The Huawei MatePad 11.5 2025 is being touted as a midrange productivity tablet meant for creatives, students, and even professionals. While it has large PaperMatte display and support for a multitude of accessories to make art and productivity easier, does it have more to make it standout?
| Chipset | Kirin T82B |
| Screen | 11.5-inch IPS, 2456 x 1600, 120Hz, PaperMatte |
| RAM | 8GB |
| OS | HarmonyOS 4.3 |
| Rear Camera | 13MP f/1.8 |
| Front Camera | 8MP f/2.0 |
| Storage | 256GB |
| Network | N/A |
| Connectivity | WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, USB-C |
| Battery | 10,100mAh, 40W Huawei SuperCharge |
| Others | 4x Speakers, 2x Microphones |
| Dimensions | 262.63 x 177.53 x 6.1mm |
| Weight | 515g |
| Colors | Violet, Space Gray |
The Huawei MatePad 11.5 2025 is as minimalist as tablets come. Its rear is made out of a gray aluminum slab with the monotony only broken by the Huawei logo, charging pads, and the camera island. This rather dull exterior will be covered most of the time, but if you want something fun, the tablet is also available in a violet colorway.
There are 2 speakers at both sides of the tablet for a total of 2 speaker grilles. At the right-hand side it its USB-C port. The tablet is WiFi-only and there’s no 3.5mm audio jack for wired headsets nor an option for microSD card storage expansion.
The tablet itself weighs in at 515g, which is pretty light. Given that it’s positioning itself as a productivity tablet, it’s safe to assume that you’ll be using it with its accessories which brings that weight up to just shy of 1kg.
Speaking of accessories, the Huawei MatePad 11.5 2025 will come with a Smart Keyboard and Case. The keyboard is attached to the case via magnets and connects via Bluetooth, which means that you can use it even if it’s detached. It comes with a standard 60% layout with some of the less-used keys being halved to fit it all the keys in such a small formfactor. Tactility is decent and comes close to some entry-level notebooks.
The tablet is also compatible with the Huawei M-Pencil 3rd Generation. This lets you have more precise strokes for drawing or writing, which is helpful for creatives, students, and even professionals. It’s wirelessly charged and magnetically mounts at the top of the display. You can also snap it at the back of the case if you need it out of the way.
The Huawei MatePad 11.5 2025’s highlight is its 11.5-inch 2456 x 1600 120Hz PaperMatte display. They have applied what they call Circular Polarization technology, which essentially turns the display’s screen light into a soft glow for a natural-viewing experience.
Its size and resolution work great with each other as images and videos look crisp while still having a large screen. The PaperMatte finish significantly reduces glare and reflection even if you’re under sunlight or strong backlight. Issues with reflections and glare are further reduced thanks to its high brightness, which we measured at around 527.1 cd/m2.
Additionally, PaperMatte mimics the feel of paper that allows your hands, fingers, and pen to glide on the screen instead of sticking like conventional displays.
Colors are vibrant and accurate as they could with support for 92.30% sRGB and 65.60% DCI-P3 color spaces – good enough for entry-level or casual art and creativity, but not for critical color-accurate work. The display also shows Gamma Shifting if you’re viewing it off-center. This will only be an issue if you look at the display at extreme angles, and won’t interfere with regular use.
As mentioned, at each side of the tablet are 2 speakers for a total of 4. They do a good job of reproducing audio with a surprising amount of clarity, bass, and sound stage. It does get loud and won’t have much distortion even if you turn it up to the max.
The tablet runs on HarmonyOS 4.3 and relies on AppGallery and 3rd party sources for its apps. Most apps are available on the platform with pretty easy installation, but 3rd party sites will have their usual hurdles such as exclusive packages and installer.
If you need Google-reliant apps, the device comes with GBox by default and will install all of its dependencies automatically. You can just search all the apps that you need within the GBox app, and they should work seamlessly once installed.
There are several pre-installed apps that you don’t need by default, and there are ads built on the browser and the AppGallery. While egregious, it’s not more than what you can expect from its competitors and they are easily removed.
HarmonyOS runs smooth on the tablet and handles multitasking easily. There’s also a lot of built-in multitasking tools on the MatePad 11.5 2025 like split screen, window-in-window, quick notes, annotation, and the ability to be used as a secondary display for other Huawei devices.
Huawei is including the WPS Office Suite on the device, which is essentially their version of Office. You’ll be able to create, open, and edit documents, powerpoint presentations, and excel files with all the functionalities that you expect without downloading another app.
GoPaint is also making its appearance on the tablet – a user-friendly app for creating art. It lets you access more than 150 preset brushes to create abstract or realistic art. When paired with the tablet’s 120Hz refresh rate and PaperMatte display, drawing can feel smooth and intuitive.
While we’re terrible at art, the Huawei community has proved what GoPaint can do when paired with creativity and effort.
As with most tablets, the imaging system on the Huawei MatePad 11.5 2025 is kept simple. At the back is a 13MP f/1.8 shooter while at the front is an 8MP f/2.0 selfie lens. Both cameras support 1080p30fps recording.
Its cameras are basic at most. They are geared towards online calls and conferences, and here they work fine. Paired with its 2 microphones, guests at the other end of the line will see and hear you clearly in good conditions.
While they are not made for mobile photography you can still get okay-looking stills in great lighting. Anything worse, however, will introduce a noticeable amount of noise in snaps.
Powering the MatePad 11.5 2025 is a Kirin T82B chip paired with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. Most apps will run smoothly and juggling through intensive apps shouldn’t slow down the device significantly, which is helpful since it is being touted as a productivity tablet.
While it isn’t geared for gaming, you can feasibly run mainstream games like Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, but its size makes controls unwieldy. Heavier games like Genshin Impact or Honkai: Star Rail will need their settings to be lowered to get steady framerates.
Benchmarks like AnTuTu scores the tablet just shy of the 1 million mark, which puts it close to other midrange devices – decent scores but nothing too spectacular.
Huawei provides a 10,100mAh battery to juice up the MatePad 11.5 2025. We were able to get nearly a day of work done including writing articles, replying to emails, and social media stuff with the device plus a bit more at the end of the day to watch movies.
Its USB-C port supports 40W Huawei SuperCharge to fill up its tanks. While this is competent for a smartphone with half the battery capacity, you will still need to wait close to 2 hours to fully charge it from empty.
The Huawei MatePad 11.5 2025 is positioning itself as a solid midrange productivity tablet thanks to its decent performance, support for an extensive array of accessories for productivity, and a large PaperMatte display that mimics the feel of paper in the hand to make creating art much easier.
The HarmonyOS might be a struggling point for some users migrating from Android. Once you have set it up and get a feel for it, however, using the device isn’t as daunting as you might expect.
While its chipset’s performance is nothing to write home about, it offers a stutter-free experience even when juggling through multiple apps. Additionally, its array of speakers complements the large display when watching your favorite movies or series.
The Huawei MatePad 11.5 2025 does have a learning curve due to its app limitations, but the HarmonyOS makes the transition easy with its intuitive design. Once you get over this initial hump, you can expect a decent experience and burgeoning artists can find a platform they can easily express themselves.
The Huawei MatePad 11.5 2025 is priced at PhP 21,999 in the Philippines. You can get it through Shopee, Lazada, TikTok, Huawei Online Store, and Huawei Experience stores nationwide.
They are also providing an exclusive freebie bundle that includes the Huawei Smart Keyboard, Huawei M-Pencil 3rd Generation, and PC-Level WPS Office Suite worth a total of PhP 17,997.
