Huawei brings its prime specs to a brand new, smaller MediaPad — and the result’s principally an Eight.Four-inch telephone.
Android tablets are in a bizarre place proper now, with sluggish gross sales and comparatively few compelling units available on the market. Huawei is likely one of the rising manufacturers in Android telephones proper now, notably in Europe, and thus the corporate has money to plow into making high-end tablets the place others may draw back.
The Huawei MediaPad M3 is the newest creation of the Chinese language agency, with considerably upgraded specs from the previous-gen M2 — let’s just forget about that thing, okay? — in addition to refreshed software program and refined construct high quality. Huawei’s newest matches neatly into its portfolio between units just like the MateBook and P9 collection, with an Eight.Four-inch show measurement that hits the identical candy spot because the iPad mini.
However can an organization nonetheless struggling to seek out its approach in smartphone software program step up and create a worthy Android pill expertise? Learn on to seek out out.
About this evaluate: Forward of its announcement at IFA 2016, we used the Huawei MediaPad M3 for every week in Manchester, UK and Berlin, Germany. Our mannequin was LTE-equipped — utilizing an EE SIM card — and operating pre-release B005 firmware.
From the surface, the Huawei MediaPad M3 mirrors the design of the corporate’s newest mid-level telephone, the Nova. There is a massive Nexus 6P-style digital camera visor up prime housing the Eight-megapixel rear shooter. Apart from that, and a little bit of branding, it is a largely featureless slab of metallic, damaged up by reflective chamfers that additionally ease one-handed use a bit of.
The hardware has a premium feel and appear that was missing within the MediaPad M2, and it looks like manufacturing tolerances have been dialed in to kind of the place they’re in Huawei’s newest high-end telephones. It lacks the otherworldly thinness and lightness of the present iPad mini 4, however that is not essentially a deal-breaker. (In any case, it is a greater gadget in all instructions.)
Huawei’s pill construct high quality lastly matches that of its high-end telephones.
A big a part of that heft has to do with the immense battery lurking inside — a 5100 mAh cell that we have discovered capable of drive as much as every week of moderate-to-light use on Wi-Fi. (Helped alongside by Android 6.0’s Doze performance, little question.) As for video playback (streaming, additionally over Wi-Fi), the pill sips energy, and after a few hours of YouTube binging we might but to deplete the pill to under 80 %. On a mobile connection you possibly can anticipate a predictable dip in longevity.
Elsewhere, the MediaPad M3 packs in all the newest Huawei internals — the Kirin 950 chip powering the Mate Eight and Honor Eight, backed up by 4GB of RAM and 32 or 64GB of storage, together with microSD enlargement. And as this can be a MediaPad, audio and video have acquired particular consideration too. The show is a powerful 2560×1440 IPS LCD panel, which boasts vibrant colours and ample daylight visibility — although with only a tiny little bit of noticeable mild bleeding within the white mannequin we’re reviewing.
On the audio aspect, Huawei has partnered as soon as once more with Harman/Kardon to convey a powerful pair of stereo audio system to the MediaPad M3. Alongside a devoted DSP able to dealing with 192kHz, 24-bit content material, the bundled software program can tweak output relying on the kind of content material you are listening to. Usually, audio playback is just like that of the MediaPad M2 10: extraordinarily loud (virtually uncomfortably so) on the highest quantity degree, however missing a few of the bass and readability you’d get from a standalone Bluetooth speaker system.
Huawei’s newest pill can also be a telephone — no less than technically. In addition to being LTE-enabled, you may also make calls by means of the built-in telephone app — though the shortage of an earpiece and proximity sensor means you are caught in speakerphone mode. (Not that you simply’d actually need to maintain a Eight.Four-inch slab of metallic up towards your head.)
The pill inherits Huawei’s wonderful fingerprint scanner tech from its Android telephones, with a front-mounted sensor for unlocking that additionally doubles as a mini trackpad of types for gesture shortcuts. (For instance, swipe horizontally to launch the current apps switcher, or faucet to return.) Regardless of its small measurement (in comparison with the typical smartphone fingerprint sensor, at the very least) it performs nicely, and Huawei’s fingerprint setup is comparatively painless too.
A largely forgettable rear digital camera.
Sadly, regardless of the outstanding digital camera band across the again of the system, the M3’s rear shooter is essentially forgettable. Low-light efficiency from the Eight-megapixel unit is aggressively mediocre, with an abundance of chroma noise. And even daylight photographs seem gentle, with out a lot effective element. It isn’t shocking for an Android pill digital camera to be an afterthought, it is nonetheless disappointing to see such a low-quality setup utilized in a comparatively high-tier gadget.
Efficiency throughout the board has been respectable, with a couple of exceptions. The Kirin 950 chip is a confirmed performer, and manages searching and lightweight app utilization with ease, as nicely streaming video at as much as 2K decision with no hitch. The one locations we bumped into efficiency points have been in demanding video games like Asphalt Eight, the place the default graphical settings made the sport virtually unplayable. Much less graphically intensive titles like Indignant Birds 2 carried out simply fantastic.
The main takeaway right here: Shopping and media consumption are simply nice, however do not anticipate the M3 to be a critical gaming pill. The Kirin 950 merely does not have the graphical horsepower to drive high-end video games at 2560×1600.
Acquainted Huawei software program bugbears stay — at the least till the EMUI 5
On the software program aspect, the MediaPad M3 mirrors what we have seen from the previous era of Huawei smartphones. It is operating Android 6.zero Marshmallow out of the field, together with Huawei’s EMUI Four.1 software program layer. Like its M2 predecessor, the expertise you are getting right here is principally a telephone UI on a bigger show. Given the M3’s Eight.Four-inch type issue, nevertheless, you’ll be able to kind of get away with this. And this time round Huawei’s additionally finished a greater job to make sure built-in apps just like the dialer, messaging app and settings panel scale sensibly in panorama mode.
That stated, the expertise stays principally identical to utilizing an unlimited Huawei telephone. All our favourite options from EMUI on telephones — tight management over background apps for improved battery life, useful tethering options, show tweaks like “eye safety” mode and direct management over display density — stay intact.
As does Huawei’s split-screen mode, which is beneficial sufficient on a bigger show, regardless of solely supporting a handful of apps. Sadly you will want to attend on an replace to Android 7.0 Nougat and EMUI 5 to profit from system-wide multi-window help.
However by the identical token you additionally get Huawei’s bizarre icon setup — yep, regardless of Huawei telephones moving away from obnoxious custom icons for third-party apps, the corporate’s tablets proceed to offer Google and different purposes an irritating rectangular trim you could’t disable.
One other of our pet hates is again too: Huawei’s iOS-like notification system makes an unwelcome return, as do its many compatibility points with quite a few Android messaging and music apps. It is no simpler to excuse these points on a pill than it’s on a telephone. We have already seen that the custom-made notification shade goes away within the subsequent model of Huawei’s software program. Till then it is only a case of toughing it out.
General, the Huawei MediaPad M3 is an honest pill that displays the place Huawei is true now as a gadget maker: the hardware’s nonetheless wonderful, however it lands at a time the place we’re ready on a very huge, necessary replace to Huawei’s software program. There is no assure when precisely EMUI 5 (and Android 7.zero) will land for the pill, however like each one among Huawei’s telephones, this gadget might be immeasurably higher as soon as it does.
Till that point, it is a cautious suggestion for Huawei’s newest Android slate. It isn’t low cost, with pricing beginning at €349 for the most cost effective 32GB Wi-Fi mannequin — and that makes it a troublesome promote over Apple’s iPad mini Four. Nonetheless, it is a respectable choice for anybody after a strong, high-end Android pill with out an enormous gaming focus. However as ever, Huawei’s software program quirks are one thing you will have put up with — no less than within the brief time period.
Huawei MediaPad M3 pricing and availability
The Huawei MediaPad M3 shall be obtainable within the first wave of launch nations from Sept. 26. This consists of China, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, France, New Zealand, Spain, Germany, Philippines, Thailand, Italy, Portugal, United Kingdom, Japan and Russia.
- €349 — 4GB + 32GB Wi-Fi
- €399 — 4GB + 32GB LTE
- €399 — 4GB + 64GB Wi-Fi
- €449 — 4GB + 64 GB LTE