As iPads get pricier, Motorola’s Pad 70 Pro arrives as a solid option… just not for US buyers yet

If you don’t know about Apple’s recent price hike, which affected all the products in its lineup except the iPhone and Apple Watch (for now), you’ve got to be living under some sort of a rock. The revision made all the iPads much more expensive. 

Motorola, however, has just launched a 13-inch tablet that actually sounds good on paper. It’s called the Moto Pad 70 Pro, and it costs around $440 for the baseline model. The catch, however, is that the device isn’t available in the US yet. 

So what does the Moto Pad 70 Pro actually pack?

The Pad 70 Pro is built around a 13-inch 3.5K display that supports a super-smooth 144Hz refresh rate (likely for select apps), 800-nit peak brightness, and Dolby Vision. However, the company hasn’t confirmed whether the panel is LCD or AMOLED. 




Under the hood, the Android tablet is powered by the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 with up to 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of storage. It’s the chipset that adds some serious CPU and GPU horsepower to the device. Buyers can also expand the storage via an SD card (up to 2TB). 

At launch, the tablet ships with Android 16 with Motorola’s barely visible Hello UI on top. Furthermore, the company is committed to providing two generations of major operating system updates and security patches through 2030, which is great as well. 

What else does it bring to the table?

I really like how the device packs four JBL speakers (with Dolby Atmos). Rounding out the specifications are a 10,200 mAh battery with 45W wired charging, a 68W adapter in the box, and a Moto Pen Pro stylus included at no extra cost. The Snap-On keyboard, however, is sold separately. 

Wireless connectivity is sorted with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.0 as well. Now, coming to the disappointing part. The Moto Pad 70 Pro costs around $440 for the baseline variant with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, and around $476 for the one with 256GB of storage. 

With the baseline iPad now starting at $449 in the United States, the Moto Pad 70 Pro sounds like a great option to me. Given that it’s a rebadged version of the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro Gen 2, it might also arrive in the US. I’m just wondering when, since we haven’t seen any FCC listings come up recently.