Most tablets nowadays can do a plethora of tasks be it entertainment or work. Huawei is doubling down on the productivity side – especially for students – with the Huawei MatePad 11-inch PaperMatte Edition. Aside from having the usual hardware on their tablets, they have used a screen finish that makes it easier to use the device as a “paper” medium.

Huawei MatePad 11-inch PaperMatte Edition

A Screen Made for Productivity

As its name suggests, the Huawei MatePad 11-inch PaperMatte Edition comes with an 11-inch 2560 x 1600 120Hz display. The interesting part is the “PaperMatte” portion. Instead of a glossy finish, the tablet has an anti-glare finish etched onto its display. Unlike other anti-glare screens, however, Huawei has minimized the reduction in color accuracy on the device.

Visual quality does look similar to the vanilla MatePad 11-inch but there is a bit of shifting once you view the PaperMatte Edition at an off-center angle. The coating has the additional benefit of feeling like paper. Writing or drawing with the included 2^nd generation M-Pencil is fantastic as the matte finish means that the pencil glides through and your palms won’t stick onto the screen. The 120Hz refresh rate also improves latency and smoothness as it feels like writing on a manual medium.

Possible Replacement for an Entry-Level Laptop

For a limited time, Huawei will be bundling the MatePad 11-inch PaperMatte Edition with a free keyboard, M-Pencil 2^nd Gen, and a Bluetooth mouse, which makes it a possible candidate as a replacement for an entry-level laptop.

Laptops do have their place in your workstation, but a tablet is more portable especially as the MatePad 11-inch PaperMatte Edition only weighs in at 480g on its own. The tablet also has support for WPS Office that allows you to have additional productivity options like documents, sheets, and power point slides.

The PaperMatte tablet will run on HarmonyOS 3.1. You can get most apps via the AppGallery or 3^rd party sites to allow you to transition seamlessly. But for those who need Google services, the tablet does support GBox that enables you to install 1^st party Google apps right on the device. You can head on over to our full tutorial here if you want to know how to install GBox on your Huawei device.

Speakers for Entertainment

The MatePad 11-inch PaperMatte Edition doesn’t only do productivity. Aside from the 2560 x 1200 screen, Huawei also gives you quad speakers on the tablet. The speakers do get loud and voice come out clear so you can easily make video calls or watch movies with unimpeded audio.

Powering the tablet is a 7,250mAh battery. We haven’t had a proper review period with the tablet yet but using the MatePad 11 as reference, it should be able to last around 10 – 12 hours with average use on a single charge.

First Impressions

While most of its hardware doesn’t separate itself from other Huawei tablets in the stack like the vanilla MatePad 11, the Huawei MatePad 11-inch PaperMatte Edition does come with a trick up its sleeve – the PaperMatte finish on its display. It allows anyone, but especially students, to have a more paper-like feel on the display so drawing, writing, and doodling is made easier and feel terrific on the tablet.

Huawei has also made efforts to make the OS feel more productive as seamless multi-window, support for the Super Device ecosystem, easy app acquisition, and easy installation of GBox for those who really need Google apps on a Huawei tablet.

Price and Availability

The Huawei MatePad 11-inch PaperMatte Edition is priced at PhP 29,999 in the Philippines. For a limited time, you can get a keyboard (PhP 6,999), a M-Pencil 2^nd Generation (PhP 5,999) and a Huawei Bluetooth Mouse (PhP 1,899), WPS Office Suite (PhP 4,999), VIU 1-Year Premium (PhP 999), and Education vouchers bundled with the tablet.

You can now get it through Huawei’s official E-store, Shopee, and Lazada, as well as Huawei concept stores and authorized retailers nationwide.