Huawei MatePad Pro Max ships at 4.7mm and makes the iPad Pro look bulky

UPDATED · News · 9 May 2026 · MTW News Desk

Huawei MatePad Pro Max is the 13.2-inch tablet that ships thinner than an iPad Pro and answers the one question Apple has spent two product cycles dodging: what does the world’s thinnest premium tablet actually weigh in a 4.7mm chassis with a 10,400mAh battery. Huawei launched the MatePad Pro Max globally on 7 May 2026 at its “Now Is Your Spark” event in Bangkok.

Why the Huawei MatePad Pro Max matters in 2026

The Huawei MatePad Pro Max is the first 13-class tablet to ship at 4.7mm, which is 0.4mm thinner than the 5.1mm Apple iPad Pro M5. That number sounds trivial until you pick the tablet up at 499g – lighter than a 13-inch iPad Pro by about 80g – and realise the chassis is housing a 10,400mAh battery, a 50MP rear camera, and a six-speaker system. Huawei has not done this with smoke and mirrors; the entire device has been re-engineered around a flexible OLED panel and a magnesium-alloy frame, and the result is the first premium tablet that genuinely feels closer to a thick magazine than a piece of computing hardware.

The Huawei MatePad Pro Max display is the second story. The 13.2-inch flexible OLED PaperMatte panel runs 3K at 144Hz with 1,600 nits peak brightness, full DCI-P3 colour and 1440Hz PWM dimming. PaperMatte is the diffusion coating Huawei first shipped on the older MatePad Pro 13.2 in 2024; the 2026 iteration is the first to combine PaperMatte with a flexible OLED substrate, which means colour accuracy and HDR performance are preserved alongside the matte finish. The Apple iPad Pro M5 still cannot offer that combination at any price.

Huawei MatePad Pro Max specs vs iPad Pro and Galaxy Tab S11

The Huawei MatePad Pro Max productivity pitch

Huawei is trying to sell the MatePad Pro Max as a laptop replacement, not a Netflix slab. The pitch rests on three things: HUAWEI Glide Keyboard, the M-Pencil stylus with low-latency input, and a desktop-class WPS Office build that Huawei has worked with Kingsoft to optimise for HarmonyOS. The Glide Keyboard cover does double duty as a stand and adds a full backlit typing experience without a hinge; it is closer to the Apple Magic Keyboard for iPad than the lazy folio Samsung sells with Galaxy Tab S11. The result is a 13-inch productivity machine that weighs less than 1kg with the keyboard attached – meaningfully lighter than a MacBook Air, and the first time Huawei’s tablet hardware has matched its software ambition.

The catch is the obvious one. HarmonyOS 4.3 does not run Google Mobile Services. Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, YouTube and the entire suite of Google apps are absent from the AppGallery, and the workarounds (web wrappers, Petal Mail with auto-forwarding) are still less convenient than Android proper. Huawei has poured serious work into Petal Search and HMS Core to make this gap less painful in 2026, but the truth is that a 13.2-inch Huawei tablet only makes sense if you can live without the Google stack – or you already cannot use it on a Huawei phone anyway. For anyone weighing this, our best iPad 2026 buying guide stays the safer recommendation for most UK buyers.

What UK Huawei MatePad Pro Max buyers should watch

For UK readers, the Huawei MatePad Pro Max launches at around £999.99 in nearby markets (UAE), with European pricing yet to be formally announced as of the 7 May event. That positions it squarely against the iPad Pro M5 (£1,299 from Apple UK) and undercuts the Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra by roughly £200. Three things UK buyers need to verify before placing an order. First, the EU battery declaration: the European MatePad Pro Max ships with a 9,760mAh cell rather than the global 10,400mAh, because of EU regulations on watt-hour limits. Second, the keyboard and pen are sold separately, and at the typical Huawei accessory markup that adds £250-£300 to the line. Third, the long-term software story: HarmonyOS NEXT – the post-Android variant – is rolling out gradually, and current MatePad Pro Max buyers should expect to be migrated within 18-24 months.

The wider read: the Huawei MatePad Pro Max is the most ambitious tablet hardware launch of 2026, and it makes the iPad Pro M5 look thicker, heavier and less ambitious than it should at the price. Whether that matters to you depends entirely on whether you are willing to live without Google services. For UK readers cross-shopping a laptop-replacement tablet, the cheaper Galaxy Book6 vs MacBook Air comparison may be a better starting point, and our broader take on the 2026 tablet category sits in the Huawei Pura X Max foldable analysis. The MatePad Pro Max is the Huawei flagship tablet that makes the case for HarmonyOS as a real third platform; whether the world agrees is the conversation for the rest of 2026.

The final thing worth saying about the Huawei MatePad Pro Max is that it is the clearest sign yet that the 13-inch tablet is no longer an iPad-only conversation. Lenovo, Xiaomi and OnePlus all have 13-inch slates in the 2026 pipeline; Microsoft Surface 2026 is rumoured to add a 13-inch OLED variant later in the year. The Huawei MatePad Pro Max is the benchmark every one of those will be measured against – particularly on weight and thickness, where Huawei has set a number that will be difficult to beat without a custom-engineered OLED stack.