Table of Contents
Last Updated on March 29, 2020
Design
The MediaPad T3 10 has a very similar design to other recent Huawei tablets. TheMediaPad M3 Lite 10looks very similar, for instance. It’s a bit smaller, though. The back plate is made of aluminum while we do not get a total metal body here. There is a plastic frame on the sides and on the top.
Surely it’s not the thinnest device giving its size of 7.95 mm, but we wouldn’t find it too thick either. The MediaPad T3 10 feels relatively high-end due to its metal back and is very comfortable to hold thanks to its rounded edges. The Lenovo Tab 4 8 or Amazon Fire HD 10, which are both direct competitors, are a bit more likeable from this point of view. On the sides there is a micro SD card slot and a micro USB port. Indeed, Huawei doesn’t offer us a USB Type C port yet. There is also a HDMI out or fingerprint sensor missing. But no competitor offers it at this price, to be fair.
The front camera has a 2-megapixel resolution,while the main camera has a 5-megapixel resolution. Neither of them is excellent, but you will manage to take basic pictures and have video calls. However, don’t expect high quality image. ⠀The truth is that, with cheap devices, we need to set our expectations right. The camera’s capabilities aren’t the best, but the market has worse to offer, as well. Although this tablet is called the Huawei MediaPad T3 10, the screen has a 9.6-inch diagonal only. It’s therefore a tad smaller than some of the rivals. That makes it a little more convenient. We normally only receive a HD resolution at this price, and this is also the case here.
Display and Audio
The display comes with a low, 1280x 800 resolution. Nearly every smartphone has a density higher than MediaPad T3 10. Icons and text can look a little bit blurry compared to tablets with higher resolution–for example when you read eBooks. Moreover, we didn’t care about the lower resolution when viewing images. As said, most rivals match this price with a HD resolution. There is, however, one exception. The new Amazon Fire HD 10 (review) has a full HD display.
Other aspects are pretty good in this IPS panel. It is luminous enough, has a good contrast and the colors look nice. The touchscreen always works well and smoothly.
Performance and battery life
Within there is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 SoC, a quad-core processor clocking all four cores at 1.4Ghz. Additional specifications include 2 GB RAM and an internal storage of 16 GB. The system uses 7.5 GB from the box. Huawei provides a variant for some markets with 3 GB of RAM and a 32 GB memory.
Sure the Snapdragon 425 is not the fastest processor. But most things are strong enough. It includes Chrome web browsing, YouTube and Prime Video streaming or interacting in Microsoft Word. When you toggle between apps quickly, you may see some minor delays or you have a lot of stuff open in the background.
The MediaPad T3 10, as you may expect at this price, is not a gaming tablet. Yet I played many games without having to face major problems. This is not the situation during Modern Combat 5 which appears to be very repetitive throughout sequences of intense action. No tablet with Android Oreo has been available yet and the MediaPad T3 10 is no exception. With version 5.1 Huawei ships it with Android 7.0 Nougat and EMUI. This is Huawei’s own software. If in the last few years you have ever owned a smartphone or tablet of them, you will feel right at home. The software is the same as on your new phones and tablets. The interface is quite highly configured with the Emotion UI. Most apps are also pre-installed. We would really love it if Huawei could create a lighter version. On the plus side you can also extensively customize the model yourself. For example, the app drawer is missing from the box. The good thing is that you can activate it yourself, but it is not pre-installed, which is a pity.
Should you buy the Huawei MediaPad T3 10?
Android vanilla would have been a better choice for this device, but we could work with the EMUI, as well. When you receive this tablet, we suggest taking some time and taking the settings and pre-installed apps one at a time. There are plenty of apps and so you can see them all and decide whether or not you like them.
In comparison, Android is clearly still standard with all the apps we are used to. This device includes the screen division view. You can open two apps side by side with this feature. This works quite well here, too. The Huawei MediaPad T3 10’s battery life is not good. As a test, we ran the same HD video over and over again ntil the tablet died. Brightness was 50% and WiFi was available. The MediaPad T3 10 has a 9-hour and 20-minute runtime, which is quite satisfactory.
During daily use, the battery is not too excellent, but it was okay. What’s certainly nice: When the screen is shut down, the tablet doesn’t lose much energy. ⠀
The Huawei MediaPad T3 10 is Huawei’s newest low-cost tablet. It has Android 7.0 Nougat, optional LTE and 9.6-inch touchscreen as its main features. This is a little smaller than what we’re used to in the market. How great is this tablet for its price hen comparing its competition?