Huawei MediaPad M5 Android Tablet - 10.8" 64GB - Quad Harman Kardon-Tuned Speakers - Space Gray (US)

It is true that that android tablets are dying. Well at least premium ones are. ChromeOS coming to tablets seems to be the clincher as they can do more on a tablet than just running android alone.When Huawei released the mediapad m5 in 3 different versions they kept android tablets afloat in the premium market. I don’t like apple at all but there is no denying that once they released their ipad to a low price of 329, they just won the tablet war. The Samsung tab s3 is still around 500, that measures pretty comparable to the ipad. Amazon’s fire line seems to offer a more value solution but not premium.I bought the non-pro version of the medipad m5 10.8 and my thoughts are below:Likes: build quality: thin, light all aluminum with the right about of bezel to screen ratio. Fast fingerprint reader. Nice display at 2500 x 1600. Great sound with four speakers. Fast performance. Very good battery life. Has pongo pins for a keyboard cover that turns the device into a 2 in 1. Price: $359 total!Concerns: Huawei’s future in the US. Pending updates to other version of androids (Here is why running ChromeOS would have been better.) since Huawei has a bad reputation of upgrading their phones. Seems flaw that when you activate bluetooth and wifi together the device slows down substantially on the internet because the wifi and bluetooth are using the same antenna. I find this less of an issue on a tablet then a phone because I use bluetooth less with my tablets then my phone.Minor: in portrait mode the power button is on the bottom. There is no headphone jack, although it does include an adapter to convert.Versus the competition:Ipad non pro: supports a pen for an additional 100, but huawei offers a pro model with pen included for 449.00. Ipad has better screen despite the lower resolution, and the 9.7, 4:3 ratio is a bit better in the hands. Huawei offers more storage and a sd card slot. Battery life is a bit better on the Huawei as well. It's very close, but if you are android user the Huawei wins this. Also no made for keyboard connector. Geekbench 4 multi-core score is close.Samsung tab S3: Samsung has the best screen since it is Amoled, a nice keyboard, pen support, 9.7 3:2 aspect ratio. The samsung has good performance but cost around 500.00 dollars. The m5 and the IPad are better values.Fire tablet 10.1: Is cheaper, at 149.00. Has a nice screen, good battery life, but a plastic build. Sound is good. Awkward to hold with portrait mode being too long, and landscape too wide. Not a premium tablet but an excellent value, good enough performance and the price to match. If you just want a decent tablet, and not worried about the extra flash a worthwhile purchase but just not on the same level as the premium offerings.Surface go: has a nice screen, but is slower running the web, and windows store does not have plenty of tablet optimized apps. Using windows on such a small screen with marginal performance is not my idea of a good time. At $399 it is also more spendy then the others. The surface go is more a marginal tablet and laptop than anything.Other versions of the M5: If you want a more reading friendly tablet the 8.4 version is the choice as it is cheaper, has a better processor. Very similar otherwise and does not have a keyboard connector so a bluetooth keyboard would have to be used.M5 Pro: supports a pen and also has the better version of the kirin 960. Cost 449, but can also use the keyboard cover. If pen is important than the M5 Pro is worth it.Keyboard option: the reason I went with the non-pro 10.8 version versus going with the 8.4 that has higher performance is for the keyboard option. Currently if you can find it there is a dedicated keyboard that can be bought for around 120.00 dollars. It is a nice folio style keyboard with a trackpad. Typing is good on it with adequate key travel. When you attach the keyboard the tablet goes to desktop mode with a windows like experience.There are some issues with this keyboard case. First it is spendy, at 120.00 and does not offer backlighting. Second it is flimsy with 2 tabs that secure it on either side are made of cheap plastic and 1 part broke already with minimal use. Third desktop mode has limited apps that work in this mode. Lastly the official keyboard case is hard to find, with none of the main retailers selling it.Conclusion: This is the best tablet to own today on android when price and performance are factored in. With the premium build, great performance, hi-res display, this is a definite ipad competitor.

This is a fantastic tablet (Huawei MediaPad 10.8), it's everything I was hoping for. For context, I'm migrating from a Samsung Galaxy 10.1 2014 edition, and I like that quite a bit.In this review we'll first debunk the controversy of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi streaming, then cover a couple of features I like and then finally I'll describe an accessory that is somewhat difficult to get ahold of but which makes this tablet a dream come true for productivity.My main reason for posting this was to counter the comments stating that Bluetooth and wifi do not work at the same time. That simply isn't true in my experience, over the past month or so that I've had the device.I have extensively tested Netflix and YouTube streaming on both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz Wi-Fi streaming with three different Bluetooth (4.0 to 4.1 EDR) headsets that were separately purchased starting way back in 2015 all the way up last month in 2018.Streaming video while using Bluetooth headset for sound is one of my main uses for this tablet and I've not had any problems in streaming or an interruption in the sound with 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz WiFi and using new or old Bluetooth headsets. Granted I've only had the tablet for a month but I did test it extensively so that I can hit the return window in case I encountered a problem. The users who say that it's a problem with the tablet and describe the problem as a hardware issue indicate that the problem should be apparent immediately. It doesn't develop over time.I even use the Ookla Speedtest app to look at my up and down speeds while streaming YouTube at 1080p and listening on a Bluetooth headset. Of course a speed test will not give maximum speed when another app is concurrently using some of that bandwith to stream video. The intent of this test was simply to document that there was still adequate streaming capacity while I performed the very same actions that other users said was impossible. While streaming YouTube at 1080P and listening on Bluetooth I was still getting over 30 Mbps down and up on the speedtest app.Of course I can't say that other users didn't have the problem that they're describing, but it's simply wrong to say that this is an inherent problem affecting this device.Now that that's out of the way what do we think about the tablet? Freaking love it.Awesome things about it:Incredibly efficient button and gestures. I simply love the positioning of the buttons, especially in combination with using gestures on the thumbprint pad. When in landscape mode all buttons are in the mid to upper right. With a single hand everything can be controlled readily. The gestures on the thumb pad are enormously efficient, I'll never go back to those space - hogging back, recent and home button icons. It might take a moment or two to become adjusted to it but it is well worth your time. lightly brushing downward or up across the thumb pad brings up recent apps, long pressing on the pad gets you home, and simply touching it serves as the back key.Large screen with beautiful display. I simply could not find another tablet of this size in Android for a decent cost. I absolutely did not want Apple and couldn't bear the thought of a Windows Surface experience. If you want Android and you want a large tablet this is one of your only options, good news it's a fantastic option and you will not be settling.Great photos and video with lots of customization. Although I don't use this tablet much for photos, it's a welcome feature in that it does take great pictures and video. Especially it has so much customization in terms of Pro mode, night shots, light painting, panorama and watermarking. If I need to take photos while I'm using the tablet for other purposes I don't have to separately fumble around and whip out a phone to get a decent picture.Great battery life. Not much else to say about this. I get around 2-3 days of use if I use screen-on wifi streaming (with Bluetooth sound) for 2-3 hours a day.Natively supported keyboard that's a dream to use. Okay so it's not easy to find this keyboard (will describe below how you can get it) but it is natively supported by the tablet and manufactured specifically for this tablet. It is so worth it to seek out the keyboard... it will make the tablet into a productivity powerhouse for light to medium office work. When used with Google's suite of office apps, or a Microsoft 360 membership with Word, PowerPoint and Excel, it's off to the races for writing, producing presentations and spreadsheeting. The trackpad is sensitive and supports multiple features. There are shortcut keys to go back, recent, home. The keys feel clicky and solid. It leverages the three prong pin that's at the bottom of the tablet when in landscape mode with the fingerprint scanner to the right.This keyboard is called the: "Original Huawei Mediapad M5 Pro Keyboard Folio Case Flip Leather Cover 10.8" and is available on eBay from a seller called "a-smartlife". Google search using "eBay" and the product name in word above should bring it up, the seller is highly recommended. I wish this tablet was available on Amazon, I had to buy it instead on eBay. It is OEM and shipped from China. It took one month to arrive at an address in the United States, but it was worth every moment of the wait. Pictures are uploaded here to Amazon.

If you hate Apple but secretly acknowledge the exquisiteness of their products, look no further. This is the one for you.From the moment you unpack and hold it in your hands, it exudes quality. Premium quality. No other Android tab comes close, including Samsung's overrated Galaxies. Color is accurate and pleasing, just the way it should be and not the overly saturated amoled's of the Galaxies with their nasty green cast. The screen is an absolute beauty. In 'eye comfort' mode which I leave on always, I can read for hours in bed in complete darkness with zero eye fatigue. Sound is fantastic, like listening to the radio. Lastly, it does come bundled with a few Huawei apps but not that many. Certainly not like the tons and tons of junk that the Samsung's came with ( I owned three Galaxies).The only negative, if there are any, is that it's a Huawei. From what I have read and which you probably have too, and which are probably exaggerated as well, it's possible that the People's Liberation Army is reading all my Hangouts messages and Gmail. But frankly I don't care as I have nothing to hide from the PLA. It's a great product, the best Android tab there is, and I am really happy with it.

I purchased this tablet mainly for my 4 yr old son son he can watch his Netflix shows and games as I was tired of the crappy performance of those other baby proof tablets, so I decided to look for a good tablet for him and I. My main idea was to purchase an nvidia shield tablet as I had those in the past but unfortunately nvidia stop making them and little did I know tablet had gone downhill in recent years, only Apple and Samsung really still make them, and other oriental companies, anyhow so I knew I didnt was a Samsung device as I had bad experience with Samsung products except phones, and Apple isn't for me, not only because of price but I just don't like Apple products for some reason. So I decided to look for a device that had, good battery life, and good processor and ram, I like a tablet that would run smoothly even when hit with multiple applications at once, so I started researching and most searches lead me to Samsung or Apple, so I expanded my search and came upon huawei, I looked up reviews, looked at the specs and it seemed like a solid tablet so I decided to order it, at price tag of 360$..pretty expensive given I could of purchase a Samsung or Apple counterpart for same or lower price but I liked this tablet. I got it in the mail opened it started it up and first thing that hit me was screen quality it was very good quality, it came with very little bloatware, mostly Google apps, video quality in YouTube did left me wanting more and idk why the quality isn't there but it's definitely not bad, Netflix is great and gaming is extremely good with good graphics and it runs smoothly. One of the things that I like the most is how good the speakers are,they are so loud I love to watch TV shows in this tablet and my son loves it too. Probably the best quality other than performance on this tablet, speakers. Something I probably wouldn't had been able the say had I gone with Apple or Samsung. Over all this is a great tablet and if you can afford it it's a great purchase. Do remember to buy a screen protector and cover protector along with it as it doesnt come with anything.

This is my 1st foray into any tablet other than Samsung.And boy howdy, what an entry it is!The Huawei MediaPad M5 10.8 is almost EVERYTHING I wanted in a tablet:Its well built.Its fast. Very fast.It almost has enough memory (I wish it had 6GB memory instead of only 4GB, but it plays my games very well nonetheless).It has enough internal space for me.It has a VERY responsive screen, but not overly responsive like most phones have nowadays, where if you just hover above it it clicks. Nope, its a perfect click every time, and no mistake-clicks at all. (I will say that the Huawei launcher IS faster than Nova Launcher Prime is. I dont know why, but Nova Launcher actually makes this tablet slower rather that faster like it does with Samsung phones and tablets, so stick with the Huawei launcher instead of an alternate launcher).The pricing is VERY good for the tablet size and specs! It is less than the current Samsung tablet, by more than half!The buttons are VERY un-clickable (you will not accidentally click the power or noise level buttons, ever).Now for the minuses:The Huawei keyboard is just terrible (I mean the software keyboard, the one it comes with). It might be good overseas, but for the USA it is terrible). Samsung has this virtual keyboard down WAY better than Huawei does, unfortunately. Huawei, PLEASE copy Samsung for your virtual keyboards, or add it somehow to the USA version, please.The buttons. Although you WONT accidentally click them, and they ARE very sturdy, trying to click them is MUCH harder than it should be. I have to wait 3-4 times as long as it takes to hold down a samsung button, before it reacts. AND, the buttons are VERY hard edged. No rolled edges to protect your fingers here. They are almost 'cutting your skin' hard-edged.The back of the tablet, while VERY good looking, is also SO slippery that I HAD to get a case for the tablet. Otherwise I kept dropping the tablet, it slips right out of your hand, especially when going from vertical to horizontal (luckily, I only used it in bed until I got a case for it, because it fell onto the bed (nice and soft bed, and only a foot or less dropped), or my chest, more than a dozen times in just a few nights use before I got a case for it).Cases are VERY limited! I guess because it is from overseas, none of the BIG companies like Otterbox, or Moko (my 2 favorites) make a case for this tablet.Overall though, I would DEFINITELY recommend this tablet to ANYONE in the market for an android tablet. Dont overpay for a tablet just because of the name brand. This Huawei MediaPad M5 10.8 is THE best deal out there right now, and I dont regret purchasing it one bit. Keep up the great work Huawei, and please fix those very small issues. You have a great product on your hands here, and people from the USA will definitely buy your products if you make them comperable or better than other name brands. :)