Huawei MatePad Pro 5G Hands-on, Review: iPad Pro Alternative?

Huawei MatePad Pro 5G Hands-on, Review: iPad Pro Alternative?

huawei matepad pro 5g review philippines

photo of the huawei matepad pro 5g
Top-tier tablet

After announcing it in China a few months ago, Huawei is finally bringing over its high-end tablet, the MatePad Pro to the rest of the world.

Despite the fact that global Android tablet sales keep tanking by the quarter, Huawei still managed to ship around 4 million units during Q4 2019 last year. Huawei sits behind Apple (1) and Samsung (2) in total market share, with Apple sitting pretty on the top of the heap.

Huawei still thinks there’s a market for high-end tablets, which is why the MatePad Pro exists. The MatePad Pro sports flagship internals for discerning pros, which includes a beautiful 10-inch 2K display, along with a 5G-capable chipset.

huawei matepad pro 5g back cover

A pretty tablet no matter how you look at it

Huawei’s MatePad Pro is built to the same standards as the company’s flagship phones. That means solid engineering, material use, and construction.

The notebook uses an aluminum unibody chassis (that ships in different colors) which feels incredibly solid in the hands, and the tablet ships with different covers as well as a detachable keyboard and a stylus which wasn’t provided in our review unit.

huawei matepad pro 5g display test

One nice feature that’s on the MatePad Pro is its reverse wireless charging feature, which automatically charges both the keyboard and stylus when they’re attached to the tablet.

You’ll probably notice the MatePad Pro’s beautiful 10.8-inch display. It has a punch-hole notch that holds an 8-megapixel front camera and has a resolution of 2560 x 1600 (2K). The AMOLED display looks absolutely gorgeous, is bright and punchy, and is glorious to behold. While the addition of that punch-hole camera is a little odd, it allows the tablet to have a 90% screen-to-body ratio.

Inside the tablet runs Huawei’s Kirin 990 chipset, with several versions of the tablet available, including a 5G model. RAM and storage options go up from 6GB/8GB and 128GB/256GB, respectively.

The tablet has a rather large 7,250mAh battery, which should ensure all-day performance if you manage battery life properly. If the battery runs out, you have several charging options: you get 20W wired charging, 15W wireless charging, and 7.5W reverse wireless charging for devices if you need it.

Android 10 runs on MatePad Pro, along with the company’s EMUI 10 UI.

The biggest issue that buyers may have with the MatePad Pro (and really, any Android-based product that Huawei releases) is the lack of access to Google’s Mobile Services. Huawei tries to make up for that using their own solution dubbed AppGallery. The loss of GMS in a tablet isn’t as big of an issue as say, on a phone, though Huawei needs to offer a solid suite of productivity tools aimed at tablet users to make the MatePad Pro a compelling buy for them.

Euro pricing for the MatePad Pro is a little high, with the most affordable version dropping at around 549 Euros which translates to around Php 30.4K in our local currency. But always keep in mind that Euro pricing for Huawei products have historically been higher compared to their eventual pricing when they launch locally.

Huawei MatePad Pro Specs Philippines

  • Kirin 990 octa-core processor
  • Mali-G76 MP16 GPU
  • 10.8-inch 2K punch-hole display with ClariVu 5.0, 2.5D glass
  • 6GB/8GB RAM
  • 128GB/256GB internal storage
  • WiFi, LTE (select models)
  • Harman Kardon-tuned Quad speakers with Hi-Res Audio, Huawei Histen stereo sound
  • 13-megapixel rear camera with autofocus
  • 8-megapixel front camera
  • M-Pen Stylus, Laptop mode
  • 7250mAh battery with 20W wired charging, 15W wireless charging, and 7.5W reverse wireless charging
  • Android 10 with EMUI 10

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