Huawei just launched a product that’s got style, a thin bezel and fingerprint-unlock. There’s a USB port too.
I’m not talking about the Mate 8 that I’m testing right now I’m taking about the Huawei Matebook that just launched at MWC. It’s a 2-in-1 running Windows 10 on the latest Core M platform.
Huawei Matebook launched at MWC 2016
It’s actually a 12.9-inch tablet that starts at $699 (Core 3, 4 GB, 128 GB SSD) and you can add a keyboard that costs $129. A pen costs $59 and if you want to attach a monitor you’ll need an adapter. Huawei will sell you one for $89.
This fanless tablet has no stand and includes a 33.7 Wh battery, smaller in size to the battery in the Surface Pro 4, Lenovo Miix 700 and Spectre X2, all of which I’ve tested recently. It will certainly be powerful enough for office work, Minecraft and basic Full-HD video editing. The latest Skylake Core M platforms are truly as fast as a Surface Pro 3 for most tasks but don’t expect to reach the claimed 10-hours of battery life under normal conditions.
It’s interesting that a 12.9-inch Windows 10 tablet should launch at MWC and it’s interesting that Huawei, a company that has made a good name for itself in the smartphone market recently, should launch a Windows PC product. Isn’t it significant, however, that Huawei haven’t launched a Windows phone that can utilize Continuum?
How does a phone company position the pricing of a tablet PC? Huawei has chosen to go high-end here with a Core m5 version (8GB, 256GB) that costs more than the equivalent Lenovo Miix 700. It looks a lot slicker, yes, but that’s a huge price for a Core M-based PC. Are Huawei thinking of bundling and carrier deals here?
Here we are, 10 years after I first posted about the Carrypad and I’ve got one in my hand. Over the last 24hrs I’ve been testing the Huawei Mate 8 which is an amazing phone-enabled MID. Or a phablet!
Battery life from this powerful 8-core platform with a 10 Wh battery is amazing. Screen-on active use will run for over 12 hours. That is amazing.
There’s a full quota of connectivity, a big range of sensors, full disk encryption, fine control of app permissions and the keyboard is very nice in landscape mode. I’ve allowed myself 10 minutes to complete this post.
I’ll be covering the Mate 8 in alive session on Monday. 1800 Berlin time at https://www.umpcportal.com/live
I’m testing this for Notebookcheck. Their full review here.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Huawei-Mate-8-Smartphone-Review.159337.0.html
The Huawei Mediapad X2 is an excellent Android tablet, and that includes the price. In Europe you can pick this up for €289 or for €330 with LTE, and that includes sales taxes. I had it for just a few days while I did a Notebookcheck video so I wasn’t able to test things like screen mirroring, encryption, MHL, OTG or some of the newer aspects of Android but what I did see was an excellent screen, great design, long battery life, processing and GPU power, AC WiFi and, something that’s always on my list for a good tablet, great speakers. It’s as good as the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 8.0 and the Ipad Mini in my opinion but the price makes it stand out. 330-euro for 16 GB storage and LTE. I’d love one, thank-you.
The screen is one of the Huawei MediPad 7’s strongest features. It’s a 7” capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 1280×800 and is IPS. It’s bright and produces colors well and is perfect for photos and videos but is also great for reading text. E-books look fantastic and the text jumps off the “page”.
Build quality
Firstly I am impressed with the look and feel of the MediaPad 7 and it seems to be very well made. The materials are first rate and the fit and finish equal to any other high grade tablet I’ve used. The device feels solid in the hand and it’s ergonomically easy to hold. The MediaPad7 feels a bit heavier than the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 (380g vs. 391g) and this may have an impact if you intend to carry it around a lot or hold it for extended periods while reading or watching videos.
Personally I like the smaller form factor but with a high resolution screen and the 7″ size if you don’t have good eyesight you may struggle with the MediaPad 7.
The Cracked Screen
I found out the hard way that the MediaPad doesn’t have Gorilla Glass screen as unfortunately my Son dropped the tablet and it landed screen first and slid a bit. It scratched badly and has a crack running edge to edge across the top of the screen. And this from a drop onto a wood floor from a height of less than 2 feet! I’d highly recommend a screen protector and a case as the first accessories you buy. Personally I don’t like screen protectors and haven’t fitted any of my devices with one and the Eee Pad, for example, hasn’t got a scratch on it. I don’t know whether it was just bad luck or a soft screen but this scratching is the worst I’ve ever had on a tablet or phone screen and it didn’t take that much of a fall. YMMV as it could also have been a freaky perfect storm of impact and angle.
Cameras
Moving on to the device, I tested the cameras and I was pleasantly surprised by the rear facing camera. It’s a 5 megapixel camera and just using the standard Android camera interface it handles low light well and the image looked nice and crisp. This photo of a teddy Bear was taken in the middle of the loungeroom with filtered light from a window about 10 feet away and there’s little grain in the image. The front facing camera is 1.3 megapixels and also handled room-only lighting easily. Under low light the MediaPad 7 performed as well as any of the other Android cameras I’ve tested and so would be fine for video conferencing or VOIP calls.
Keyboards and Mice
Periperals like my portable Bluetooth keyboard and mice setup worked fine. I couldn’t connect any USB devices or drives because the MediaPad 7 doesn’t have a full-sized USB port, so this was untested.
Battery life
Huawei claims 6 hours for the battery and this feels right to me. I didn’t run any formal benchmarks on the battery but I could easily get through the day and night using it and have 25% left in the battery when I plugged it in at night. I had WiFi and Bluetoth on, auto brightness, and default screen time-out and sleep settings. My ‘all day’ is from 7 am to midnight usually. The MediaPad 7 will do well for active all-day use.
Overall
I liked the Huawei MediaPad 7. Cracked screen aside, the Medipad 7 is well made, fast, has a great screen, and is very portable. With the right accessories, like a good case and a keyboard, it could work OK in an enterprise environment (of course with the standard Android limitations) but the lack of a full size USB port hamstrings the MediaPad 7 for enterprise work. This may be the tradeoff you have to make to get a 7″ form-factor so you need to asses whether the ability to connect drives or peripherals via USB is a real need for you. I prefer the 10″ screen tablets for work but a 7″ is great for portability and as a quick around-the-house consumption device. I’d consider the Huawei MediPad 7 if it’s priced correctly — stay tuned for pricing announcements which should be coming soon from Huawei.
I managed to get a Huawei Mediapad for a few weeks to trial. I only managed to get a few hours in with the device today and snap off a couple of low res pictures from my phone but I’ll follow up with an in-depth overview and some high quality photos in a few days. In the meantime if you have any tests you want me to run on the Huawei MediaPad leave a comment and I’ll see what I can do.
I compared it to an iPad 2 and like the Galaxy Tab found it to be roughly half the size of the Apple unit. The unit is pocketable, just, but cargo pant-pocketable none the less.
The screen is great — sharp, bright, and very responsive. The device itself is nicely built and feels solid in the hand. The Huawei MediaPad is heavier than the Galaxy Tab but it feels like the same form factor so if you are happy with the size and feel of the Galaxy Tab you’ll likely be happy with the MediaPad too.
I don’t have a lot of apps installed yet and not a lot of media on it to slow it down but I was pleasantly surprised by how fast it is. Everything is snappy and very responsive. Apps open fast, media plays almost instantly and overall the processor doesn’t seem to struggle with anything.
If the pricing comes in at the right level, I think this device will sell very well.
I managed to get a Huawei Mediapad for a few weeks to trial. I only managed to get a few hours in with the device today and snap off a couple of low res pictures from my phone but I’ll follow up with an in-depth overview and some high quality photos in a few days. In the meantime if you have any tests you want me to run on the Huawei MediaPad leave a comment and I’ll see what I can do.
I compared it to an iPad 2 and like the Galaxy Tab found it to be roughly half the size of the Apple unit. The unit is pocketable, just, but cargo pant-pocketable none the less.
The screen is great — sharp, bright, and very responsive. The device itself is nicely built and feels solid in the hand. The Huawei MediaPad is heavier than the Galaxy Tab but it feels like the same form factor so if you are happy with the size and feel of the Galaxy Tab you’ll likely be happy with the MediaPad too.
I don’t have a lot of apps installed yet and not a lot of media on it to slow it down but I was pleasantly surprised by how fast it is. Everything is snappy and very responsive. Apps open fast, media plays almost instantly and overall the processor doesn’t seem to struggle with anything.
If the pricing comes in at the right level, I think this device will sell very well.
Chippy is also looking forward to the Huawei MediaPad, and is actually considering trading up his much-used and loved Galaxy Tab for it. Though the tab has treated him well for over a year, Chippy says that he’s overdue for the benefits of Honeycomb in a 7″ form-factor. The upcoming dual-core Galaxy Tab Plus is likely to be a potent competitor to the Huawei MediaPad, especially when it comes to availability.
The Huawei MediaPad has already been made available for sale in a number of other countries and is one of only a few 7″ Honeycomb tablets yet available or announced. Others include Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 7.7 (and Galaxy Tab 7 Plus), the Toshiba Thrive 7, Acer’s Iconia Tab A100, and a few lesser known tablets.
Nicole Scott of Netbook News tells me she isn’t too impressed. She has a point. Its hardly the most attractive device in the Tablet space. The thing is, this will come in at a very nice price. Ben has already highlighted a $300 price which means you have a better option than the Viewpad 7. You’re getting an arm v7 more which means significant performance implements with Android 2.2 and the ability to run apps like flash 10.1. I have a video which I’m going to upload as soon as I buy a new charger for my netbook bit at least I can give you some images from the showfloor here at MWC. One of the images includes the specs and we’ll get this in the database for you as soon as possible.
