Huawei Matepad Pro 12.2 and 12 X presented for Europe

The two new Matepad Pro 12.2 and Matepad 12 X tablets with the pre-installed "GoPaint" app and matte display are exciting for artists.

Huawei presents two tablets for Europe. The Matepad Pro 12.2 offers a matt tandem OLED, 16 gigabytes of RAM and a large battery that can be charged with up to 100 watts.

The Matepad Pro 12.2 in detail

The new Matepad Pro 12.2 is quite similar to the also new Matepad Pro 12 X that you see in the Header image. The main difference between the 12 X is the LCD instead of a tandem OLED. It also only has a peak brightness of 1000 nits instead of 2000. The battery is the same size as the Matepad Pro 12.2 at 10100 mAh, but is charged with 66 watts instead of 100 watts.

Design and display: exciting tandem OLED

The Huawei Matepad Pro 12.2 measures 27 × 18 × 0.6 cm and weighs 508 grams. It therefore offers a 3:2 format. The tablet's 12.2-inch display diagonal is already in its name. Otherwise, it delivers a 144 Hertz refresh rate and a resolution of 2800 × 1840 pixels.

The technology behind the so-called tandem OLED requires slightly less power than a conventional OLED display and is also said to be more durable. Apple also uses this technology in the latest iPad Pros. Colleague Samuel is literally thrilled about it.

Huawei offers the tablet with or without a matte display. The so-called paper matte finish means there is hardly any reflection when light falls on it. It is also ideal for writing and drawing. With a predecessor, the Matepad 11.5 S, I criticised the inaccurate lines, which may have been caused by the matte display. Now that I have briefly tested the tablet at the presentation in Barcelona, I no longer notice this flaw.

Hardware: HiSilicon chip on board

The centrepiece of the Matepad Pro 12.2 is the HiSilicon Kirin 9000S. The 8-core SoC (system on a chip) can best be compared with the high-end SoC Snapdragon 888 from 2020. The two chips are similarly strong in the CPU benchmarks. In GPU and energy efficiency, the Snapdragon is ahead in theory. How well the chip in the new tablet performs in practice will only be revealed in later tests.

The Matepad Pro 12.2 comes with three cameras. There is a main camera with 13 megapixels and an ultra-wide-angle camera with eight megapixels on the back. For selfies and video calls, 16 megapixels are available on the front.

For a suitable workaround as a laptop replacement or for drawing and writing, Huawei also offers a stylus called M-Pencil (3rd gen) and a keyboard.Gen) and a keyboard case for the tablet.

Software: Huawei remains without Google

Huawei still supplies the Matepad Pro 12.2 in Europe based on Android with HarmonyOS 4, which means that Google services are missing. You can find a workaround for this problem here:

The GoPaint drawing app launched last year is exciting. This is freely available for Huawei devices. Huawei has also introduced the GoPaint update with the new tablets. Among other things, the manufacturer has added some brushes and settings and improved the engine. You can now use over 150 brushes in the app and create over 100 layers at a canvas resolution of 6K.

Price and availability

Huawei offers the Matepad 12.2 with a paper matte finish in gold or black with 12 GB of RAM and either 256 GB or 512 GB of internal storage. Including the keyboard, it will cost you 999 euros (RRP) in both memory variants.

The Matepad 12 X is available in white or green with 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of internal memory. Including keyboard and paper matte display, you pay 649 euros (RRP).

The tablets will be delivered from 11 October 2024. As soon as they are available from us, you will find them linked here, from then on you will also see our Swiss and European prices for the devices. <p