Verdict
The Huawei MatePad 11.5 PaperMatte is a gadget fabricate around one feature – a specially etch screen that assure to reduce eye strain . It does precisely that , which makes it almost unlike anything else on the grocery store . However , with no entree to the Google Play Store , its successes are preponderate by its major weakness ; that the competition can do more at a downhearted price distributor point .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
At this point in 2023 , it is surd for a tablet to stand up out from the crew . Compared to premature geezerhood , there ’s a glut of options available at all Mary Leontyne Price points and from a host of manufacturers , all trying something a little dissimilar to make their mark .
Huawei , in exceptional , has to work a little hard than most . Although it has brand name acknowledgment and put up attractive price points for the most part , each of its devices comes sans the Google Play Store .
Any equivalent twist sold at any cost point by a competitor will then have something crucial that every Huawei merchandise deficiency – approach to any and all Android apps .
Huawei was trim off from Android years ago , a move that still reverberates today . The encumbrance is then on the computer hardware of each equipment , on design , looks and more to soften the gust . With the MatePad Papermatte , its in vogue bounty tablet , Huawei focuses primarily on the covert and readability .
Whether that is quite enough to warrant a leverage over otherAndroid tabletsis another matter . Does it shoot the mark ? Read on for the full reassessment .
Design
As it is a variant of theMatePad 11.5 , it is no surprise that the Papermatte is superposable in appearance . What that means is that it is a solidly designed , if unremarkable , twist for the most part .
At 6.85 mm , it is slender enough to use one - handed , a task that is made even easier by the relatively low weight of 499 g. The single grey colourway uncommitted is not likely to sic pulse rush along , but it is unobtrusive and office - appropriate .
On the rear of the gadget is a unmarried 13MP snapper , and around the sides there is a volume rocker and a office button . Found on the bottom is a solidifying of pogo personal identification number to tie a keyboard subject should you wish to do so . There are four stereo speaker , no headphone jack and the twist rouse viaUSB - C. So far , so standard .
The whole tablet is constructed from atomic number 13 , and feels as though it could take a slight knock if need , and with thin bezels , it attend mod enough .
It would have been courteous to have seen other colour choice and a earphone seafarer , but most will deplore the deficiency of expandible storage or a SIM time slot , which restrict its travel potential . Others , such as theNokia T21 , offer a earphone jack and a SIM one-armed bandit for £ 100 less than the price of the MatePad .
So you wo n’t moderate the MatePad and be fooled into thinking it cost £ 200 more than the price of entry , but neither will you be overly disappointed . It is a grey tablet in a sea of hoar pad ; design was n’t a central focus .
Screen
With the exhibit , we come to the key reason for the existence of the MatePad , for it has had a few change to justify the higher outright toll . At 11.5 inches , it is the same size as the panel on its cheaper sibling , and it also partake a refresh charge per unit of120Hzand a resolution of 2.2K.
The difference lies in the Earth’s surface trash . “ Nano - layer anti - glare etching technology ” has been used ( harmonize to the selling ) to reduce eye strain and limelight , with the goal of pee the showing almost E Ink - like in its ability to boil down eye fatigue duty .
So , does it work ? In a word , mostly , which is to say that there is a noticeable difference in the grain of the chicken feed , and it is easier on the eyes than some displays . Using it late at dark , the reduced glare plus the minimised grim light make a expectant difference . If , like some , you are prone to migraines from prolonged silver screen usage , elements like this make a fairly bombastic conflict .
Though there is an ‘ east - reader ’ mode that render the display monochromatic , it is n’t as effective as a true east - lecturer . Which is to say , if you need ane - reader , buy one , but if you need a pill that doubles as a atomic number 99 - reader that causes less eye variant , this is a good bet . It is particularly skilful for scan comics , which is tout as a key use slip .
An unexpected benefit of the engrave is the improved ‘ smoothness ’ of the glass , which means its tendency to avoid smudge and fingerbreadth oils in general . This meliorate responsiveness and makes it especially suitable for gambling .
Beyond the etching , the filmdom gets bright enough to battle bright sunlight and blind enough to translate easily in the dark without heart strain . Although it is an LCD panel , coloration production is vivacious and strong , never going over the top with saturation but continue appealing overall .
Refreshing at 120Hz by default , the panel is smooth in mathematical process and at a quote resolution of 2.2 jet , it is sharp-worded enough for most purposes . For the price , the exhibit is among the best you ’ll find . None offer the same character of life enhancements , even at the premium horizontal surface .
Some get brighter , others put up increase plangency , but few , if not any , emphasise eye strain and legibility in the same direction . If you are in your twenties and have perfect eyesight , this may not matter hugely , but for anyone with abstemious sensitivity or any related to condition , it is a significant improvement .
Cameras
There is n’t a pill on the market that prioritise its camera . At most , they are an afterthought – included for scan documents and bit of absolute desperation . Even a tablet retailing for upwards of £ /$1000 will often have a cracker that is inferior in quality to a smartphone cost a quarter of the monetary value .
The PaperMatte does nothing to change this . It has a single 13MP f/1.8 sensor on the keister and an 8MP f/2.2 fixed - focus front television camera . There ’s no camera flash , and no claims as to the caliber of the photos produced . This turn over out to be a electropositive boilersuit , as they are only average in calibre , as is to be expected .
From the sensor on the rear , contrast is reasonable , there ’s some detail present and piffling evidence of oversharpening – so far so ripe . Where it falls down is with dynamic range ; a bright and cloud-covered afternoon sky proved to be a gradation too far . In secure lighting it wo n’t be an issue , but more challenging situations ( such as a sundown ) can be a trouble .
Not that you ’ll be using the PaperMatte this way – for text file scan it is absolutely sufficient .
There ’s a lot less to say about the front - facing sensor , which is a shame given that this is probable what many masses will apply most . It wash colour out , has way out with active range , and the scummy firmness of purpose mean that detail is lack .
One similarity across both sensors is the lack of a ‘ night mode ’ to improve public presentation in low - Light Within scenarios . therefore , results in these spot are nigh on unuseable , a muddy mess .
Coming to video performance , resultant are also mixed . Footage from the rear is useable up to 4K@30fps and showcases ripe resolution , downcast noise , decent intensity and sensible dynamical range . Where things fall down is , once again , with the front - confront sensor . Capture here is capped at 1080p , and the form charge per unit is limited to 30fps , a spec from ten long time ago .
Performance
In the mid - mountain range , there are few lozenge that put an absolute premium on operation . There are plenty that are fragile and swooning , have lovely displays and not bad speakers , but which also have paltry Aries allocation and relatively anaemic processors .
Not so for the PaperMatte , with a Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 backed up by a sizeable 8 GB of RAM . Beginning with benchmarks , the results from Geekbench 6 show a tablet firmly in the middle when it comes to power , with a undivided - core musical score of 1035 and a multi - core score of 2878 .
These are n’t necessarily representative of everyday manipulation , but they are helpful in comparing it against the competition . So though it does n’t meet the challenge of the Snapdragon 870 included in the likes of the Xiaomi Pad 6 , the PaperMatte has enough baron for everyday use .
Swiping through the user interface and most general light chore are no issue . When it come to productiveness , adding the Microsoft suite and amaze it to play nicely was a challenge – and few challenging plot were available . Due to a sign - in effect , PUBG could n’t be launched even when establish from the AppGallery . It was possible to play Fortnite , however , which worked smoothly at lower mise en scene .
The problem is n’t that the PaperMatte lacks power , but it lack apps and memory access to apps that could take vantage of its processing punch .
Software
Where thing fall down spectacularly , as with every Huawei equipment , is with software system . Most will know it by now , but Huawei devices are barred from accessing the Google Play Store , think no easy accession to most Android apps and sure as shooting not those made by Google .
Huawei has seek to balance thing out somewhat through the creation of its own package . This is n’t quite a young operating arrangement as it likes to claim , but a fork of Android like that used by Amazon ’s Fire O . The fundamental thing miss is the Google Services Framework , a backend piece of software package that many Android apps use to verify the machine they are endure on , the absence seizure of which can cursorily become an issue .
There are a few services , such as MicroG and G Box that essay to mitigate this with varying level of success , but none of them are totally successful . G Box is the most useful , but we found that Google Drive and Docs , in addition to Chrome , were very temperamental and prone to sudden crashes .
Huawei has of form included two other options for accessing apps , the first being the AppGallery and the second being Petal Search . The former is stuffed to the gill with copies of popular apps that do n’t influence peculiarly well , and the arcsecond allows you to search out APKs from across the entanglement and instal them . Petal Search in particular can throw up option that might be a surety issue to establish , so unspoilt be suspicious if you use it .
As for the port itself , it is the classic Android layout a la Huawei , so there ’s a snatch bag of ideas taken from iOS and elsewhere bolted together . broadly it has nice animations , a fluid feel and it is n’t too hard to get a hold of what you are looking for , but what is annoying are Huawei ’s own services such as Huawei Music and Huawei Video . These are there nakedly to make money from the exploiter , and can be safely avoid .
If you require a bare tablet that is commodious to countersink up and employ how you like it , the PaperMatte is n’t it . Any equivalent Android tablet or iPad at any cost point has access to more and safe apps . Should you be a more technically confident user you might not regain it to be an issue , but on the whole , it is a significant sticking pointedness .
Battery life
The MatePad PaperMatte , like its tacky sibling , come with a 7,700mAh battery . This is n’t the largest ever to be check to a tab , however , given the size and the modernistic CPU , it should be enough to provide acceptable battery life .
In genuine life , this mostly proves to be the caseful , though with the proviso that your custom in all likelihood might not be the same as on any tantamount tablet . With mostly world-wide usage of watching picture and graze the web on a given day , I was able to drain it to 50 % with around 5 minute of use . This is n’t the most scientific standard , but puts it on an equal footing with the the like of the Xiaomi Pad 6 .
play an HDR video at 50 % brightness for an hour brought the barrage from 100 % to 84 % , meaning you should have enough juice to get through a full sidereal day should determine videos prove to be what you mostly practice a pill for .
dissolute charging is n’t the strong wooing of the pad of paper ; it is restrict to 18W , which stretches the definition of the term . A full recharge from zero take around 155 minute .
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Should you buy it?
The etching on the PaperMatte ’s display induce it well-fixed on the oculus than much any other tablet at the price point .
The Huawei Matepad 11.5 PaperMatte , lacking Google Play apps , is n’t as equal to of much liken even to cheaper tablets .
Final Thoughts
Since it lost access to Android apps , Huawei has been back into a turning point . Through its hardware it has attempted to make a typesetter’s case for its devices , and with the MatePad PaperMatte , it has come upon something relatively unique .
That is to say it has a filmdom more similar to that of an e - proofreader , but without many of their refresh rate - tie in drawbacks . It is bright , vivacious and most importantly , easy on the eyes , cause a lot less eye stock than its match .
Beyond that , it has an inoffensive design , right speakers , strong barrage fire life and fast public presentation , but much of this is for zero as the deficiency of apps once again come to the fore . The round-eyed fact is that a tablet half the Mary Leontyne Price , of any stripe , will be able to accomplish more than the MatePad PaperMatte by simple virtuousness of entree to the Google Play Store .
So , if you need a tablet that can aid with center nisus , this is a enceinte bet . For anyone else , an equivalentfrom Samsung , Xiaomi , or Apple will be a better option at the cost .
Trusted Score
How we test
FAQs
Yes , you ’ll get an 18W charge brick in the box .
It ’s compatible with the Huawei M - Pencil ( second - gen ) , but it does n’t issue forth bundled in the corner .
