Huawei MediaPad M5 Pro Review: A True Productivity Tool

The M5 Pro can be called a flagship tablet with its light-catch diamond-cut edges, a metal body, and antenna strips. You have 64GB of storage. And there is also a 4G version. The tablet comes with a USB-C to 3.5mm adapter, a quick charger, and a pen. However, the keyboard folio cases don’t come with the box. So if you want to use this tablet as a productivity tool, you’d better pick it up. Here is a Huawei MediaPad M5 Pro review.

Huawei MediaPad M5 Pro Price

The price of the Huawei tablet with 64GB of storage is €499 while the 128GB variant is €549. For LTE connectivity, each variant is €50 more expensive.

The prices are in euros since Huawei didn’t officially launch the MediaPad M5 Pro in the US, UK, or Australia.

In comparison, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 with 32GB of storage and WiFi costs around $470 while the price of the iPad Pro 10.5 is $649 for the WiFi variant with 64GB of storage.

Of course, for the iPad Pro 11 and the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4, you will have to pay even more. Despite not being cheap, for a flagship tablet, the MediaPad M5 Pro from Huawei is well priced.

Huawei MediaPad M5 Pro Design

The MediaPad M5 Pro comes with a 10.8-inch screen. So compared with the 10-inch competition, it offers users more canvas. The device is a traditional tablet with minimal distraction. You have the screen, a selfie camera, a fingerprint scanner, and a Huawei logo.

The tab is nowhere bezel-free. But in the tablet world, this isn’t a bad thing at all. The device has a screen-to-body ratio of 76.1%. For comparison, the iPad Pro 10.5 from Apple has a ratio of 78.3% while the Galaxy Tab S3 from Samsung has a ratio of 72.7%.

The 2.5D glass rounds off elegantly into the metal body, offering a quite exceptional in-hand experience. For physical highlights, all the buttons and a USB-C port are at the rear on the right side of the device. When you look at the tablet head-on, these buttons will become invisible.

On the back is a protruding camera bump. Around the rear are the speakers. The gold metal connectors on the tab’s back are reserved for the keyboard folio case.

The tablet, in hand, is well-weighted. At around 500g, it isn’t light. But it isn’t heavy neither.

Huawei MediaPad M5 Pro Screen

The screen of the Huawei MediaPad M5 Pro has a 2560 x 1600 2K resolution. The display is sharp with 280 pixels per inch for pixel density.

The display is an IPS panel, offering good brightness levels and viewing angles. Even in bright conditions, it is very usable, which is impressive considering it is not an OLED display.

If you look really close to the display, you can see a slight patterning. This might be the Wacom digitizer for pen input or the touch sensor. You won’t see it unless you inspect the glass closely. There is a night mode for eye protection. To save the battery, you can also reduce the screen’s resolution.

Huawei MediaPad M5 Pro Battery Life

If you want something to last you a long day to replace your laptop, the tablet is for you. Without the power-saving optimizations, the MediaPad M5 Pro will last more than 9 hours. And by turning the power saving optimizations on, you will have an hour or two to use the tablet.

The MediaPad M5 series from Huawei supports fast charging but it is the same as the SuperCharge Huawei features like on its flagship smartphones. So, it will take two hours for a full charge.

Huawei MediaPad M5 Pro Camera

The tablet has a 13MP camera on the back and an 8MP camera on the front. However, the pictures look muddy and very high-contrast. For low-light photos, they look grainy. The selfie camera manages to take a decent shot, but nothing fancy.

The tablet can take full HD videos at up to 60 fps and 4K videos at up to 30fps.

Huawei MediaPad M5 Pro Interface

The device runs EMUI, the custom skin of Huawei on top of Android. Compared to stock Android, it is way heavier. The MediaPad M5 comes with a number of third-party apps preloaded.

Huawei MediaPad M5 Pro Performance

The Huawei MediaPad M5 Pro is powered by the Kirin 970 chipset, the same used on the Huawei Mate 9. Paired with 4GB RAM, the tablet is surely powerful.

>>> Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+ Review: A Great Android Tablet, But Not Comparable To iPads