Today I got a Huawei MatePad SE tablet for review – not a bad, affordable device for work, study, entertainment or as a tablet for a child. As you can guess from the model name, MatePad SE is a simplified version of the flagship line of Huawei MatePad. Actually, a sample arrived to me for review, the exact model AGS5-L09. This is the version of the tablet with LTE, and it has a more capacious battery (7250 instead of 5100 mAh). There’s also a MatePad SE model AGS5-W09 – no LTE, just Wi-Fi. Otherwise, the specs are plus or minus the same. Another feature of the MatePad SE is its own operating system HarmonyOS 3 and the absence of Google services. Looking ahead, I can say that in general the tablet is excellent, although there are some frankly weak points, but I will tell you about them in detail in the review.
Well, let’s get started. But first, by tradition, let’s look at the detailed technical specifications.
Technical specifications
- Model: AGS5-L09
- Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 680, 8 cores (4×Cortex-A73 2.4GHz + 4×Cortex-A53 1.9GHz), max clock speed 2.4GHz, 6 nanometres
- Graphics chip: Adreno 610
- RAM: 4GB, LPDDR4X type, clocked at 2133MHz
- Storage: 64GB, UFS 2.x type
- Display: IPS-LCD, 10.4″, FHD+ screen resolution 2000×1200, pixel density 225 PPI, refresh rate 60 Hz, screen-to-body ratio 83.6%
- Main camera: 5MP, f/2.2 aperture, 1/4.96″ sensor, autofocus, photo resolution 2592×1944 pixels, video recording resolution 1920×1080 pixels at 30fps
- Front camera: 2MP, aperture f/2.2, photo resolution 1600×1200 pixels, video recording resolution 1280×720 pixels at 30 frames per second
- Battery: 7250 mAh non-removable battery
- Operating system: HarmonyOS 3
- Communication standards: 2G, 3G, 4G
- Wireless technology: Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5
- Geolocation: GPS, AGPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, GALILEO
- SIM card slot: 1 NanoSim slot
- Memory card support: Yes, MicroSD up to 512GB
- Support for keyboard cover, stylus: no
- Dimensions: 246.94×156.70×7.85 mm
- Weight: 440 g
Positioning and price
At the time of writing the review, the price of the MatePad SE tablet is about $230. Taking into account the technical characteristics and price of the device, we can confidently attribute it to the middle class of devices and the middle price segment, respectively. There are devices with plus or minus similar characteristics, which cost 2 times cheaper. But there are practically no famous, established brands among them. Therefore, we can still say that MatePad SE is one of the most affordable “branded” tablets on the market at the moment.
Complete set
I’ve already mentioned that a test sample of MatePad SE came to me for review, i.e. only one tablet, without anything. That’s why I can’t show the package in detail. But if you look at the MatePad SE on Huawei’s official website, it becomes clear at once what they put in the box.
- tablet
- 5V/2A charger
- USB Type-C cable
- user manual
- warranty card
- ejector (paper clip) for sim cards
What can I say, it’s a fairly standard basic package. And yes, there are no simple headphones, but it is not critical. Everyone has long since got used to it, no one will use them later anyway.
Design, ergonomics, assembly
The design of MatePad SE is usual, I would even say typical for modern tablets. Rounded corners, smooth matte finish, no fringes or drips on the display. Simple and tasteful, as they say. The colour is also standard, ordinary – graphite black. By the way, this is the only available colour. Let’s take a closer look at the tablet from all sides.
The entire front panel is occupied by a 10.4-inch display. There are bezels, but they are small – 9 mm on the sides and top-bottom, 10 mm if you count with the body. In addition to the main display, the front panel has a front camera built into the display frame.
On the back panel we see the signature Huawei logo and a single camera in the top corner. On one of the sides, where the antenna passes, we see a plastic insert. You can ignore the barcodes and “NOT FOR SALE” inscription, it’s only on the test sample, the new tablet from the shop won’t have them.
On the top edge of the tablet there are volume and power on/off buttons. The buttons are maximally shifted to the left side to make it easier to reach them with the fingers of the left hand.
There’s nothing at all on the bottom edge of the MatePad SE.
On the left edge there is a 3.5mm headset jack and speaker holes. The headset jack is moved to the upper corner, which I think is a good decision in terms of ergonomics, it is more convenient.
On the right edge we can see the SIM card and MicroSD card slot, USB Type-C connector and the same speaker holes as on the left edge. By the way, the location of the speakers on both sides provides good stereo.
The tablet itself is quite thin (the thickness is just under 8 mm) and light (it weighs 440 g). It lies comfortably in your hands, it doesn’t slip away. The fingers of the left hand reach the volume control and the power button without any problems. In general, the design and ergonomics of the MatePad SE are good.
The build quality of the MatePad SE is also on par. The main material here is metal and a small plastic insert. The construction is assembled firmly, there are no backlashes or creaks. In general, the material is pleasant to the touch. Fingerprints remain on the case, but they can be easily wiped off.
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Huawei MatePad SE Screen
The MatePad SE has a 10.4-inch IPS-LCD display with FHD+ (2000×1200 pixels) screen resolution. The pixel density is 225 PPI, and the screen refresh rate is standard for mid-range models – 60 Hz. The screen-to-body ratio is 83.6 per cent.
The default colour temperature is more of a warm colour, although this can be adjusted and can easily be customised.
Another interesting thing I noticed was “E-book mode” – makes the screen black and white, similar to an e-book. Very useful feature for those who like to read from a tablet.
Most of the time while I had a tablet, my spouse and I watched TV shows on it. Sometimes my wife would read books, and sometimes I would put YouTube videos on the tablet just as a background. So I can say with confidence that the colour reproduction of the MatePad SE is good. As well as contrast. In principle, any video on the tablet’s screen looks decent. Verdict: MatePad SE is perfect for movies and serials.
The tablet’s viewing angles are also good: at any angle, the picture looks just as it should, without darkening or colour distortion.
I’ve already talked about e-books. I should also mention that despite the seemingly small screen resolution, the text on the MatePad SE also looks pretty good. It doesn’t look soapy and is pleasant to read. Still, the size of the screen for text content makes the difference.
To summarise, the display on the MatePad SE is pretty good. Despite its relatively low resolution and refresh rate, the content looks good on it. It’s nice and comfortable to watch films, read books or news, work with spreadsheets or text on the MatePad SE.
As for the response, the MatePad SE is also fine. The tablet’s display responds clearly and without delay to swipes and gestures. Scrolling pages is more or less smooth. Yes, this is not 144 Hz, and those who are used to such displays may be a little unusual and uncomfortable. But let me remind you that the MatePad SE is a device in the middle price segment, so you should not expect a high hertz and super-fast screen.
Performance
For the middle segment, the MatePad SE has a normal filling, in principle it is enough. 8-core processor, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. Let’s take a closer look at everything. First of all, detailed specifications of the device, taken by AIDA64 and AnTuTu:
Процессор и графический чип
В MatePad SE в качестве процессора установлен 8 ядерный 6-нанометровый Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 (4×Cortex-A73 2,4 ГГц + 4×Cortex-A53 1,9 ГГц). Snapdragon 680 ─ далеко не флагман среди чипов Qualcomm, но в целом можно сказать, что для данного планшета это неплохо. За графику в MatePad SE отвечает Adreno 610.
RAM
The MatePad SE is equipped with 4 GB of LPDDR4X type RAM with a clock speed of 2133 MHz. Today, of course, this amount is a bit small, but for normal operation of HarmonyOS and work in general, the tablet is enough.
Storage
The MatePad SE has a 64GB UFS 2.x drive. By the way, there’s also a larger 128GB model available. Some people will say that 64 GB is not enough at the moment, but for me 64 and 128 GB are fine. I just don’t know what to fill the memory of the tablet with. You probably won’t take a lot of photos and videos on MatePad SE, because the camera doesn’t contribute to it in any way (we’ll talk about it later). Perhaps, games and Telegram cache, if you are subscribed to a lot of publics and channels. Well, I agree with the games, then 64 GB can be considered small, although if you don’t put everything in a row, it should be enough. And Telegram cache is enough just to clean sometimes and there will be no problems with lack of space on the device. Speaking about the speed of the drive, everything feels good. But here is a benchmark test for clarity.
Performance tests and benchmarks
The tablet’s performance is not bad, according to my sensations. It’s not super smooth and fast, but it’s for more expensive devices. I would say: just normal. The operating system and applications work more or less sharp. No strong lags and freezes were noticed during the whole time of use. Tabs in the browser open and scroll without any problems. In short, according to my personal feelings, everything is good. But personal feelings are not an indicator, so let’s run some synthetics. Let’s take a standard set of benchmarks: Geekbench 6, PCMark for Android, 3DMark, AnTuTu Benchmark.
As you can see, for simple everyday tasks, the performance of the MatePad SE should be enough. For simple toys, in theory, too. But for resource-intensive games like Genshin Impact or PUBG, the performance will most likely be insufficient. Or you’ll have to reduce graphics to a minimum and be satisfied with low FPS.
Performance in games
For the sake of interest, let’s test a few games. For the test I chose: Angry Birds Journey, Need For Speed No Limits and Genshin Impact. The logic of the choice is approximately the following: a simple game, something medium and a modern resource-intensive one.
Angry Birds Journey
The famous series of games about the confrontation between birds and pigs, was released in 2022, but in the visual plan and mechanics has not changed much since the first part. The requirements for the device remained quite democratic.
The game works just fine, without brakes, lags and freezes. In principle, I expected a similar level of performance in this game specifically.
Need For Speed No Limits
Mobile version of the famous Need For Speed. The game is not new, but its graphics are more technological than in Angry Birds, respectively, and the requirements for devices are higher.
The tablet’s hardware is outstanding. Yes, on low graphics, in some places there are barely noticeable drops in frames, but it’s quite comfortable to play. Honestly, I’m a little surprised that the tablet pulled it out without any problems.
Genshin Impact
Popular RPG with an open world. The requirements will be more serious, so let’s take it for a test.
At minimum settings, the game produces 25-30 frames per second, but there are some freezes when turning the camera. As expected, our hardware is not enough for a comfortable game in Genshin. In principle, you can run a little bit, but the freezes will spoil all the impressions from the game.
As we can see, MatePad SE also copes with games more or less. Maybe not perfectly with all of them, but you should not expect ideal high performance from such a tablet in principle, it is, again, to the more expensive devices. In any case, the child will have something to play on the MatePad SE, and not only the child.
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Huawei MatePad SE Camera
The cameras in the MatePad SE are in trouble… Remember, at the very beginning of the review I said that there are weak points? Well, the cameras are probably the weakest point of this tablet. In principle, it is understandable. Logically, the camera is not the most important thing in large tablets, and if it is necessary to cheapen the device, it is this module that will go under the knife first of all. Hence we have a frankly weak main camera and even more so the front camera. Let’s take a closer look at them.
Main camera and examples
The main camera is 5MP, which takes photos at 2592×1944 pixels and records video at 1920×1080 pixels at 30 frames per second. In natural daylight, the photos still turn out more or less adequate. Here are some examples:
There is also a mode of panoramic photo, I do not know why, but it is there, and in principle adequately works.
But the quality of evening photos already drops noticeably. It is difficult for the tablet to focus, even if you fix it still. To prove it, here are some evening photos for example:
The quality of the recorded video is not so good either. Here are some examples of daytime and evening footage for illustration:
Front camera and examples
The 2MP front camera shoots photos at 1600×1200 pixels and records video at 1280×720 pixels at 30 frames per second. I think it’s unnecessary to explain anything here, I’d rather show the test photos and videos for example:
Camera app
Expectedly, the camera app is as simple as possible. From the modes there are: photo, video, portrait, barcode scanner, panorama, slow motion. From interesting settings, in my opinion, only: aspect ratio (4:3, 1:1, 16:9) and video resolution (720p, which for some reason is set by default, and 1080p). You can see the rest of the settings on the screenshot.
Sound
The sound quality of the MatePad SE is not bad. You can feel the stereo sound. The sound itself is not squeaky or flat. The standard volume level of the speakers is more than enough. MatePad SE supports Huawei Histen 8.0 ─ audio effects with support for three-dimensional sound, which provide surround sound and create an immersive effect. Huawei Histen audio effects are only available when a headset is connected.
Communication
The MatePad SE AGS5-L09 has support for NanoSim SIM cards. However, only one SIM card can be inserted. The tray can accommodate 1 SIM card and 1 MicroSD card.
Otherwise, the communication standards are completely identical to those supported by modern smartphones: 2G, 3G, 4G. 5G support is expectedly absent, as well as e-sim support. Full list of supported communication standards MatePad SE AGS5-L09:
- FDD-LTE: B1/B3/B5/B7/B8/B18/B19/B20/B26/B28
- TD-LTE: B38/B40/B41
- WCDMA: B1/B2/B5/B6/B8/B19
- GSM: B2/B3/B5/B8
During the tests I inserted a sim-card from Kyivstar to check the operation – I didn’t find any problems with connection or mobile internet during the whole time of using the tablet. The speed of mobile internet is as it should be, I didn’t notice any random disconnections. The connection is also in good order, everything works the same as on any other smartphone. Sound quality during a phone call is good, but it is better to use a headset due to the size of the device, it will simply be more convenient.
Wireless technologies
Everything here is quite standard and expected for such a model. For wireless connections there are: Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5. Geolocation supports: GPS, AGPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, GALILEO. NFC support is expectedly absent, strange if it was here, yes.
But there is something interesting, the “Super Device” mode ─ a function that provides interaction between different Huawei devices and allows you to control them with the tablet. With this feature, you can also easily share files between devices. This is a very useful feature if you use Huawei devices, you have your own ecosystem.
I could not test the “Super Device” mode personally, because there is nothing else from Huawei at home. But no problems with other connections were noticed during the whole time of using the tablet.
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HarmonyOS and the alternative to Google services
I’ve already mentioned that the MatePad SE does not support Google services. The tablet runs on its proprietary operating system HarmonyOS, the current version at the time of writing the review is 3.0.0.151. According to my impressions, it’s not a bad operating system, fast, convenient, bug-free (at least, I didn’t notice any bugs). Settings are well structured and there were no problems with finding the necessary ones during testing. There are slight similarities with MIUI and XOS: left and right curtains, gesture support, creating and customising home screens, themes. In a nutshell, HarmonyOS worked for me. Let me show you what it looks like and what’s interesting in the settings:
What about Google services, you ask? Nothing, Huawei has its own application market – AppGallery. I have clicked it and I can say that it has all the basic and necessary applications for a simple user. Popular messengers, social networks, banking, multimedia, taxi, a bunch of games. Most of the apps are downloaded directly from AppGallery, but to download some you will be taken to ApkPure or another alternative market.
If you don’t know, ApkPure ─ is another alternative app market, only the number of apps in it is many times more than in AppGallery. For convenience, you can download and install ApkPure from the official website. Everything that you didn’t find in AppGallery, you will definitely find there. For example, I didn’t find some benchmarks I needed for performance tests in AppGallery. But I downloaded them quickly and without any problems from ApkPure.
By the way, you can even download applications from ApkPure that are not available in our country, such as the popular Pokemon GO game. The game was installed and launched without any problems.
AppGallery + ApkPure is not the only way to download and install apps on your tablet. I’m sure there are many more options. I found this method to be the most convenient, and that’s why I’m going to use it in the future.
Of course, the lack of support for Google services has certain nuances and inconveniences that I personally encountered. For example, the popular game Asphalt 9: Legends downloaded and installed with ApkPure without any problems, but flatly refused to launch, arguing that it needed Google services, which our tablet does not support. Or another example is the regular YouTube and YouTube Music apps. AppGallery seems to have them, but they are not full-fledged applications – when you try to install them, it just creates an icon on the home screen, which will take you to the mobile versions of YouTube and YouTube Music in the browser. In principle, you can use it this way too, but it all looks a bit cramped. ApkPure also has different versions of YouTube, and I tried installing a few. One version turned out to be a TV app, the second one, like Asphalt 9: Legends, refused to launch without Google services.
In theory, this problem can be solved by using software like GBox – a virtual environment that allows you to download and install applications from Google. According to the developers themselves, GBox is designed to provide normal operation and support for Google services on unsupported devices like our MatePad SE. We install GBox, and from it we download and install the necessary Google applications, like YouTube or Google Chrome. I checked, and in my case it didn’t turn out to be that simple. The game Asphalt 9: Legends also won’t launch, YouTube doesn’t work normally either. YouTube Music didn’t want to work properly at first, although then the problems with it went away on their own. But with Google Chrome browser, no problems, it started working from the first time and without bugs.
Purely personal opinion about the lack of Google-services – on the one hand it seems to be nothing terrible, but it may be inconvenient for someone.
Battery life
The tablet has a 7250 mAh battery installed. Apparently, this volume is installed only in my test sample, because on the official Huawei website and in shops the figure is less – 5100 mAh. The battery is charged with the usual 5V/2A charging. Support for fast charging, unfortunately, there is no.
In principle, the autonomy of the MatePad SE is good. On a full battery charge you can watch a couple of movies or 3-4 episodes of your favourite TV series in an evening and still have some percentage of charge left. But we’re more interested in more accurate battery life results, so let’s run the Work 3.0 Battery Life test in PCMark for Android.
Conclusions
Huawei MatePad SE is a good tablet that can be used for various everyday tasks: from work to family multimedia entertainment. MatePad SE can be a great tablet for a child, especially since it can play games, but you’ll have to help with setup and installation. Not bad performance, not bad display and quality assembly add pluses to the personal rating of the device. Frankly weak side I consider the camera. And the lack of Google services… It turned out that you can live without them.