Stylus, Motorola also dropped a $249.99 Moto Pad, which features an 11-inch 2.5K display with a 90Hz refresh rate, aiming for a sweet spot of resolution and smoothness while keeping the price down. Encased in a rounded-edge, all-metal chassis finished in Pantone Bronze Green (for now), the device looks more premium than its mid-range price point suggests.
Under the hood, the Moto Pad is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 6300 5G chipset (the same chip Motorola plopped into its Moto G budget phone) paired with 8GB RAM and 128GB of storage expandable up to 2TB via microSD. Obviously, the hardware won’t challenge higher-end tablets in raw benchmarks, but at least the Dimensity 6300 has proven to be a pretty smooth sailor in the Moto G Power 2026.
The tablet also features Motorola’s Smart Connect suite, which allows for a seamless workflow between the tablet, Motorola smartphones, and Windows PCs. This includes shared clipboards, app mirroring, and the ability to use the tablet as a secondary display. It also ships with Android 16, although Motorola isn't clear about the support duration. Previous Motorola tablets typically received up to two major Android OS upgrades and three years of security updates.
Elsewhere, the tablet is equipped with Dolby Atmos-capable quad speakers, built-in Google Circle to Search, plus a capcacious 7,040mAh battery that the company claims is good for up to 12 hours of continuous video streaming, with support for 20W charging. There are visible pogo pins on the side of the device, possibly hinting at accessories in the future, such as a dedicated keyboard or docks.
The Motorola Moto Pad 2026 will be available starting April 30, sold exclusively through T-Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile. The official announcement also states that the tablet can be purchased directly on Motorola's site for $249.99, although we're quite sure Magenta customers will get steeper bundled discounts. At this price point, the Moto Pad is up against other Android slabs like the Galaxy Tab A9+ 5G and Tab A11+ 5G. Notably, the MSRP is half the regular price of Apple's iPad mini (A17 Pro), which is on sale for $474 at Amazon (5% off).
