Huawei Malaysia is launching the MatePad Pro 12.6 this week and this is their newest flagship tablet that runs on HarmonyOS 2. Targetting Apple’s iPad Pro series, it packs a large 12.6″ OLED display, a triple-camera setup with 3D depth-sensing and a large 10,050mAh battery.
The Huawei MatePad Pro 12.6 is already listed on Huawei Malaysia’s online store with a single 8GB RAM + 256GB storage variant in Matte Grey. There’s no pricing info at the moment and the pre-order will be available at 12pm on Thursday, 10th June 2021. Looking at the spec sheet, this seems to be a WiFi-only model.
In China, the 256GB WiFi model is priced at CNY 5,499 (about RM3,549). Meanwhile, the 256GB 5G version with the keyboard and M-Pencil costs CNY 7,999 (about RM5,162).
Hardware Specs
The MatePad Pro 12.6 comes with a 12.6″ FullView OLED display that pushes a QuadHD+ resolution of 2560×1600 pixels. It boasts a 90% screen-to-body ratio and a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio. Under the hood, it runs on a 5nm Kirin 9000E chip that comes with a Mali-G78 MP22 GPU along with a 1 big-core + 1 tiny-core NPU.
For taking pictures, the rear gets a triple-camera setup that consists of a 13MP f/1.8 main camera, an 8MP f/2.4 ultra-wide-angle lens and a 3D Depth sensing sensor. Upfront, it has an 8MP f/2.0 front camera for selfies and video calls.
For a more enjoyable audio experience, the MatePad Pro 12.6 comes with not two or four but an eight-speaker setup that’s enhanced with Huawei Histen 7.0 sound effect. The tablet also comes with a 4-microphone array which utilises AI noise-cancelling technology.
The biggest highlight is its HarmonyOS 2 which comes with a very familiar interface. It gets an iPadOS-like dock at the bottom and you can customise the home screen like how you would do on an Android device.
For greater productivity, Huawei has introduced an improve App Multiplier and Multi-Window feature which works with a Windows PC. You can use the MatePad Pro to mirror your PC, turn it into a secondary display or share files cross-platform in collaborate mode.
Huawei has also introduced its 2nd gen M-Pencil which has a transparent tip design. It has a 9ms latency and 4,096 levels of pressure. The M-Pencil supports double-tap gestures around the sides and you can charge it magnetically when it’s attached to the edge of the MatePad Pro 12.6. To use it like a PC, you can pair it with a Smart Magnetic Keyboard offers 1.3mm travel distance and supports wireless charging.
The tablet gets a 10,050mAh battery and it supports 40W Huawei SuperCharge via USB-C. On top of that, it also supports 27W wireless charging as well as 10W reverse wireless charging. Overall, the tablet weighs 609 grams and is 6.7mm thick. As a comparison, the current iPad Pro 12.9 WiFi weighs 682 grams and it’s thinner at 6.4mm.
The MatePad Pro 12.6 is the company’s first tablet to run on their own HarmonyOS. While some have called it a fork Android operating system, it still doesn’t come with Google apps and services. That means you’ll have to discover and download apps from the Huawei AppGallery.
