(ThyBlackMan.com) All the features of Huawei’s MediaPad M5 Lite make it a prime Android tablet for media consumption. Its overall design and hardware power make it suitable for everyone except power users in some cases. Unlike the other Android tablets under $300 price range, the Huawei MediaPad M5 Lite sports 10.1-inch 1080p IPS display, M-Pen stylus, and a quad-speaker system tuned by Harman Kardon.
Design and display
The tablet measures 243.4 mm by 162.2 mm by 7.7 mm and weighs 475 grams. The good thing is the weight is well balanced on all the sides which you can feel when you hold it in hands. It helps at times when you’re watching a movie or playing a game holding the tablet for several hours. Its 10.1-inch IPS display offers 1920 x 1200 pixels resolution which is really good for eyes compared to low-res display panels. It’s really something you should pay attention to, especially if you let your kids use the tablet.
The tablet’s display is bright and even looks better than many other Android tablets under $300. Its brightness can go up to 427 nits which means it is above the average of what’s found in many other Android tablets in the same range. The display is surrounded by wide bezels and it is a smart choice by Huawei. Wide bezels give enough space to users to hold the tablet properly while avoiding accidental touch on the display.
Thin aluminum alloy body sporting a 10.1-inch screen gives premium look to the MediaPad M5 Lite. There’s an 8MP front-facing camera sitting at the top (center) and you’ll see a Huawei logo at the left top corner. At the bottom, there’s a home button that also works as a fingerprint sensor. When tested, the sensor works really well and it can be used to save time when you want to unlock the device. On the tablet’s back sits an 8MP camera at the top right corner and a logo of Huawei at the center. On the left side, you will see the volume and power buttons which are positioned really well to avoid accidental clicks.
One more interesting thing about the Huawei MediaPad 5 Lite is that it has four speakers on its edges. These speakers deliver crystal clear sound even at full volume. The position of speakers makes it easy for users to watch movies while placing it on the bed as the speaker vents remain unblocked. This also makes the user feel that the sound is coming from the back of the device.
If you’re in the market looking for the best Android tablet under $300, you will most likely find stylus as an add-on accessory which is sold separately. Surprisingly, the Huawei MediaPad M5 Lite comes with an AAAA battery-powered aluminum stylus. The package also contains a replacement nib in case the original one gets damaged or you lose it. At this price range, when all the leading brands including Apple charge around $100 for a stylus, you get a stylus as a part of the deal with Huawei. However, the Android tablet MediaPad M5 Lite doesn’t have a dedicated storage option for the stylus.
Performance and battery life
Above all, performance is the most important quality of a tablet from a prospective buyer’s point of view. The Huawei MediaPad M5 Lite is certainly not the best performing Android tablet in 2019, but it is fairly powerful enough to do the basic things. It runs on Android Oreo with Huawei’s custom EMUI 8.0 and comes equipped with Kirin 659 processor. The tablet has a storage capacity of 32GB which you can extend with a MicroSD card and it also has 3GB of RAM.
This tablet is obviously not a beast and you can’t expect it to run performance-hungry apps or games without lag, but that’s still justifiable as you won’t get anything more than that on any other Android tablet under $300, especially if you consider the overall product and its features. The MediaPad M5 Lite has a 7,500mAh battery, so you don’t have to worry about its performance in this area. It can easily last long and on airplane mode, it can work for days after a full charge.
The overall performance of the Huawei MediaPad M5 Lite is decent. For multimedia, internet, basic office work, and games, it is a perfect Android tablet under $300. Multitasking won’t slow down the tablet as long as you keep it limited to 10-15 apps at once. So, the Huawei MediaPad M5 Lite is a really good deal for its price.
Staff Writer; Corey Shaw
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