Huawei launched the MatePad Pro in December 2019, an Android-based tablet aimed to compete with the Galaxy Tab S6 from Samsung. It’s made to optimize productivity and media experience with many premium features. The MatePad Pro is priced at Rs 33,690.

Design and display

The MatePad Pro features a similar design with other Mate devices, featuring glass and metal on the body to deliver a premium look. Its magnesium alloy frame is slim and sturdy, yet lightweight, housing an antenna to remove visible antenna lines, creating a cleaner look.

The tablet sports an LCD display with a resolution of 2560x1600 pixels, an aspect ratio of 16:10, and is DCI-P3 graded for color accuracy. Overall, the screen is gorgeous, crisp, and large enough for working and playing. The color accuracy really helps in photo editing and video editing in apps like Lightroom.

Featuring a maximum brightness of 540 nits, the tablet can be used under direct sunlight or bright lights very well. Despite lacking the HDR mode, the contrast ratio of 1500:1 makes the screen looks vibrant and sharp. That means a great viewing experience with videos, digital comics, and articles.

Though the bezels are slim, they won’t get in the way when you grip the device or result in any accidental input owing to the excellent palm rejection. The display is highly responsive when you doodle with your fingers. You can take notes the Huawei M-Pencil with the tablet though this is not the best stylus on out there.

You can also get the Smart Magnetic Keyboard to type on the MatePad Pro as a mini laptop, which doubles as a case to protect the tablet. It delivers a decent typing experience though it doesn’t include a trackpad. Besides, the keyboard cover doesn’t allow the MatePad Pro to tilt back much so the screen may sit too straight, which could feel awkward when you put the tablet on your lap.

Performance

The MatePad Pro is powered by the Kirin 990 chipset, making it one of the fastest tablets on the market. It also features 8GB of RAM to help you perform tasks smoothly with hardly any noticeable gaps in performance.

The tablet lets you smoothly switch between apps and display animations seamlessly, it can handle intensive applications as well as graphics-intensive titles without a hitch. Multitasking on this tablet is also fluid and zippy, and games can run well on the highest settings.

On Geekbench 5, the device gets 757 points for a single-core score and 3,044 points for a multi-core score. This result is lower than that of the iPad Pro but a bit higher than the score of the Snapdragon 855 on the Galaxy Tab S6.

Software

In general, Android tablets aren’t as good as iPadOS, laking polish, and refinements that come with an iPad. However, Android provides superior flexibility that’s worth trading for this shortcoming.

The MatePad Pro features EMUI 10 user interface that looks and feels like the interface of the latest Huawei smartphones except for the fact that it delivers a more feature-laden experience. The interface performs well in both landscape and portrait orientation with several tricks to help you get things done easier.

The operating system has a split-screen feature that allows for opening two apps side by side on two halves of the display, along with a third app floating on top that can be dragged around across the screen. It’s worth noting that not all apps support this feature.

The tablet doesn’t have Google apps and services but the difference won’t be as obvious as that on the smartphone. The MatePad Pro offers enough applications and decent hardware to ensure its usefulness.

On this device, you will get the Huawei App Gallery that lacks some important apps but the company is working to add more applications. If you don’t find your favorite apps here, you can install a third-party app store to get them.

Overall, all apps run well unless it requires access to Google services such as Wear OS, Google Play Center, and Google Drive. According to Huawei, the web browser allows you to easily run the web version of applications like when you use a laptop or desktop device. Testing shows that Gmail, youTube, and Netflix runs well on the browser, sometimes even better than the tablet version of these apps.

Cameras

On the back of the tablet, there is a single 13MP camera that captures reasonable photos when you don’t have your smartphone on hand. The camera is supported by an LED flash along with phase focusing. On the front, there is an 8MP selfie lens that’s efficient for face unlocking as well as a high-resolution video conference.

Battery

The Huawei MatePad Pro packs a 7250mAh battery that can keep you using for two days even with heavy use. If you are a moderate user, you may have to charge it only once or twice per week.

Some examples of heavy use include video streaming for multiple hours, gaming, using apps in the browser, and surfing social media. All in all, you won’t have to worry much about the battery draining.

Besides, you will get 40W fast charging to quickly refill the juice. There’s also support for 27W wireless charging as well as reverse wireless charging.