Review of Huawei MatePad Pro Tablet

Good news everybody, it's sexy tablet time and today's sexy tablet is the fresh new Huawei MatePad Pro Paper Mate edition. This is a stunning premium tablet designed to be taken on the road with its remarkable paper mat display with m-pencil stylus support and the obligatory keyboard cover to turn it into a sort of laptop type thing. It looks like a proper cracker so let's whip it on at that. box and then through the wondrous magic of video editing we'll prance our way forward in time a couple of days and deliver my full early verdict. And for more on the latest and greatest tech please do plug subscribe and ding that notifications bell. Cheers! So what do you get stuffed in that box besides of course the Huawei MatePad Pro paper mat edition? Well you've got yourself one microfiber polishing cloth. not for sale. So don't just go immediately hoeing it on eBay, especially as that is luxuriously soft. Lovely. It's like a warm fuzzy kiss from a friendly badger. Frankly worth the price just for that. Now it looks like you might also get the keyboard case bundled in there, though mine came separately in my review model. You've also got yourself a 100W supercharge adapter. And I love how that is dual port, either USB-A or USB Type-C. And you've also got yourself a USB-A to Type-C charging cable. And that's it, kiddies, everything you'll find chucked in the box. First of all, from tit to tail, the MatePad Pro Paper Matte looks proper premium. It is a whopping great 12.2-inch tablet, but surprisingly lightweight. Huawei reckons it's the lightest ever. 12 inch tablet spaffed out by any company. Just 508 grams so certainly has less of a heft than even smaller rivals. You don't have to be a gym twat to be able to comfortably clutch it for an hour or two just while browsing the web, reading a book, whatever. And pretty ruddy skinny as well, just 5.5 mils apparently at its thinnest point. You do have a camera bump which ever so slightly juts out but yeah we're talking minimal impact here and certainly when the MatePad Pro paper mat is lying on its back on a desk or a table it doesn't wobble around too much at all. The MatePad Pro paper mat does have a metal finish it's constructed from a lightweight magnesium alloy which stretches around the edges and to the back and speaking of that arse end absolutely loving a bit of that apparently Huawei designed it to look and feel a bit like parchment it does have a silky matte finish as you can see there textured design which again sort of sees it catches the light But if you reckon this goldy finish is a bit much, where you can also grab the MatePad Pro Paper Matte Edition in black. So even though it is a 12 inch beast, it should slip quite happily into backpacks and briefcases and all that kind of stuff. And supremely skinny bezels surround that mighty display as well. Thankfully thumb intrusion doesn't seem to be an issue. So you can still comfortably clutch this thing and even if your thumb is poking a bit onto the screen as you can see there. Screen's still pleasantly responsive. It is Wi-Fi only. There is a bugger all SIM card slot on here. No memory card expandability for the storage either. Luckily, my review sample comes with 512 gigs, a full half a terabyte of this stuff. So it shouldn't be running out anytime soon. And of course, because it's a Huawei tablet, it is running. Harmony OS version 4.2, no Android type shenanigans on here so no Googley goodness. So don't expect any of Google's apps like Gmail, YouTube etc etc, it's all Huawei's version. So instead of the Play Store for instance you've got... app gallery for downloading stuff and yes if you're switching to HarmonyOS from Android you'll probably find that a few of your favorite apps are missing in action here. If there are any glaring gaps well at least you've got Petal Search so for instance you can search for good old Spotify and this will pop up some alternative installation methods so for instance we've got APK Pure here which is generally a dependable source. Gotta be a bit more careful when downloading APKs than just downloading apps directly from the likes of an app store. But thankfully the MatePad Pro will conduct a security scan and check for any dodgy business lurking within. So it's pretty quick and easy, not all these apps will work, unfortunately you'll find that some of them are a bit bulky or they just crash immediately but it's a great way of grabbing any bits that you can't find in that app gallery. Now Harmony OS has a fairly android-ish sort of vibe to it as well, you've got the Huawei equivalent of the Discover feed if you swipe right from the main desktop, swipe up to access all of your apps and if you swipe down from the very top of the screen you've got your notifications bar otherwise you're into the global search. And the settings menu as well in general mirrors Android quite closely with a few Huawei exceptions. The likes of Super Device which allows you to quickly hook up a bunch of Huawei goodies. And yes you've also got Huawei's AI assistant Celia who basically if you took Siri and hit her with a brick a few times you'd probably get Celia. And you absolutely need to change up this wallpaper as well it's a little bit dull. Oh, got random... Hello cat. No, maybe don't scratch your head on the camera. Oh, yeah, no, you're still kind of in the way, buddy. Yeah, that's your bat. Let's get the usual nerdy anime goodness on here. Bit of Attack on Titan style action. I think that'll do the job. And of course, as usual, you can run multiple apps at once on that mighty display. You got a good bit of floating window shenanigans if you want it. And that 12.2 inch OLED display is a bit of a... banger as well. Reasonably crisp visuals, 275 pixels per inch despite the fact it's a pretty spacious screen. You've got 10-bit colour support, pretty crispy contrast as it is an OLED panel and those colours are a bit muted on the default normal setting but you can Boost them up by switching to Vivid. Makes them a bit more poppy and punchy. But the real advantage here is that paper matte finish. This boasts a multi-layer matte coating which helps to reflect 99% of all light. And it's also anti-fingerprint so it doesn't get all smudgy. And this really is mightily impressive tech. So I'm now aiming the MatePad Pro Paper Matte Edition directly at my studio lights. Normally you would get a big bright... bold reflection of that light but as you can see you can barely even tell that it's aimed at those lights. You've got the bare minimum of reflection, the viewing angles are still fantastic as well and despite the multi-layer finish the visuals are crystal clear as well. You don't feel like you've suddenly developed cataracts and the brightness maxes out at around 2000 nits so between that and all of the paper matte display shenanigans you'll be able to comfortably use this thing outside even on the most supremely sunny day. Yeah it would certainly be ideal for a spot of reason as well just like those kindle jobbies. So your Huawei books have some pretty wild stuff on it, mated by twin alphas. Some highly professionally written stuff obviously. Naive mate of a werewolf submitting to the bear shifter, claimed by the werebear. Just want to notice a bit of a theme here. And you've got yourself a beefy speaker set up here as well, let's just boost up that volume. into that edge where I am quite easily confused and sometimes put my pants on backwards but seriously there's more edge 50 blows now than there are Baldwin brothers. So yeah that audio spaffed out by the speakers along the right and left edges of the MatePad Pro and when you bump that volume all the way up to the max levels clearly loud enough to hear what is going on in your YouTube video or whatever you're enjoying even if your family is having an absolute screaming fit in the background. Clarity stays nice and strong as well reasonably bassy too. And then you've got Huawei's Glide keyboard which you can use to convert the MatePad Pro into a laptop type situation and this uses Neolink technology to pair up. Just snap the tablet onto that keyboard and basically job done. Keys are a pretty good size and well spaced, just a couple of little iffy ones like for instance the apostrophe key here is a little bit narrow, the enter key is of course squished into a single row because the keys are a reasonable size. It's a comfortable board to type on, you've got a surprising amount of travel for just a cover keyboard and if you need to you can actually detach the MatePad Pro from the Glide keyboard and yet continue to use it thanks to that Neolink technology. And I also appreciate how Huawei has added this wee crevice to the Glide keyboard so you can actually just tuck away your mPencil stylus in there, hide it away when it's not in use and as you can see the stylus is again a Neolink device. pairs up in mere seconds and when you want to get all scribbly you can just pop it on out of that hole. Pretty good if you want to just bugger about on Huawei's Go Paint app for an hour or two, crafting masterpieces such as this. Yes you guessed correctly that is indeed a donkey, happy donkey in a field just doing donkey type stuff. And yeah this is why I became a tech YouTube twat instead of an artist. Anyone with actual creative talent will probably appreciate the fact that you get almost paper-like haptics when you're scribbling with the M-Pencil here on the MatePad Pro paper mat screen. These right here are going to be sunflowers, by the way, or not, because I'm just going to give up now. And as usual, Huawei has not disclosed which of its Kirin chipsets is actually powering the MatePad Pro paper mat edition, but let's test it out with some of the best games I can find on that Huawei app gallery. So this right here looks like a bit of a banger. It's called Gangster Crime. Looks like we've actually got a cutscene to kick things off as well. Quite rare for these games. Alright, I appear to have pulled into a petrol station. Oh, and I'm already being attacked for absolutely no reason. Dude, I just want to fill up. He's shooting at me. Not a good idea in a petrol station, mate. Well, yeah, that's what happens to you. Alright, we've got a bit more plot going on. I saw you already. Arrived! Come to visit me! After this commercial break. There's a switchblade just lying on the street there. Bit dangerous. I guess this is the guy who we have to visit. It's been a looong time. Yes, I'm glad to see you. How is it going? This sounds like proper gangster speak. Oh, another commercial break. Oh, Jesus Christ, and immediately being assaulted again. You need to be taught good manners, that is correct, sir. Why you scoundrel! I challenge you to fisticuffs at dawn. Shoot, shoot, shoot. Shoot them. Shoot them all. Can't see what's going on because of the bloody advert. There we go. Sorry, buddy. I think your fence might need mending. What am I doing? You're about to die. Watch ads and stay alive. Well, all I've done so far is watch ads, so you know what? No. Let's calm things down a bit with a bit of real car parking. You're nice and easy. Just roll it forwards. Oh, oh, oh. Yes! And Huawei has somehow managed to secrete a webcam in that dinky little top bezel there just above the screen. Perfect for video chat and skyping zooming type shenanigans. This can record you in 4k ultra HD resolution as well, although not the crispest visuals as usual from a tablet webcam especially when the lighting's a bit cack. You know the mic seems to do a pretty good job of picking up your voice and everything even if you're not right in front of the tablet. The only thing is that when you're on the old Glide keyboard the angle's not ideal so you want to get fairly close to the camera so it's not just like the top of your head that's showing. And yes, you do also have wide and ultra-wide angle shooters around the back end of the Huawei MatePad Pro for some reason. Not really sure why. As for the battery, well, Huawei has managed to stuff a 10,100 mAh capacity cell inside of that. And if you need to juice it up, well it's got 100 watt supercharged support as well as a bunga cable in it and in less than an hour it will be fully charged up even if it's completely drained. And there you have it my lovelies, that in a tasty wee nutshell is the fresh new Huawei MatePad Pro Paper Matte Edition and certainly if you want a tablet to use out and about, you happen to live in a sunny country, jammy gate, well it'll definitely do the job. The hardware is absolutely fantastic, of course the only restriction here is the fact you've got the Harmony OS setup so if you are a Google fan, you use a lot of Google apps and services then that's gonna suck. Anyway let us know what you think of the Huawei MatePad Pro Paper Matte Edition down in the comments below. Please do poke subscribe and ding the notifications bell for more on the latest and greatest tech and have yourselves a ruddy wonderful rest of the week. Cheers!

And for more on the latest and greatest tech please do plug subscribe and ding that notifications bell. Cheers! So what do you get stuffed in that box besides of course the Huawei MatePad Pro paper mat edition?

Well you've got yourself one microfiber polishing cloth. not for sale. So don't just go immediately hoeing it on eBay, especially as that is luxuriously soft. Lovely. It's like a warm fuzzy kiss from a friendly badger.

Frankly worth the price just for that. Now it looks like you might also get the keyboard case bundled in there, though mine came separately in my review model. You've also got yourself a 100W supercharge adapter. And I love how that is dual port, either USB-A or USB Type-C.

And you've also got yourself a USB-A to Type-C charging cable. And that's it, kiddies, everything you'll find chucked in the box. First of all, from tit to tail, the MatePad Pro Paper Matte looks proper premium. It is a whopping great 12.2-inch tablet, but surprisingly lightweight.

Huawei reckons it's the lightest ever. 12 inch tablet spaffed out by any company. Just 508 grams so certainly has less of a heft than even smaller rivals. You don't have to be a gym twat to be able to comfortably clutch it for an hour or two just while browsing the web, reading a book, whatever.

And pretty ruddy skinny as well, just 5.5 mils apparently at its thinnest point. You do have a camera bump which ever so slightly juts out but yeah we're talking minimal impact here and certainly when the MatePad Pro paper mat is lying on its back on a desk or a table it doesn't wobble around too much at all. The MatePad Pro paper mat does have a metal finish it's constructed from a lightweight magnesium alloy which stretches around the edges and to the back and speaking of that arse end absolutely loving a bit of that apparently Huawei designed it to look and feel a bit like parchment it does have a silky matte finish as you can see there textured design which again sort of sees it catches the light But if you reckon this goldy finish is a bit much, where you can also grab the MatePad Pro Paper Matte Edition in black.

So even though it is a 12 inch beast, it should slip quite happily into backpacks and briefcases and all that kind of stuff. And supremely skinny bezels surround that mighty display as well. Thankfully thumb intrusion doesn't seem to be an issue.

So you can still comfortably clutch this thing and even if your thumb is poking a bit onto the screen as you can see there. Screen's still pleasantly responsive. It is Wi-Fi only.

There is a bugger all SIM card slot on here. No memory card expandability for the storage either. Luckily, my review sample comes with 512 gigs, a full half a terabyte of this stuff.

So it shouldn't be running out anytime soon. And of course, because it's a Huawei tablet, it is running. Harmony OS version 4.2, no Android type shenanigans on here so no Googley goodness. So don't expect any of Google's apps like Gmail, YouTube etc etc, it's all Huawei's version.

So instead of the Play Store for instance you've got... app gallery for downloading stuff and yes if you're switching to HarmonyOS from Android you'll probably find that a few of your favorite apps are missing in action here. If there are any glaring gaps well at least you've got Petal Search so for instance you can search for good old Spotify and this will pop up some alternative installation methods so for instance we've got APK Pure here which is generally a dependable source.

Gotta be a bit more careful when downloading APKs than just downloading apps directly from the likes of an app store. But thankfully the MatePad Pro will conduct a security scan and check for any dodgy business lurking within. So it's pretty quick and easy, not all these apps will work, unfortunately you'll find that some of them are a bit bulky or they just crash immediately but it's a great way of grabbing any bits that you can't find in that app gallery. Now Harmony OS has a fairly android-ish sort of vibe to it as well, you've got the Huawei equivalent of the Discover feed if you swipe right from the main desktop, swipe up to access all of your apps and if you swipe down from the very top of the screen you've got your notifications bar otherwise you're into the global search. And the settings menu as well in general mirrors Android quite closely with a few Huawei exceptions.

The likes of Super Device which allows you to quickly hook up a bunch of Huawei goodies. And yes you've also got Huawei's AI assistant Celia who basically if you took Siri and hit her with a brick a few times you'd probably get Celia. And you absolutely need to change up this wallpaper as well it's a little bit dull.

Oh, got random... Hello cat. No, maybe don't scratch your head on the camera.

Oh, yeah, no, you're still kind of in the way, buddy. Yeah, that's your bat. Let's get the usual nerdy anime goodness on here.

Bit of Attack on Titan style action. I think that'll do the job. And of course, as usual, you can run multiple apps at once on that mighty display. You got a good bit of floating window shenanigans if you want it.

And that 12.2 inch OLED display is a bit of a... banger as well. Reasonably crisp visuals, 275 pixels per inch despite the fact it's a pretty spacious screen. You've got 10-bit colour support, pretty crispy contrast as it is an OLED panel and those colours are a bit muted on the default normal setting but you can Boost them up by switching to Vivid.

Makes them a bit more poppy and punchy. But the real advantage here is that paper matte finish. This boasts a multi-layer matte coating which helps to reflect 99% of all light. And it's also anti-fingerprint so it doesn't get all smudgy.

And this really is mightily impressive tech. So I'm now aiming the MatePad Pro Paper Matte Edition directly at my studio lights. Normally you would get a big bright...

bold reflection of that light but as you can see you can barely even tell that it's aimed at those lights. You've got the bare minimum of reflection, the viewing angles are still fantastic as well and despite the multi-layer finish the visuals are crystal clear as well. You don't feel like you've suddenly developed cataracts and the brightness maxes out at around 2000 nits so between that and all of the paper matte display shenanigans you'll be able to comfortably use this thing outside even on the most supremely sunny day. Yeah it would certainly be ideal for a spot of reason as well just like those kindle jobbies. So your Huawei books have some pretty wild stuff on it, mated by twin alphas.

Some highly professionally written stuff obviously. Naive mate of a werewolf submitting to the bear shifter, claimed by the werebear. Just want to notice a bit of a theme here. And you've got yourself a beefy speaker set up here as well, let's just boost up that volume.

into that edge where I am quite easily confused and sometimes put my pants on backwards but seriously there's more edge 50 blows now than there are Baldwin brothers. So yeah that audio spaffed out by the speakers along the right and left edges of the MatePad Pro and when you bump that volume all the way up to the max levels clearly loud enough to hear what is going on in your YouTube video or whatever you're enjoying even if your family is having an absolute screaming fit in the background. Clarity stays nice and strong as well reasonably bassy too.

And then you've got Huawei's Glide keyboard which you can use to convert the MatePad Pro into a laptop type situation and this uses Neolink technology to pair up. Just snap the tablet onto that keyboard and basically job done. Keys are a pretty good size and well spaced, just a couple of little iffy ones like for instance the apostrophe key here is a little bit narrow, the enter key is of course squished into a single row because the keys are a reasonable size. It's a comfortable board to type on, you've got a surprising amount of travel for just a cover keyboard and if you need to you can actually detach the MatePad Pro from the Glide keyboard and yet continue to use it thanks to that Neolink technology.

And I also appreciate how Huawei has added this wee crevice to the Glide keyboard so you can actually just tuck away your mPencil stylus in there, hide it away when it's not in use and as you can see the stylus is again a Neolink device. pairs up in mere seconds and when you want to get all scribbly you can just pop it on out of that hole. Pretty good if you want to just bugger about on Huawei's Go Paint app for an hour or two, crafting masterpieces such as this. Yes you guessed correctly that is indeed a donkey, happy donkey in a field just doing donkey type stuff.

And yeah this is why I became a tech YouTube twat instead of an artist. Anyone with actual creative talent will probably appreciate the fact that you get almost paper-like haptics when you're scribbling with the M-Pencil here on the MatePad Pro paper mat screen. These right here are going to be sunflowers, by the way, or not, because I'm just going to give up now. And as usual, Huawei has not disclosed which of its Kirin chipsets is actually powering the MatePad Pro paper mat edition, but let's test it out with some of the best games I can find on that Huawei app gallery.

So this right here looks like a bit of a banger. It's called Gangster Crime. Looks like we've actually got a cutscene to kick things off as well.

Quite rare for these games. Alright, I appear to have pulled into a petrol station. Oh, and I'm already being attacked for absolutely no reason. Dude, I just want to fill up. He's shooting at me.

Not a good idea in a petrol station, mate. Well, yeah, that's what happens to you. Alright, we've got a bit more plot going on. I saw you already. Arrived!

Come to visit me! After this commercial break. There's a switchblade just lying on the street there. Bit dangerous.

I guess this is the guy who we have to visit. It's been a looong time. Yes, I'm glad to see you. How is it going?

This sounds like proper gangster speak. Oh, another commercial break. Oh, Jesus Christ, and immediately being assaulted again. You need to be taught good manners, that is correct, sir. Why you scoundrel!

I challenge you to fisticuffs at dawn. Shoot, shoot, shoot. Shoot them.

Shoot them all. Can't see what's going on because of the bloody advert. There we go.

Sorry, buddy. I think your fence might need mending. What am I doing? You're about to die. Watch ads and stay alive.

Well, all I've done so far is watch ads, so you know what? No. Let's calm things down a bit with a bit of real car parking. You're nice and easy. Just roll it forwards.

Oh, oh, oh. Yes! And Huawei has somehow managed to secrete a webcam in that dinky little top bezel there just above the screen. Perfect for video chat and skyping zooming type shenanigans. This can record you in 4k ultra HD resolution as well, although not the crispest visuals as usual from a tablet webcam especially when the lighting's a bit cack.

You know the mic seems to do a pretty good job of picking up your voice and everything even if you're not right in front of the tablet. The only thing is that when you're on the old Glide keyboard the angle's not ideal so you want to get fairly close to the camera so it's not just like the top of your head that's showing. And yes, you do also have wide and ultra-wide angle shooters around the back end of the Huawei MatePad Pro for some reason. Not really sure why. As for the battery, well, Huawei has managed to stuff a 10,100 mAh capacity cell inside of that.

And if you need to juice it up, well it's got 100 watt supercharged support as well as a bunga cable in it and in less than an hour it will be fully charged up even if it's completely drained. And there you have it my lovelies, that in a tasty wee nutshell is the fresh new Huawei MatePad Pro Paper Matte Edition and certainly if you want a tablet to use out and about, you happen to live in a sunny country, jammy gate, well it'll definitely do the job. The hardware is absolutely fantastic, of course the only restriction here is the fact you've got the Harmony OS setup so if you are a Google fan, you use a lot of Google apps and services then that's gonna suck. Anyway let us know what you think of the Huawei MatePad Pro Paper Matte Edition down in the comments below. Please do poke subscribe and ding the notifications bell for more on the latest and greatest tech and have yourselves a ruddy wonderful rest of the week.

Cheers!

Transcript for:Review of Huawei MatePad Pro Tablet

Transcript for:
Review of Huawei MatePad Pro Tablet