The 12.2-inch, 2.8K OLED display (2800 x 1840 pixels) with a 144Hz refresh rate offers excellent visibility even under harsh sunlight
2026 is the new 2016. Remember the phrase with the hashtag #BringBack 2016 that broke the internet at the beginning of this year and sparked a wave of posts across social media? Asus seems to have caught up with this trend slightly later in the year with the launch of its first Android tablet since 2016. The world has changed considerably since Asus launched a mainstream tablet range – the ZenPad series, about a decade ago when Dubsmash and Vine were at their peak.The tablet segment has seen demand taper with India’s tablet market registering a steep 21.7 per cent fall in 2025 compared to 2024, according to IDC. The 2026 numbers don’t look any better, with Omdia reporting a 10 per cent decline in global tablet shipments for Q2 2026. Consumers are holding on to their tablets much longer and research from across the world has confirmed what we already knew: media and entertainment is the primary reason why we buy tablets. This is why Asus’s comeback tablet – the Asus Pad T3201 (we wish Asus used the hiatus to come up with a name that’s easier to recall) – might be on to something with its headline feature.DisplayWe’ll say this straight off the bat: the Asus Pad T3201 is one of the best tablet displays out there. It’s a showcase for Tandem OLED screens. In simple terms this advanced display technology stacks multiple organic light-emitting layers each other instead of leaning on a single layer. This allows Tandem OLED displays to achieve higher brightness with improved power efficiency. The 12.2-inch, 2.8K OLED display (2800 x 1840 pixels) with a 144Hz refresh rate offers excellent visibility even under harsh sunlight. However, you’re more likely to watch your favourite show in a dimly lit environment though.The punchy colours create the same immersive effect as a larger screen. I experienced this while watching The Bombing of Pan Am 103 on Netflix, where this display captured the mood of the show and the diverse landscapes from Scotland to New York City to Malta. This display hits an HDR peak brightness of 2000 nits, a figure not normally associate even with premium tablets. The dual-layer OLED display with Widevine L1 certification allows you to stream HDR content on apps like Netflix. My fellow passenger on the flight might have been drawn by the bright colours of the display and tuned in to watch an entire episode of the show (thanks to the subtitles). Flight etiquette prevented me from switching from headphone mode to speaker mode. The quad-speaker tuned for Dolby Atmos 360-degree sound complements this display. I could hear dialogues very clearly even on lower volume levels.
