Huawei MediaPad M5 Lite Arms-on Overview

Huawei MediaPad M5 Lite hands-on

Professionals

• Good show
• Good design
• Useful fingerprint sensor characteristic for teenagers

Cons

• Stylus would not connect to pill
• No Android Pie

Huawei is again within the U.S., however don’t get your hopes up. No, the superb Mate 20 Professional smartphone isn’t coming to our shores — as a substitute, it’s the MediaPad M5 Lite, which Huawei unveiled at CES 2019.

It’s a price range pill, persevering with the MediaPad M5 pill sequence Huawei launched in 2018. It sits on the backside, beneath the MediaPad M5 and the MediaPad M5 Professional. It will likely be accessible within the U.S., however at its $299 price ticket, is it value selecting up over our reigning champion, the 2018 iPad? We spent a while to search out out.

Premium construct high quality

Maintain the MediaPad M5 Lite in your palms, and also you wouldn’t suppose it’s a budget-priced laptops. From the entrance, you’ll discover uniform bezels not not like the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 and the current iPad Professional, although they’re noticeably thicker. Nonetheless, the uniformity elevates the MediaPad M5 Lite’s look.

There’s a fingerprint sensor on the underside bezel (when held in panorama mode), with an influence and quantity buttons on the best edge. On the other finish is a headphone jack and a USB Kind-C charging port. The two.5D curved glass blends into the metallic unibody, which is cool to the contact. The sides on the again are curved, which makes the pill simple to carry — even in portrait orientation.

Over on the again, the MediaPad seems to be like a median pill with its house grey coloration, and Huawei brand within the center. A single 8-megapixel digital camera sits on the again as effectively.

It’s measurement, with a ten.1-inch Full HD (1920 x 1200 decision) IPS display. It’s simple sufficient to carry with one hand with out feeling cumbersome.

The display itself simply bought shiny sufficient to learn outdoors on an overcast day. It’s no OLED, however colours are vibrant, and the display seems to be sharp. We’ll have to spend extra time with the pill for additional ideas on the display.

Nice options for households

The MediaPad M5 Lite has a trick up its sleeve, and it has to do with the fingerprint sensor. Kids can add their fingerprints to entry the sensor, and it’ll launch a closed setting referred to as “Child’s Nook.” There’s no option to go away this closed session with out inputting a passcode, so except your children handle to determine it out, they received’t be capable of obtain malicious apps, entry sketchy websites, or spend lots of of {dollars} on the Google Play Retailer.

Julian Chokattu/Digital Developments

Dad and mom can manually add apps to the Child’s Nook, so you may make certain to fill it with academic apps, video games, or books. There’s additionally a means so as to add closing dates to apps to make sure kids aren’t spending an excessive amount of time on the display.

Another neat options embody a distance sensor, which inspires the individual utilizing the pill to maneuver a bit additional away from the display (greater than 9.8-inches away). There’s additionally a posture detection sensor, which makes certain you’re sitting upright. We haven’t seen these in motion, however can be testing them in our full evaluate.

Common specs

The Huawei MediaPad M5 Lite is powered by the corporate’s personal Kirin 659 processor with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of inner storage. A MicroSD card slot is on the market in case you want extra space.

It operated easily in our temporary assessments, with solely apps opening a bit slower, however that’s to be anticipated contemplating this isn’t a high-end processor. It can handle each day duties with out a difficulty, however could stutter with a handful of intensive video games or a number of intensive apps working within the background. We’ll have to do extra testing to confirm this, although.

Julian Chokattu/Digital Developments

It’s working Android 8.0 Oreo with EMUI 8 layered over. The consumer interface isn’t as clear or simple to make use of as Huawei’s newest EMUI 9 Android model, nevertheless it’s manageable. It’s a stable pill to make use of for watching TV exhibits and films, however don’t count on to make use of it as a laptop computer substitute or any sort of workhorse.

There are 4 audio system on all corners of the MediaPad M5 Lite, in-built collaboration with Harmon Kardon, however we haven’t had an opportunity to check the audio to see the way it stacks as much as the audio system on the equally priced 2018 iPad.

There’s a 7,500mAh battery right here, which Huawei mentioned will final for about 13 hours of video playback. We’ll see if this declare holds up in our full evaluate.

M-Pen Lite stylus

The MediaPad M5 Lite comes with a stylus referred to as the M-Pen Lite stylus. It’s slim sufficient to appear to be a traditional pen, and utilizing it on the pill is snug. There’s a clip on it so you may preserve it safe in a pocket, however we’d have appreciated some option to retailer the pen on or close to the pill itself.

Julian Chokattu/Digital Developments

It has 2,048 layers of strain sensitivity, and scribbling with it feels pure. We didn’t see any issues with palm rejection when drawing on the slate, however we’ll want to make use of it extra to ensure.

Worth and availability

The Huawei MediaPad M5 Lite prices $299 and can be accessible from Amazon and Newegg later in January.

The largest fault of the MediaPad M5 Lite is that it prices nearly the identical value as the superb $330 iPad. Apple’s pill is extra highly effective, and is pill most individuals can buy. From what we’ve seen to this point, the MediaPad doesn’t appear to be the pill that may unseat it, although we’re impressed by its family-friendly capabilities.

We’ll add our last ideas after utilizing the pill for an extended time period.

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