Verdict
On report , the Huawei MatePad 11.5 has a lot going for it – a relatively low cost tag , a flimsy well-fixed design , a great screen , a modern processor and powerful speaker unit – but it does n’t have access to the Play Store , apps are hard to do by , and using it is n’t as simple as it should be .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
There are few name in technical school that enjoyed such a precipitous rising and decline as Huawei . Prior to its geopolitical troubles that came to the fore under the Trump presidency , it count as though it would eventually supercede Samsung as the non - Apple maker of choice .
Now choke from access to important technical school and supply chains , it has to make do with playing catch up here in the West , even if it still does famously in its homeland .
The Matepad 11.5 is one of its latest value offerings to Western consumers . gambol a 2 K screen door , a Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 CPU , 6 GB of RAM and four stereo speakers , it has many of the mod cons expected of a £ 350 pad . It also has a satellite - sized caveat however , it does n’t add up with the Play Store . That stand for no easy access to many of the apps you revel on Android .
It ’s been a few years since its troubles first emerged , however , and Huawei has had a chance to adapt and modify . Have its endeavour been enough ? scan on to get hold out .
Design
Although Huawei as a firm is synonymous with many thing , daring design is not one . While tablet plan may have coalesced on a particular style , with the Matepad 11.5 , Huawei does nothing to deviate from that .
Where the eternal rest of the market place goes for rectangles with screens framed within , so too does Huawei . With an aluminium casing all around , it feels sturdy enough for the most part , and with minimum bezels , it looks sufficiently modern to place upright with the competition – even if it does n’t feel unmistakably refined in any particular mode .
One color option is currently uncommitted for purchase , Space Grey , which despite the starry name ultimately turn out to be comparatively boring . At 6.85 millimetre thick and 499 g , it is n’t the most svelte or slim tablet on the market , but it is prosperous to hold .
On the equipment itself there is n’t much of note . The bottom host a set of pogo pins to connect to the bundled keyboard , which connects via Bluetooth regardless .
This brings in the ‘ productivity ’ options , which are played up heavy in the marketing . start with the keyboard , it does n’t make the best impression . Feeling roughly standardized calibre - smart to something costing £ 20 from an ABC - soup Amazon vendor , it has some lag payoff and does n’t feel as tactile and antiphonal as the estimable on the market . To compound things , the build - in autocorrect is very aggressive in its correction and make typing a rather frustrating experience .
The committed case is altogether more successful , provide authoritative protective covering and a build - in kickstand that ready watching plastic film and typing all that much well-to-do .
As might be expected , there ’s no waterproofing or arrogate ability to resist drops of water , so I would recommend conscientiously deflect both . There ’s also no headphone jack and charging is viaUSB - C.
Screen
As is ever the case , more than anything else , a tab survive and dies by the quality of its display . Where Huawei has n’t been daring with the design of the MatePad 11.5 , it for certain has invested in its screen tech .
At 1440 x 2200 , the concealment is 2 special K and interchange sharp , which is an especial boon for reading . Refreshing at120Hz , it is n’t the fastest out there , but it still keeps the equipment feeling runny and responsive for the most part .
Though no claims are made regarding the ability of the display to handleHDRvideo , I found that YouTube displayed it as an option , and that the corresponding video search appropriately smart and colourful . There ’s the wider take of baffle video apps on the machine , but more on that later .
This is anLCDscreen , notOLED , which is neither strange nor a spoilt thing . While LCD might not have quite the intensity of colour that organic light-emitting diode can attain , nor the inky-black blacks , this panel still shows affectionate , vibrant saturation that arrive at subject matter pop without going over the top .
To top it off , it come bright enough for indoor use of goods and services , managing to battle an unusually brilliant autumnal sun , and it gets dim enough for easy bedtime reading .
Cameras
It ’s a timeworn line but no less true , tab are n’t camera - first devices , nor even camera - second . Photographic capacity are not a concern , and the most the typical person should hope to accomplish with their pad of paper is to easily run down a papers or take a video call .
The MatePad 11.5 does nothing to challenge this August 15 . On the rear it has a individual 13MP f/1.8 sensor , while on the front there ’s an 8MP f/2.2 fixed - focus center , which is the most we can expect from a tablet at the price point . It ’s a shame , however , to see that there is n’t any autofocus for the selfie camera , given that this will likely be the one that most people regularly use .
trope calibre from the rearward sensing element , for the most part , is nice . It showcases okay colour rendition and goodly dynamic reach , but has issue with noise and detail in conditions other than a thoroughgoing sunny Clarence Day .
The selfie sensing element make out a little better . Though the resolution is lower , it produced images that have good colour , not too much sharpening , enough dynamical reach for most post and somewhat keep in line interference .
Where thing are less cocksure is television capture . The two microphones on the MatePad 11.5 capture auditory sensation that is tinny and dirty , and though the television itself has enough ikon quality , the selfie sensor cap out at 1080p at 30fps . So far , so 2014 . The rump can record in 4 cat valium , but when the focus today is on video calls , it feels like all of the effort was placed on the wrong sensor .
So you wo n’t corrupt the MatePad 11.5 for its imaging chops , and compared to similar or cheaper machine like theNokia T21or theXiaomi Pad 5 , it get off poorly .
Performance
If the camera has n’t seen much investment from Huawei , the antonym is true of its processing index . Included in the MatePad 11.5 is aSnapdragon 7 Gen 1 processor , 6 GB of RAM and at least 128 GB of storage . The processor is mod and powerful , and backed up by the generous RAM allocation , relatively snappish performance is promise .
This is bear out by synthetic benchmark , with the equipment achieving a Geekbench 6 undivided - essence score of 1009 and a multi - core score of 2827 . Neither of these will set the world alight , but they demonstrate that it seat rough in the middle of the mid - range with regard to power .
In daily use , the twist is performant , switching between apps and execute as a mid - range tablet should with nary a stutter to be visualize .
I did meet an issue when trying to essay however : Harmony OS , which is to say Huawei ’s Android skin that it calls an run organization . The Play Store was n’t available , and though during set up all relevant APKs from the previous gimmick are copied across , many of them do n’t do work well without a Google fabric , but more on that in the next section .
Starting with work apps such as Teams , if your company has a relatively lax security insurance policy , it will be possible to use the MatePad 11.5 for electronic mail and video margin call , but if you require the InTune company portal vein , you will run into issues . I could n’t screen the MatePad 11.5 in this mode for this cause .
The AppGallery has other apps ; however , some of them well have it off but many of them geared for a non - European consultation . PUBG could be come up , and so this was used to test play carrying out . That ’s what I would say if the version of the app found in the AppGallery allow one to lumber in .
mineral pitch 9 refused to install from any source ab initio , though after a little hackery with MicroG and GBox , it was eventually possible to get it running . When it was fly the coop , it expose loads of jagged bound , delayed inputs and other issuance .
All of this means that if you are a nomadic gamer or think to habituate the MatePad 11.5 for piece of work , do n’t calculate on a peachy time .
Lastly , amount to the speakers , merrily they are just . There are four of them , and while they do n’t get loud enough to fill a room , they have good lucidity and work well to bring TV shows to biography .
Software
At several point in this review , the computer software situation Huawei finds itself has been touched upon . In burden , Huawei is barred from using Google apps .
This signify it needs to field its own app store on its own ramification of Android , as Amazon does with its Kindle tablets . There ’s no Gmail , YouTube , toy Store or anything of that ilk . And despite Huawei ’s efforts , it also mean that there is a paucity of other apps , and those that do work are often a pallid imitation of their Android twin .
Huawei ’s App Gallery is flooded with thousands of clones and poor - timber apps , though if you want a hundred wonky semi - effectual copy of Subway Surfers , you are in destiny . It is n’t just the deficiency of apps ; those that were present often failed to install or even download when select .
Then there is Petal Search , which can trawl the web to find an APK for whatever app you wish well to habituate . These often work exquisitely ( assume you may get a transcript without computer virus , a perennial risk of infection ) , but then the issue of update arises . It is n’t possible to just update ; the novel APK needs to be source and reinstalled over the premature variation .
There are plenty of apps that simply wo n’t run even in APK form . A considerable luck of apps for Android rely on Google ’s Mobile Services framework to function . Without this , they merely do n’t launch or bring at all . It is n’t just Google apps , it is bank apps and anything more you may think of , especially those that require some kind of hallmark .
There are a few open - source options on the food market that taste to tackle this , GBox and MicroG , but both have their limitations . With GBox , it was possible to launch YouTube , but it stutter and generally did n’t enjoy its lifetime .
So if you buy this tablet , or indeed anything Huawei , it is important to fully apprize the amount of work that needs to go into getting your favorite apps to work and go smoothly . For £ 350 , it is a big ask to get the consumer to do this , given an equivalently price pad of paper from any other manufacturer will do much more with a lot less effort .
The process of sail the software is very simple . It is from the school of Android that choose only to ape iOS , though that is n’t necessarily an proceeds . Apps are set up off into infinity on the home screen , there ’s a ecumenical search when pinch down and no app drawer .
As might be expected , Huawei bundles a boniface of its own apps , Huawei TV , Huawei Music , Kids Corner , GameCentre and more . Petal Maps stands out as a useful Google Maps choice , but the others are there to betray services .
Battery life
Inside the MatePad 11.5 lives a 7,700mAh call , which is n’t the largest see in a tablet sufficient return the screenland sizing . couple with a advanced power - effective processor , the ingredients are all there for practiced assault and battery life history .
And yes , battery life sentence is rather good , but not for the reasons outlined above . founder the paucity of possible use cases for the MatePad 11.5 , it spend a lot of its life story not doing as much as a typicalAndroid tabletmight . It ’s therefore possible to stretch economic consumption into a fifth day should you so select .
Testing the MatePad more conventionally , fiddle a HDR video at 50 % luminousness for an hour brought the bombardment from 100 % to 85 % , which intimate it should last about seven hour for this sort of utilization , enough for a long flight .
When it come to recharging , the word picture is n’t wholly positive . Though the tablet can indeed fast charge , it does so at a grievous bodily harm of 18W , which is n’t especially libertine . A full charge from zero to 100 % took just over two and a one-half hour , which is quite a tenacious time .
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Should you buy it?
If you require to de - Google your aliveness , this well - build tablet will be a boon to you .
The lack of apps means distinctive use case , such as productivity , are a different new ballgame with the MatePad .
Final Thoughts
The Huawei MatePad 11.5 is , in many way , an attractive gadget for the price . It has a hearty if uninspiring intention , a good screen door , nice speakers , solid battery life and a theoretically powerful and modern processor within . You could search at a spec sheet and easy think “ that ’s enough tablet for me ” , and if it come with the Play Store in towage , you would certainly be good .
Without an easy way to get important apps , or those that forge well , it ’s impossible to experience any of the mod - convict of owning a nice lozenge without putting in work . Where an equivalently priced equipment from Lenovo , Xiaomi , Samsung or any other manufacturer , the query ‘ why purchase Huawei ’ number to the fore . It is for this intellect that I recommend you do n’t buy the MatePad 11.5 , and look at our selection ofbudget alternativesinstead .
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FAQs
Yes , you get both a USB - C cable and a charging brick in the box along with the tablet .
