Affordable and tablet rarely go hand-in-hand—especially when LTE is involved. It’s not often you see tablets priced this low. But here comes the TechLife Pad Lite 8": an 8-inch tablet with LTE cellular support, a removable kickstand, and a price tag under Php 5,000.
Design
At first glance, I wasn’t too impressed. It’s small—barely bigger than my hand—and those thick bezels are hard to ignore. But as it turns out, they ended up being pretty useful (more on that later).
The body is made entirely of plastic, including the back and sides. In portrait mode, you’ll find the speaker grilles at the bottom and the USB-C charging port at the top. But since this tablet is clearly meant to be used in landscape, that port ends up on the lower left corner, which helps reduce cable interference while charging.
There’s a screw-in plug at the back that sticks out about the same as the camera bump. That’s where you attach the removable kickstand, which screws directly into the body. It’s a useful accessory—letting you angle the tablet on a desk for watching videos or typing with a Bluetooth keyboard.
As the name suggests, the TechLife Pad Lite 8 is super lightweight. Honestly, it feels lighter than my phone, which is kind of wild.
You also get expandable storage via a microSD card slot. I added a 32GB card just to be safe, considering it only has 64GB of built-in storage. There’s also a SIM slot for LTE.
As for LTE, I couldn’t test data speeds since I only have an eSIM, but performance over Wi-Fi was reliable enough for everyday use. It’s only 4G, but given the price, it’s hard to expect 5G.
Display and sound
You get an 8-inch 1280x800px IPS panel with a 90Hz refresh rate, and for its price range, it’s decent. Brightness is surprisingly good—I often found myself turning it down. Color reproduction is also passable, and I didn’t feel the need to tweak anything out of the box.
YouTube maxes out at 720p, and that’s fine given the screen size. It’s still bigger than most phones, so if you prefer watching content on a larger screen, this works well.
As I do, you’ll likely use this propped up on a table, which helps make the lower resolution less noticeable. At a regular viewing distance, it’s actually quite watchable.
Now back to those thick bezels—they’re actually a good thing here. Since the Pad Lite 8 is small, edge-to-edge bezels would force your thumbs onto the screen. With the thicker bezels, your thumbs have a resting place without blocking your view.
The speakers on this get pretty loud, but sound quality isn’t its strong suit. It does have stereo speakers, but strangely, both are bottom-firing. This kind of defeats the purpose of having two speakers for a proper left-right stereo experience when watching videos.
Performance
Out of the box, performance was sluggish—but once setup was done, the TechLife Pad Lite 8 became surprisingly usable. There are some lags and load times, but nothing frustrating if you keep your expectations in check.
In fact, I wrote this review using Google Docs on the tablet itself, paired with a Bluetooth keyboard. It handled the setup just fine.
Browsing and YouTube worked well, with occasional stutters but nothing deal-breaking. It’s not fast—but it’s not painfully slow either. It’s... okay. And honestly, that's enough at this price point.
I also tested Call of Duty: Mobile, which ran on low settings. It's playable, but not something I’d want to use long-term for gaming.
One downside: Netflix wouldn’t install, which is a bit of a letdown. So for now, you’ll have to stick to YouTube or other streaming platforms that work.
Cameras
You get a basic setup: a 5MP rear and 5MP front camera. Don’t expect impressive shots—photos come out noisy even in decent lighting. But to be fair, this isn’t made for photography.
It’s more for scanning documents or attending video calls, and for that, it works. It’s not pretty, but it gets the job done.
There’s a noticeable shift toward magenta in both the front and rear cameras, so it’s worth noting if you’re sensitive to color accuracy.
Battery and Charging
As a media-focused device, battery life was solid. With light to moderate use—mostly for YouTube at night—I got around two days before needing a charge. Keep in mind, I still use my phone and laptop for most tasks, so the tablet was more of a secondary device.
Charging is only 10W, and it comes with one of the smallest chargers I’ve ever owned. Charging the 6,000mAh battery took about 2.5 hours, which is slow, but expected at this price.
TechLife Pad Lite 8” Specs:
- Processor: Unisoc T606
- RAM: 4GB (with expansion)
- Storage: 64GB (expandable via microSD)
- Display: 8-inch, 1280x800px, 90Hz IPS
- Cameras: 5MP rear, 5MP front
- Battery: 6,000mAh, 10W charging
- OS: Android 15
Final Thoughts
As surprising as it may sound, I might actually keep this tablet for myself. It’s light, portable, and just convenient to have around. I've found myself reaching for this whenever I have a light snack or washing dishes just to catch up on some YouTube videos.
While it won’t replace a laptop or a flagship phone, it’s a solid, budget-friendly companion for media, light work, or school tasks.
For anyone considering it as a tablet for school or online classes, it could work—especially with LTE and expandable storage. As long as the workload isn’t too demanding, it gets the job done.
The TechLife Pad Lite 8" is priced at Php 4,999. At that cost, it also makes a great, practical gift that won’t break the bank.
Even better, TechLife launched it with an introductory price of Php 3,799. So, keep an eye out for future sales—you might just score an even better deal.