Huawei's new tablet is the best tablet I've ever seen

Today, tablets are a dime, even bigger than phones, and they look roughly the same: a silver aluminum one-piece on three sides, an all-glass panel on the front, with a display wrapped in bezels, about half an inch. . This is what tablets from Apple, Xiaomi, Samsung, Oppo look like.

However, Huawei is the exception. Over the past two years, its Matepad Pro range has indeed deviated from the traditional tablet look and design. 2025 Huawei Matepad Pro 13.2 does not use silver metal frames, for example, choose fiberglass as light as metal with a unique texture.

The borders or borders wrapped on the screen are also the thinnest in the industry, giving the tablet an optimal screen-to-body ratio of 94%. The display is also an OLED panel with a refresh rate of up to 144Hz and features a huge anti-reflective matte texture embedded in the nano XTURE-level display panel.

I wrote this reflective technology when Huawei first introduced it in 2023. The company calls it “Papermatte”, which, in addition to just the screen not showing reflections too easily, is also gripped, and provides greater friction to target the stylus, friction, similar to the electronic ink display screen.

You have to see and try yourself to truly achieve what Huawei has achieved here. I think this is the best screen in the tablet industry and my favorite touch and swipe.

Since the tablet is so thin (under 5.5mm), it does look surreal when placed on a flat surface and viewed from some angles, as if I was staring at a magazine instead of a mini computer.

Huawei, like the past two years, declined to disclose silicon for silicon-powered tablets—but is likely to run on Huawei’s self-developed Kirin Silicon based on 7nm Architecture. Huawei's self-built silicon technology is now a bit behind Qualcomm's leading silicon, but this is due to ongoing U.S. sales, which is beyond the control of Huawei's consumer product team.

Anyway, like the last few Huawei devices I've tested, the performance is absolutely great. Yes, silicon might not be technically the flagship level of 2025, but it could be comparable to 2022 or 2023 flagship silicon, when the chips worked well.

I edited a five-minute video about Capcut, deliberately complicating the video, and added transitions and effects, and during the editing process I was able to smoothly wipe the schedule without lag. Then I exported the video and it took about four minutes to render a five-minute clip. Of course, this isn't the fastest time – I'm sure my iPad Pro can be done in half the time – but that's acceptable performance. It's not slow in itself, it's just the speed in 2025.

The reality is that if you are interested in buying Huawei consumer products now, you are likely to be aware of the shortcomings caused by the U.S. government. This is just something consumers must accept.

Another drawback is that the tablet cannot run native Google Mobile Services. However, a workaround was done with Microg, a third-party standalone software that cheated on Google's mobile services. I've talked to multiple Android insiders and enthusiasts who say Microg is very safe but ultimately still an informal way to access Google Apps. But it works well. YouTube, Google Maps, Drive, Docs are all native on MatePad.

The Matepad Pro 13.2 comes with a very nice keyboard case, which, although very thin, has a great full-size keyboard and trackpad. The keys also have excellent travel. In the YouTube video above, you can see that I type at peak typing speed.

In another clever Huawei-specific hardware feature: the keyboard is still available when disconnected from the tablet. The connection is not established through Bluetooth, but through Huawei's “proximity link” technology, which consumes much less functionality and has lower latency. This is why the keyboard does not need to be charged (if it is running on Bluetooth, it needs to be).

The stylus is called an M pencil and is purchased separately. But it's also great, and it's probably the second best stylus in the entire tablet industry, not the Apple Pencil. It can detect over 10,000 levels of pressure, maybe the matte screen adds pressure, but the drawing/sketching experience feels great.

In terms of software, the global version is still running on the EMUI software of Android based on Huawei, so all Android applications can be used on tablets. As mentioned earlier, if you use Microsoft, the Google apps work properly, and many native applications for Microsoft Apps and Huawei have been optimized for large screens that run on both panes. There is also an excellent multitasking system that allows two applications to run simultaneously in a free reassignable window mode.

Overall, Huawei Matepad Pro 13.2 2025 is another typical Huawei product, meaning it has huge, arguably top-notch hardware (minus silicon), and is the overall design of other ZAGs in the serrated. I don't know the official global retail price of this tablet, but in China, which is already sold in China, the tablet costs about $550. I assume the global price will reach $600 with a price range of $700.