Why you'll love them: The 8.4- and 10.8-inch Huawei MediaPad M5 tablets are excellent high-end Android devices with sharp screens and a slick aluminum design.
If you want a high-end tablet that runs Android, your choices are fairly limited — or at least, they were. Huawei recently introduced two new MediaPad tablets that have slick aluminum builds, sharp screens, and solid processing power. If you want an Android tablet that's more or less on-par with the iPad, Huawei's are the best.
We tested both tablets for several weeks to put them through their paces, and they excelled at all the tasks we expect a tablet to handle with ease: streaming video, playing games, and handling web browsing.
The 8.4-inch MediaPad is the most portable of the two and the easiest to hold one-handed. Its slim design, light weight, and aluminum casing make it the perfect tablet to stash in your bag when you travel or commute. It's also very comfortable to use at home on the couch or in the bed when you want to kick back with Netflix.
Huawei's larger 10.8-inch MediaPad is also very high-end with the same sturdy aluminum casing as the smaller model. The larger screen is an obvious plus for people who love to watch video on their tablets, and it's not so large that you can't travel with it.
Both the 8.4 and 10.8-inch versions of the tablet have crisp 2K screens with a resolution of 2,560 x 1,600 pixels. We watched Netflix on both tablets and the colors, contrast, and overall image quality of both tablets' screens was impressive. You can also download quite a few movies and shows from Netflix or Prime Video for offline access, thanks to the 64GB of storage onboard.
The audio quality on the 10.8-inch MediaPad was quite a bit better, largely because it has four speakers versus the two found on the smaller version. However, both tablets sound quite good, thanks to Harmon Kardon's tuning and Huawei's inclusion of the AK4376 audio chip and its Histen technology for Hi-Res audio.
The great screen quality combined with these speakers make both the new MediaPads ideal for watching video or playing games — the two main reasons why people buy tablets. Beyond looking good and sounding great, the MediaPad tablets also perform well, thanks to Huawei's speedy Kirin 960 Octa-core processor and 4GB of RAM.
As far as battery life goes, the 8.4-inch tablet has a 5,100mAh battery that's good for about 11 hours of video playback, while the 10.8-inch tablet has a 7,500mAh battery that should last you about 12 hours when playing video.
When it comes time to juice the tablets back up, Huawei's Quick Charge tech fully charges the 8.4-inch tablet in about 2 hours and the 10.8-inch tablet in about 3 hours. Not too shabby!
Although a tablet isn't a necessity, it's a nice thing to have for entertainment while you travel, commute, or relax at home. The 8.4-inch MediaPad will cost you $320, which is just $10 less than the new 9.7-inch iPad. However, you do get double the storage on the Huawei tablet, so it's a good deal.
Of course, the 10.8-inch MediaPad costs more, but it's a reasonable price for such a large high-end tablet. — Malarie Gokey
Pros: Great screen, solid metal build, fast processors, good audio, 64GB of storage, 10-12 hour battery life during video viewing
Cons: Bit pricey
Buy the 8.4-inch Huawei MediaPad M5 on Amazon for $319.99
Buy the 10.8-inch Huawei MediaPad M5 on Amazon for $359.99 to $449.99