Huawei MatePad Pro review

In our Huawei MatePad Pro review, we look at whether the hardware and design can make up for these software shortfalls and how well Huawei’s proprietary alternatives for US services and chips stand up on their own. To compare this tablet with more options, don't miss our best budget tablet, best tablet and best tablet for kids articles.

Jump to:

• Huawei MatePad Pro summary
• What is the Huawei MatePad Pro?
• How much is the Huawei MatePad Pro?
• Features
• Screen and sound quality
• Design
• Set-up
• Battery and performance
• Our verdict
• Where to buy

Huawei MatePad Pro review: summary

Price: £499.99 (RRP)

Key features

• 10.8 inch Huawei Mobile Services tablet
• Powered by the octa-core Huawei Kirin 990 processor
• Four speakers tuned by Harman Kardon that feature Histen 6.0 sound effects
• 6GB RAM and 128GB built-in storage
• Up to 12 hours battery life
• A 13MP camera on the rear, with an 8MP on the front
• Free cover (worth £29.99) and keyboard (£129.99) when the tablet is bought via Huawei
• Wireless charging plate can be used to charge the tablet, but also share battery charge with compatible Huawei devices
• Support for Huawei MatePad M-Pen (£99, sold separately)
• Only available in “midnight” grey

Pros

• Bright, pixel-packed display
• Elegant and streamlined design
• Loud, impressive sound
• Superb battery life

Cons

• Software is a mess
• Limited apps

The Huawei MatePad Pro is available at Huawei for £499.99 (Wi-Fi) or £549.99 (Wi-Fi and LTE). It is also available at select UK retailers.

What is the Huawei MatePad Pro?

What does Huawei MatePad Pro do?

Huawei MatePad Pro covers streaming, gaming, working, and more but the selection of apps from which to do all of these activities are limited.

• Unlike other regular Android tablets, the MatePad Pro has very few pre-installed apps and those which it does preload only include its own productivity and entertainment apps – Video, Tips, Kids Corner and various tools like a calculator and voice recorder.
• Google Assistant is embedded within the operating system, which turns the Huawei MatePad Pro into a lower-spec alternative to the Google Home Nest Hub.
• The Huawei MatePad Pro can be used to control and manage compatible smart home devices via the Google Home app.
• Available in one shade of “iron” grey.

How much is Huawei MatePad Pro?

The Huawei MatePad Pro comes in only one storage size – 128GB – and is available with Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi+cellular.

The price, when bought directly from Huawei, is as follows:

• Huawei MatePad Pro 128GB storage with Wi-Fi: £499.99
• Huawei MatePad Pro 128GB storage with Wi-Fi+cellular: £549.99

You can also buy the Huawei MatePad Pro from the following places:

Is the Huawei MatePad Pro good value for money?

The Huawei MatePad Pro’s price puts it on par with the Lenovo P11 Pro and the Apple iPad Air. Yet, while it easily competes in terms of hardware, it lags behind in software terms.

Everything that’s missing can, in one form or another, be accessed via a browser and bookmarks or by what’s known as sideloading apps. You can also jailbreak the device to take control of its software – we don’t advise doing either of the latter, but you have options.

The hardware afforded by the Huawei MatePad Pro is a major selling point. It’s an attractive, super-fast tablet with superb battery life. The wireless charging feature is great. However, none of these features are so revolutionary that they’re worth the software hassle. If the price was lower, it would be worth the sacrifice, but sadly it’s not.

The way you’ll get the most value for money with the Huawei MatePad Pro is if you already have a Huawei phone. If you’re not, it could be a struggle.

Huawei MatePad Pro features

The Huawei MatePad Pro has a 10.8-inch display with a resolution that puts it at the 2K mark. Unlike the vast majority of tablets on the market, it doesn’t run Android or iOS. It runs on Huawei’s own operating system called EMUI, which is built using open-source Android files but isn’t a pure, pre-loaded version of it.

This means that Huawei’s tablet isn’t compatible with Google Play, so you can’t get access to the full catalogue of traditional Android apps out of the box. Instead, Huawei has built its own App Gallery store. It is possible to get popular apps, like Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok and more, by downloading the APK (Android Package) files via the App Gallery, but it’s not as straightforward as using the original Play Store.

Other software features include support for Multi-screen Collaboration, as long as you have a Huawei phone running EMUI 10.0 or later. Once connected, the two devices are effectively merged into one, and this allows you to make calls, send messages and check photos from your phone on the tablet screen. You can also drag and drop files between the two devices and edit them. The latter is a small yet highly effective tool that helps when using the MatePad Pro as a laptop alternative. It can also help you better control your storage on either device.

Speaking of storage, the Huawei MatePad Pro comes in only one storage size – 128GB. This can be expanded to 256GB via microSD, but neither offers huge space for files and apps.

Hardware-wise, the MatePad Pro is powered by the Kirin 990 processor, backed up by 6GB RAM. This flagship setup has been designed to make the tablet super fast and power-efficient, and Huawei promises a 12-hour battery life when streaming Full HD video. You can charge this battery via USB-C or on a wireless charger. This charging plate on the rear of the tablet can also be used to share charge with Huawei phones when placed on top of each other.

On the front of the MatePad Pro is a 13MP camera, while on the rear is an 8MP sensor. There are then four speakers, tuned by Harman Kardon, on either side of the device (two on each side when held in landscape mode). These speakers feature so-called Hirsten 6 3D stereo sound effects designed to offer a rich, immersive sound.

We tested a Huawei MatePad Pro with a keyboard. This, along with the M-Pen, don’t come as standard and cost £129.99 and £99, respectively, but they elevate the tablet considerably. Out of the many, many tablets we’ve tested, the keyboard on the MatePad Pro was the most comfortable and easy to use, making us more productive. It’s also a great stand when watching content. If we had to pick out one flaw, though, it would be that the tablet wobbles and shakes as you use the touchscreen when it’s attached to the keyboard.

Plus, if you’re using this tablet for work or as a laptop alternative, Huawei’s operating system comes with a PC Mode which can be easily enabled with just one touch. This is similar to the Productivity Mode on the P11 Pro and allows you to zoom, drag and arrange your application windows how you would on a desktop. Some files can be saved directly on the desktop too. It’s not perfect – without the full touchpad and mouse controls seen on PCs and laptops, we don’t think a tablet can ever truly mimic the desktop experience – but it’s not as poor as Lenovo’s Productivity Mode.

Huawei MatePad Pro screen and sound quality

With a resolution of 2560 x 1600, the MatePad Pro’s screen quality is highly impressive and comes in at 2K. It falls short of the quality, vibrancy and brightness of the Samsung Tab S7 range, but we prefer it to Apple’s Liquid Retina Display. Colours are bright, blacks are inky, lines are sharp, and the overall experience makes Full HD content absolutely shine.

The bezels on the display are the thinnest we’ve seen on a tablet for a very long time, and this gives the MatePad Pro a 90% screen-to-body ratio. This screen real-estate does the impressive display technology even more justice and is perfect for everything from working, gaming or streaming.

The sound that comes from this device is equally impressive. The four speakers manage to highlight subtleties in voices when listening to podcasts while also providing booming bass when you’re playing music or watching shows. The quad-speaker setup performs very well at full volume, but because the sound quality is so sharp, you never feel like you have to whack the speakers up to get the best out of them.

Thanks to the addition of Huawei’s Histen sound effects, this sound experience is even better through headphones. This software tweak adds 3D surround sound support and delivers vibrant, crisp sounds. This is ideal when watching shows and particularly when gaming. There isn’t a headphone jack on this tablet, but there is an adapter included in the box that allows you to use any existing 3.5mm headphones.

Huawei MatePad Pro design

In addition to extending the viewing angle, MatePad Pro’s super-thin bezels give this tablet a huge screen-to-body ratio. This makes the device look and feel more premium than its mid-to-high-range price tag, as does the use of the sturdy yet lightweight magnesium alloy frame around this glass display.

Instead of hiding the camera in this frame, Huawei has put the front-facing camera within the display itself, in a small punch-hole cutout in the corner. This is barely noticeable other than when it very occasionally gets in the way of on-screen buttons that happen to be in the top corner.

The MatePad Pro has rounded corners, and the rear is made of plastic to make it possible to use with a wireless charger. This use of plastic does lessen the premium feeling somewhat, but we’ll take this hit for the addition of wireless charging.

The Huawei MatePad Pro has two speakers on each shorter side and a USB-C charging port.

Huawei MatePad Pro set-up

The fact the MatePad Pro runs on an Android-derived operating system means it’s not quite as straightforward to sign in to your Google account and have your Settings copied over. It’s not difficult, but it’s not quite as seamless as on standard Android tablets.

There is a step-by-step tutorial that guides you through the process, and Huawei doesn’t overwhelm things with many, many menus and choices as seen on the likes of the Lenovo devices. It still takes a fair amount of time.

If you already have a Huawei phone or account, the process is much more simple. You can sign in to the device, or you can use Huawei’s Phone Clone tool, which pulls over files, settings and data from one device to another with ease.

Huawei MatePad Pro battery life and performance

For all of our software criticisms about the MatePad Pro, its hardware is fantastic, and this means its performance is built to match. The processor and high RAM makes the MatePad Pro lightning fast. Opening apps, streaming videos and playing games were instant, and we didn’t experience any lag. It’s the fastest tablet we’ve ever used.

Another boon in Huawei’s favour is its battery life. Huawei promises up to 12 hours of video playback, and in our looping video test, in which we stream HD video over Wi-Fi at 70% brightness, we exceeded this. It lasted almost 14 hours. For everyday tasks – watching the odd YouTube video, playing a couple of games of SimCity, two video calls with our parents and everyday browsing – this battery lasted three days. For a device with such a high-quality screen and so much power, this was a very pleasant surprise.

Having support for wireless charging also makes it a doddle to charge up between uses. Simply lay it on the charger, give it a boost, and you’re good to go again. This would easily prevent you from ever having to charge the device from flat to full.

Our verdict: should you buy the Huawei MatePad Pro?

It’s such a shame, almost frustratingly so, that the Huawei MatePad Pro has its software woes because it’s a great tablet; fast, powerful, practical, AND attractive.

We’re big fans of the keyboard, but you have to pay extra for it. You’ll also need to pay extra for a wireless charging plate if you don’t already have one. These both add not insignificant costs to a device that was already relatively pricey.

If you don’t mind the software shortfall, or if you’re a Huawei user already, this is (and should be) the tablet you go for. However, unless you fall into these two camps, the lack of familiar apps and software will likely be a dealbreaker.

Rating:

• Features: 3/5
• Screen and sound quality: 5/5
• Design: 5/5
• Set-up: 3/5
• Battery life and performance: 5/5

Overall rating: 4/5

Where to buy Huawei MatePad Pro

• Available via Huawei
• Available at AO.com
• Available at Currys
• Available at Very

Still looking for the perfect tablet? Check out our expert reviews of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 Plus, Apple iPad Air (2020) and the Amazon Fire HD 10.