Tablet Huawei MediaPad T5 10.1 2GB 16GB Android 8.0 CRNI review

Co-engineered with Harman Kardon, this Tablet Huawei MediaPad T5 10.1 2GB 16GB Android 8.0 CRNI has dual-speaker system that delivers fine-tuned and precisely optimised concert hall audio effects, more bass, and less distortion. Great sound immerses you into the scene. The HUAWEI Histen 5.0 audio technology makes sound richer, giving you a immersive cinematic experience. Its gentle, minimalist curves provide a luxurious look, while its slim, lightweight design delivers a spectacular hand-feeling. The HUAWEI MediaPad T5 is an eye-catching tablet with a premium, refined design. Its symmetrical metal body is crafted with care and is sleek and lightweight (about 16.22 Ounce) enough to be conveniently portable and easy to hold. Tablet Huawei MediaPad T5 10.1 2GB 16GB Android 8.0 CRNI review.

Technical specifications – Tablet Huawei MediaPad T5 10.1 2GB 16GB Android 8.0 CRNI

General

• Processor speed (GHz): 1.7GHz
• RAM: 3GB
• Claimed internal storage capacity: 32GB
• Usable internal storage capacity: 20.01GB
• Height: 243mm
• Width: 162mm
• Depth: 8.7mm
• Weight: 0.476kg
• Weight with keyboard-

Display

• Screen size (inches): 10.1-inches
• Screen resolution: 1200 x 1920
• Stylus included: No

Features

• Operating system: Android
• Operating system version: Android 8.0.0
• Physical keyboard provided: no
• Number of cameras: 2
• Facial recognition: Yes
• Fingerprint scanner: Yes

Connections

• USB/charger type: Micro-USB
• HDMI output: no
• Micro SD card: Yes
• Other connections: Headphone/ Microphone
• 3G/4G option: No

Compare Tablet Huawei MediaPad T5 vs VANKYO MatrixPad S30 10 inch Octa-Core Tablet

Tablet Huawei MediaPad T5 10.1 2GB 16GB Android 8.0 CRNI review

Design

While it is not the thinnest at 7.8-millimeters, it is still thin enough at this price point. That goes for the weight of 460 grams as well. Because of the metal back, it does not feel cheap but is not as premium-feeling as an iPad either. Well, it seems to be well built.

The design of the Huawei MediaPad T5 10 is very similar to the one of its predecessor. As with the T3 10, we are getting a metal back. However, there is a plastic bar at the top for the antennas and the frame is made of half metal and half plastic. Huawei is offering this tablet in two colors called black and champagne gold.

It is charged using a micro USB port, so there is no Type C connector. Using an adapter you can connect accessories like external hard-drives. Additionally, the MediaPad T5 10 features a headphone jack and a microSD card slot. On the right side, there are the volume controls and a power button.

Display

It is an IPS panel with good viewing angles and the screen is laminated. That means there is no noticeable gap between the touchscreen and the IPS layer. It is bright enough as well but certainly not the brightest. You can use it outside but in direct sunlight, it’s a bit dark. The contrast is very good though and colors look nice.

Compared to the MediaPad T3 10, Huawei has improved the screen a lot. The Huawei MediaPad T5 10 has a 10.1-inch display with a full HD resolution of 1920 x 1200. Even though the pixel density is not as high as on premium-tablets, I think full HD on 10 inches is high enough. Yes, if you’re looking very closely you might see pixels. But if you’re holding the tablet at a normal distance in front of you, text and icons do look sharp.

So, overall, I think the display of the MediaPad T5 10 is pretty good. The resolution is high enough and other aspects are good too. Sure, you can get better ones, but these are much pricier. By the way, it does not support an active pen.

Speakers & Cameras

While the main camera on the back has a resolution of 5 megapixels, we get a 2-megapixel front-facing camera only. I would not call any of those cameras good. Pictures and videos look kind of unsharp. But I guess its good enough for video chats. Again, I would not call them great though.

There are two speakers on the bottom. That’s not an ideal position because you can cover them easily while laying on a bed or sofa and having the tablet on your belly. But, actually, you can just rotate it and then its fine. Anyways, the sound quality is certainly good enough. It’s fine for watching YouTube and listening to music. Yes, they are not the best speakers, but for better ones, you usually have to invest a bit more.

Hardware & Performance

With the 32GB version around 22GB are free to use by the user out of the box. The rest is taken up by the system.

The Huawei MediaPad T5 10 is powered by a HiSilicon Kirin 659 octa-core processor which is developed by Huawei itself. It is an octa-core chip with eight Cortex-A53 cores which are clocked at 1.7 to 2.36GHz. Depending on the market, you can get it with 2GB of RAM and a 16GB internal storage or 3GB of RAM and a 32GB internal storage. I’ve got the later one because only that one is available in Germany.

For my everyday use, the performance was good enough too. Chrome, YouTube and similar apps run without any problems. That includes Microsoft Word and the split screen view. You can open and use two apps side by side without any issues.

The performance of the Kirin 659 with the 3GB of RAM is good enough for almost everything. And that is what my benchmark tests show as well. In Geekbench 4 the MediaPad T5 10 gets around 960 and 3700 points. In AnTuTu, it gets a result of over 86.000. With these scores, it is much faster than tablets from last year that cost between 200 and 300 US dollars. And it is faster than the new and much pricier Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.5.

MediaPad T5 10 Gaming performance

Games like Into The Dead 2 run smoothly as well. But with that one, I had to turn the graphics to medium. It stutters too much at highest settings. Players Unknown Battlegrounds Mobile runs very nicely too. In fact, it is playable at lowest and even medium settings. You cannot choose the HD graphics settings though.

The MediaPad T5 10 gets good results in my gaming test as well, especially when considering the price. Sure, it is not a perfect gaming tablet. If you are looking for a high-end performance you have to spend at least 100 dollars more. But most games run very nicely. Among those are Asphalt 8 and Modern Combat 5. The later one did not run smoothly on the predecessor.

Android 8.0 Oreo & EMUI 8.0

The Huawei MediaPad T5 10 is shipped with Android 8.0 Oreo. And I’m afraid to say that it probably will never get an update to Android 9.0. Obviously, I can’t predict the future. However, in the past, Huawei has been very disappointing with updates. Especially for their cheaper tablets. Sadly, that is the case with most competitors as well.

On top of Android 8.0 Oreo, we get the EMUI in version 8.0. That is the same custom interface from Huawei that you might know already from their smartphones and previous tablets. With this Emotion UI, the interface is customized quite heavily. And you can customize it even more by yourself.

The EMUI is one of the view things that can be a bit annoying with tablets from Huawei. However, I’m often using their phones and then I get used to it and it’s not too bad. If you get it, you should go through most of the settings to see what you might want to change. For example, I’m not a big fan of the SwiftKey keyboard. But its Android so you can always change it.

One setting is missing on the MediaPad T5 10. With tablets from Huawei, texts and icons often look way to big out of the box. However, usually, there is a display setting called view mode. With that one, you can scale it down so that the content does not look as zoomed in. For some reason, that setting is missing. Hopefully, it’ll come back with an update.

Besides that, there are also a lot of apps pre-installed. And there really are a lot. You can uninstall about half of them but not all. Well, I’ve mentioned that everything is heavily customized. And again, usually I can live with it but it is not ideal. Personally, I prefer vanilla Android or the UI from Samsung. But well, at least you get a lot of features.

Battery Life

As you can see in my battery comparison, the result of 10.5 hours is not really good but not really bad either. It’s kind of what you expect at this price point. It should last you a whole day during normal use. Actually, if you don’t use it constantly, it’ll probably last you two days. However, if you’re playing games it’ll drain the battery faster. In standby, it almost does not lose any energy at all.

Inside the Huawei MediaPad T5 10 sits a battery with a capacity of 5100mAh. In my standard battery test, that is enough for a runtime of 10.5 hours. As usual, I’m looping an HD video at 50 percent brightness and activated WiFi.

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