I love my iPad Pro M4; The slim design with tandem OLED makes it the preferred choice if I want to read magazines or play games on the couch. There’s a glaring lack of OLED-toting Android tablets, and that’s why I was interested in Huawei’s MatePad Pro that launched last year. Thanks to a matte texture and OLED panel with an innovative nano-coating technology, the MatePad Pro Max stood out for all the right reasons, and I thoroughly enjoyed using it.
Huawei is now showcasing its 2026 efforts with the introduction of the MatePad Pro Max. As the name suggests, this is Huawei’s largest tablet to date, and it packs quite a few upgrades: coming in at just 4.7mm and 499g, it’s the thinnest and lightest 13-inch tablet ever. I didn’t think we’d see a tablet thinner than the 4.9mm iPad Pro, but Huawei managed to do it, and that’s a feat in itself.
The sleek design is immediately apparent when holding the MatePad Pro Max; While the camera island protrudes a bit, the rest of the tablet is incredibly thin, and it didn’t really feel like I was using a 13-inch tablet with a 10,400mAh battery. On that note, Huawei is using a silicon battery this time, and it’s enough to stream over 14 hours of video on a single charge – more than enough for an entire season of a TV show.
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The variant I’m using comes in at 509 grams, and the blue option has a matte texture that feels nice to hold while standing out visually against the gold-accented models in the previous generation. The tablet has a metal unibody design, and Huawei says it has optimized the internal architecture and gone with a centralized mainboard, providing better thermal management.
There’s always a question of durability when talking about ultra-thin tablets, and Huawei says it has added an internal “load-bearing beam structure” in the high-stress area and reinforced the camera, mainboard and battery with steel to ensure these parts don’t deform from local stress. I’ve only been using the tablet for a day now, so I can’t really speak about how it holds up to the rigors of everyday use, but I’ll share those findings in a dedicated post.
The thing I like most about the MatePad Pro Max is undoubtedly the papermatte panel. Huawei has once again managed to deliver a panel with a matte texture and anti-glare design, and this gives the MatePad Pro Max a distinct edge. Another positive is that the panel itself is brighter and comes with better color vibrancy, and there’s no graininess when watching videos on it, which is a big improvement from the MatePad Pro.
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It’s also good to see that the tablet has even thinner bezels. Talking about bezels, Huawei has shrunk the camera module on the front, and it slots into the 3.5mm bezel without the need for a cutout, and that in itself is pretty awesome.
The 13.2-inch 3K OLED panel is one of the best you’ll find on any tablet, and it’s bright enough that it’s no problem using it outdoors. Color rendition is much better this year, and even with the matte coating, I didn’t notice any issues with visual clarity.
Due to the unique coating, the MatePad Pro Max doubles as an excellent choice if you want to paint or sketch digitally. Huawei sells a bundle with a stylus (which easily integrates into the keyboard accessory), and it’s great for drawing on the matte panel – it’s significantly better than the iPad Pro in this area. The Glide Keyboard accessory is also great, and it’s not as heavy as the Magic Keyboard – but you don’t get the floating hinge design either.
Huawei didn’t talk about the internals other than to reveal that the MatePad Pro Max is 20% faster than its predecessor, and it uses a new thermal management system that’s similar to high-end gaming notebooks. I didn’t get a chance to test the hardware as the tablet was running beta software, but I don’t see any problems in this area – my MatePad Pro is performing well in most daily tasks.
The MatePad Pro Max is launching globally in the coming weeks, and is a great option if you need an OLED tablet with unique extra features. The panel is the clear star of the show, and the big battery coupled with the ultra-thin design allows it to stand out against the iPad Pro and Android rivals. Of course, you still don’t get Google services out of the box, but that’s not as big an issue as it used to be, and you can install the Play Store easily.
