Huawei MatePad Paper, first impressions: a crazy night between an eReader and a tablet

Huawei has just introduced its new product battery. Among them, the Huawei MateStation X, Huawei Matebook X Pro (2022), Huawei MatePad (2022) and Huawei Matebook E. However, the flagship product is not a PC or a tablet in the strictest sense, but the Huawei MatePad Paper , a hybrid between tablet and e-reader to offer alternatives to giants like the Amazon Kindle.

We have been able to test this curious concept, and we bring you the first impressions on the Huawei MatePad Paper, a device with a huge screendesigned not only to function as a book reader, but also to be a huge notebook with access to multimedia files and compatible with Huawei’s M-Pen.

A tablet with the soul of an e-Reader

In hand, the Huawei MatePad Paper is a tablet to use, and it is far from small electronic ink readers. It is a device with a weight of 360 grams and a thickness of only 6.65 mm, so the first sensation is that we will soon get tired if we hold it without support for a few minutes.

At the level of dimensions, as we anticipated, it is similar to a conventional tablet, and that is that its screen (Huawei’s first electronic ink) is 10.3 inches with a resolution of 1872 x 1404 pixels per inch. The good frontal use draws attentionof 86.3% as promised by the technical sheet.

Huawei’s objective with its MatePad Paper is to facilitate reading compared to its main competitors, although the figures lead us to a panel that offers 222 ppi, number below the 300 ppi barrier, in which the human eye does not have it so easy to perceive the pixels. Despite this, our feeling has been positive at the level of sharpness, helped by the visual comfort modes that this device brings.

But let’s talk about functionality, what distinguishes this product from a traditional e-Reader? The Huawei MatePad Paper comes with HarmonyOS and, although its interface is that of an e-Reader, this opens quite a few doors. Without going any further, it is compatible with App Gallery, so we can download different compatible apps (to manage documents, read books with apps that are not native, etc.).

We have the same way email accessbasic apps like the calculator or the calendar, and even a voice recorder that allows us to transcribe what we record into text.

This tablet has HarmonyOS and… HarmonyOS is based on Android.

In other words, he is a vitamin book reader, with its own operating system that opens up the functionalities and allows the installation of compatible applications. The internal memory is 64 GB and, from what we have been able to test, the apps do not aim to weigh too much.

The menus are similar to those of a Huawei Android tablet. With information on the use of apps, their permissions, management of apps in the background, battery, location, etc.. The main problem is that it is still an e-Reader, so it works somewhat slowly, since its main purpose is still reading books, no matter how many additions it has.

Lastly, comment that this device is compatible with Huawei M-Penso we can not only read books, but also take notes on the text itself, split the screen to have the notes app next to the text of the book itself, or even draw on it.

In our brief experience, latency has been minimal with the pen, so we can write satisfactorily without delays of any kind. We can convert these handwritten notes to text, an interesting feature that works well, as long as our handwriting is minimally legible.

A very versatile book reader

Our first impressions with the Huawei MatePad Paper leave us with two clear points on the table: size and weight are a price to pay, but it is a device with multiple possibilities (transcribing audio to text, installing apps, sending files from other devices).

We look forward to testing it thoroughly to see if the concept is convincing after continued use, and if it makes sense for an electronic ink book reader to turn towards a tablet.