Gadgetory

what's up guys long hair from Android Authority and it's been a while since we've reviewed an Android tablet and that's mostly due to the fact that Android tablets have sort of been on the decline and a lot of manufacturers aren't really making them anymore but one company by the name of Huawei is still having some success with tablets so let's take a look at their news tablets this is the media pad m5 8.4 inch model and this is the media pad m5 Pro so just to be clear the media pad m5s come in three different models you have the 8.4 inch model and then you have the 10.8 inch model which comes in a pro and non pro version and the only difference between the pro and non pro is that the pro has a pen which wahby calls the M Pen and it also comes with a keyboard dock so you can turn the tablet into a workstation if you want and that's really the only difference between the two 10.8 inch models now what I really like about these tablets is that no matter which model you get the specs are exactly identical across the board save for the screen size on the 8.4 inch model obviously and the slightly smaller battery but everything else like the processor the RAM the screen resolution the camera and the software experience is pretty much all the same as far as the design there's really nothing too flashy about these tablets they're pretty standard tablet designs they're made completely out of metal so they feel really high quality and then you have some plastic antenna lines across the top and bottom for radio signals and improve cell reception if you have the LTE editions of these tablets you'll also notice that the corners are rounded and the back is slightly tapered so they feel really comfortable in the hand the metal finish is completely smooth to the touch so it doesn't really give you a lot of grip but it's a two-handed device anyway so you're not really gonna have a whole lot of problems with this falling out of your hands unlike a lot of our smartphones which have really really thin bezels now the bezels on the front of these tablets are really thick but I don't really think that's a bad thing because on the tablet you kind of want to have those bezels so that when you're playing games or watching a movie or something you have an area to actually rest your thumbs and be able to comfortably hold the tablet without blocking the screen the screen itself has a resolution of 2560 by 1600 so they're plenty sharp and it's an IPS panel so it's not quite as contrast II you're not gonna get the same inky deep blacks as an AMOLED screen but I still found these screens to be really really enjoyable the color reproduction is really nice they have great viewing angles and great contrast and they also get pretty bright as well that outdoor visibility isn't that big of a deal so watching YouTube Netflix movies playing games all that stuff has been really really enjoyable on these displays especially the 10.8 inch version which gives you a lot more screen real estate on the inside the media pad m5s are being powered by the ki-rin 960 processor and 4 gigabytes of RAM and the 960 is actually Huawei's last generation chipset but it's still a really powerful processor I've had no issues with performance on these tablets they've been very smooth and very responsive whether I'm multitasking launching applications watching YouTube videos or playing games everything has ran perfectly fine and it's done a fantastic job of keeping up with my daily demands now as far as how these tablets are going to perform months and months down the road only time will tell but as of right now they're doing a great job the media pad m5 and m5 pro are available in 32 64 and 128 gigabyte models and there's also a micro SD card slot if you want more storage on the front there's also a fingerprint sensor that's actually really really fast at unlocking these tablets and you can also use the fingerprint sensor as your way of navigating the OS with swipe gestures in place of the on-screen navigation keys there's no headphone jack unfortunately but Huawei does include an adapter in the box so you can still use your own headphones of choice but what I really like about the audio experience on these tablets is the speakers you have dual speakers on the top and bottom of the 8.4 inch model and you have quad speakers on the 10.8 inch model which are tuned by Harman Kardon and these speakers I was a little bit skeptical about the placement of them because on the 8.4 inch model they're on the top and bottom so you basically have side firing audio and on the 10.8 inch model they're basically rear-facing speakers but these speakers sound incredible they're extremely loud and not only do they get very loud they're also really crisp and clear there's a lot of low-end punch to them as well so if you would like to watch a lot of YouTube a lot of Netflix or listen to music these speakers are really amazing for it and the multimedia experience is that much better because of these speakers battery life on these tablets are equally as impressive you have a 7500 milliamp hour battery on the 10.8 inch model and a 50-100 milliamp hour battery on the 8.4 inch and I've been able to get a good day or two out of these tablets but this is what's really heavy usage I play a lot of games I watched a lot of YouTube and I view quite a few streams on Twitch as well and I get around seven to eight hours of screen on time on the 10.8 inch model and around five to six on the eight point four if you're a more casual user you don't really use your tablets quite as much I could imagine you'll probably get at least a few days or maybe even close to a week on these tablets but with heavy use I've been really impressed with the battery life and how long they last let's talk a little bit about what makes the m5 pro a pro tablet one it comes with a stylus that Huawei calls the M pen and two it has a keyboard dock that basically turns it into a laptop the pen itself is the size of a regular pen so it's really comfortable to hold and use and it also has a really nice weight to it so it doesn't feel cheap it charges with a USB type-c port which is hidden underneath the pen clip and wobbly says it'll last up to 50 days on a single charge and I haven't had it long enough to verify that claim but I've only had to charge at one time which is when I initially took the pen out of the box the pen pretty much does exactly what you might expect the pen to do you can create drawings or jot down notes you can also do handwritten calculations with Huawei's calculator app and there's also two buttons on the side one button lets you capture screen grabs and annotate them and the other button basically who serves as a left click so you don't have to actually lift the pen off the screen to tap or select an item the pen is also magnetic so you can attach it to the side of the tablet the magnet is honestly pretty weak that it will fall off with even the smallest amount of force so I don't really recommend using it the keyboard dock is pretty nice it's a pretty spacious keyboard given the size limitation the keys have a nice amount of travel to them they're very clicky and it's also pretty easy to type on and I also like that you have some physical shortcuts for brightness Multimedia controls and the Android navigation keys are on here as well the trackpad isn't quite as nice as the keyboard it's a little bit cramped and things like scrolling or dragging around items is very choppy and laggy you're better off using the touchscreen for things like that the keyboard dock also doubles as a protective case and the back actually folds so that you can prop it up on your desk or on your lap when you're typing and it's made of a very soft touch material which feels really nice but I'm afraid it'll eventually stain over time from things like your palm sweat or whatever else you might get on this keyboard tablet cameras historically have been pretty bad and the media pad m5s don't really do a whole lot to change that you have an 8 megapixel camera on the front and a 13 megapixel camera on the rear which doesn't sound all that bad on paper and these cameras are perfectly serviceable and will get the job done if you're in a pinch but the smartphone that you have in your pocket will most likely take better photos the camera experience is mostly the same as what you would find on a huawei phone with most of the same modes the only exception is the portrait mode and the wide aperture mode which is just a limitation of the hardware that typically requires dual cameras which these tablets don't have but there is a pro mode which lets you shoot in RAW so if you want to take the photos in post and edit them there you'll get much better results the software is emui 8.0 with android oreo 8.0 and it's basically the same experience that you would find on their smartphones except blown up on a larger display so it's very iOS like with the vibrant colors and the rounded squared off icons the spotlight s feature and the lack of an app drawer but you can re-enable the app drawer in the settings if you want specific to the m5 pro software is the addition of a desktop mode and desktop mode basically gives you a more traditional desktop like experience sort of like Windows 10 or Chrome OS you have your applications in the bottom left corner and then in the bottom right you have things like the time and your notifications and apps open up in a minimize double window to make it easier to multitask the only thing that I thought was a little bit weird about the desktop mode is that not all of your applications are accessible from this mode even some of Google's applications like the Google Play Store and YouTube were not accessible in desktop mode so finding a good Android tablet these days is pretty difficult to do simply because there aren't that many options to pick from but if you're on the market for an Android tablet take a look at the media pad m5 and m5 Pro there's some of the best Android tablets we've seen in a long while they have great build quality the displays are fantastic they have long lasting battery life and the speakers on these things are awesome they're great for multimedia purposes and also pretty good for work purposes as well if you get the Pro Edition so check these tablets out I highly recommend them and that's pretty much it for this review so if you guys enjoyed it give it a thumbs up we definitely appreciate it subscribe to the channel which is down below if you haven't already hit that notification bell so you don't miss out on future videos and check us out on social media instagram twitter snapchat google+ all that good stuff is linked down below and of course check out the website as well for more in-depth coverage and really calm because we are your source for all things Android