Huawei MediaPad M2 10.0 pens entry into premium tablet space

Huawei MediaPad M2 10.0

The premium segment of the smartphone and tablet space, for the longest time, was a two-way battle between Apple and Samsung. But guess what? There’s an emerging force that’s shaking things up a bit. And that’s Huawei. The growing China brand released a stunning portfolio of products yesterday including the Mate 8 phablet, Huawei Watch for ladies, gold edition Nexus 6P and the MediaPad M2 10.0 tablet.

Move over iPad Air, Galaxy Tab S2

Late last year, the Mate S and MediaPad M2 8.0 made a debut in Malaysia. The MediaPad M2 10.0 is really the original M2’s bigger sibling.
Huawei MediaPad M2 10.0

True to its name, it’s a 10.1-inch tablet with a 16:10 display aspect ratio. It’s not the highest density screen with 1,920×1,200p resolution @ 224PPI, but it’s still bright and crisp enough for general use. What’s important is the bigger display delivers more immersive movie watching, more engaging games and more productive work.

The design is pleasant and minimalist, if unremarkable, with a metal back. There are no capacitive buttons on the front, instead, it makes use of on-screen buttons. The power button and volume rocker are on the right side, with a fingerprint sensor built into the home button.

Huawei MediaPad M2 10.0

It isn’t the lightest (500g), nor thinnest (7.4mm) tablet around but is comfortable when handled with both hands.

To put things into perspective, the iPad Air 2 measures 6.1mm thin and up to 444g (Wi-Fi + LTE); while the Galaxy Tab S2 measures 5.6mm thin and up to 392g (Wi-Fi + LTE).

It lives up to its ‘M’ badge, being uber multimedia-centric. Like the iPad Pro, it uses a four-speaker set-up – 2x treble and 2x bass), developed with audio specialists Harman Kardon. From first impressions, audio quality is impressive for a tablet, and great for video and music playback.

Huawei MediaPad M2 10.0

The brains behind the MediaPad M2 is the Kirin 930, borrowed from the Mate S. It’s mated with either 2GB or 3GB RAM, and 16GB or 64GB of storage.

There’s microSD expansion should you require more storage. In terms of connectivity, there are Wi-Fi only and Wi-Fi + 4G LTE variants to choose from.

The MediaPad M2 10.0 runs Android 5.1 Lollipop with EMUI 3.1 on top.

Huawei MediaPad M2 10.0

The pen is mightier than the…

Having tested out the MatePen on the delightful MateBook at MWC 2016, I’d say Huawei has got it down pat with the stylus. On the MediaPad M2, the ‘M-Pen’ works brilliantly, boasting 2,048 levels of pressure sensitivity.

It feels natural to write, draw and scribble with the M-Pen, in itself a pretty well made input device. The only real gripe is that, unlike the Surface Pen on the Surface Pro series, there’s no magnetic strip to store it on tablet. The only option is to buy the accompanying smart case, or put it in your pocket (it has a pen-like clip).

Huawei MediaPad M2 10.0

Its large 10-inch frame means it gets a massive battery – 6,600mAh to be exact, which should assure you hours of video playback.

Pricing and availability

The MediaPad M2 10.0 will be available in April and comes in four variants:

  • Silver 2GB + 16GB, WiFi – MYR1,299
  • Silver 2GB + 16GB, LTE with M-Pen – MYR1,599
  • Gold 3GB + 64GB, WiFi with M-Pen and Case – MYR1,699
  • Gold 3GB + 64GB, LTE with M-Pen and Case – MYR1,999

Gallery

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Vernon
Vernon is the founder and chief editor of Vernonchan.com. A graphic designer by profession, he has a deep love for technology, cars, gadgets, food, and travel. He tweets too much and is also known as a caffeine bacterium ("life's too short for bad coffee"). Bleeds Blue (go Chelsea FC!) and considers BMW, Porsche, Alfa Romeo cars to have in the garage--hallmarks of a true petrolhead.