Last week, Huawei unveiled its newest flagship tablet for the global stage, the MatePad Pro 13.2. The tablet offers high-end specs in a thin and light body with powerful accessories to help the device become a tool for productivity. Huawei let me get my hands on the large tablet for a couple of hours and here are my thoughts on the feel and finish of the product.
First off, it’s definitely a large tablet for something that’s meant to be used as a mobile device but, admittedly, it is light relative to its size, although I wouldn’t recommend using it one-handed for very long. For the display, it has very uniform and thin bezels, giving it a beautifully modern and sleek look that really emphasises the size of the screen.
The 144Hz refresh rate of the tablet makes it buttery smooth to use and with the anti-reflection coating, the 1,000 nits peak brightness doesn’t hinder the visibility of the display even when used in a room with bright sunlight. It’s an OLED panel so it’s no surprise that the colours are vivid with deep, satisfying blacks.
Performance-wise, it was good most of the time in many applications but I did encounter the occasional stuttering. This is expected given that it’s running on the brand’s in-house Kirin 9000s chipset which is built on older 7nm technology, giving it the capabilities of something closer to a mid-range device rather than a proper flagship powerhouse.
The MatePad Pro 13.2 has a total of three cameras, with two on the back and one up front. The rear camera module comprises a 13MP primary sensor next to an 8MP ultra-wide lens while the horizontally-placed notch contains a 16MP unit alongside a ToF sensor for 3D facial unlock. In my short time testing it, the front camera was usable but not the greatest as it was quite grainy, so the person on the other side of the video call won’t necessarily get the best video quality of you.
The tablet supports two main accessories, the M-Pencil and the versatile Smart Magnetic Keyboard. The keyboard case attaches magnetically on the back and has a built-in stand on the back that can also be folded further to transform the tablet into its studio form. As for the keyboard itself, it has a large touchpad with a satisfying click and can be separated from the case. The M-Pencil also attaches magnetically on the side of the tablet, which charges it and supports over 10,000 pressure levels. Other specs of the device include a large 10,100mAh battery with 88W charging as well as support for Bluetooth 5.2 and Wi-Fi 5.
The pricing and availability of the MatePad Pro 13.2 are still being kept under wraps. Still, you can pre-order it through Huawei’s website from now until 10 January 2024 and get free accessories such as the keyboard case, the M-Pencil, the FreeBuds Pro 2, and more.
