The Huawei MediaPad M5 10 is the latest launch from the tech giant Huawie. The tablet unveils in the market in the year 2018 and is getting a great response worldwide. The device is almost perfect for watching TV shows and reading Facebook feeds whenever you want. Tablet comes with a premium built, light, thin, beautiful, fast and have a very solid display. Furthermore, it does not cost as much as a laptop. Consequently, you stay away from making the hard decision between a laptop or a tablet.
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Huawei MediaPad M5 10
A few years ago, the number of available tablets in the market was meagre. However, something changes and all manufacturers began to produce a vast number of tablets. First, we thought Tablet is going to bring a change and it’s going to stay for a long time. However, it took quite a bit of time, and these gadgets from the category required by marketers must have moved into the category of niche solutions. Nowadays, tablets come as a semi-professional tool for creativity, even though such can be counted on one hand. Most of the people use tablets solely for expending content: perusing news, answering to messages, surfing the web, and watching recordings.
The debate between a tablet or a laptop is still running. Still, people are looking for what is better, and there is no subside until now about the debate. Moreover, there is no right answer to this question. Everyone has their own approach and need, and you have to select what’s better for you according to your convenience. If you have decided to go for a tablet, finding a good tablet can be a hard task. Also, most of the people save on the screens and specs. Today, in this review we are going to talk about one of the best solutions to the average price category – Huawei MediaPad M5 10. The tablet is quite excellent and does not lag while working. It comes with a good screen to which every content looks excellent.
Huawei MediaPad M5 10 Specifications:
Huawei MediaPad M5 10 | |
Display | 10.8 inches, 2560 × 1600 resolution, 280 dpi; IPS-matrix |
CPU | Huawei HiSilicon Kirin 960: four A73 cores 2.4 GHz frequency + four A53 cores 1.8 GHz; 16 nm process technology |
Graphic controller | Mali G71 MP8,900 MHz |
RAM | 4 GB |
Flash memory | 32/64 GB |
Memory card support | Yes |
Connectors | 1 × USB Type-C |
SIM cards | Nano-SIM (optional) |
cellular | 2G: GSM / EDGE 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz; 3G: HSDPA + (up to 42 Mbit / s); 4G: LTE Cat. 6 (300 Mbps) band 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 17, 18, 19, 20, 26 |
Wi-Fi | 802.11a / b / g / n / ac, 2.4 / 5 GHz |
Bluetooth | 4.2 |
Navigation | GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS |
Sensors | Accelerometer, fingerprint scanner, gyroscope, proximity sensor, magnetometer (digital compass) |
Main camera | 13 MP, autofocus, flash, shooting 4K video |
Front-camera | 8 Mp; no autofocus, no flash |
Nutrition | Non-removable battery 25.5 Wh (7500 mAh) |
The size | 258.7 × 171.8 × 7.3 mm |
Weight | 498 grams |
operating system | Android 8.0 Oreo with proprietary shell Huawei EMUI 8.0 |
Design and ergonomics
Most of the latest gadgets come with aspect ratio like 19: 9, 18: 9. However this kind of fashionable screen is still far away from the reach of tablets. The Huawei MediaPad M5 10 come with modest 16:10 aspect ratio which looks quite traditional. The only change we could find on the tablet screen includes it is only slightly stretched vertically which is probably good.
The front of the device mostly come cover with the display(71.6%). Above the screen, you can find the tiny lens of the buit-in camera. Below the screen, a thin and at the same time long fingerprint sensor find its place. The fingerprint sensor as coming from Huawei, works very fast and almost always perfect.
You will not get 18:9 aspect ratio but, the frames around the device is very thin. While using the tablet, your fingers will not touch the sensor. There is plenty of room to use the fingerprint sensor. The Huawei logo is at the front side of the display, below the screen which looks quite good.
The Huawei MediaPad M5 10 entire back panel is of metal. Metal back panel not only looks good but the feeling you get while holding the device is also great. It feels pleasantly cool while holding the device with your hand. The whole back surface comes with a matte and provides a rough feeling while holding. The device comes with a grey color which not only looks great but also prevents any fingerprint while using the device. Since you can also insert a SIM card in the tablet to catch network signal, the sides of the tablets come cover with plastic to catch network signal. For us the design of tablet is really impressive, it looks neat, and there is nothing to find fault with.
There are many holes along the top and bottom edges on the back side of the tablet. They are actually built for the speakers of the device. The speakers are not geat but more than enough for daily use. Listening to Music in Mp3 and watching movies or videos from Youtube runs great, and there are enough quality and volume provided with the tablet. There will be no need to connect the device with external speakers for listening to everyday music. One thing that impresses lot is placing of the external speaker. The holes of the speaker are well placed, and it’s very unlikely to be accidentally covered by fingers.
There are two versions of Huawei MediaPad M5 10 available in the market. The first one is a normal one another version available is the Pro Huawei MediaPad M5 10. With the Pro version, you will also get three different accessories with the tablet. That will include a platform for connecting the docking station, a keyboard unit with a touchpad (and another stylus). You can buy them separately as well, if you think you are going to need them.
The one thing that upset us in the well-built camera includes its camera lens. The camera lens points from the case for a good 2 millimetres. The camera lens not just looks ugly but is also attracts unwanted accidental scratches easy.
Another thing that upsets us includes the absence of regular headphone jack. The Huawei MediaPad M5 10 is not any super slim smartphone with an IP68 vibrator and a built-in coffee maker. Where the precious space for chips inside is worth its weight in gold. Its a hefty tablet and not including a headphone jack doesn’t seem right. However, the table comes with a USB Type-C to 3.5 mm audio jack which is okay, but the comfort and quality of 3,5mm jack are still missing. Moreover, it is really easy to forget about the headphone jack converter which will keep you away from enjoying the tablet to its full potential. Alternatively, you can annoy everyone near you with the sound from the speakers, catching censorious glances and blushing in public transport.
Display
There are tons of budget tablet available in the market which comes with HD display. However, tablets which come into the decent category of tablet always lean toward at least Full HD display. The Huawei MediaPad M5 is even better, the tablet come equip with a 10.8-inch IPS-matrix with a Quad HD-resolution – 2560 × 1440 pixels display. Individual points for everyday use in the eyes do not rush at all, but if you still want to consider them and peer properly, they are, of course, visible.
If you are looking for a tablet for everyday use, there’s really nothing to complain about. The viewing angles are maximum, the color rendition seems natural, plus there are two ready-to-use profiles in the settings and an interface for flexible color temperature adjustment. If you turn on the brightness of the device at maximum, you can use the tablet under sunlight if there is some cloud. Also, the minimum level of brightness allows you to read in the dark comfortably. In general, we also recommend you to use the tablet under some shadows as direct sunlight causes the problem at viewing.
After conducting some test for the display brightness the result is as follows. The “bright” profile was 303 cd / m 2 – an average figure. The measured contrast level was 1190: 1 – for a tablet with an IPS-matrix it is quite normal.
Performance
The Android devices on the top of the sheet come with exciting fate. When they get release people don’t line up in front of the store to get the device, people are not waiting for them to get their hand on the device or carefully following the news and rumors, and getting updates every few years as needed. Same goes with the specs they receive. They don’t get the top stuff too usually they get the “wear out” the chipsets of outdated flagships. This is the exact story of matter with each device. Even companies like Samsung with their Galaxy Tab S4 – they use Snapdragon 835, while Snapdragon 845 is being put on the best smartphones.
The Huawei MediaPad M5 10 is same, it runs on Kirin 960 chipset, familiar to many from smartphones like Huawei P10 and Mate 9. At the same time Huawei flagship smartphone like P20 Pro is now running on Kirin 970, and on the way is already Mate 20 Pro with Kirin 980. The Huawei MediaPad M5 10 heart gets its power from HiSilicon Kirin 960 is a Huawei proprietary chipset based on the 16-nm process technology. It includes four Cortex A53 energy efficient cores (1.8 GHz), four Cortex A73 performance cores (2.4 GHz), and graphics accelerator Mali G71 MP8 with a frequency of 900 MHz. When you compare the HiSilicon Kirin 960 with the Snapdragon 835, you will get fairly close results.
With the great processor, the Huawei MediaPad M5 10 becomes perfect for any household tasks, except games. Demanding games like WoT Blitz and especially PUBG Mobile can be play on the device with medium setting.
With the 4 GB of RAM, combined with a well-optimized Huawei EMUI shell, the device is excellent for day to day use. We conduct some test with the device by simultaneously opening many programs and a bunch of tabs in the browser, and there are no problems. Everything runs smooth without any lag or glitch.
The in-built memory of the device is little low. The basic version of the tablet comes with only 32GB of internal memory. This is very low for a device which is mainly going to use for the entertainment purpose. Also, note that the basic version of the device doesn’t come with the slot for nano-SIM. It will be better to go for the device with the 64 GB version of the internal memory. The 64 GB arient also comes with a slot for nano-SIM. The 64 GB version of the device also has costs higher than the 32 GB one. We recommend you to get a 128 GB microSD card right away for the tablet iy you don’t want to use LTE on your tablet. It will close the issue with the file storage space
The Huawei MediaPad M5 10 have no problems regarding heating of the device. Sometimes after extended use, the device back tends to get little warmer, but not enough to at least you have to think about it. Throttling is virtually absent: the CPU performance level in 15 minutes of the test did not fall below 89% of the maximum.
If you install a nano-SIM in your tablet, it will be great. Your device will remain online all the time and also thanks to 4G your tablet will also be able to make calls. With the SIM entertainment is guaranteed all the all the time. Everything works as it should, with the reception of signals order.
Even with all the features included, everything on the device is not rich. You will get an older version of Bluetooth with the device, i.e. V4.2, however, this is not going to be the most used feature of the device. Their is no way to transmit wireless audio in high quality either. Thanks to the Type-C adapter you can also use headphones and external speaker if you want to use them.
Camera
A camera in any tablet is a very regular one with nothing to gain from them. It is logical that it should be, but everyone understands that the most desperate users will be shooting the highly artistic frames for it. The reason behind this is simply because it is extremely inconvenient, and it also looks quite comical from the other end. The camera of The Huawei MediaPad M5 10 comes with 10 photo modules. The rear camera comes with a resolution of 13 megapixels built into the MediaPad M5. Although the camera comes with autofocus, but still its usage is very limited. The camera is enough to click some pictures here and there but don’t expect any professional shooting with the inbuilt camera.
Same goes with the front 8-megapixel selfie cam. The front camera is only good for communication via the instant messengers, and they are not meant for clicking some royal selfie on Instagram.
The camera specification is not a perimeter to judge any tablet. Most of the tables around in the maker generally have a worse camera, than the Huwaei 5. This is just the norm, keep a note and go further
Battery
Nowadays smartphone comes with a whopping battery of 3000-3500 mAh. Our tablet The Huawei MediaPad M5 10 comes with an even large battery of 7500 mAh, if we compare the tablet with a smartphone, it seems 7500 mAh is a lot of juice to run the tablet. In numbers – yes, however, when we combine bright 10-inch display, which also has a QHD-resolution, it doesn’t seem much. For active users like us, the full battery charge flies away in a day, that is, in 6-7 hours of operation with the display turned on. For average users, the tablet will be able to squeeze 1.5-2 days of work out of the gadget easily. With Continuous playback of video in 2K resolution at maximum brightness and with a sound set at about half the maximum discharged the tablet in 4 hours and 40 minutes.
The Huawei MediaPad M5 10 do support fast charging, with the adapter provided with the tablet. After fifteen minutes of charge the battery indicator goes from 0 to 15%, after half an hour, 27% appears on it, the battery is charged half in an hour. For full charging the tablet taes around two hours and fifteen minutes after connecting it to the power supply.
Conclusion
The Huawei MediaPad M5 10 is not perfect, but a great tablet. It looks great, well assembled, quick charging, and it also with a wonderful display and cool speakers. The only thing that is missing includes lack of audio jack and the underperformance camera. The 32 GB version of the tablet can cause a problem for some; however, the problem can be easily solved by using an external card.
Advantages:
- high-quality assembly and design;
- good hardware stuffing;
- high resolution display;
- price.
Disadvantages:
- no mini jack;
- small amount of memory;
- camera protruding above the hull.