Huawei brings new tablet, speaker and cool green laptop to Europe
Huawei has refreshed its MateBook X Pro in snazzy green, made a powerful speaker and a 5G tablet with a stylus. And they'll all be on sale in Europe.
- Shortlisted for British Photography Awards 2022, Commended in Landscape Photographer of the Year 2022
Huawei's big news from its streamed press conference Monday is the updated folding Mate XS phone, but it's not the only thing the company would have brought to MWC had it not been canceled.
First up, there's its new small tablet, the MatePad Pro, seen above. With a 10.8-inch display, it's not a small tablet, but it almost feels smaller due to the tiny bezels around the edge. There's a 2K display which looked bright and crisp in my hands on time and it uses Huawei's latest Kirin 990 processor, which should make it pretty potent, as well as providing 5G connectivity, where available.
Much like Apple's iPad Pro , it's available with a keyboard case and a stylus that can magnetically attach to the top edge of the tablet. Like Huawei's phone, it runs Android at its core but it doesn't have access to Google services, including the Play Store, which severely limits its usefulness outside of China. While this was launched at the end of last year in Huawei's home country, it's the first time we've seen it in Europe, where it's due to be launched in the coming weeks.
Next up is the MateBook X Pro , a refreshed version of its skinny Windows 10 laptop launched at last year's MWC . It packs a 13.9-inch high-resolution touchscreen, an accurate glass touchpad and the latest Intel processors. My favorite thing though has to be the really cool-looking emerald green color -- It's much better-looking than the usual gray.
Finally in the new lineup comes the Sound X, a smart speaker made in collaboration with French speaker manufacturer Devialet. Its round shape, use of black mesh and disk on top makes it somewhat reminiscent of Apple's HomePod , but the cut-out side panels (presumably for bass reasons) give it some of its own style. The sound quality seemed decent, with a rich low end that's sure to please fans of electronic music.
It connects via Bluetooth and there's an NFC point on the top for quickly pairing an NFC-enabled phone.
Both the Sound X speaker and MateBook X Pro laptop are due to go on sale in Europe, including the UK, in the coming weeks. They won't be released in the US due to Huawei's ongoing political difficulties. Prices are all TBA.
