Huawei which is the world’s third largest smartphone manufacturer for the time being always has a trick or up its sleeve which helps it strengthen its share in the market. It had released the world’s lightest and narrowest tablet, the Mediapad X1 at the MWC 2014 back in February. The tablet is the perfect mix of tablet meeting phone as it will fit into some pockets because of the compactness of its size. The tablet is due for a launch in the country soon. Its price hasn’t been announced for India but is expected to be around the Rs 20,000-22,000 mark. Let us have a quick review of the same:
Camera and Internal Storage
The Mediapad X1 comes with a 13MP primary camera with a LED flash and auto focus. It has supports for 1080p recording and it is joined in by a 5MP front camera for video calling and self-portrait shots. The front as well as the rear camera work perfectly together to give you the experience that you’d wish for.
The internal storage of the Mediapad X1 stands at 16GB. Huawei will let you expand the same via a microSD card by 32GB. The user available memory will stand around 12 GB so be sure you keep your music and pictures on the memory card and install your applications on the internal storage of the device.
Processor and Battery
A Hisilicon Kirin 910 chipset with a 1.6 GHz quad core CPU based on Cortex A9 architecture is present under the hood of the Mediapad X1 and a Mali-450 GPU is responsible for taking care of the graphics arena. The processor is a pretty capable unit and coupled with a 2GB RAM, it performs pretty well.
It gets a non-removable 5,000 mAh battery which is just the perfect fit for the tablet as anything less wouldn’t have done justice to the tablet. Exact standby figures haven’t been released but it is expected to last 5-6 hours of moderate multimedia usage.
Display and Features
The Mediapad X1 has a 7 inch screen which has a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels. It translates into a pixel density of 323 ppi. The screen is a bright and vivid unit and there’s no pixelation. The display will surely not disappoint you. Courtesy of its LTPS panel, you can expect some really good viewing angles.
It runs on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean out of the box but we will Huawei will soon upgrade it to Android 4.4 KitKat seeing the fact that it will be against other 7 inch and 8 inch flagship tablets. It is the narrowest tablet in the world along with being the lightest so it is as portable as things can get.
Comparison
It will be up against the likes of the Nexus 7 (2013) and iPad Mini with Retina Display as its chief competitors. Huawei will have a hard time matching up the pricing of Nexus 7 primarily and will surely be able to price it under the iPad Mini with Retina Display.
Key Specs
Model | Huawei MediaPad X1 |
Display | 7 Inch, 1900 x 1080 |
Processor | 1.6 GHz Quad Core |
RAM | 2 GB |
Internal Storage | 16 GB, Expandable |
OS | Android 4.2 |
Cameras | 13 MP/ 5 MP |
Battery | 5000 mAh |
Price | To be Announced |
Conclusion
The Mediapad X1 is a good tablet and is pocketable too. At 239 grams, its easy too carry around and is as portable as things can get for a 7 inch tablet. It has a really good imaging unit and an equally capable processor under the hood. We’d like to wait for a comprehensive test and see if it does better than the competition. Our instincts say it will come out shining.