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HUAWEI MatePad 11 Review

Charles TYK

Introduction

The HUAWEI MatePad 11 was launched in July alongside the new variants of the MateBook series. It is the company’s first-ever tablet with a 120Hz refresh rate screen, and the company claims that it will definitely up your work-from-home productivity, but with a catch. Without further ado, this is the full review of HUAWEI MatePad 11!

HUAWEI MatePad 11 Specs

Design

In terms of design, the HUAWEI MatePad 11 actually looks pretty much like last year’s MatePad Pro. It has a reasonable amount of bezels all around, not too thin but I’m okay with it.

This time around, the tablet doesn’t have a hole-punch camera at the top left corner of the screen. Yes, HUAWEI has put the front-facing camera on top of the screen, if you are holding the tablet in landscape orientation.

The back of the MatePad 11 is a different story, it has a faux leather backing that looks unique and feels better to touch. Duly note that only the 256GB variant comes with this material, painted in Olive Green.

It still has the same excellent speaker system that sounds better than many laptops on the market. You get four speakers (two on each side) that are tuned by Harman Kardon. Sadly, there’s no 3.5mm audio jack, which means you’ll either have to use wireless earbuds or the dongle included in the box.

Display

The tablet sports a 10.95-inch WQXGA (2,560 x 1,600) IPS FullView display with a 120Hz refresh rate. This is basically the same nice 16:10 screen from last year’s MatePad Pro, but it now comes with a 120Hz refresh rate, which makes the entire experience feels a lot smoother!

Performance

The HUAWEI MatePad 11 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor with 6GB RAM and up to 256GB storage. Yup, it uses a Qualcomm chip, which is a good move actually, I don’t remember HUAWEI has a tablet that uses a Qualcomm chip. Combined with the 120Hz refresh rate, everything just runs smoothly without any hiccups.

HUAWEI Smart Magnetic Keyboard

Similar to last year’s MatePad Pro, the HUAWEI MatePad 11 also comes with the Smart Magnetic Keyboard, an improved version. The keyboard case still snaps onto the tablet via magnets and it is connected via Bluetooth. Like last year’s MatePad Pro, the keyboard can only be propped up at two angles only.

The keyboard feels quite similar, which is quite responsible and tactile to type on. HUAWEI has also added an additional function key, you can now change the screen brightness, volume, and lock the tablet by pressing the function key and number key.

HUAWEI M-Pencil (2nd Gen)

The tablet now supports 2nd Gen HUAWEI M-Pencil, which is better than the first one. The 2nd Gen HUAWEI M-Pencil now has an ultra-low latency of 2ms and supports 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity, making the writing and drawing experience more natural.

Additionally, HUAWEI has also added some smart features. With HUAWEI FreeScript, you can now directly write on the screen with the 2nd Gen HUAWEI M-Pencil to fill in any text field. It also has shortcuts like Double Tap to Switch and gestures to make it easier to select text, delete text, and even add or delete spaces between characters. You can also draw perfect circles and perfect lines effortlessly with the Instant Shape and Instant Table feature.

Software

The HUAWEI MatePad 11 now runs on HarmonyOS 2, HUAWEI’s solution outside of Android. The user experience is actually quite similar to EMUI, but now with more features.

The homescreen looks familiar, I will not tell you that it looks like iPadOS! You get two separate docks at the bottom, one has all the apps you assigned, and another one houses the recent apps. You can turn off the one that shows your recent apps, or show lesser recent apps. The folders and widgets can also resize into different sizing, to make your homescreen looks more dynamic.

Just like iPadOS, swiping down from the top right corner of the screen will reveal the Control Panel, while from the top left corner/middle of the screen will reveal the notification panel. Not surprised to see such a similar user experience, since HUAWEI often took inspiration from Apple.

Here’s the catch to up your work-from-home productivity — you’ll need a HUAWEI laptop. With HarmonyOS 2, the MatePad 11 now gets more controls when you paired up with a HUAWEI laptop. In my case, I’m using 2021’s HUAWEI MateBook D15. HUAWEI PC Manager now offers three modes that allow the HUAWEI MatePad 11 and MateBook D15 to work together — Mirror, Extend, and Collaborate.

Mirror mode allows the MatePad 11 to be a secondary display that mirrors the contents on the MateBook D15 screen. So now the tablet becomes a digital drawing pad with the 2nd Gen HUAWEI M-Pencil. You can also sign, add comments, and draw in the apps running on the laptop.

Extend mode basically extends the MateBook D15 screen, which actually works as a secondary display. You can even choose the MatePad 11 as the audio output, but I don’t recommend you to do so as the audio coming out from the tablet appears to have a crackling sound.

Lastly, Collaborate mode allows you to transfer files and content between the HUAWEI MatePad 11 and MateBook D15 seamlessly, simply by dragging and dropping. Basically, you are using the MateBook D15 to control the MatePad 11.

Battery Life

The HUAWEI MatePad 11 packs a 7,250mAh battery that supports fast charging. It took around 2 hours to charge from 15% to 100% with the included 22.5W fast charger. In terms of battery life, I was able to use the tablet for more than 2 days, mainly with Spotify, browser, and Netflix, with around 10 hours of screen-on-time.

Final Words

Retailing at RM1,999 (128GB) and RM2,399 (256GB), the HUAWEI MatePad 11 is actually a good alternative to a basic laptop if you are using your laptop just for web browsing, typing docs, and Netflix. You can definitely up your work productivity if you own a HUAWEI laptop at the same time. However, if you are not into the HUAWEI ecosystem, this might not be a good choice, because a tablet without Google Mobile Services is actually quite a hassle to use alone unless it is an iPad.

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