Small tablets are an endangered species, but Huawei thinks there’s still a market for them. The company has just introduced the MatePad Mini, an 8.8-inch slate that makes Apple’s iPad mini look chunky. At just 5.1mm thin and 255 grams, it’s one of the lightest and slimmest tablets around.
Don’t let the size fool you: the MatePad Mini packs some serious hardware. There’s a 6,400mAh battery that sounds modest, but Huawei claims it can handle over 15 hours of video playback, with 66W fast charging to top it up. The tablet runs HarmonyOS 5.1 on an undisclosed processor (likely from the Kirin 9000 series) paired with 12GB of RAM and up to 512GB of storage.
The display is the star of the show. You’re looking at a 2560 x 1600 OLED panel, with a 120Hz refresh rate, 10-bit color, HDR Vivid certification, and up to 1,800 nits peak brightness. Huawei even offers a Soft Light edition that reduces glare, while stylus support via the M-Pencil Pro makes it a creative tool for note-taking and sketching.
Connectivity is equally ambitious. Alongside Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.2, Huawei is rolling out a proprietary alternative called StarFlash, plus support for BeiDou satellite messaging in China. A USB-C 3.0 port handles charging and data, but there’s no NFC. On the imaging front, the tablet carries a 32MP front camera for video calls, while the rear setup features a 50MP main shooter with autofocus and an ultrawide camera, capable of 4K video recording. Security is covered by a fingerprint sensor built into the power button.
In China, the MatePad Mini starts at the equivalent of around $520, putting it head-to-head with Apple’s iPad mini in both size and pricing.
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