If you think premium Android tablets on the way out, you might want to rethink that. More often, you’ll see Android tablets that are either high-end or low-end, but don’t see much differences in design. This is where Huawei comes in with its unveiling of MediaPad M5 tablet. It’s not just any tablet either.
Huawei’s MediaPad M5 has promised to show some interesting things that you currently don’t see. The tablet is offered in 8.4- and 10.8-inch variants and will be the first tablets to boast “2.5D” curved glass screens. According to Huawei, these screens promise both improved viewing experience and “great hand-feel.”
While boasting a “2.5D” curved glass on the outside, the internals of the devices are fairly packed, too. The MediaPad M5 has the Kirin 960 octa-core chip (not the most cutting edge, but wait), has a 2,560 x 1,600 display, 32GB to 128GB expandable storage, 4G of RAM, a 13-megapixel rear camera and a 8-megapixel fixed-focus front camera. Unfortunately though, there’s isn’t a headphone jack, but don’t count those stereo speakers out just yet. Some variants of the MediaPad M5 will have LTE, if you like computing on the go.
Our take is that Huawei is indirectly trying to position the 10.8-inch MediaPad M5 variant as an answer to laptop-style tablets, much like Apple’s iPad Pro. All of the larger models of the M5 will have a pogo connector to attach a keyboard and four speakers instead of two. There’s also a MediaPad Pro model that comes with a stylus (with 4,096 levels of sensitivity) and double the base storage option.
While these features are nice and all, what’re the prices? Take a look at the image above. Seeing as MediaPad M5 is aimed at being a kind of premium tablet, you might expect the price to reflect that. The tablet may not be a speed demon by any means with the Kirin 960 octa-core chip, but it comes with a beautiful design and solid specs.
