Huawei has officially unveiled the MatePad Air tablet. Featuring an 11.5-inch display, the MatePad Air runs on Huawei’s HarmonyOS 3.1 and is available in two memory options: 8 GB of RAM with either 128 GB or 256 GB of storage, or 12 GB of RAM with either 256 GB or 512 GB of storage. All models are equipped with the powerful 2.84 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor though it is a few years old already.
The tablet boasts a high-resolution 2800 x 1840 pixels LCD display with a 144Hz refresh rate, making it ideal for smooth and immersive visuals. It also supports the second-generation Huawei M-Pencil with 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity, making it a popular choice for creative work. Despite the high-resolution display, the tablet offers a battery life of up to 12 hours thanks to its 8300mAh battery. It also supports 40W super-fast charging.
Connectivity options include Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, optional 4G LTE capability, and a USB C 3.2 Gen 1 port. Huawei has incorporated a variety of sensors into the MatePad Air, such as GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, ambient light sensor, gravity sensor, hall sensor, compass, gyroscope, and a color temperature sensor. It boasts a sleek 6.4mm thickness, although it is not the thinnest tablet on the market. It weighs a quite convenient 508 grams
In terms of cameras, the MatePad Air features an 8 MP front-facing camera and a 13 MP rear camera capable of 4K recording. It also includes quad speakers with Huawei’s Histen 8.0 audio technology, delivering impressive sound quality. With up to 4 microphones, video calls are expected to be outstanding. Additionally, Huawei offers an optional keyboard for the MatePad Air, featuring a minimalist design without a trackpad but including useful shortcuts and features. The keyboard is available in black or white. The tablet otherwise is available in multiple color options, including black, white, purple, blue, and green.
Apart from the top-notch specs mentioned above, another highlight of the new MatePad Air tablet is that it comes with HDR Vivid-certification, and is the first tablet in being so. To elaborate on that, HDR Vivid happens to be an advanced high dynamic range video technology standard developed by the World Ultra HD Video Industry Alliance. It offers significant improvements over the static HDR standard, HDR10, which is commonly used in the industry. What sets HDR Vivid apart is its ability to dynamically optimize the brightness, contrast, and color of each frame based on the specific display hardware and video scene. By intelligently analyzing and calculating the color and brightness range of every scene, it addresses the issue of color information and brightness detail loss that occurs in traditional post-production, mastering, distribution, and display processes.
The primary goal of HDR Vivid is to ensure that different display devices can deliver the optimal picture viewing experience. It achieves this by enhancing the richness of colors and levels in the image, thereby improving the contrast between light and dark areas. This enhancement adds depth and detail to the visuals, allowing viewers to fully immerse themselves in the content and appreciate the true-to-life representation captured by HDR content creators. The technology aims to replicate the realism as perceived by the human eye, faithfully preserving the original intent of the creators. Anything you do with the tablet, be it watching videos, playing games, surfing the net, or reading e-books, you are guaranteed to have the most optimal and natural viewing experience each time.
Overall, the Huawei MatePad Air resembles the Apple iPad Air in terms of size, and although the operating systems differ, it stands out as a tablet with high-end specifications. Preorders for the device have begun, with prices starting from 2799 Chinese Yuan (USD 399).
With a keen interest in tech, I make it a point to keep myself updated on the latest developments in technology and gadgets. That includes smartphones or tablet devices but stretches to even AI and self-driven automobiles, the latter being my latest fad. Besides writing, I like watching videos, reading, listening to music, or experimenting with different recipes. The motion picture is another aspect that interests me a lot, and I'll likely make a film sometime in the future.