Huawei MatePad Pro review: Top-tier Android tablet with an app-chilles heel
The Android pill market is on life support, however there are still a couple of holdouts that refuse to wave the white flag. One of the brands at the forefront of the charge is Huawei, which has dominated the mid- and entry-level tiers with reasonably priced tablets, while also sometimes testing the waters with a higher-spec slate.
With the MatePad Professional, Huawei is taking the flagship pill area critically. Is the MatePad Pro the iPad Pro killer that Android followers have been waiting for?
That is Android Authority’s Huawei MatePad Professional assessment.
Huawei MatePad Professional evaluation: The large image
While Huawei has dabbled with high-end tablets with its M collection, the MatePad Pro is the primary to bear the “Mate” brand. This can be a firm statement of intent as the Shenzhen firm traditionally reserves the moniker for its elite merchandise, such as the Mate smartphone series and MateBook laptop computer line. Along with a Wi-Fi-only MatePad Pro mannequin, Huawei additionally presents an LTE variant and a 5G mannequin.
With only a few rivals in the Android area, and Chrome OS tablets barely getting out of first gear, the MatePad Pro’s only actual competition from inside the Android world is the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 — the most effective Android tablets up to now.
Greatest Android tablets (November 2019)
In fact, the actual goal to beat is Apple. The perennial market leader has an iron grip on the premium tablet market and Huawei faces an uphill battle if it needs to utterly usurp the Cupertino big’s ever-popular iPad Pro series — particularly with the US trade ban proscribing its access to Google Cellular Providers.
The Huawei MatePad Professional worth begins from £499 in the UK and €549 in Europe (~$593). It's going to go on sale by way of Huawei’s Online Retailer from Might 8.
How is the design?
Huawei went all out with the design of the MatePad Pro and while it doesn’t stray too far from the large slab of metallic with an enormous display blueprint, there are a number of tweaks right here that separate it from the pack.
The MatePad Professional comes in 4 totally different colors. The Forest Inexperienced and Orange colorways come with a vegan leather-based back, while the Midnight Gray (examined) and Pearl White models go for a fiberglass chassis paired with an aluminum body.
Whichever you go for, the MatePad Professional seems and seems like a premium pill. It’s 10g lighter than the 2020 iPad Professional (11-inch) and the load distribution is spot on.
The 10.Eight-inch display adopts the punch-hole selfie digital camera design discovered on most of 2020’s top smartphones, including Huawei’s own P40 series.
The punch-hole display helps accommodate the tablet’s industry-leading 90% screen-to-body ratio, which simply beats out the iPad Professional (~82.9%) and Tab S6 (~82.5%). I discovered the digital camera hole was sufficiently small to go unnoticed throughout everyday use.
The MatePad Pro seems and seems like a premium tablet.
In any other case, the LCD QHD panel (2,560 x 1,600) is colorful and gets lots shiny. It may possibly’t match the 120Hz refresh rate discovered on the iPad Pro or the vibrancy of Samsung’s AMOLED panels, however I didn’t have any complaints general.
The only design drawback I've is the minimal variety of safety options. With no fingerprint sensor, you’re left with a standard password or PIN, in addition to face unlock, although this is software-based.
What’s efficiency like?
The MatePad Professional is powered by Huawei’s customized Kirin 990 processor, complete with a dual NPU and 6GB RAM as normal (8GB for the 5G models). We already know Huawei’s prime SoC is a succesful performer and that holds true for the MatePad Pro. Animations are clean, RAM management is impressive, and it handles 3D gaming with no hiccups.
Learn more: Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 vs Kirin 990 vs Exynos 990: How do they compare?
On the storage front, the base Wi-Fi model comes with 128GB storage which matches the iPad Pro and Galaxy Tab S6. If you need more memory there’s a 256GB variant, or you'll be able to add an additional 256GB by way of an expandable storage slot. Sadly, you’ll want to purchase one among Huawei’s proprietary (and fairly expensive) Nano Memory cards as an alternative of a daily MicroSD card.
Among the best things going for the MatePad Professional is battery life. Huawei squeezed an enormous 7,250mAh cell into its flagship pill. The tightly-optimized power management of the twin NPU and the much less power-hungry LCD show mix to deliver unimaginable endurance. I managed to squeeze two days out of it beneath heavy use. Even when stress testing the pill with a video on loop at medium brightness, it took just over 14 hours earlier than lastly hitting zero.
The MatePad Pro is a battery life champion that retains going and going and going.
Getting back to 100% can also be a breeze with help for up to 40W fast charging, although you solely get a 20W charger within the field. The MatePad Professional additionally helps 7.5W reverse charging — a primary for a tablet — for shortly juicing up your Huawei smartphone or another equipment with wireless charging.
As with the top iPad and Samsung tablets, you gained’t find a headphone jack on the MatePad Professional, however you do get a quad-channel stereo speaker setup tuned by Harman Kardon. As impressive as that sounds on paper, I found that whereas the audio system can get incredibly loud, the sound was flat and muddy regardless of the quantity degree.
In a wierd case for mobile photography pioneers Huawei, the MatePad Professional opts for a single 13MP lens. It’s not terrible, however it has a tendency to oversaturate colours and images lack element.
The selfie digital camera fares better when it comes to quality, but as a result of the punch-hole is off-center it’s extremely awkward to take a shot face-on or maintain your feed central on a video call regardless of the display orientation.
What else does the Huawei MatePad Professional do?
Like most leading tablets, the Huawei MatePad Pro might be paired with a keyboard case and stylus for higher productivity — each bought individually.
I’ll be blunt: the Sensible Magnetic Keyboard case isn’t great. It’s comparable in design to Apple’s folio keyboard covers in that it’s a magnetic cover with two viewing angles and no trackpad.
Sadly, the furthest back you possibly can place the display is ~60 levels, which continues to be fairly an upright angle for a display and keyboard, particularly in case you’re tall. There’s also an excessive amount of area between the keys and the travel is sort of shallow.
Associated: Huawei Mate XS review: Know when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em
The M-Pencil is a special story solely. The Bluetooth stylus is accurate and cozy to carry, although like the keyboard — and unlike the Galaxy Tab S6’s included S Pen — it’s an non-compulsory additional. There’s no storage for the M-Pencil within the pill or the duvet, however it does connect magnetically to the highest of the tablet where it may be recharged.
The rest of the MatePad Pro’s tips come by way of Huawei’s EMUI software on prime of Android 10. EMUI 10 is one of the best iteration of the Android pores and skin but and Huawei has baked in some useful features that transition over from its smartphones and laptops.
As well as multi-window help for up to two apps and a floating third window and App Multiplier (which may double up one app into two home windows so you'll be able to perform two features directly), the MatePad Pro additionally supports Huawei Share. For those with Huawei telephones operating EMUI 10, this allows you to mirror your smartphone’s display on the pill for sharing content, dragging and dropping information, and more.
It’s a novel function that expands on other continuum-style functionality between units. It additionally makes the MatePad Professional a sweeter prospect for users already committed to Huawei’s hardware and software ecosystem.
What's the app experience like on the Huawei MatePad Pro?
Let’s speak concerning the elephant within the room: the shortage of Google apps, the Play Store, and Google Cellular Providers because of the continued US commerce ban.
We’ve coated the state of affairs at length right here at Android Authority, however the MatePad Professional is a singular case. Huawei’s smartphones can, to some extent, survive with out GMS help as the cameras and the precise telephone part of its phones are virtually solely unaffected. That’s not the case with tablets, that are defined by their productiveness and leisure suites. For these issues, you need apps.
Even without the Play Store, the MatePad Professional can run plenty of apps. You just need to hunt them down first.
So, can you employ the Huawei MatePad Professional like some other tablet for watching films, writing paperwork, enjoying video games, and extra, even with out Google’s backing? The trustworthy answer is sure, but only with some gargantuan caveats.
Your start line for any apps past the preloaded basics is the Huawei App Gallery. Take a look at our App Gallery review for a full rundown of its strengths and shortcomings, however the crucial takeaway is that it doesn’t host an enormous variety of the preferred apps you’ll find on the Play Store or Apple’s App Store.
Huawei’s Play Store various has gotten better, nevertheless it’s the apps that rely
Putting in a third-party app retailer like APKPure or the Amazon App Store helps fill in some blanks, although it’s removed from an ideal answer. For instance, while the Amazon-owned Twitch is readily available from its personal app retailer and appeared to work simply advantageous in my testing, I was all the time greeted with a message on startup warning me that it gained’t run with out Google Play providers. That will get previous.
The opposite workaround is Huawei’s Telephone Clone app which copies non-App Gallery apps over from your telephone. You possibly can’t get each app this manner, however I managed to transfer over the vast majority of apps and video games from my Pixel 4 XL with none problem. The draw back to this technique is the shortage of automated updates and the truth that whereas many apps might be installed, there are various which nonetheless require parts of Google’s framework to operate at full functionality — or to work at all. To varying levels, this impacts any app or recreation that uses Firebase for notifications, Google Drive for backups, Google Location Providers for location monitoring, Widevine DRM for films, and the SafetyNet API.
Energy users who're savvy and prepared enough to use these workarounds will find that it’s not all doom and gloom. Throughout my testing I managed to put in and run Spotify, BBC iPlayer, in addition to a bunch of games, and even the Xbox Game Streaming app. Film and TV streaming apps Disney Plus and Amazon Prime Video additionally work, though you'll be able to’t stream in HD. In the meantime, important productiveness apps like Microsoft Workplace, Slack, Asana, and Zoom all ran effective after downloading them by way of third-party sources or Telephone Clone.
There are, nevertheless, some insurmountable hurdles that may forestall me from utilizing this as my main tablet or laptop alternative. On the media aspect, Netflix solely works if you will discover a selected APK for an older model of the app and even then will only stream in sub-HD quality identical to many other video streaming apps because of the aforementioned lack of Widevine certification. In contrast to Netflix — which gained’t work at all in Huawei’s browser, Chrome (which does principally work in any other case), or another third-party browser I tested — YouTube runs completely superb in a browser. Nevertheless, with out the YouTube app, I couldn’t forged to my Chromecast or Nvidia Shield TV.
The MatePad Professional simply cannot match the app availability of other top-tier tablets.
The final, far more essential omission I confronted was G Suite incompatibility. Android Authority, like an enormous number of other companies, makes use of G Suite for organization, communication, analytics, and rather more. The vast majority of that functionality is totally unusable on the MatePad Professional.
Is it attainable to take pleasure in using a pill without Google providers? Completely, however you’ll must be ready to give up some time and potential performance to get to that point.
Huawei MatePad Pro: Specs
| & | Huawei MatePad Professional |
|---|---|
| Show | 10.8-inch IPS LCD 2560 × 1600 280ppi 90% screen-to-body ratio DCI-P3 |
| Processor | Kirin 990 |
| RAM | 6/8GB |
| Storage | 128/256GB UFS 3.zero |
| Battery | 7,250mAh 40W quick charging 15W wi-fi charging 7.5W reverse wi-fi charging |
| Cameras | Rear: 13MP, f/1.Eight aperture, PDAF Entrance: 8MP, f2.zero aperture |
| Security | Face unlock (software-based) No fingerprint sensor |
| Connections | Nano Memory card slot (up to 256GB) Nano SIM card slot (LTE/5G model solely) USB-C port |
| Networking | TD-LTE/ LTE FDD/TD-SCDMA/WCDMA/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA/CDMA2000/CDMA1X/EDGE/GPRS Wi-Fi: IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, 2.4 & 5GHz Bluetooth 5.1 |
| Operating System | Android 10 EMUI 10 |
| Audio | Four audio system Tuned by Harman Kardon No headphone jack |
| Dimensions and Weight | 246 x 159 x 7.2mm 460g |
| Colors | Midnight Gray, Pearl White, Forest Inexperienced, Orange |
| Equipment | M-Pencil (Not included) Sensible Magnetic Keyboard case (Not included) |
Huawei MatePad Professional assessment: Do you have to buy it?
- Huawei MatePad Professional (Wi-Fi only)
- 6GB RAM + 128GB storage — €549
- 8GB RAM + 256GB storage — €649
- Vegan Leather-based Edition with M-Pencil, 8GB RAM + 256GB storage — €749
- Huawei MatePad Pro (LTE)
- 6GB RAM + 128GB storage — €599
- 8GB RAM + 256GB storage — €699
- Huawei MatePad Professional (5G)
- 8GB RAM + 256GB storage — €799
- 8GB RAM + 512GB storage — €949
The Huawei MatePad Pro undercuts the Galaxy Tab S6 by €150 and the iPad Professional by a whopping €350. Within the UK, Huawei is offering a promotional deal for the bottom Wi-Fi model that comes with the M-Pencil and keyboard cowl all for £499.
In unusual circumstances, this type of pricing would put it in prime place because the reasonably priced flagship pill of selection. These aren't atypical circumstances, nevertheless.
While I did encounter some extra common gripes such as the mediocre audio, common cameras, and the shortage of a fantastic official keyboard cowl, as an entire hardware package deal the MatePad Pro is completely well worth the £499 asking worth.
Hardware isn’t all the things though, and whereas Huawei’s underlying software program package deal is sound, it’s finally hobbled by the shortage of Google providers and the knock-on impact that has on app availability and compatibility.
It’s a lottery whether or not or not an app you recurrently use on different Android or even iOS units will probably be useful on the MatePad Pro. That’s not a consideration you need to make with some other top-tier tablet.
If the app state of affairs is ever resolved, the MatePad Professional will probably be a no brainer.
You could possibly stay without Google’s apps like Gmail, YouTube, and Drive, however it’s very troublesome to wholeheartedly advocate a pill that may solely run Netflix in potato high quality.
If the US ban is ever reversed, the MatePad Pro can be a no brainer. Until then, anyone who isn’t already invested within the Huawei ecosystem should assume long and onerous at the execs and cons before parting with their cash.
That’s it for our MatePad Professional evaluate. Are you taken by Huawei’s prime pill? Tell us within the feedback.
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