9

Tablets masquerading as laptops continue

to be a thing – and they’re getting good at

it. To be honest, we’ve not spoken to any

laptops to find out if they feel threatened,

or asked any normal tabs if they’re getting

an inferiority complex, but one look at the

latest Huawei MatePad Pro hybrid and we

wouldn’t blame them.

Running the company’s rapidly evolving

HarmonyOS, the 12.6in model (there’s also

a 10.8in version) comes with a 2560x

OLED screen – and yes, once you snap on

the optional Smart Magnetic Keyboard, it

certainly looks a lot like a laptop.

There’s no ‘Intel inside’ here, of course, and

you know Apple ain’t sharing its M1 chip

with anyone, but Huawei’s own Kirin

9000E processor promises more than

enough power. In fact we’ve already had

a play, and some of the best bits include a

powerful eight-speaker array that sounds

great, slim screen surrounds that minimise

bulk, and battery life of up to 14 hours.

It’s plastic, not aluminium or glass... but if

you’re really trying to be a laptop, perhaps

that’s not such a bad thing.

As hot as... the fury of a thousand

humiliated laptops

€799 (est) / consumer.huawei.com

PAD BOON

RISING

Huawei MatePad Pro 12.

HOT

SIX

Bezel’s haircut

That gorgeous OLED

display gets the full beans

of a 120Hz refresh rate and has

a 90% screen-to-body ratio,

giving your fingers just

enough bezel to grab

hold of.

Leaders of pen
Pro tablet productivity
requires add-ons – as well as
the Smart Magnetic Keyboard
(€130), look out for Huawei’s
2nd-gen M-Pencil (€tba),
with a lag time of
just 9ms.