Review Huawei Mediapad M3 Lite 10

[cobito]

A few days ago I asked for advice on buying a tablet for general use.

Over these days I have been reading reviews of quite a few models and I have noticed something: Spanish reviews (not all, but generally) tend to highlight the positive aspects and minimize the negative ones. Since the positive aspects are already in the manufacturer's description, I usually go to the pages of different stores to look for comments that talk badly about the product because that's where I get an idea of what I'm really buying. So here I will highlight the negative aspects without forgetting the positive ones because I believe it is the best way to get a realistic idea of the product.

I have been using it for a short time and I am far from being an expert in this type of devices so this review can be considered a preliminary experience. The use I am going to give to the tablet is to browse news sites, check email, search on maps and perhaps some sporadic game. I am not going to give it a use outside the normal or need performance above average. That's why I opted for the Huawei Mediapad M3 Lite 10: it has a normal processor, with a normal screen and a normal physical appearance. In the specifications stand out its cameras, its 3 Gb of Ram and its 32 Gb of flash.

Hardware

The main components are these:
· Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 processor (4xA53@1.4 GHz + 4xA53@1.1 GHz)
· 3 GB DDR3 RAM
· 32 Gb of Flash
· 1920x1200 IPS screen and 10.1"
· Rear and front cameras of 8Mpx.
· 6600mAh battery
· Wifi, Bluetooth, GPS, accelerometer, etc.

Screen

For me it is one of the most important elements. In fact I was debating whether to spend 100€ more (30% surcharge) just to have 33% more pixels on each axis (QHD vs FHD). The first time I turned it on I didn't like it at all. In fact I was about to return it and spend the 330€ of the Lenovo Yoga Tab3 Plus, a tablet with the same hardware except for a QHD screen. The reason: a pixel density clearly insufficient at short distances.

I updated the firmware, installed the apps I usually use and started using it. After a few minutes and at a distance of a palm and a half I realized that its 1920x1200 on the 10.1" screen were sufficient. Not too many but enough. So I decided to keep it.

The screen in general has a good color reproduction and contrast typical of any IPS panel in the range. Nothing out of the ordinary in this aspect. Like so many other devices it has the automatic brightness adjustment that uses the front camera as a sensor. From here I would like to highlight that it is not difficult to obstruct the camera with a finger when held vertically, with the consequent untimely reduction of brightness.

Sound

The tablet is promoted with Harman/Kardon speakers that are supposedly better than the average. It has four speakers which is good from the perspective that it is complicated to cover them all accidentally. The volume is good and in the mid-frequency range they sound good. But outside that range they are not anything special. I didn't expect anything special in this section and that's what I found, although we cannot forget that it is a tablet and physically it is not easy to stand out in sound.

Performance

In general the system moves fluidly although sometimes it gets stuck in simple operations like consulting the system settings (especially when opening an app for the first time). Sygic has a performance sometimes deficient (when moving manually on the map) and sometimes it takes longer than expected to respond in things like going back on a web page. In this aspect I expected a better response time although we cannot forget that it is a tablet of less than 250€.

I have tried several relatively demanding games and they move completely fluidly. Youtube videos and HD movies play without problems, but that is no novelty since it is something that could do even on my old tablet bought 5 years ago for 70€.

I wanted to pass Antutu but it asks for permissions to access the location, the camera and the phone, for which I find no technical justification and therefore I did not want to. In the following image stolen from the Internet (I do not know the original credits) you can see a performance comparison:

Here we see that it is the fastest in the list in the Geekbench and the second in Antutu so in this price range it seems that we are not going to find a device much faster than this.

It shows a performance similar to the Samsung Galaxy Tab A and somewhat more than the Lenovo Yoga Tab 3 Plus which is in a higher range.

Other aspects

This tablet comes with fingerprint detector. For now I do not use it although it could become practical in the near future.

The finishes are not bad with the metallic back. The buttons are well located and the headphone jack is in a good place both if you take it vertically or horizontally.

In absolute terms, the cameras are not great with low light (artificial lighting typical of any videoconference) although decent results are achieved with good light. In relative terms, compared to other similar tablets, they seem to be better than the average.

I have not yet done a full cycle with the battery but with several hours of use per day including videoconference, web browsing, several 3D games, Youtube video, etc. and having started it on Wednesday, it has 35% battery left which I must admit is more than I expected from its 6600mAh battery.

In terms of external connections it has a slot for micro SD card, microUSB connector and headphone jack. It does not have HDMI output which is something I did not plan to use but I am sure that more than one will miss it.

To finish, of the 32Gb, 8 are occupied by the system so in the end there are just over 20Gb available for the user.

Verdict

In general I like the gadget. It does its function and does it well. Sometimes it gets stuck, the audio is not special, you see noise in the camera image with bad light and the screen pixel density is only sufficient. But for 236€ it must be said that you are not going to find anything substantially better; if anything similar.

[Fassou]

Good review :thumbsup_tone1:

[kynes]

One detail, in the graphic I think you are confusing the normal model with the lite one, which is yours.

[Sylver]

Thanks for showing us the flagship device, it looks nice :thumbsup_tone2:
By the way, what version of Android have you put on it and how far does it go by manufacturer, if it has support?

Best regards!

[cobito]

@kynes said in Review Huawei Mediapad M3 Lite 10:

A detail, in the graphic I think you are confusing the normal model with the lite, which is yours.

Right, it's already been corrected. I confused the Lenovo Yoga 3 Plus range; it's clear that in terms of performance and price it's not in the same league as mine.

@sylver said in Review Huawei Mediapad M3 Lite 10:

By the way, what version of Android have you put on it and how much more or less does it go by manufacturer, if it has support?

Best regards!

For now I leave it with the Android that comes with it. It comes with EMUI 5.1 (Huawei's system based on Android 7). I like its minimalist look and it's not at all loaded. I think this model came out around last summer so I hope it still has quite a bit of official support left. The last update is from the end of November 2017. I attach a screenshot of the information that the system shows:

If you want me to do any test (of any app that doesn't abuse permissions), don't hesitate to ask.