Huawei MatePad Pro Max Review: Big Screen, Small Gains

Verdict: A gorgeous niche flagship, not a default pick

The Huawei MatePad Pro Max is a flagship 13.2-inch OLED tablet that pairs a high-refresh matte display, a Kirin T93 Pro processor, and premium accessories to target creative users and productivity fans willing to pay top-tier prices. It is, at heart, a luxury sketchbook and media slate that trades raw power and Google integration for a refined hardware experience and Huawei’s own HarmonyOS ecosystem. In this Huawei MatePad Pro Max review, the key question is whether its incremental performance gains and upgraded screen can justify a higher price than its predecessor and stand up in a flagship tablet comparison.

From the first hour, the verdict is clear: this is a lovely 13.2-inch OLED tablet to use, but a tougher one to recommend broadly. The display and six-speaker audio make films, games, and drawing sessions shine, and the Kirin T93 Pro performance feels smooth enough for multitasking and creative apps. Yet the higher price, lack of default Google apps, and only modest gains over the earlier MatePad Pro mean many buyers are better served by an iPad Air or powerful Android rival. For a small group already invested in Huawei’s ecosystem, though, it is one of the most polished tablets they can buy.

Design and display: a 13.2-inch OLED showcase

If the MatePad Pro Max sells you on anything, it is the screen. Huawei uses a 13.2-inch OLED panel with a 3,000 x 2,000 resolution, a 3:2 aspect ratio, a 144Hz refresh rate, and a quoted peak brightness of 1,600 nits. The PaperMatte anti-glare layer on some variants adds a subtle tooth that makes stylus work feel more like real paper and cuts reflections without killing contrast. Colour accuracy is excellent in the Natural profile: measurements show 98% sRGB coverage, 100.1% volume, and an average Delta E of 0.78, which is good enough for serious digital art and design work.

Brightness results back up Huawei’s claims. In testing, the display reached 567cd/m² with manual brightness, 934cd/m² in adaptive mode under strong light, and an impressive 1,556cd/m² in HDR content. Paired with six stereo speakers that deliver powerful, clear audio, it is an outstanding canvas for watching movies and playing games. Physically, the tablet is strikingly thin at 4.7mm, with a 289 x 196mm footprint and tiny 3.55mm bezels on all sides, making it the slimmest 13-inch-plus tablet around. The aluminium unibody, polished edges, and matte back in Space Grey or soft blue help it feel every bit like a flagship device.

Performance, battery and specs: Kirin T93 Pro in context

Under the hood, the MatePad Pro Max uses the Kirin T93 Pro chipset clocked up to 2.75GHz, paired with 12GB of RAM across all storage options. One report notes that it is a 9-core chip and a cellular-less variant of the Kirin 9030 Pro used in Huawei’s flagship phones. In synthetic tests, the tablet improves on its predecessor by around 4% in single-core and 27% in multi-core Geekbench 6 scores, and its GPU scores are also higher. Day to day, this translates into smooth multitasking, responsive navigation, and solid performance in productivity apps and games such as Asphalt Legends, where frame rates stay consistent even during busy scenes.

The bigger issue is where it sits against rivals. In Vulkan GPU tests, both the Honor Magic Pad 4 and Xiaomi Pad 8 deliver more than double its score, while the M3 iPad Air is far ahead again. As one summary notes, “the MatePad Pro Max is an improvement over its predecessor, but still quite a bit behind the Android competition”. Battery capacity is listed as 9,760mAh with 66W wired charging in one set of specs, while another notes a 10,400mAh cell with 66W fast charging and 40W wired reverse charging. Either way, charging has dropped from 100W on the previous model to 66W now, which feels at odds with the ‘Max’ branding.

Camera hardware is generous for a tablet: a 50MP rear camera with autofocus, LED flash, and a 12MP front camera handle photos, calls, and face unlock. Connectivity is equally modern, with Wi‑Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0, USB 3.1 Type‑C, and NearLink support, plus six speakers and four microphones for calls and content. Storage configurations include 256GB at £899 and 512GB at £1,099 in some markets, while another market gets a single 12GB/512GB version priced from RM5,999.

Software, ecosystem and value: where the trade‑offs bite

HarmonyOS 4.3 comes preinstalled, along with WPS Office, Huawei Notes, and Huawei GoPaint to cover note-taking, office work, and drawing. Within this closed environment, the experience is polished. The Glide Keyboard is “responsive and user-friendly” and features a decent-sized trackpad plus a full function row, while the M-Pencil Pro stylus is comfortable and highly responsive for sketching and handwriting. For users who live entirely inside Huawei’s services, the system feels coherent: one reviewer notes that if you only need Huawei’s ecosystem and not Google’s, HarmonyOS is “nicely refined”.

The problem is that most people do rely on Google apps. By default, there is no Google Play Store and no official Google apps, and adding them requires sideloading workarounds that many buyers will not want to attempt. That instantly makes the MatePad Pro Max a harder sell than Android tablets that ship with full Google support. On top of that, its Kirin T93 Pro performance, while fine for daily use and multitasking, lags well behind similarly priced Android tablets and Apple’s M3 iPad Air. When you factor in prices that start at £899 for 256GB and reach £1,099 for 512GB, or RM5,999 in another region, this becomes a premium niche choice rather than the obvious flagship buy.

Buy if / Skip if

• Buy the Huawei MatePad Pro Max if you are a digital artist or designer who values an accurate, matte 13.2-inch OLED canvas above all else.
• Skip the Huawei MatePad Pro Max if you rely on Google apps and services and do not want to sideload or use workarounds.
• Buy the Huawei MatePad Pro Max if you are already invested in Huawei phones, apps, and cloud services and want a matching flagship tablet.
• Skip the Huawei MatePad Pro Max if you want the best performance per pound and plan to run heavy games or pro apps frequently.
• Buy the Huawei MatePad Pro Max if you plan to use the Glide Keyboard and M-Pencil Pro daily for note-taking, writing, and creative work.
• Skip the Huawei MatePad Pro Max if you own the previous MatePad Pro and are hoping for a big upgrade in power or charging speed.
• Buy the Huawei MatePad Pro Max if you prefer a slim, premium-feeling tablet with strong speakers for film and TV bingeing.
• Skip the Huawei MatePad Pro Max if you want a simple, mainstream tablet recommendation and are open to alternatives like the iPad Air or high-end Android rivals.