The Huawei MediaPad M3 is pretty solid and looks pretty, but not original - it looks a lot like any other metal tablet from the company.

Most of all, the device is similar to its predecessor, Huawei MediaPad M2, although there are a few differences. So, the black frame around the display disappeared from the front panel, and the camera eye moved closer to the center of the case. From now on, a fingerprint scanner flaunts under the screen, which at first everyone perceives as the “Home” key, but they are not combined together and work in different ways, which at first even confuses. In fact, all the function buttons are on the display itself, and not under it.

The rear panel has also undergone minor changes - the lens eye has been moved a little further from the edge of the body (apparently so that the fingers do not go into the frame), but the flash has disappeared somewhere, which is clearly not a plus for the camera of the device. On the whole, the tablet is quite attractive, especially if we discard thoughts of similarities with some iPad Mini 3 or iPhone 6. Still, most modern tablets look similar - they use approximately the same colors, plastic or metal, thin frames and rounded shapes. But due to the materials and workmanship, the MediaPad M3 feels premium and reliable.

With a diagonal of 8.4 inches, the tablet is unrealistic to operate with one hand, although it fits in the width of a large palm. The build quality of Huawei MediaPad M3 turned out to be at a high level. In our opinion, the metal justifies its use - the model is pleasant to the touch, durable and almost does not bend if you press it in your hands. Would like to see some more protective glass like Gorilla Glass, which Huawei did not spare on the Huawei Matebook Windows tablet.

Huawei MediaPad M3 is available in gold and silver.

Dimensions and weight - 4.9

Huawei MediaPad M3 can hardly be called the lightest and most compact, but it comes on the heels of the champions in this parameter. The device will not become a heavy burden on the road and will not take up much space in your bag.

The MediaPad M3 tablet weighs 320 grams (the manufacturer indicates 310), its dimensions are 215 × 124 × 7.7 mm (Huawei promises a thickness of 7.3 mm). Due to the specific screen diagonal (8.4 inches), there is not much to compare the device with, except for the already old Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4, which, by the way, is noticeably lighter and thinner. If you take the 7.9-inch iPad Mini 4 or the 8-inch Asus ZenPad S 8.0, they are both lighter and slightly thinner. It would seem that this does not speak in favor of MediaPad 3, but in practice the difference of 10-15 grams is not felt.

Ports and interfaces - 4.7

The tablet received a top-end set of ports and interfaces, chips like NFC or an infrared port are missing to the maximum level, as well as support for such advanced technologies as MHL or Display Port (video transmission via a Micro-USB connector). But the device has an OTG function, with which you can connect various peripherals in the form of mice, USB keyboards and external hard drives.

MediaPad M3 supports the telephony function - you can call from it, no matter how strange it looks. If you pull out the SIM card tray, then at first you might think that the second slot is combined and the tablet supports two nano SIM cards at once, but this is not so. It is designed exclusively for the memory card. MediaPad M3 supports LTE, Bluetooth, dual-band Wi-Fi and A-GPS with GLONASS support. We expected to see a new USB type C connector, but it uses a Micro-USB 2.0 connector for charging and connecting to a PC.

The location of the connectors and buttons is as follows:

• on the right side - the power key and the volume rocker
• on the top edge - headphone jack and speaker
• bottom - microphone, Micro-USB 2.0 connector, speaker, slots for SIM and MicroSD-cards
• there is nothing on the left side.

Performance - 4.6

Thanks to powerful stuffing Huawei MediaPad M3 can be called a productive tablet - it is enough to solve several tasks at once. True, in some heavy games, the tablet still slows down, but only at maximum graphics settings.

The tablet received a proprietary HiSilicon Kirin 950 chipset - four cores of 1.8 GHz (for "easier" actions), plus four cores operating at frequencies up to 2.3 GHz (for demanding tasks). The same one was used, for example, in Huawei Honor 8. MediaPad M3 is equipped immediately with 4 GB random access memory- a typical volume for top-end tablets of 2016, or for budget laptops.

In synthetic performance tests, the tablet scored relatively high:

• Epic Citadel (graphics test) - 33.0 fps on high settings, the result is not the highest, but the reason for this is the resolution of 2440 × 1600 pixels;
• Sunspider (browser speed test) - 496.5 ms, faster than Asus MeMoPad FHD 8 and second only to iPads;
• GeekBench 4 (CPU test) - 5424 points (comparable to Samsung Galaxy S7);
• AnTuTu 6 (combined test) - 85,977, slightly inferior to the flagship smartphone Huawei P9;
• 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited (graphics test) - 20,100, nearly double that of the MediaPad X2.

The test results in benchmarks turned out to be at the level of last year's Android flagships, which is already good. Yes, the tablet “sags” in some tests, but the ultra-clear screen of the device is to blame. If we talk about daily use, then everything works fine: applications, video, browser, all at once, without leaving the RAM. The only exceptions are some games on the maximum graphics. For example, Asphalt Extreme or World of Tanks Blitz are playable at high settings, but at times fps (frame rate) sags noticeably. In the case of a smartphone, we would call this a minus, but for an Android tablet this is quite a typical story, even Samsung in its top-end Galaxy Tab S2 8.0 used only a mid-range chipset, which also does not cope with heavy games so successfully.

Display - 4.9

The display of the Huawei MediaPad M3 is in no way inferior to any of the competitors. It is very clear, moderately bright and contrasty. The only drawback is that the screen does not have any special protection, most likely it's just tempered glass.

Tablet screen type - IPS, resolution - 2560 × 1600 pixels. In our opinion, this is even overkill for a diagonal of 8.4 inches, but this resolution guarantees a sharp image at 359 pixels per inch, which is slightly higher than that of the iPad Pro or iPad mini 3.

The screen can be praised for its excellent oleophobic coating - it almost always remains clean, and even if it gets dirty, it is instantly wiped off. Due to the absence of an air gap between the screen and the glass, it seems that the image is planted "high" and is visually closer to the viewer. The range of brightness we measured is from 7 to 423 cd/m2, better than most tablets. In the dark, such a screen is comfortable for the eyes, and in the sun it is readable only with minor difficulties. The brightness distribution turned out to be surprisingly even - 96%, and the contrast is high - 1110, an excellent result, comparable to the Mediapad X2. The color gamut is slightly expanded, covering 100% of standard sRGB and 86% of Adobe RGB. Color accuracy didn't disappoint either - not the best on the market, but with the naked eye, you're unlikely to see color deviations. A standard flaw for the company's devices is an increased color temperature, which causes the image to have a slight blue tint. But this is easily fixed manually in the tablet settings. Of the curious details, we note the mode of operation in gloves, which really works, as well as the reading mode, which dramatically changes the color temperature of the image, which makes everything yellowish - somewhat reminiscent of the automatic temperature control chip on the iPad Pro 9.7.

Battery - 3.5

Huawei MediaPad M3 showed average results in autonomy tests. He failed to get more points due to an unconvincing time in the video marathon.

Capacity battery tablet - 5100 mAh, this is rather the norm for its size. So, in games at maximum brightness, the tablet lasted almost 5 hours - only frankly weak tablets like Huawei MediaPad T1 8.0 or devices with a huge battery, for example, Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 10, worked longer. When watching HD-video at a brightness of 150 cd / m 2 MediaPad M3 already showed a weak result, being discharged in 6 hours and 20 minutes, which is rather weak compared to competitors with a spread of 9-11 hours. Even the Asus Zenpad S 8.0 worked 40 minutes longer in this mode, and the old Sony Xperia Tablet Z3 Compact lasted more than 12 hours. This is probably due to the extremely clear display. But in the minimum load mode (reading mode at minimum brightness), the tablet lasted 19.5 hours, which is a lot. In an hour and a half of browsing with Wi-Fi connected (at a moderate brightness of 150 cd / m 2), the MediaPad M3 lost 14% of its charge, which means that it can still last for 9-10 hours of browsing the Internet.

Cameras - 5.0

Huawei MediaPad M3 received two 8 MP cameras, high-quality by the standards of tablets, but noticeably inferior to smartphones. The MediaPad M3 is capable of taking a good selfie, but is unlikely to replace your camera.

If you have a smartphone and Mediapad M3 with you, then it is preferable and more convenient to shoot with a phone. The tablet camera is noticeably inferior in detail and quality, it only copes well with simple scenarios such as capturing text or something small. Formally, the camera has quite a lot of functions - shooting panoramas, photos in HDR, and even manual mode with a fairly wide range of customization options, but there is not even a flash. In addition, the frames often lack sharpness, I would like dynamic range wider, and focusing works noticeably worse than in the company's smartphones. The main camera can shoot Full HD video(1920×1080 pixels) at 30 fps.

The 8 MP front camera does a great job with selfies, can use filters for decoration, but only records video in HD resolution (1280 × 720 pixels).

Photos from the camera Huawei MediaPad M3 - 5.0

Photos from the front camera Huawei MediaPad M3 - 5.0

Temperature - 3.6

Despite its compactness and high performance, Huawei MediaPad M3 proved to be a rather cool tablet during tests, which practically does not heat up during operation.

At rest, the case temperature did not exceed 31.9 degrees on the back and 32.3 on the bottom of the display, average values. After a half-hour load, the tablet warmed up to only 37.7 degrees on the back panel, approximately under the camera lens. This temperature is comfortable for use, you definitely won’t be able to burn yourself with such a device.

Memory - 5.0

The amount of built-in memory in Huawei MediaPad M3 is either 32 or 64 GB. We got a 64 GB modification for testing, of which about 54 GB were available. This volume is quite enough for a tablet, and even if not, then the device has a slot for a memory card up to 128 GB, with the possibility of "hot swapping" (without a mandatory reboot). By default, you can select a microSD card as a place to save various programs, but there is no possibility in the interface to transfer applications from the device's memory to the card.

Peculiarities

Huawei MediaPad M3 runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system and Emotion UI 4.1 proprietary user-friendly shell. Initially, a lot of applications are preinstalled on the tablet, but many of them can be removed (Sberbank, Odnoklassniki, Facebook, and the like). The MediaPad M3 has a lot of features, for example, a proprietary keyboard, color temperature adjustments, a glove mode, motion control (tilts, flips, and so on) and a fingerprint scanner.

Huawei MediaPad M3 is a . It's thin, light, and handy, and the 4G version lets you use it as a giant smartphone, as long as you don't mind a headset to take calls. Huawei MediaPad M3 review more…

Over the years, the MediaPad series of tablets has evolved from the competition, never deserving recognition or sales numbers like or.

• Pros: Sharp Screen | Loud stereo speakers | Slim and light aluminum body;
• Minuses: Poor gaming performance | Mediocre camera;

Thus, MediaPad has occupied a convenient niche, practically not competing with others, until now. However, by combining an ultra-high resolution screen with a mediocre processor, Huawei ensured that the MediaPad M3 couldn't keep up with the demands of the most popular games.

So who is it, just another loser in Huawei's tablet department, or is it something more impressive that can entice potential buyers, outshine the competition, and stand out in the market? Huawei MediaPad M3 8.0 review will answer this question.

Design and characteristics

The physique, so to speak, is the strongest side of the Huawei MediaPad M3. The incredibly thin aluminum chassis is virtually unbendable, making the tablet feel expensive and durable. It's very similar to the iPad Mini in that sense, only the shape is slightly different - the widescreen aspect ratio makes the M3 look a little less chunky than the 4:3 iPad Mini.

You get an attractive design that once again proves that 8-inch tablets are a great size for most users: big enough to provide the screen real estate you need compared to phones, yet still light and small enough to carry around. with you everywhere.

The MediaPad M3 is also light enough to hold with one hand while reading an article or notes on the way to work, making it much easier to interact with the device. We received a model weighing 322 grams for review.

The fingerprint scanner becomes the key element that tells you that the new MediaPad M3 is, and not, say, 2014. Much like the Samsung Galaxy S7 scanner, it sits below the screen, as part of a button.

It's not a click button, however, just a touch pad. Used while the MediaPad M3 is awake, the pad functions as a back button; when the tablet is in sleep mode, of course, the panel wakes up the tablet.

It's not the fastest fingerprint scanner Huawei has ever released, taking about a second to wake up the tablet, but it's a solid system.

There are several aspects of the Huawei MediaPad M3 tablet, as the review showed, that are somewhat less high-end compared to other forward-thinking features you'll find on leading Huawei smartphones. For example, the panel that hides the rear camera is covered in plastic rather than Gorilla Glass. A cheap solution, although the MediaPad M3 continues to feel like a flagship tablet.

For review, Huawei sent us the 4G version of the MediaPad M3, which features a SIM tray on the bottom edge and a microSD slot that lets you add 32GB of storage.

With a SIM card inserted, you can treat a Huawei tablet like a smartphone - the only thing holding you back is the lack of a proper voice call.

On the other hand, the Huawei MediaPad M3 has a good sound system. On the top and bottom edges of the device, you'll find small grilles that hide the Harman Kardon stereo speakers.

Historically, a loud audio brand isn't a guarantee of good sound quality, but Huawei offers some of the loudest speakers we've heard on a tablet. That's the kind of volume you'd expect from something much larger than a laptop. The case vibrates a little at high volume levels, but this is not surprising.

At maximum volume, the upper and mid-range frequencies can become harsh with a metallic sound, but otherwise the sound remains quite juicy and full; this is an impressive result for a small, thin tablet. Well, since the speaker grilles are mounted on the edge, and not on the rear panel, they are not at all easy to block with your hands.

The tablet is inferior to competitors when it comes to a set of additional equipment. Huawei does not offer the infrared port that has been featured on several previous Huawei devices - this will prevent you from using the MediaPad M3 as a universal remote control.

Screen

The big change from the 8-inch MediaPad M2 is that the Huawei MediaPad M3 has a truly high resolution screen. This is a panel with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels in an 8-inch IPS screen. The result is stunning pixel density and high screen sharpness.

Brightness is also very good, and there's also an auto-adjustment based on the tablet's light sensitivity, a feature that doesn't always come with tablets these days. The viewing angles of the IPS panel are very good, with minimal loss of brightness when viewing the screen at an angle.

Huawei also offers screen settings for the MediaPad M3, which we tried out in this review. First, there are two color modes. The normal classic sRGB mode looks natural, while the brighter mode boosts colors with color accuracy.

As with most Huawei phones, you can also play with the color temperature, which doesn't change the character of the M3's screen much. There's a Comfort Eye mode, which is similar to the iPhone's Night Shift mode, making the screen more yellow to reduce the amount of blue light emitted.

The contrast isn't as good as on OLED panels, but it's still a good screen.

The Huawei MediaPad M3 is powered by Huawei's Emotion UI, which is used by almost every Huawei and Honor device. The OS was released right before the release of the M3, so there was simply no way for Huawei to include the new OS on the tablet.

And, as is usually the case, Emotion UI actually adds one of the main features of Android 7.0: multitasking with multi-window apps. Long pressing the soft key allows you to launch two applications side by side. Not every app can be launched, but Netflix, for example, is available in multi-window mode, allowing you to watch a series while you browse your social media feed.

This mode supports portrait and landscape orientations - the landscape option is especially useful for taking notes when you're reading something.

The rest of the Huawei MediaPad M3 software comes down to the usual Huawei solution. This means you don't get a menu with individual applications, just a bunch of home screens on which all installed applications settle. If you want to keep your tablet workspace organized, you can organize apps into folders. This is the only way to avoid overloading home screens if you use a lot of apps.

Some people end up really loving the Emotion UI on their phones, but we find it more problematic on a tablet. A review of the Huawei MediaPad M3 8.0 showed that navigating through applications is somewhat slower than when using a phone with the same interface.

Even though Emotion UI changes appearance Android is insignificant, Huawei MediaPad M3 is not weighed down by a lot of unnecessary applications. There's a bunch of apps in the Tools category, including a voice recorder, a virtual mirror, and a compass, but they're in a separate folder so you can easily ignore them if you don't need the apps.

The WPS office suite is preinstalled. This is not a Huawei product, just one of the more popular Android office suites.

Themes are another specific element of the MediaPad M3 software. This is important feature Emotion UI, but on the review tablet we only got two options, a black theme and a blue one. Additional themes will be available for download through the app. Themes will come with a software update, but for now, you can only use the two pre-installed themes.

Performance

Some versions of Emotion UI may make your smartphone or tablet feel slow, but Huawei MediaPad M3 works with user interface pretty fast in everyday use. The new tablet is equipped with 4 GB of RAM and uses a HiSilicon Kirin 950 CPU as a processor.

Kirin 950 is a high-end processor within the HiSilicon processor family, with 4 low load Cortex-A53 cores and 4 performance Cortex-A72 cores supported by the Mali T880 GPU.

The review of the MediaPad M3 showed that the tablet is quite nimble in working with everyday applications and easily copes with the Android interface. However, performance dropped when we tried to run high-end games.

Despite its impressive performance on paper, the Kirin 950 simply lacks the power to keep up with the influx of complex polygons given its demanding 2560 x 1600 pixel high-resolution screen.

With the default high graphics settings, Asphalt 8 ran agonizingly slow and choppy, enough to overshadow the enjoyment of the game. Even at very low speeds, we saw dips in frame rates.

As one of the most attractive Android games out there, Asphalt 8 is a fairly reliable way to test your tablet's gaming limitations. However, we noticed signs of performance dip in less demanding games as well.

Gameloft's Modern Combat 5 suffers from some tearing during its most intense scenes, even Dead Trigger 2's frame rate isn't optimal - and Dead Trigger 2 generally runs pretty well on most devices.

Huawei MediaPad M3 was supposed to be a great tablet for gamers, but it didn't happen.

Camera

Today, some tablets have cameras that are just as good as smartphone cameras - becoming a good example. However, the main camera of the Huawei MediaPad M3, which we reviewed, leaves much to be desired.

It's an 8-megapixel sensor with an f/2 lens: fine for a tablet, but probably inferior to a phone camera if you're using an old mobile.

In bright sunlight you can get some decent shots, but the photo becomes noisy as ambient light deteriorates - and the tablet doesn't have a flash to help you.

The Huawei MediaPad M3's camera is also prone to chromatic aberration or color fringing - when contrasting edges form in color, in this case in purple. If you shoot with the sun in your lens, you may end up with bleaching in most of the photo.

You can minimize this problem by avoiding high-contrast photos and direct sunlight, but we used the Huawei MediaPad M3 tablet in this review along with the Honor 5C (Honor is a sub-brand of Huawei), and its 13-megapixel camera is significantly looked up from the tablet.

The M3 camera can be fun to use nonetheless. The shutter lag is no more than half a second, but the camera app is loaded with additional modes that will be interesting to play with at first.

You may not use most of them, but there are some interesting options. All Focus, for example, lets you choose your focus point after shooting, even if you take multiple shots with different focus ranges. Pro mode offers manual control over camera settings such as shutter speed, while Light Painting lets you capture the lights of moving vehicles leaving colorful trails of light.

All of these features would be even more effective if the tablet's camera were a little higher quality, but they're good to have anyway.

The front camera of the Huawei MediaPad M3 tablet is very similar to the rear, but as long as the main sensor is located on the back, we get a pretty good selfie camera on the front. Self-portrait, as the review showed, offers a lot of detail and realistic colors.

Focusing creates a big difference between these two cameras. rear camera offers standard auto focus while the front camera has a fixed focal length lens.

Thanks to the higher resolution of the front camera, you get the opportunity to video chat in 1080p, not just VGA or 720p, not to mention the picture looks noticeably better in Snapchat. Neither camera offers 4K video capture.

Battery life

Thanks to the ultra-high resolution screen of the Huawei MediaPad M3, you shouldn't expect amazing running times battery life It's not one of those 1280 x 800 pixels that can play the Lord of the Rings trilogy to the end on a single charge.

The battery test in our Huawei MediaPad M3 review, which included playing a 90-minute video at maximum brightness while syncing accounts over Wi-Fi in the background, saved the M3's battery from a 19% charge. This suggests that you can squeeze seven and a half and eight hours of battery life out of the tablet on a full charge.

These sorts of tests make little use of the CPU, but maximum brightness output means the screen consumes a fair amount of power. For a comprehensive comparison, we launched Real Racing 3 with automatic settings brightness, instead of peak. Twenty minutes of play took 6% of the battery, which gives us back about five and a half hours of play on a full charge.

None of these results can be called outstanding, but game tests, in particular, show that the Huawei MediaPad M3 can last quite a bit under load.

Summing up

Huawei claimed a few strong points with the MediaPad M3 tablet, as the review showed, but the tablet falls short when it comes to gaming performance, making several other tablets a better option for gamers.

We liked: One of the best parts of the Huawei MediaPad M3 is its build. The thin, lightweight aluminum body looks and feels great while being very practical.

The screen is good too. It's a sharp panel with color modes capable of delivering both more natural and richer tones. Speakers are another strong point of the tablet, providing excellent volume for such a thin machine.

We didn't like: The biggest problem with the Huawei MediaPad M3 8.0 is the chipset, in our opinion, as many games run slower than they should.

The rear camera doesn't offer anything special either. We're not big fans of photography on tablets when most smartphones have better sensors for this purpose, but some users will demand more from a tablet than from a phone.

Conclusion…

The Huawei MediaPad M3 is a tablet with a lot of great features. High screen resolution, exceptionally low weight, and speakers loud enough to be an anti-social threat in some situations.

7 Overall Score

Verdict:

Once again, Huawei has released a tablet that promises a lot, but doesn't offer everything. The MediaPad M3 looks great, offers a great sound system, and is good for everyday use, but game fans will look elsewhere. Huawei MediaPad M3 8.0 review more…

As a telecommunications giant and the world's third largest smartphone seller, Huawei continues its expansion into various market sectors. mobile technology, including in the field of tablets. The company is ignoring the dark times for this niche and has once again updated the MediaPad M line - mini tablets with 7-8" and smartphone features.

Equipment

The device starts to surprise from the very beginning. First, we are greeted by a stylish box completely white, the inscription and the company logo shimmer in gold in the light. The situation with is repeated, these Chinese giants have long been known to the average buyer, which means that it is enough to stick a company logo and everyone will immediately know whose product it is. Secondly, as soon as you start to look at the official equipment, then there is a state of shock from the fact that the box is packed to capacity.

Contents of delivery:

• Charger(5V/2A)
• Micro USB cable
• documentation
• clip
• screen protector
• cloth for cleaning
• headphones AKG H30
• eartips of different sizes

Impressive set, right? I believe that just one of the qualities that brings the manufacturing company into the “league of the best” is the most complete set, and not a gradual reduction in cost and savings on everything except the device itself. Huawei has done everything so that we, ordinary users, fall in love with their tablet even before they turn it on.

Design

For some reason, the appearance of Huawei MediaPad M3 just reminded me of a larger version of . Still, the giant has long formed its own principles and aspects in terms of design, which evolve every year. The body of the device is made entirely of aluminum, and the only plastic insert for the antenna output is located on the back side at the top, in the same place as the camera eye. By the way, with a very pleasant texture of thin stripes running in a row, which are barely noticeable to the eye.

From the photos, it may seem that we have a silver version of the tablet in our review, but this is not so. In fact, in the review, the device is golden in color, but it is such only when you look at the back side in poor lighting. In bright light, the back side has an iridescent delicate color between pale gray and pale gold. The so-called "champagne" color, which has become popular in recent years. Also on the back is the Huawei and Harman/Kardon logos, with whose help the sound capabilities of the tablet were created.

On the front side, there is only a front camera and the company name located on the side. And this is not at all ugly, like a print of an inscription in the center or even under the screen. By the way, the device has very narrow bezels, which are only 0.5 mm. This is really cool, because, personally, I can safely use the tablet with one hand, without making phantom clicks. Unfortunately, regardless of the chosen color, the front side will remain white. I would prefer the black version on both sides.
The tablet has two speakers: one is located at the top, the other at the bottom. That being said, when I held the device horizontally with both hands, my fingers never overlapped them. This suggests that the manufacturer was very sensitive to the choice of a place for the speakers. There is also a 3.5mm audio port on top. Bottom - microphone, Micro USB input and combo tray for Nano SIM and a memory card. Working with two "sim cards" is impossible.
The location of the buttons on the sides is very similar to the "smartphone" version. On the right there is a volume rocker and a power button, on the left - nothing. For a tablet, a similar key setting is perfect solution in terms of ergonomics and ease of use.

The fingerprint scanner

Why didn't I say anything about smart button below the screen? Yes, for one simple reason: she is so smart that she deserves a separate section. It should be initially clarified that the button is only touch. I could not get used to such a solution for quite a long time due to the fact that I had not encountered it before.

The most interesting thing is that you can not use the on-screen buttons, because the physical key supports gestures that replace absolutely everything. For example, a quick press is to go back an action, and a hold returns to the main menu. There is also a swipe left or right. And it's all customizable!

The fingerprint scanner works extremely fast and never makes mistakes. The finger is always recognized regardless of which side to attach it to. It's hard to say about the unlock time, because the tablet wakes up literally at the same second when the finger is on the button. It is immediately noticeable that technologies and software are brought to mind.

With the advent of new verification and protection technologies, Huawei began to pay great attention to protecting the personal data of its customers. You can make absolutely any information available only to a specific fingerprint. This function can be found in all devices of this brand, released in the last year and a half.

Display

The screen of the Huawei MediaPad M3 is worthy of praise, because we have before us a real flagship display, which is equipped with the ideal resolution, contrast, color depth, color reproduction and customization for such a diagonal. The screen is created using IPS technology without an air gap, and there is also no 2.5D glass effect. The front side is completely flat. Multi-touch shows support for up to 10 touches, which means that the screen sensitivity is at a high level.

• 8.4 inches
• resolution 2560 x 1600 pixels
• dot density 359 ppi

Individual pixels on the display cannot be seen. In the notification and settings curtain, there is an eye protection function that includes a predominance of yellow tints. But in fact, you can choose any color from the palette.

I compared the Huawei MediaPad M3 screen (in the photos on the left or bottom) with the tablet screen, which is 6 times cheaper than the main character of this review, namely the device. The difference is visible to the naked eye and very noticeable to the eye.


What immediately catches your eye? The depth of black, excellent display clarity, the absence of poisonous shades with green fade, a large supply of brightness. All in all, the eyes are a real treat when looking at the Huawei MediaPad M3. There is also such an interesting "chip" that every time the wallpaper on the lock screen changes to a new one - the carousel effect. I noticed that almost every time I unlocked, I looked at the display for a few seconds and at an automatically selected photo from the Internet.

Specifications

• HiSilicon Kirin 950 processor (8 cores, where 4 Cortex-A53 cores, up to 1.8 GHz and 4 Cortex-A72 cores, up to 2.3 GHz, 16 nm, 64-bit)
• graphics Mali-T880 MP4 900 MHz
• 4 GB LPDD4 RAM (exactly 2 GB free after reboot)
• 64 GB data storage (54 GB available out of the box)
• support for Micro SD memory cards up to 128 GB
• 8.4" IPS display, 2560 x 1600 resolution, no air gap
• front camera 8 MP (aperture f / 2.2, video recording at 1080p / 30 frames, no flash)
• main camera 8 MP (aperture f / 2.2, video recording in 1080p / 30 frames)
• battery 5100 mAh (no fast charging, 5V / 2A)
• dedicated audio chip AK4376
• OS Android 6.0
• own shell EMUI 4.1 (beta version of the firmware for six months)
• sensors: accelerometer, light and distance sensor, gyroscope, electronic compass, fingerprint scanner
• Micro USB connectors (OTG supported), audio output under 3.5 mm
• dimensions: 215.5 x 124.2 x 7.3
• weight 310 grams

Wireless Features:

• 2G, 3G, 4G LTE-TDD: 38/39/40/41, LTE-FDD: 1/3/5/7/8/19/20/28
• no support for two SIM cards (only one SIM card and memory card)
• Wi-Fi (802.11 a / b / g / n, 2.4 GHz / 5 GHz), Bluetooth 4.1
• navigation: GPS, A-GPS, Glonass

If you are going to buy a tablet, then you can be calm about the operation of 4G communications in Russian networks or in the networks of the CIS countries, because most of the available bands that exist at the moment are supported.

At first glance, it may seem that we have an extremely powerful gaming device, but this is absolutely not the case. To begin with, the results of synthetic tests:

Performance

Undoubtedly, you can perform daily tasks without any problems, open several applications and not be afraid that they will be unloaded from the system after a while. But a couple of times I came across the fact that the tablet began to slow down very seriously and the reasons for this behavior are still unclear. Only restarting the device helped. You can work in the browser in at least ten open tabs simultaneously with heavy pages, you will not find any lags or friezes.

AT game world of Tanks Blitz, the number of frames per second at medium and high settings is almost the same and storms them at about the same level. On average, the MediaPad M3 produces 20-25 FPS, which is not suitable for a comfortable game. And this is in a device for 30 thousand rubles! Yes, I understand perfectly well that the resolution of the display is 2K, and not the usual Full HD, however, the creators should work on optimizing 3D graphics.

There is also a drawdown of up to 5-6 FPS in battles or on maps with a lot of vegetation. You can immediately understand that it is impossible to play. I think that installing a newer HiSilicon Kirin 960 processor could solve the problem with the device's poor performance in 3D games.

Photo and video

Why do you need cameras in a tablet? That's right, mostly for video communication. Huawei foresaw this and made it possible to record video from the rear and front cameras at 1080p / 30 frames. But the company went further, because quite beautiful and artistic photos can be squeezed out of the main sensor. Surprisingly, there is a professional mode where you can adjust a large number of parameters yourself, including ISO.

Main camera

• resolution 8 MP
• aperture f/2.2

I can say for sure that the tablet takes pictures much better Chinese smartphones middle price category. Of course, the lack of a flash is most upsetting. I don't think it was that hard to add it, most likely they just saved it. In general, for photos on Instagram or other social media the camera is 100% suitable, and in PRO mode you can generally feel like a real photographer. You can see the original photo.

Front-camera

The thought comes to mind that both cameras have the same sensor. This is evidenced not only by the technical data, but also by the survey results. True, the software capabilities are very limited. For example, there is no autofocus and professional mode.

• resolution 8 MP
• aperture f/2.2

Video filming

The quality of the video leaves a very strange impression. Firstly, autofocus is available only by pressing the device screen. Secondly, as you can see in the video, this autofocus works terribly, as well as capturing light in the frame. The sensor cannot decide what to do, which is why it starts to become very dull. Perhaps the beta version of the firmware affects, where the software was not brought to an ideal state.

Shell

The proprietary EMUI shell is perhaps one of the most beautiful and sophisticated Android-based systems that is currently available on the market. And it is very much like iOS. This solution is most suitable for people who do not want to fool themselves with firmware, but simply buy and have fun from the very beginning, without fear for any flaws and glitches. Unfortunately, updates are not released as often as we would like, and it is generally unknown whether there will be an upgrade to new version— Android 7.0.

The top curtain is divided into two parts: notifications and icons. I think this is quite an interesting solution. At least it looks fresher than with a standard swipe down, when notifications are called first, and with another swipe, the settings themselves.

There is a nice bonus in the form of pre-installed software from Microsoft. The form factor and display quality are ideal for such office applications.

Another very cool feature of the proprietary shell is the split screen for two applications. With the help of a blue stripe, you can adjust the amount of space that is allocated for each running program. When this function is running, everything works very quickly.

Sound quality

We smoothly approached the strongest side of the tablet - the sound. None mobile device or tablet, I have not heard such high-quality sound with high and low frequencies from external stereo speakers, which, by the way, are produced in collaboration with Harman / Kardon and are located on the short sidewalls of the case. Thanks to this solution, the maximum volume margin is very high, you can safely forget about your portable speaker, because the sound does not emit any hoarseness and is crystal clear.
The gadget has a proprietary technology SWS 3.0 (Super Wide Sound), which allows you to expand the frequency range, gives even greater sound depth to any tracks. Naturally, this is only software processing, which means that the result is not always ideal. Only suitable for certain genres of music.

Frankly, I don't understand why most people admire the AKG H300 headphones that come with it. Firstly, they are extremely inconvenient, even taking into account the fact that several nozzles of different sizes are included in the kit. Secondly, the sound even with the included proprietary technology leaves much to be desired. The complete absence of bass, the headphones do not sound at the level that they claim. After all, these headphones come only in the most expensive configuration. But with full-sized Xiaomi Mi Headphones Comfort, it's a completely different matter! The sound is improved for the better. I sat listening to music from the tablet for several hours and I did not want to interrupt this pleasant pastime.

Battery Life

The tablet is not equipped with the largest battery, but I can say for sure that this is not because of the desire for maximum savings, but because of the desire to make a really beautiful and stylish device. The battery capacity is 5100 mAh, which is enough for a maximum of a whole day of use. At medium brightness, while browsing YouTube, you can discharge the tablet in just 3-4 hours, which is not the best result. For half an hour playing "tanks" takes about 10% of the charge, and the device itself begins to slowly heat up.

Well, what about without a built-in assistant that will help optimize power consumption in all areas of the device. There is also a fine-tuning of energy saving, and system cleaning, and many other important functions for a modern mobile device.

Outcome

Tablet Huawei MediaPad M3 the real thing deserves attention, because it has many advantages, namely: a gorgeous 2K display, excellent sound, luxury design, good cameras and a high-quality shell, but the device rejects itself when you find out its price. In the official online store and retailers, the price will be around 26-29 thousand rubles, a device from a gray supply can be bought for 21-24 thousand. The problem is that in recent months, prices for the iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 4 have been dropping rapidly and can be snatched up at about the same price.

The Chinese giant still has something to work on in their devices. I believe that in 1-2 generations, Huawei tablets will be able to compete with the "heavyweights" represented by Apple and come to the fore among potential buyers.

Already on sale Price: 26 990 rubles

As part of the 56th IFA Consumer Electronics Show, Huawei has unveiled its new elegant MediaPad M3 tablet. In addition to the 8-inch IPS display, there are 2 cameras of 8 megapixels, 4 gigabytes of RAM, and 32 or 64 gigabytes of flash, not counting support for MicroSD cards. We will get acquainted with the features of the novelty in the course of the review.

Overview of the tablet Huawei MediaPad M3

The tablet segment is still perceived, and is an intermediate link between a smartphone and a laptop / PC: a limited number of specialists can fully work on such a device and this is due to the specifics of interaction. That is why in the solution from Huawei, the emphasis is shifted towards multimedia and entertainment functions, Harman Kardon acoustics and AKG headphones are another confirmation of this. At the same time, with such a use case, the tablet should cope well and even perfectly.

First, let's look at other players in this segment:

	Huawei MedaiPad M3	samsung galaxy Tab S 8.4	ASUS ZenPad S 8.0
Operating system	Android 6 + EMUI 4.1	Android 4.4	Android 5.0
Display	2560 x 1600 pixels	Super AMOLED Plus 8.4", 2560 x 1600 pixels	2048 x 1536 pix.,
CPU	HiSilicon Kirin 8 cores: 4 x A72, 2.3 GHz + 4 x A53, 1.8 GHz	Samsung Exynos 5420 8 cores 1.9GHz	Intel® Atom™ Z3580 4 cores 1.8GHz
RAM	4 GB	3 GB	2 GB
Flash	32/64 GB MicroSD up to 128 GB	MicroSD up to 128 GB	MicroSD up to 128 GB
Camera	Rear: 8 MP, autofocus; Front: 8 MP, fixed focus	Rear: 8 MP, autofocus, flash; Front: 2.1MP	Front: 5 MP
Communications	GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz; UMTS: 1/2/5/6/8/19; LTE IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (2.4Hz and 5Hz),	IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac,	IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac,
Peculiarities	fingerprint scanner, Harman Kardon acoustics	Micro SIM	Stylus
Battery	5100 mAh	4900 mAh	4000 mAh
Dimensions	215.5 x 124.2 x 7.3mm,	212.6 x 125.5 x 6.6mm,	203.2 x 134.5 x 6.6mm,
Price	i 29,000/35,000	i 26 000	i 19 000

Source: ZOOM.CNews

The scope of delivery of the new tablet inspires respect.

In addition to the device itself, in a presentable box you will find a protective film and a cloth for smoothing it (when sticking), a box with instructions and a paper clip to remove the SIM tray and a memory card, a mains charger and a USB to micro-USB cable, as well as an AKG H300 headset with three pairs of ear pads.

Appearance

If I can say so about the appearance of the tablet, then the MediaPad M3 has an outstanding one. Despite the fact that the case has a familiar structure, a metal case-forming bath with antenna veins and a front panel glass inscribed in it, the shape of the bath itself is very elegant. The top and bottom ends are slightly curved towards the edges, but the side faces are noticeably narrowed, which visually reduces the dimensions of the device.

The dimensions of the MediaPad M3 are actually moderate, the tablet is comfortable to hold in your hands and it does not slip. The weight is small for an 8.4-inch gadget.

There are no complaints about the assembly of the novelty, as well as to other representatives of the manufacturer's product lines: all elements are tightly knocked down, there are no backlashes or squeaks. Our editors have visited a model of golden color, and a silver variation will also be on sale.

The layout of the elements is expected. In addition to the display, about which a little later, there are: the front camera and the operation indicator - on top, as well as a function key with a fingerprint sensor - on the bottom. The last element is not new and was noticed and studied by us on other products of the vendor, and its advantage over competitors is that it not only unlocks the device, but also allows you to control some functions.

If the left side face of the tablet is devoid of elements, then two oblong keys are placed on the right side: a combined volume rocker and a power / lock key with a small but smooth stroke.

At the top end, we are waiting for a 3.5 mm audio jack, as well as perforation of one of the speakers. The bottom one is given over to a microphone, a micro-USB connector, a second speaker perforation and a SIM and memory card tray.

On the back panel in addition to the manufacturer's logo and audio technology, the lens of the rear camera is taken out, which is made almost to believe with the surface of the case, plus it is located on a corrugated insert, the purpose of which could not be determined - probably a design move.

Screen

The device has a high-quality IPS matrix with a diagonal of 8.4 ″ with high resolution. The picture quality is expected: it is sharp, saturated, with good viewing angles and a good margin of brightness, and for those who like fine-tuning, there is also a choice of color temperature.

Capacitive sensor, supports up to 10 simultaneous touches. It copes well with entering commands and text, erroneous clicks are extremely rare.

Software and interface

Software stuffing MediaPad M3 is based on Android 6.0 and proprietary shell EMUI 4.1. The add-on assumes the rejection of the shortcut menu in favor of placing them on desktops, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

The lock screen is very modest: in addition to the status bar and a digital clock with a date, event notifications appear here. A swipe up from the bottom will open a panel of shortcuts, including player control and launching several regular applications, such as a camera and a calculator, for example.

Desktops are selected and filled by the user at his own discretion, with wallpapers, widgets, folders and shortcuts. Their settings are quite extensive: choosing a scale, turning off labels on icons, circular scrolling, and others. At the same time, the top line is customizable, and the bottom line is the dock of the main functions, which can be customized up to the placement of folders there.

Swipe on top double. Light, like in iOS, will show recently used applications and the search bar, and wide - notifications of incoming events and the second tab - a matrix of module launch icons.

The settings menu is unchanged: a long vertical sheet of options, lined and grouped in a "color icon + text" type of format

In addition to branded applications from Google, in the basic delivery of MediaPad M3 you will find: Opera browser, Yandex tools, mail and news from Mail.ru, Sberbank client, TripAdvisor services, Booking.com, Odnoklassniki, Shazam, office suite WPS Office, as well as Microsoft products, a weather informer, backups, tablet manager, file manager and tablet cleaner tool. For the first time, this is a very good set, which can always be expanded through Google Play.

Hardware and Performance

The heart of the tablet is a proprietary development, the HiSilicon Kirin processor with eight cores. In addition, there are 4 gigabytes of RAM on board and a choice of 32 or 64 flash memory, not counting microSD support up to 128 gigabytes.

It is quite interesting and in practice this bundle justifies itself: the device is nimble and does not give up on complex tasks like heavy video or games, let alone regular applications and interface.

Geekbench 3 (Single core/Multi core)	1712/5032
AnTuTu Benchmark v6.1.4	94622
3D Mark (Ice Strom Unlimited)	19928
Epic Citadel (Ultra High Quality)	34.3 FPS
Epic Citadel (High Quality)	57.6 FPS

Source: ZOOM.CNews

For those who doubt, we traditionally ran benchmarks and publish them in the table.

Camera and sound

Recall that the tablet has two cameras of 8 megapixels: front with fixed focus and rear with automatic.

The application in this case is standard, nothing extraordinary: the screen acts as a viewfinder, on which the control icons are located. Swipe left and right will open various settings: on the left - modes, on the right - personification. Curiously, there are a lot of options that you can choose, although the cameras do not have a flash.

At first glance, it may seem that this option in the tablet is secondary, but the test shots say otherwise: the pictures are very “tasty”. Despite the fact that a person filming with a tablet is still perceived as strange, Huawei did not relegate this feature to the background.

Clicking on a thumbnail will open the full size image

The shots are sharp, the colors are natural, the focus is fast and without misses, and the geometry, if not perfect, is quite acceptable.

Acoustics Harman Kardon, installed in the tablet, can not be ignored. Huawei's emphasis on this option is confirmed by the AKG H300 headset with three pairs of ear pads for various ear shells. The sound quality of the novelty is excellent both through external speakers and through headphones - complete or third-party: listening to music is a pleasure.

Battery

The tablet is equipped with a 5100 mAh non-removable lithium-polymer battery. This volume when fully charged is enough for about two days not permanent job, which include periodically checking social networks, mail and surfing the Internet, reading news and literature, listening to music, and occasionally taking photos / videos.

The self-discharge mode in inactivity, at night, is not high: in 6-7 hours, only a couple of percent.

Outcome

Summing up all of the above, we can say that Huawei has turned out to be a pleasant, in all respects, competitive device. An elegant case made of modern materials is not ashamed not only to show, but on the contrary - it can become an indicator of status.

The set of functions is both entertaining and applied in nature: issues related to the network, online CRM, for example, or interaction by mail - will allow you to solve simple work tasks, and even more entertainment functions, which only the musical component from Harman Kardon costs.

With all the desire, it was not possible to find obvious minuses of the novelty, well, maybe the price, although at current exchange rates and the economic situation it is somewhat strange to stutter about this.

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TFT IPS- High-quality liquid crystal matrix. It has wide viewing angles, one of the best indicators of color reproduction quality and contrast among all those used in the production of displays for portable equipment.
Super AMOLED- if a conventional AMOLED screen uses several layers, between which there is an air gap, then in Super AMOLED there is only one such touch layer without air gaps. This allows you to achieve greater screen brightness with the same power consumption.
Super AMOLED HD- differs from Super AMOLED in a higher resolution, thanks to which it is possible to achieve 1280x720 pixels on a mobile phone screen.
Super AMOLED plus- This is a new generation of Super AMOLED displays, differs from the previous one by using more sub-pixels in a conventional RGB matrix. The new displays are 18% thinner and 18% brighter than the older PenTile displays.
AMOLED- an improved version of OLED technology. The main advantages of the technology are significantly reduced power consumption, the ability to display a large color gamut, a smaller thickness and the ability of the display to bend a little without the risk of breaking.
retina-display with high density pixels, designed specifically for Apple technology. Pixel density per Retina displays is such that individual pixels are indistinguishable to the eye at a normal distance from the screen. This provides the highest image detail and greatly improves the overall viewing experience.
Super Retina HD- The display is made using OLED technology. The pixel density is 458 PPI, the contrast ratio reaches 1,000,000:1. The display has an extended color gamut and unrivaled color accuracy. Pixels at the corners of the display are anti-aliased at the sub-pixel level, so borders don't distort and look smooth. The Super Retina HD reinforcement layer is 50% thicker. Breaking the screen will be harder.
Super LCD is the next generation of LCD technology and features improved features compared to earlier LCD displays. Screens have not only wide viewing angles and better color reproduction, but also reduced power consumption.
TFT- A common type of liquid crystal displays. With the help of an active matrix, controlled by thin film transistors, it is possible to significantly increase the speed of the display, as well as the contrast and clarity of the image.
OLED- organic electroluminescent display. Consists of a special thin-film polymer that emits light under the influence of an electric field. This type of display has a large margin of brightness and consumes very little power.