Huawei Matepad Pro 12.6

Tablet lacks application

Abrilliantscreenand performance, butlimited choiceofapps

The Huawei Matepad Pro is a gorgeous 12.6in tablet designed to take on Apple’s ultra-expensive 12.9in ipad Pro (£999). The tablet is so new that it wasn’t yet available in the UK at the time of writing, though we expect it to become available very soon. We were also unable to confirm what its UK price will be, though it’s on sale on German websites for €799 (around £683).

The specifications are astounding. It comes with an incredibly sharp 12.6in 2K (2560x1600-pixel) resolution OLED screen. It’s powered by Huawei’s flagship Kirin 9000 processor, supported by 8GB of RAM and either 128GB or 256GB of storage. You can boost the storage, but only by using Huawei’s own Nano memory cards.

However, there remains a big question mark hanging over the device’s operating system. Because of security concerns, the US government is still blocking Huawei from using fully supported versions of Android, so this tablet uses Huawei’s own Harmonyos 2 operating system, which it built around the open-source version of Android.

While the operating system is slick, usable and an interesting blend of Android- and ipados-inspired tools, it can only use apps and games from the Huawei App Gallery – the company’s own app store. Sadly, this means you can’t access Google apps such as Drive,

Youtube, Chrome and Maps. The full list of available apps isn’t anywhere near as comprehensive as the selection you’ll find on rival operating systems, which is a huge disappointment.

In our tests the screen performed brilliantly – it’s bright and displays colours accurately. The internal hardware runs games and other apps incredibly smoothly. These performance levels don’t take too much of a toll on the battery life, which lasted 11 hours 31 minutes in our video-playback test.

Like most tablets, the Matepad Pro can be used with a stylus and magnetic keyboard. The M-pencil is great for drawing and painting on screen, while the detachable keyboard essentially turns the device into a small laptop (pictured below left). The German version currently comes with these included in the price, so we’d expect to see a similar offer when the tablet arrives here. Let’s hope so because the stylus costs €99 (around £85) and the keyboard €149 (£127) if bought separately.

SPECIFICATIONS

Eight-core Huawei Kirin 9000E processor • 8GB RAM • 12.6in OLED 2560x1600 resolution screen • 128GB or 256GB storage • 13/8-megapixel rear cameras • 8-megapixel front camera • Wi-fi 6 • Bluetooth 5.2 • USB-C connector • 10,050mah battery • Harmonyos 2 • 185x287x6.7mm (HXWXD) • 609g • One-year warranty www.snipca.com/38921

VERDICT The hardware is brilliant and the price is right, but the Matepad Pro is hamstrung by its app store’s limitations ★★★ ★★

ALTERNATIVE Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 Plus £679 A marginally smaller tablet for a similar price, but it comes with a stylus and can use Google apps