HUAWEI MatePad 12 X Review

Christmas is just around the corner and easily one of the best gifts anyone could give for a friend, a family, or even yourself — is a shiny, brand-new tablet.

To help you thin out your options, here we have the new tablet offering from Huawei, the MatePad 12 X. Its key highlights are its slim and lightweight build, along with some neat features that I find useful for a tablet this big.

But the question remains… Does this tablet offer good value for money and deserve a spot on your shortlist? Let’s find out in our review of the HUAWEI MatePad 12 X.

Design & Construction

On the outside, I like the minimalist look on the MatePad 12 X. It has a unibody metal chassis that has a nice texture and feel to it, making the rear a bit resistant to smudges.

The unit that we have is in the ‘Greenery’ colorway — which is the only option available for the Philippine market.

In landscape orientation, there’s the oval-shaped camera island on the right, the HUAWEI moniker at the center, and on the left are the little pogo pins for attaching the keyboard folio case.

Taking a closer look on the sides, you can see that the frame has a slight curvature. I appreciate this design approach making it more comfortable in the hands when holding a tablet of this size.

From here you’ll also see the stereo speaker setup on the sides; the USB-C port on the right, the power button on the left — which has this red accenting; the volume rocker and the microphones are situated at the top; and the bottom part remains clean.

There was a bit of a learning curve for me since I’m used to the power button usually sitting next beside the volume rocker. But that’s a minor skill issue, I guess.

Unfortunately, there is no ingress protection here, so you might want to be careful not to spill your coffee on this tablet.

Display & Multimedia

Flip the tablet over and you’ll be greeted by a large 12-inch 2.8K IPS LCD panel. I bet the first thing you’d notice is the anti-glare screen — which is probably my favorite thing about the MatePad 12 X.

It’s Huawei’s so-called “PaperMatte Display,” but to me, this looks to be a glorified anti-glare screen. Yes, there is a bit of a paper-like feel to the touch, I’ll give ‘em that. Still, A+ for the effort on bringing this kind of technology into the mainstream market.

The screen runs up to 144Hz refresh rate and can reach a peak brightness of 1000 nits.

As you’d expect of an IPS LCD panel, colors are not as vivid, and blacks are not as deep. For what it’s worth, the MatePad 12 X’s display looks more than acceptable.

Besides, I enjoyed watching content on the tablet, especially with its stereo speaker setup that outputs a nice sound stage. The highs and mids are clear and loud with surprisingly strong bass.

There’s also support for Widevine L1, so you can expect it to support Full HD viewing on Netflix. YouTube playback is also maxed out to 4K at 2160p.

Cameras

Cameras on tablets are usually amiss, and despite the MatePad 12 X adding an ultrawide lens at the rear, the image quality is still mostly decent.

The tablet features a dual rear setup headlined by a 13-megapixel main shooter and an 8-megapixel ultrawide camera. While at the front, it has another 8-megapixel selfie shooter that appears to have a wide field of view.

For the most part, it gets the job done with adequate colors and clarity.

Its cameras are sure to be useful for scanning documents, casual snaps, and most importantly, online conferences. Like we always say, you’re better off capturing photos using your phone. But having such cameras for a tablet at your disposal is never a bad thing.

OS, UI, & Apps

On the software side of things, this is where things go a little bit wonky.

For starters, despite the hefty price point, the tablet’s OS — which is HarmonyOS 4.2 — is still plagued with tons of ads and bloatware.

There’s no easy way to remove them in bulk. You can only remove them one-by-one which is a tedious process to do.

Second, there’s no certainty as to how long Huawei promises to provide software support for the tablet. This might throw people off, especially me since having reliable software support is one of the crucial things to consider in consumer electronics.

To make matters worse, the base software is stuck to Android 12.

This is why you might notice, there are some missing features here and there. This might sound like I’m nitpicking but there’s still no support for Quick Share by Google.

I find it a hassle to share my files from this tablet to my other Android devices since it only comes with “Huawei Share.”

Good thing there’s a reliable solution for this. I discovered a third-party app called “LocalSend” which works not only between Android devices but also to Apple devices.

Setting all those shortcomings aside, I appreciate the overall user interface and added features.

Take the GoPaint app for example. It is essentially a free ProCreate. There’s also the free PC-level WPS Office — a suite of productivity apps that pretty much act like Microsoft Office that we are used to.

Of course, there’s still the hassle of downloading apps through the HUAWEI AppGallery (which is also plagued with ads by the way). But that’s not really a limitation… more like a bit of an inconvenience since you have to download GBox and run apps virtually from there.

Performance & Benchmarks

Huawei doesn’t really specify what powers their devices recently, but a simple peek at our benchmarking apps would do.

Under the hood, the MatePad 12 X runs on a Kirin T90A chipset or likely a Kirin 9000 Series chip. It has a 12-core architecture, clocked at up to 2.4GHz. Our unit is configured with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage.

Looking at our benchmark results, the MatePad 12 X gained a score 600,203 points in ANTUTU. Check out the rest of the benchmark scores here:

It ain’t as powerful as I expected considering its price. However, in real world use, it will do just fine. Multi-tasking on the tablet won’t be a problem, and it is decent for playing games as well. Albeit, adjusting the graphics settings from medium or low is required to get stable frame rates.

Interestingly, when the tablet’s battery is low, I did run into issues with Netflix. For some reason, I can’t play any content, and it just goes back to the landing page. But as soon as you plug in the tablet, the issue seems to disappear.

Connectivity & Battery Life

Speaking of charging, the MatePad 12 X supports up to 66W of charging that refills the tablet from zero to full battery in under two hours.

Inside, the tablet packs a whopping 10,100mAh of battery, but that massive bump in capacity doesn’t seem to yield longer battery life.

Based on our PCMark battery life test, the MatePad 12 X lasted 13 hours and 30 minutes. While that is a decent result, another tablet that I have reviewed this year — the MatePad 11.5 S with a smaller 8800mAh unit — lasted about the same at 13 hours and 43 minutes.

It’s indeed weird as to why this happens, perhaps, the larger screen might be factor… I could only guess.

Moving on, a really neat feature that this tablet has is Huawei’s so-called “NearLink” technology. This basically allows almost instant connection with supported HUAWEI accessories.

Just snap the bundled keyboard and stylus then the tablet recognizes and pairs with them right away. This is so convenient if you’d be using the tablet in laptop mode and has to move around a lot. So, thumbs up for that. And if you’re wondering, the tablet is capped to Wi-Fi connectivity.

Conclusion

So, is the Huawei MatePad 12 X the perfect holiday gift? Well, that really depends on what you’re looking for.

If you’re after a sleek, big-screen tablet with solid performance, a nice display, and a decent set of cameras for the basics, this could be a great option.

The build quality is impressive, and its sound and display features make it a treat for watching content and light productivity. But, like any good gift, there are some quirks.

The bloatware and software limitations are a bit of a downer, and there’s the looming uncertainty around long-term updates. Plus, its performance doesn’t exactly match the price tag, which might make you question if you’re getting the most for your money.

Still, if you can overlook those hiccups, the MatePad 12 X is a solid choice for anyone who wants a tablet that’s more than just a pretty screen — especially if you’re vibing with Huawei’s ecosystem.

The HUAWEI MatePad 12 X retails for PHP 37,999USD 648INR 54,893EUR 617CNY 4,716 for the sole 8GB + 256GB config.

So, if you’re feeling like this tablet might just be the one to bring some joy this season, go ahead and make the move! But, if you’re more into something with a bit more consistency, there are definitely other tablets that might tick all the boxes without the extra headaches.

What we liked:

• Great stereo sound stage with strong bass
• Stunning ‘PaperMatte’ display
• NearLink for convenient accessory pairing

What we did not like:

• Lack of transparency in software support
• Still doesn’t support Quick Share by Google
• Lots of ads and bloatware

HUAWEI MatePad 12 X specs:
12-inch 2.8K IPS LCD
2800 × 1840 pixels, 30-144Hz
1000-nit peak brightness
PaperMatte Display
(Unspecified SoC)
12GB RAM
256GB storage
Dual rear cameras:
– 13MP f/1.8 main, AF
– 8MP f/2.2 ultrawide
8MP f/2.2 selfie shooter
Dual frequency Wi-Fi
Bluetooth 5.2
USB Type-C (USB 3.1 Gen 1)
NearLink
Six stereo speakers, HUAWEI M-Pencil (3rd Gen) support
HarmonyOS 4.2
10,100mAh battery
66W charging (wired)
183 x 270 x 5.9 mm
~555g
Greenery (colorway)