Huawei MatePad Pro 13.2 (2025)

Yet another brilliant piece of hardware design from Huawei, but the lack of apps is too big a drawback

- TIM DANTON

PRICE £833 (£1,000 inc VAT) from consumer.huawei.​com

It's the economy, stupid. So said James Carville during Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, and it didn't take long for “it's the software, stupid” to enter the vernacular. And that truth remains: you can build the best hardware in the world, but if it doesn't run software you want to use then it's nothing more than a fancy web-surfing machine.

At a grand, the Huawei MatePad Pro 13.2 is far too expensive to be a mere web-surfing machine. But it's definitely fancy. The first sign of this is its slim, stylish frame, which feels as well made as any iPad. That's despite packing a 13.2in panel into a 580g frame, which means it's 35g lighter than the 13in iPad Air (see issue 368, p56).

The screen is another highlight. I would go so far as to say it's the best I've seen on a tablet. Most OLED panels are covered in glossy glass to emphasise this technology's excellent reproduction of colours, but Huawei takes a different approach and applies a matte finish. And it's glorious.

Whether inside or out, in dim or bright conditions, you'll love both its colours and its sheer smoothness: once you've experienced 144Hz refresh rates, it's hard to go back.