Huawei MatePad 11.5 S 2026: Superb Tablet, But THIS Ruins Everything.

Here we have the brand new, £339 Huawei MatePad 11.5 S 2026 edition. We wanted to find out why Huawei still sells their tablets in Europe after the Google ban, whether you can live with the tradeoffs that come with a de-googled tablet and if the thing is any good in the first place. 

To do that, we’ve tested it over the last 3 weeks. We used it as a notepad, for streaming videos and movies and even drawing outdoors with the Huawei M-Pencil Pro. We think it’s one of the best or worst tablets you can buy, and that really depends on what kind of user you are.

Display and Speakers

The biggest highlight is the screen. Do yourself a favour and get the PaperMatte display for this tablet, even if it costs a little bit extra. The matte coating eliminates almost all the annoying reflections of a glossy display, but colours and contrast aren’t any worse despite that. It also gives the stylus a bit more texture to work with, so writing on it feels more natural. 

The actual display panel underneath the PaperMatte coating is outstanding too. It’s an 1800p LCD panel with a smooth 144HZ refresh rate. Of course, any OLED tablet will have better contrast and darker blacks. And that means the Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 will look better for watching Netflix but it’s also much pricier. 

The MatePad’s display gets up to 500 nits of brightness, but it’s much better under sunlight compared to something like a Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE thanks to the matte surface. We could draw with the tablet outdoors during the day without any eye-strain.

The great display is accompanied by four speakers that punch above their weight. They’re loud, bassy and sound much more pleasing than those on the Xiaomi Pad 7. Again, better tablet speakers can be found on the iPad Pro or Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra, but those devices cost more than £1000.

Stylus

Huawei’s M-Pencil Pro comes in a suspiciously Apple-Pencil-Pro like package. Some obvious inspiration has been taken. 

What’s surprising is that this stylus actually matches the Apple Pencil Pro feature for feature. It has tilt detection for shading, accurate pressure sensitivity, and even an integrated gyroscope to rotate your brush tool in supported apps. The pencil attaches to the top right side of the tablet for charging and connects via Huawei’s proprietary NearLink technology. 

There’s a button on the back of the pencil that launches the notes app by default and a squeeze function that opens up a customisable menu with quick access shortcuts. 

We love that the M-Pencil Pro comes with 3 different pen tips which vary in hardness and material. All 3 are great and offer a distinct feel. But regardless of the tip, the Huawei tablet feels much softer to write on compared to an iPad or Galaxy Tab thanks to the textured display.

So the hardware is top-end. But that’s not the end of the story. Huawei’s preinstalled Notes app and GoPaint drawing app are actually very well designed and full of useful features. The Notes app gets all the basics right and feels like a genuine Samsung Notes competitor. The GoPaint app is likewise very polished, and it supports a wide range of resolutions, painting layers and functions like animation. But we can’t speak on how good it is to use professionally. 

In our opinion, the MatePad 11.5 S is one of the most compelling drawing tablets on the market, and matches Apple and Samsung’s features and stylus quality. Naturally, iPads still have an edge if you need specific apps like Procreate for your work. 

Software, Support and Workarounds

Let’s address the elephant in the room: Unlike any Android tablet you can buy here, the Huawei MatePad doesn’t come with any Google services preinstalled. 

Instead of the Google Play store, this tablet comes with Huawei’s app-store. Unfortunately, Google apps and other important services like Whatsapp are missing from it. You’ll need a workaround just to get those running. A great way to do it is to set up MicroG, which is an open-source, privacy focused Google Play Services alternative funded by the German government. It keeps the data you send to Google to a minimum, and in our experience Google Apps downloaded from the Aurora-Store – which you can install from the Huawei App Store – work like intended in combination with MicroG.

Getting Netflix to stream with FHD resolution is also a hassle. The MatePad supports Widevine L1, but you’ll have to find the right Google emulator and mess with settings in order to get streaming quality beyond 480p. 

Even though my entire job is working with technology, it still took me a good 40 minutes to understand how to get every app up and running using MicroG and AuroraStore. So we can only recommend actually getting the tablet if you’re comfortable with experimenting a bit to get essential services set up. That’s our biggest problem with this tablet, and why we can’t recommend it to everyone.

Performance and Specs

The new Matepad uses Huawei’s own Kirin T92C 6 core processor. It’s an upgrade to the MatePad 2025’s Kirin 9000WL. Even though there are only 6 cores, the new MatePad can handle 9 processing threads simultaneously using Huawei’s hyperthreading technology. That helps with the multi-core performance. 

The RAM is now 12GB, and base storage starts at 256GB and goes up to 512GB. That’s more than enough for most people, but there’s no Micro-SD card slot for storage expansion. 

We had some concerns about potential performance issues since Huawei can only access older, technically outdated manufacturing processes in China. But surprisingly, the tablet feels very fast for browsing despite that. 

Let’s take a closer look at the performance using benchmarks. In Geekbench 6, a CPU test, the MatePad11.5S gets nearly the same score as the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro in CPU single-core, and just 12% less in multi-core. That also means it’s just as fast as the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE in this test. The similarly priced Xiaomi Pad 7 is 30% faster in single- and multi-core, though. And the iPad 11 is 80% faster in CPU single-core. 

We ran 3DMark’s Wildlife Extreme test to measure GPU performance, which is important for gaming. The MatePad is 10% faster than the Galaxy Tab S10 FE here, but lags behind the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro by 40%. The iPad 11 is 85% faster in this test as well. Obviously, the Kirin 92C processor isn’t a match for modern flagship processors, but it holds up well against other midrange Android tablets. 

Gaming

Although the new MatePad does OK in performance benchmarks, you might have trouble getting your favourite games to run since the processor has compatibility issues in many titles. For example, Fortnite will launch, but it shows a graphics error and then crashes when you actually try to start a match.

Simpler games like Brawl Stars and Clash Royale will perform just fine, with Clash Royale even providing a 120FPS experience. But that’s not a huge surprise. Likewise, Roblox doesn’t require the most processing power and runs perfectly no matter which map and gamemode we tried.

We didn’t have high hopes for Genshin Impact, but the MatePad actually manages a smooth 60FPS at max graphics settings in this game. And honestly, the quad speakers and beautiful display really make this a superb experience. 

The final title we tested is Delta Force. Unfortunately, you can only select 30 FPS at low settings in this game. The tablet produces a very smooth 30 FPS, and we’re sure it could run the game better if it’s allowed to. Other tablets like the Xiaomi Pad 7 will feel better for this title. 

Overall, the Huawei MatePad isn’t really a gaming tablet, but it still offers acceptable gaming performance for the price. The Xiaomi Pad 7 is a better pick for serious gamers though. It’s cheaper right now, and it has a Snapdragon processor, which means better compatibility and optimisation in demanding games like Fortnite. Serious gamers should also consider the OnePlus Pad 3 instead. 

Battery Life

The MatePad 11.5 S features an average sized 8800 mAh battery which charges at 40 Watts. In our Youtube continuous HD Video battery drain test, it lasts 6 hours and 15 minutes at max brightness for video playback. The iPad 11 gets only 5 hours in this test, and the Galaxy Tab S10 Lite lasts a full 8 hours. The battery life could definitely be better. 

In my experience, the battery life is more than good enough for work and taking notes on a long day. I ended the day with around 30% left after using the tablet on and off for around 10 hours, but you’ll struggle to get 2 full days on a single charge. 

Design and Features

The MatePad 11.5 S’ build is all-aluminium and feels excellent. We measure it at a hefty 532g, but the edges and corners are rounded for a more comfortable grip and it’s not fatiguing to hold at all. You can get this tablet in green or space-gray. If you buy it with the keyboard bundled, the green tablet will come with a white-coloured magnetic keyboard instead.

The back side features the small camera bump with a single sensor and an LED flash. Moving to the left and right sides, you can see the quad speaker cutouts. The power button is on the left top corner and the volume rocker is right across it. On the very bottom are the 3 pogo pin connections for the official Huawei keyboard cover. 

The tablet charges via USB-C from the right side, and we were surprised to find that the port is actually USB 3.0 and even supports display output. So you can connect an external display or a TV to the tablet, which is another rarity for this price. 

The bad news is that there’s no dust- and water resistance rating for the tablet. Samsung’s S10 FE does offer an IP 68 rating, in contrast.

Cameras

The MatePad has an 8MP front camera and a 13MP rear camera, both of which perform well enough. Of course, they won’t rival an average smartphone camera, but most people won’t be using the tablet for serious photos anyways. These cameras are fine for taking the occasional selfie, videocalling and photographing a presentation slide. 

Keyboard Cover

The 2024 MatePad 11.5S’s magnetic keyboard cover costs just £50, and the 2026 edition’s keyboard is identical. Just like the stylus, it connects to the tablet wirelessly using nearlink and has a battery, so you can use the keyboard detached from the tablet. The keyboard charges via the pogo pin connection on the bottom of the tablet. 

The keyboard is fine to type with. The entire body feels high quality with a leather textured finish, it’s light and the keys have a good amount of travel. Of course, there are fancier tablet keyboards out there with full trackpads, like Apple’s magic keyboards or the OnePlus Pad 3’s, but those also cost much more. The MatePad’s keyboard will be fine for writing an email or WhatsApp message. It’s great for £50, but we wouldn’t pay much more for it. 

So is The Huawei MatePad 11.5S a Flop? 

Clearly, the Huawei MatePad 11.5S 2026 isn’t for everyone. Just getting the apps you need is too complicated for most users, and there’s no guarantee that all your apps will work. An iPad 11, Xiaomi Pad 7 or Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE will be more intuitive to use. But we can’t deny that there’s real value on offer here for people who are up for the challenge. 

The build quality, speakers but especially the PaperMatte display and the stylus are a cut above what you usually get for £339. If those features are important to you and you’re willing to tinker, we can cautiously recommend the MatePad 11.5S. 

Make sure to check out our review of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Lite if you’re still looking for a cheap and good stylus tablet and don’t want to deal with the potential compatibility issues that come with the Huawei MatePad. The Tab S10 Lite scored highly in our tests and even comes with a great stylus included.