Two weeks ago, Huawei held a Smart Office range of products launch in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. One of the products that was given much attention is the Huawei Matepad 11.5S PaperMatte Edition tablet. We have gotten our hands on one unit, and here is our initial hands-on impression of Huawei’s latest tablet.
The Packaging:
The tablet arrives inside a clean white sleeve with rose gold lettering announcing the product name and model. Inside the sleeve are two boxes, one for the Smart Magnetic Keyboard. The other contains the Huawei Matepad 11.5S PaperMatte Edition tablet, a 22.5W charging brick and charging / data cable. Also included is a microfiber cleaning cloth, a pleasant surprise that many other brands don’t include.
in yet another white box, is the latest Huawei Stylus, the M-Pencil, which is now in its third evolution.
The Tablet itself:
The major highlight of the tablet, which is also highlighted in its name and the box, is the PaperMatte display. The 11.5 inch, 3:2 ratio, 1840 x 2800 pixel screen is made with anti-glare etching technology, which is claimed to eliminate 99% of ambient lights while allowing 95% light transmission through it. In real life, the Huawei Matepad 11.5S PaperMatte Edition delivers this with aplomb.
The screen disperses reflections with ease, diffusing even the direct reflection of the sun. It is able to also deliver bright, vibrant and clear displays without much distortion that is usually associated with all matte displays. Bearing in mind that the Huawei Matepad 11.5S PaperMatte Edition display is a TFT LCD panel, the screen being able to deliver such a stunning display and vibrant colours while not being reflective is a very impressive feat, pulled off very successfully by Huawei.
The Huawei Matepad 11.5S PaperMatte Edition we got is the Violet version, an aluminium unibody back with silver Huawei wording in the centre. On the top right corner is an ellipsoid-ish camera bump. The top side has the volume rocker buttons, a mic and a magnetic charging port for the M-Pencil. The four speakers are placed on the left and right sides, while the bottom has another magnetic charging slot for the Smart Magnetic Keyboard.
The Smart Magnetic Keyboard that is paired with the Violet tablet is the Grey variant, which is a much lighter shade of grey than you would expect and consists of two parts. The upper part attaches magnetically to the back to the Huawei Matepad 11.5S PaperMatte Edition tablet, and it too attaches to the keyboard part. This upper part also works as a kickstand for the tablet, with various stand positions. The keyboard has full-sized QWERTY buttons, with good travel that makes typing on the keyboard a pleasure.
The third-generation M-Pencil is white, hexagon-shaped, and feels exactly like the 2B pencils we used back in school. Writing notes or drawing with the M-Pencil offers a very tactile, pen / pencil-on-paper experience that is unlike on any other tablet.
Gaming on the Huawei Matepad 11.5S PaperMatte Edition:
A quick search online reveals that it’s Huawei’s Kirin 9000WL CPU that is powering the tablet. Mated to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, the main surprise here is that it is able to handle games with ease.
Launching Genshin Impact, I fully anticipated that I have to lower the graphical settings to maintain a smooth stutter-free experience. Surprisingly, Genshin Impact ran without issues even at the highest graphical settings and 60FPS. Sure, there are minor drops during loading into new areas or in open-world battles with lots of elemental effects (this happens on the latest SD8G3 chips too), but Huawei Matepad 11.5S tablet is just as quick to recover to maintain 60FPS.
While the tablet does heat up while playing games, the heat is not any hotter than the latest phones running the top flagship CPUs. As an added bonus given the tablet’s bigger size, the heat is contained in just one small section of the rear.
Software and battery:
Running the Huawei Matepad 11.5S PaperMatte Edition tablet is Huawei’s own Harmony OS 4.2. Harmony OS has turned into an impressive OS that is speedy, efficient and lightweight.
Huawei has also developed some very impressive apps that are pre-installed in the tablet. GoPaint is an app that was jointly developed by Huawei and the China Academy of Art (CAA), and provides an immersive digital painting experience, with expressive brush strokes to reproduce a pen-on-paper effect on screen. Huawei Notes is another, it is a note-taking app that provides a seamless digital handwriting experience, with intuitive note management and personalized settings. And many more.
One thing to take note is that Harmony OS is void of any Google Mobile Services, all thanks to the US ban imposed on Huawei for years now. Without GSM, Google’s suite of apps are not found in this Huawei tablet.
The good news is that Huawei’s AppGallery has plenty of Malaysian essential apps. Finances and banking apps like Touch n’ Go, MAE, Setel; shopping apps like Shopee, Lazada; and many others. For other apps not found in the AppGallery, there are other ways to get Google apps on this Huawei Matepad 11.5S tablet, which will be elaborated in our full review coming soon.
Powering up the Huawei Matepad 11.5S PaperMatte Edition is an 8,800mAh battery, which proves to contain ample juice to keep the lights on for a full day and more.
Specifications at a glance:
| Dimension | 261 x 177.2 x 6.2 mm |
| Weight | 510 grams |
| Material | Display – Glass, PaperMatte Display Back and chassis – Aluminium Alloy |
| Colours | Violet, Space Gray |
| Price | 8GB | 256 GB – RM2,499 |
| Display | TFT LCD, 144hz, 500nits |
| Resolution | 1840 x 2800 pixels, 3:2 ratio (~291 ppi density) |
| Display Size | 11.5 inches (approximate 85% screen-to-body ratio) |
| Operating System | HarmonyOS |
| Chipset | Kirin 9000WL (7 nm) |
| Memory | 8GB+256GB |
| External Memory Card Slot | No |
| Main Camera | 50 MP, f/1.8, AS |
| Main Camera Video | 1080p@30 |
| Selfie Camera | 8 MP, f/2.0 |
| Selfie Camera Video | 1080p@30 |
| Sound | Stereo, Quad Speakers,Histen 9.0 |
| WLAN | Wi–Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6, dual-band |
| Bluetooth | 5.2, A2DP, LE |
| USB | USB Type-C 3.0, OTG, magnetic accessory connector |
| Battery | 8,800 mAh, non-removable |
| Charging | 22.5W wired (with supplied charger) 66W Turbo Boost (with 66W or higher charger, not included) 5W reverse wired |
In summary:
The Huawei Matepad 11.5S PaperMatte Edition has proven why Huawei positioned it to be the key product announced in the Huawei Smart Office products launched. This versatile tablet offers impressive hardware, its main highlight is the beautiful non-reflective screen that makes using the tablet on the go and anywhere an absolute pleasure. The magnetic Smart Keyboard transforms the Huawei Matepad 11.5S into a productive creation tool ready for office work, while the tablet form with the M-Pencil transforms it into an artist tool or the perfect notes and sketchbook for students.
Retailing at RM2,499 with the Smart Keyboard and M-Pencil (3rd Gen) bundled together (while promo period and stocks lasts), the Huawei Matepad 11.5S PaperMatte has positioned itself to the top as one of the best office productivity, artistic creativity, student sketch and notepad all rolled into one. I typed out this hands-on impression preview entirely using the Hauwei Matepad 11.5S PaperMatte Edition with the Magnetic Smart Keyboard and M-Pencil (3rd Gen).
Stay tuned to our full review, where I will be diving deeper into this impressive and wonderful tablet by Huawei.
