Huawei has had a bumpy street because it was banned from doing enterprise with Google. It has shifted its gadgets away from Google’s Android and the Google Play Store and launched a homebrewed answer known as HarmonyOS. It is, for all intents and functions, Huawei’s model of Google’s Android. But regardless of it having all the identical options and connectivity, it’s merely not the identical Android with out Google’s apps.

It’s a bummer for the Huawei MatePad Pro 12.6, which is a critically attractive piece of {hardware}. Unfortunately, the pill isn’t accessible on the market within the U.S. due to the {hardware} ban, however Huawei despatched over a MatePad Pro so I might dip my toes into HarmonyOS. It’s a succesful working system, however I couldn’t entry a lot of the options I depend on all through my day-to-day. The MatePad Pro is a superb pill in any other case, and it made me want I may very well be abroad to get an actual style of what Huawei can do.

Seriously Sexy Hardware

I do know, it’s slightly extraordinarily cringe once we name devices “sexy.” But please let me have this as a result of it’s been a very long time since I went “ooh” whereas unboxing an Android pill. Anyway, it’s to be anticipated of Huawei, an organization that’s lengthy made a reputation for itself worldwide with its premium {hardware} design.

The MatePad Pro 12.6 isn’t any totally different with its svelte chassis, regardless of the primarily plastic building. At 6.7mm thick and about 1.3 kilos, the pill feels sturdy with out feeling prefer it’s going to pressure your wrist. It’s greatest to make use of when paired with the Smart Magnetic Keyboard, which is as snug because the Samsung Galaxy Tab S keyboards I’ve used earlier than. I managed 99 phrases per minute in a typing take a look at, which is an effective indicator that I can use the pill to get some run-of-the-mill writing executed.

The Huawei MatePad Pro’s greatest promoting level is its 12.6-inch ultra-wide show. The 16:10 ratio makes it appropriate for streaming content material of all kinds and ensures sufficient display area when utilizing the split-screen mode on Harmony OS. Huawei boasts that at 90%, its MatePad Pro has the world’s highest screen-to-body ratio amongst tablets in the marketplace, about 5% greater than the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. Regardless of the technicality, I admire slightly additional area for dealing with the pill with out activating the touchscreen.

There is one caveat: The MatePad Pro’s 60Hz refresh fee isn’t fairly as spectacular in comparison with the 120Hz refresh fee on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 and iPad Pro. If you’re a video fiend, it would turn into noticeable as extra gadgets begin adopting the next refresh fee. The saving grace is the MatePad Pro’s spectacular colour replica.

Huawei’s newest pill is WiFi 6-compatible, has 256GB of cupboard space, and no headphone jack. The quantity rocker is situated on the high of the machine, on the aspect with the 8-MP front-facing digital camera. I couldn’t use Google Duo to dial out or Skype, WhatsApp, and Zoom. I used to be unable to check any video calling providers. However, my child and I snapped a few selfies with the digital camera, they usually seemed detailed and well-lit. The similar goes for the rear cameras, of which there are two. Those 13-MP and 8-MP wide-angle lenses are good to have readily available, they usually’re even able to capturing just a few long-exposure night time pictures.

It Doesn’t Run On Qualcomm

Whereas a lot of the only a few premium Android tablets offered within the U.S. have a tendency to make use of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon cellular processors, Huawei makes its personal silicon for its gadgets. The MatePad Pro 12.6 runs on a 5nm Huawei Kirin 9000E processor. It’s an 8-core chip with a 22-core Mali-G78 for the GPU. However, I struggled to benchmark it as a result of not one of the suites I exploit for Android gadgets and Chrome OS can be found for Huawei’s HarmonyOS.

So I went with just a few exterior sources to see how the processor performs for individuals who can truly benchmark it. According to CPU Monkey, the Kirin 9000E scored nicely in GeekBench 5, sufficient that it positioned straight under AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper 2950X and Intel’s Ninth-generation Core i5 and Seventh-generation Core i7 processors. It’s not Huawei’s top-of-the-line silicon, and it’s much less boosted than the common Kirin 9000 chip. But in benchmarks, the Kirin 9000E is a powerful CPU that may sustain with the Snapdragon 888 with most duties. However, it’s not essentially the most succesful at dealing with processor-intensive graphics, and its gaming efficiency is on par with the Snapdragon 865 Plus. Overall, the pill felt speedy and responsive.

Since the MatePad Pro sports activities a giant display meant for productiveness, there’s a whopping 10,050 mAh battery inside. It’s not a lot larger than what Samsung gives on the Tab S7+, although the 60Hz refresh fee in comparison with Samsung’s 120GHz bodes nicely for battery life. The pill managed 10 and a half hours in our inner battery take a look at. It’s additionally fairly first rate at managing present battery life. I used to be happy to see barely 10% burned by after leaving it on standby for the night time. It’s additionally price noting the MatePad Pro has 40W wired quick charging and 27W wi-fi charging. Flip it to the again, and there’s additionally reverse 10W wi-fi charging capabilities, so you may cost up a pill or smartwatch once you’re out and about.

Apps, Or Lack Thereof

One of the issues I loved concerning the MatePad Pro is its monumental and shiny show, so I indulged in watching a number of movies. However, I barely had any to select from since my favourite streaming providers aren’t accessible in Huawei’s AppGallery. There isn’t any YouTube TV to obtain, nor are you able to sideload it or navigate to it within the browser. Google is blocked off in each form or kind. The solely video app accessible within the Huawei AppGallery was Plex, my house server that I haven’t up to date with content material since I began paying for all these streaming providers. I used to be in a position to get my weekly fill of Melrose Place and Beverly Hills, 90210 by Paramount+, although solely by the browser—and solely as a result of I hadn’t signed up for it by my Google account.

I attempted to find over a dozen apps that I exploit each day in Huawei’s AppGallery. Allow me for example, in bulletpoint kind, what got here up once I looked for the next apps:

• AllTrails: No
• Blue by ADT: No
• Samsung SmartIssues: Externally, by an APK web site
• TP-Link Kasa: No
• Philips Hue: Only third-party apps have been prioritized, with the official app requiring I get it from an exterior APK web site
• Digitally Imported: No
• Spotify: No
• ExpressVPN: Yes! I put in it from the Huawei AppGallery
• HBO Max: No
• Paramount+: No
• Instagram: No, however Snapchat and TikTook have been supplied as options and accessible to obtain
• Patreon: No
• Pokemon Go: No, tragically

You can entry a few of these providers by their respective internet apps or the browser. But you may’t simply entry something that’s linked by a Google account. I attempted logging in by three totally different browsers, together with the inventory Huawei browser included on the MatePad Pro, Ecosia browser, and Opera. All three timed out. I used to be in a position to make use of Google as a search engine, nevertheless, however with out logging in to any of my accounts.

Without that form of Google entry, I’m primarily locked out of all the pieces I would like, even when I might determine a run-around. I can’t entry the handfuls of ebooks I’ve bought by Google Play Books. I don’t have any good house controls since I exploit Google to unite all the pieces in my house. (For that matter, I don’t have entry to Amazon Alexa, both, with out downloading an externally-hosted APK.) I don’t have Google Docs or entry to my images, particularly not something that I didn’t beforehand again as much as Dropbox. I used to be in a position to entry that account, not less than, to replenish the MatePad Pro with various kinds of information for testing, however I did all that by the pill browser.

To add insult to harm, the MatePad Pro doesn’t technically acknowledge that I’m within the United States, although I might set it up with my native time zone. Unfortunately, there isn’t any possibility to pick the U.S. as a area. Since I already had a Huawei account from a earlier machine assessment—arrange with my Gmail deal with, by the way in which, however not authenticated by it, so I used to be in a position to log in—I used to be instantly positioned in Romania, as I’d set it up way back. I moved myself to the United Kingdom to see if that will open up extra choices however to no avail.

Otherwise, all the pieces about HarmonyOS 2.0 may be very Android-y. The notification shade remains to be there, with fast editable settings besides. Navigating the interface is similar, although there’s no long-press on the house display so as to add widgets, and you’ll select between whether or not to have an app drawer or let your apps splay throughout. I most popular the primary possibility because it was a lot much less chaotic to navigate. Huawei even gives its model of Google’s Digital Wellbeing, known as Digital Balance, and a digital assistant named Celia, which may carry out easy duties like taking part in a tune or including a calendar entry. It’s not the Google Assistant, clearly, and feels very very similar to a Samsung Bixby scenario.

If you do determine to go rogue and sideload apps as you want them, remember that you’re accountable for updating them, too. Unless you utilize one other sideloaded helper app, there isn’t any Play Store to mechanically replace these apps within the background and get you patches you want to use the pill safely

Perhaps essentially the most aggravating a part of utilizing the MatePad Pro is when apps work solely in portrait mode. It’s the identical frustration I get when an Android app forces me to make use of the Chromebook sideways. HarmonyOS already features a helpful pressured split-screen format in sure apps when in panorama mode, and it will have been a pleasant trick to see Huawei determine how one can middle apps made for telephones.

There’s a Pen!

I wish to shortly convey up the Huawei M Pencil stylus as a result of it’s as pleasant to make use of because the pill. Granted, I don’t have Infinite Painter as I might on a Chromebook or Samsung pill to make use of with a stylus. But I used to be in a position to attempt it out with just a few different illustration apps.

I’m not an artist, so that you received’t be getting scrawlings out of me. I wish to have a pill round to attract on images and make notes, as that’s how we plan out tasks in my family. The M Pencil stylus seems like a sturdy, high-class BIC pen. It has 4,096 ranges of sensitivity, and it docks, costs, and pairs by connecting magnetically to the highest of the pill. It took me a second to determine that this was potential, however I used to be impressed by the magnet’s energy.

You Can’t Buy It

If you’re studying this and also you’re exterior of the U.S., it’s best to have a better time buying the MatePad Pro 12.6 pill. Huawei says the machine is “available internationally,” with Asia Pacific, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East getting it first. It shouldn’t be accessible on the market within the U.S. Even if Huawei weren’t to return to licensing apps and providers from Google, the concept of one other Android-based working system getting into the fold might have been thrilling, offered Huawei had the suitable companions. But till the political barrier that retains it from successfully doing enterprise is taken down, Android must defer to producers like Samsung to compete with the iPad.

The level of this assessment was in the end for example what HarmonyOS is able to as an Android fork. Despite Huawei’s spectacular {hardware} and intuitive interface, it’s an disagreeable expertise with out entry to Google’s apps and providers. I additionally discovered that I rely manner an excessive amount of on my Google account to log in to 3rd events and providers. If you’re like me, you received’t get a lot out of importing the MatePad Pro.