I came across the Huawei's MediaPad for the first time yesterday and the tablet which is owned by a personal and close confidante has been amazing the whole night and this morning. MediaPad is the firt 7in Tablet to be powered by Honeycomb which meaning it offers same user experience as its larger siblings.The MediaPad looks quite ordinary and some have remarked that it looks like a big HTC Android phone from the back.In my own evaluation,the resemblance is due to the anodised aluminium unibody and removable dark plastic cover.
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| Looks portable from this angle |
One of the main difference with bigger models is that they have distinct advantage because of running on Android 3.2 Honeycomb which was tailored specifically for Tablet computers.The 7in models are more portable but run on the older operating Android 2.2 Froyo or Android Gingerbread 2.3 which were specifically meant for smartphones.In simpler terms,this basically means you get same user experience as using a smartphone but on a 7in screen tablet.At 190 x 124 x 10.5mm in size, the MediaPad is a lot more comfortable to hold than a 10in Tablet and it will also easily fit inside most bags as I realized with my small gadgets bag.
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| While cropping this image i realized the difference in appearance depending on lighting |
The device is also very light and is about half the weight of most 10in Tablets.While comparing it with other tablets,I realized that there are no physical access buttons on the front and only power and volume adjustment keys on the right are available. At the bottom,I found the micro USB port for syncing,a charging jack and a mini HDMI out but it doesn't come with a HDMI cable.Having used and tested Honeycomb Tablets that HDMI cables are used as a proprietary data port, a standard micro USB port on the MediaPad is a sigh of relief.
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| One of the still images in MediaPad |
I know that the Honeycomb supports the USB On-the-go protocol which allows users to connect external peripherals like a mouse or keyboard directly to the Tablet.On the MediaPad one can hook to any peripheral that uses a mini USB connector. MediaPad is no dwarf when it comes to firepower. Its 1.2GHz dual-core processor and 1GB RAM makes it at least as powerful as 10in Tablets using the Tegra 2 chip.I watched 720p movies like Lord of the Rings as picture below shows and the device handled 1080p videos as well.
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| Watching Lord of The Rings in dark room darkened the tab but made the images clear |
My friend Kelvin revealed to me that he played Asphalt 6 on it without any hiccups.The MediaPad utilizes the same In-Plane Switching panel technology as the iPad which gives the screen better viewing angles and brightness. The capacitive touchscreen was well responsive. The MediaPad has two cameras both the front-facing.One is 1.3-megapixel meant for video calls while the other is the rear 5-megapixel which is for shooting pictures.The camera uses the standard Honeycomb interface and the rear camera can also shoot 720p videos but I did not have ample time to do so.
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| The tab behaves differently in a dim light room |
Kelvin also showed me the images he has been taking with the tab and the images quality are nothing to shout about.To make it even worse,there is no LED flash to help brighten up.Another interesting observation is that MediaPad has no UI customizations and Instead,there is a plain vanilla OS with a few standard apps thrown in like Facebook, Twitter, Gameloft's Let's Golf 2 and Documents to Go.My review unit allowed for 3G connectivity and had no problems connecting it to a mobile broadband network.In terms of battery life, the MediaPad can last up to six hours of continuous use and recharged once in my 16 hours heavy usage. I did notice the device can get pretty hot especially on the back after prolong usage.
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| The back of MediaPad looks slick |
In conclusion, MediaPad's main selling point is portability and the firepower to rival its bigger 10in siblings like Motorola Xoom.The fact that it runs on Honeycomb also makes it an interesting option compared to the 7in Tablets running the older operating systems. Unfortunately, MediaPad generates a lot of heat that makes it less comfortable to use for long periods as was the case with me overnight.Verdict:I cannot buy it because it is using an outdated OS and portability does not matter to me like user experience.
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