This year’s digital learning and work from home situation has pushed Huawei to continuously provide alternatives that would best fit our needs. With the absence of Google Mobile Services, Huawei still steps up its game with their latest Huawei MatePad. This newest midrange tablet features a 10.4-inch screen, four Harman Kardon-tuned speakers, 7,250mAh battery, and Kirin 810 processor.
Design and build
The slim and sleek 10.4-inch Huawei MatePad comes in only one color—Midnight Grey which actually looks very similar in color to the MatePad T8’s Deepsea Blue. It weighs 450g which is relatively light compared to other tablets of the same size.
The MatePad sports a quad-channel speaker system on its left and right. Now you don’t have to worry about blocking the speaker with your hand. On top of that, it also certified by Harmon Kardon. Having four speakers, it enables the audio output to come with deeper bass and higher volume while allowing sound to travel for longer distances. It can be quite overwhelming having this power on your palm so make sure to always listen at a good volume.
On its top, it has quad-microphones that can isolate external noise from your speaking voice to ensure clarity. It can pick audio as far as 5 meters away but don’t expect it to have high quality at that distance. It doesn’t have a headphone jack but it does come with a Type-C to headphone jack adapter.
Display
Up front, IPS display features Huawei’s FullView DNA giving it an 84% screen-to-body ratio, thanks to its narrow bezels. It supports a resolution of up to 2000 x 1200. It also supports Huawei’s proprietary Huawei ClariVu Display Enhancement Technology. A solution designed to boost image and video quality, it leverages advanced algorithms to enhance detail and in real time.
This panel also uses TÜV Rheinland-certified Low Blue Light when you enable Eye Comfort mode, so even a long session won’t affect your eye health. It also offers eBook mode that mimics eInk by adjusting the contrast and brightness, giving you a simple black and white look.
Some features we tend to ignore on phones come useful as a tablet—specifically the Multi-Window that enables multitasking.
*The MatePad supports Huawei M-Pencil that delivers a natural writing experience on Nebo for Huawei and Huawei Memo.
Smart features
The MatePad supports the Multi-screen Collaboration feature that facilitates seamless cross-device navigation and data transfer.
Kids can also freely enjoy the MatePad with the Kids Corner. Parents will find several features, such as distance alerts, unrestricted apps, customize desktop, content management, and more for them to tailor the tablet experience for their children.
For its security features, it doesn’t have a fingerprint scanner but at least it has a functional facial recognition that can quickly unlock the tablet even in unfavorable lighting.
Camera
The MatePad has 8MP resolution for both front and back cameras. The front-facing camera features a wide-angle camera with 107° FOV and is probably more important here as it’s used for video calls from various apps such as Huawei MeeTime and Zoom. [try google meet] The photos appeared a bit grainy and the colors were a bit dull, although I didn’t really have much expectations with it in the first place as I won’t be using it to take most of my photos.
It also has an exclusive FollowCam which is only available on Huawei MeeTime. It features Smart View, can trace objects and crop and/or resize with respect to the number of objects on screen. The Spotlight Mode tracks your motion and gives it the spotlight treatment. Lastly, the Camera Gestures makes you pan the camera with a grab gesture.
Under the hood
The MatePad is powered by a Kirin 810 chipset that includes an octa-core CPU with two high-performance A76 cores and six A55 efficiency cores, running at a base clock of 2.27GHz to support even the most intensive multi-tasking demands. It is paired with Mali-G52 GPU that supports GPU Turbo 3.0, with which the chipset can effortlessly support speedy app launches, app switching and graphically-taxing 3D games.
The Kirin 810 includes a Da Vinci NPU to provide cutting-edge AI capabilities, whether it is scene recognition, video collage generation, object identification or calorie counting,
The MatePad is expected to provide a long battery life with its 7,250mAh battery. Its expected to last 12 hours playing local 1080p videos or browsing on the Internet. The only downside is it only supports 10W charge, giving a total of 4 hours and 15 minutes charging time from 0-100.
Despite the lack of Google Mobile Services, the AppGallery and Petal Search provide another way to get all your preferred apps.
Verdict
For a midrange tablet featuring a 10.4-inch screen, a powerful processor, and Harman Kardon speakers for the price of P20,990, it’s actually really worth it. Only room for improvement are the extremely long charging time and perhaps the camera. Other than that, it’s a pretty capable tablet.
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