Huawei MatePad Pro 12.2 (2025) review: An excellent tablet becomes slightly better
In a world where premium tablets need to work double duty as creativity and productivity machines, Huawei's MatePad Pro 12.2 2025 ambitiously aims to overachieve in both categories. This year's MatePad Pro 12.2 2025 is an admittedly incremental upgrade over 2024's model, but does bring a number of welcome improvements. Thankfully, it keeps the elegant, super-thin design and the stunning Tandem OLED screen (either in standard or PaperMatte variant), and upgrades the chipset, speakers and camera hardware.
Huawei's MatePad Pro 12.2 2025 is definitely not a basic tablet for media consumption. It's a serious tool for creators, designers, and other professionals. Last year, I reviewed the PaperMatte edition of Huawei's MatePad Pro 12.2 2024, which distinguishes itself with a matte display coating that eliminates reflections and makes drawing with Huawei's M-Pencil feel like a true pen-and-paper experience. This year, the special PaperMatte edition is still available (in a fresh new green color), but I'm reviewing the standard edition of the MatePad Pro 12.2 2025, which comes with a standard, glossy OLED display, which I'm equally excited about.
But as always with Huawei, the software ecosystem, and especially the lack of native Google services support, remain a big caveat for most international buyers.
The MatePad Pro 12.2 2025 starts at €1000 or £900, and is available in select global markets (including the UK and Europe). It’s not officially sold through U.S. carriers or retailers, but it can be imported, if one really wants to. The great thing about Huawei's offer is that the MatePad Pro 12.2 still comes bundled with the pretty great Glide Keyboard, as well as the M-Pencil 3 stylus as a free gift, which is an amazing value at that price, assuming you can work around the Google limitations. At the time of this writing, Huawei is also offering an instant €100 or £100 discount, making this an even better package. But let's dive deeper into its performance.
The MatePad Pro 12.2 2025 starts at €1000 or £900, and is available in select global markets (including the UK and Europe). It’s not officially sold through U.S. carriers or retailers, but it can be imported, if one really wants to. The great thing about Huawei's offer is that the MatePad Pro 12.2 still comes bundled with the pretty great Glide Keyboard, as well as the M-Pencil 3 stylus as a free gift, which is an amazing value at that price, assuming you can work around the Google limitations. At the time of this writing, Huawei is also offering an instant €100 or £100 discount, making this an even better package. But let's dive deeper into its performance.
Table of Contents:
Huawei MatePad Pro 12.2 2025 Specs
Here's a quick overview of the specs:
| Huawei MatePad Pro 12.2 (2025) |
|---|
| Size and Weight 508 g, 5.5 mm thickness |
| Display 12.2" Tandem OLED PaperMatte Display, 2800 × 1840 resolution (2.8K), 2000 nits peak brightness, 92% screen-to-body ratio |
| Processor Kirin T92A |
| Software HarmonyOS 4.3 |
| Cameras 50MP main, 8MP UW, 8MP front-facing |
| Battery Size 10,100 mAh |
| Charging Speeds 0-100% in 49 minutes |
| Price €899 / €999 |
Huawei MatePad Pro 12.2 2025 Design and Display
Unique, modern design armed with an industry-leading Tandem OLED panel
- Weight: At around 508 grams, the Huawei MatePad Pro 12.2 2025 is one of the lightest 12-inch tablets on the market.
- Thickness: A profile of just 5.5 mm makes the tablet nice and slim.
- Bezels: At 4.6 mm, uniformly around the display, the MatePad Pro 12.2 has a modern, premium look in line with the best products on the market.
The 12.2-inch Tandem OLED display remains a key feature of Huawei's new tablet. The standard edition delivers a crystal clear, glossy OLED screen, while the PaperMatte once again features a matte coating that reduces reflections and makes handwriting feel more natural. This year, Huawei has upgraded this coating to make its anti-sparkle capabilities up to 31% stronger. It is now more in line with what we observed on the MatePad Pro 13.2".
Once again, the usual disclaimer is due that while the PaperMatte screen reduces reflections and makes hand-writing feel more natural, it also adds a very slight grain to the screen and makes it appear less lively. This is the usual tradeoff with matte screens.
Aside from that, the Tandem OLED display continues to be amazing, delivering a peak brightness of up to 2,000 nits. This makes the tablet genuinely usable outdoors.
The 2800×1840 resolution and 3:2 aspect ratio are great both for productivity and media consumption.
The 2800×1840 resolution and 3:2 aspect ratio are great both for productivity and media consumption.
Display Measurements:
Huawei MatePad Pro 12.2 2025 Keyboard and Stylus
A great bundle is a great bundle
Perhaps as a way to make up for the Google services limitations, Huawei is very generous with the accessories it gives away with the MatePad Pro 12.2 2025. You once again get the versatile Glide Keyboard (in white or black), as well as the excellent M-Pencil 3 stylus.
The Glide Keyboard for the MatePad 12.2 has a very specific design that effectively turns your tablet into a laptop. It's super smart. Its unique features are Studio Mode, which lets you draw and write on the tablet without having to detach it, as well as the storage and charging compartment for the stylus on the inside.
The stylus compartment is very cool, because it allows you to completely store away the stylus when not using it, all while charging it and without any risk of losing it. You can, of course, magnetically attach the stylus on the MatePad Pro's edge, to connect and charge it, but that's not the safest way to transport it as it's easy to accidentally bump it into something and have it fall down.
The keyboard part is pretty good – I have absolutely no issues with it. Typing is perfectly comfortable.
The touchpad is generally fine. It could be a bit more responsive, but it's not too bad. The worse thing is the lack of customization options, for example to let you control scrolling speed. On the plus side, it supports the two-finger-tap gesture to bring up the context menu, just like on a normal computer.
The M-Pencil 3, which MatePad Pro 12.2 2025 buyers get as a free gift, is pretty great. It's very convenient, accurate and responsive. The drawing and writing experience you get out of it will depend on the software you choose to use. Huawei's own Notes (modeled after Goodnotes) and GoPaint (modeled after Procreate) apps are very solid choices. They have many of the great features of the apps they have been inspired by, plus some very convenient additions.
I'm not a designer, so I don't use GoPaint much, but am a believer in hand-written notes as a way to solve certain problems that require creative thinking (not just capture information). So, I've been using Huawei Notes and have been very satisfied by it. Huawei has added some nice quality-of-life improvements, like easier gestures to undo and redo. If I have one gripe with it, it has to be that it doesn't seem to register the lightest pressure levels from the M-Pencil 3. It's not a hardware thing, because I've seen other apps capture its complete range of pressure levels, so it has to be a Huawei Notes thing. Still, this is mostly a fringe issue that isn't a serious problem in the grand scheme of things.
Huawei MatePad Pro 12.2 2025 Performance & Benchmarks
Kirin T92A brings a welcome performance boost, but still a long way away from Snapdragon (or Dimensity)
The MatePad Pro 12.2 2025 uses Huawei's in-house Kirin T92A chip, which is decent upgrade over the Kirin 9000S in last year's model. However, the 92A is a slightly slower version than the Kirin T92 in the MatePad Pro 13.2, especially in terms of graphics processing.
In day-to-day use, the tablet runs great – no performance issues whatsoever. Considering that Huawei's T92A is significantly behind the latest Snapdragon or even Dimensity chips, it's a testament of how well Huawei has optimized Harmony OS to run on this hardware.
In terms of gaming and other demanding workloads, I'm also quite confident in the MatePad Pro's capabilities. I haven't had performance issues with any game, be it 2D or 3D.
There are certain scenarios which might prove a little bit taxing on Huawei's system, but those have to be some really fringe cases – and if you can't think of any, then it surely won't affect you. Performance benchmarks are where the Kirin T92A's limited raw power is most clearly observed. But again, the discrepancy you'll see between the Kirin and the other competing chipsets in the numbers, mostly has to do with theoretical power, and not actual experience.
CPU Performance:
GPU Performance
Huawei MatePad Pro 12.2 2025 Software
HarmonyOS 4.3 is colorful, fast, fluid and customizable
The new MatePad Pro 12.2 2025 runs Harmony OS 4.3, which I guess is slightly newer than the Harmony OS 4.2 that still runs on the MatePad Pro 12.2 2024. There seem to be some minor improvements over 4.2; I haven't noticed any major changes between the two.
Harmony OS 4.3 is a capable platforms – it runs very fluidly, has a ton of great features, and looks good.
However, it seems to be that Huawei isn't a huge fan of software updates these days. While I've received a number of updates on the Mate X6, I don't remember the MatePad Pro 12.2 from last year receiving any updates so far. So, what I won't enjoy is if users have to upgrade to the next model in the series in order to also get software improvements – I hope this is not the strategy at Huawei right now, and I hope the company will deliver major updates to all these devices for at least 3 years.
Aside from that, Harmony OS is a remarkably stable platform. Aside from the very odd, minor bug, everything seems to run in a very smooth and stable fashion, so I guess this in itself is an achievement.
As usual, if you want to use Google services on this Huawei product, you'll need to use some workarounds. Mainly, there is the microG framework built into the MatePad Pro 12.2, which allows you to use any standard Google account, mostly without much hassle. You can also use third-party apps that handle account logins on their own (don't use the system account management). These things aren't a huge hassle, but you have to be somewhat tech-savvy to comfortably set things up.
Huawei MatePad Pro 12.2 2025 Audio Quality
A superb audio experience, up there with the best
There are four speakers on the Huawei MatePad Pro 12.2 2025, and they are superb! Audio was already very strong on last year's model, but this year Huawei has upgraded the speakers even further – they now sound clearer and even slightly deeper than before. In a direct comparison against the class-leading iPad Pro M4 13", the MatePad Pro 12.2 2025 is just a notch behind in bass and clarity, but the difference is really negligible.
Huawei MatePad Pro 12.2 2025 Battery and Charging
Incredible charging speeds!
The battery on board the new MatePad Pro 12.2 2025 has the same 10,100mAh capacity as before. This allows for a respectable battery life, in line with that of its best competitors out there, namely the iPad Pro M4 and the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra.
Our custom PhoneArena Battery Test has measured a Battery Life Estimate of 5h 16min for the MatePad, which is just shy of the 5h 25min of the iPad Pro M4 13" and slightly higher than the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra's 4h 51min.
The MatePad Pro 12.2 2025 has achieved a respectable battery life showing in both the browsing and video categories of 11h 5min and 8h 2min, respectively, which its weaker link being gaming, where it lasted for 7h 59min.
We measured an insane charging speed of just 49 minutes to go from 0 - 100%. This is truly crazy for tablet charging, but that's the power of Huawei's 100W charger. Meanwhile, the iPad Pro M4 13" needs about 2h 28min to fully charge, while the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra takes about 2h 17min.
Once you get used to the turbo charging speeds of the Huawei MatePad Pro 12.2, there is no going back.
PhoneArena Battery Test Results:
Huawei MatePad Pro 12.2 2025 Camera
It gets the job done
Huawei has upgraded the main camera on its MatePad Pro 12.2 to a 50MP unit. This is a strong improvement over last year's model, which will surely be appreciated by consumers who tend to use the cameras of their tablets a lot.
Aside from that, we still get the secondary, 8 MP ultra-wide camera (increasingly becoming a rarity in tablets), as well as an 8 MP front-facing selfie camera.
Video Quality
The front-facing camera, which you'd most often use for video calls and selfies, will get the job done, but won't knock your socks off. That's OK, most tablets out there don't ship with cutting-edge camera gear.
Photo Quality
Photo quality is good by tablet standard and should be sufficient in the off chance that you need to take pictures with the MatePad Pro 12.2 2025. The new, 50MP camera performs similarly to the one that we tested in the MatePad Pro 13.2 2025. It doesn't particularly shine with anything, and it tends to come up with warmer tones than needed, but it'll get the job done.
The 8 MP ultra-wide camera proves once again to be very reliable, with respectable exposure and colors. Unfortunately, both cameras don't have their exposures and color balances synced, but that's not a huge deal for a tablet camera.
Should you buy it?
The Huawei MatePad Pro 12.2 2025 is a remarkably awesome tablet. Its design is still up there with the best, being so nice, thin and relatively light. The Tandem OLED screen is great, no matter if you decide to go with the PaperMatte option or the standard glass model. It's high-resolution, high-refresh rate and very bright.
This year's edition brings a welcome upgrade to the camera module and, perhaps more importantly, the chipset. This is still no speed demon, but it's gotten roughly 15% faster in CPU performance, and up to about 30% faster in GPU performance, which are both welcome bumps.
And while the need for workarounds to get Google apps going is certainly an inconvenience for international users, the overall package, including the bundled Glide Keyboard and the free M-Pencil 3 add-on, absolutely presents a worthwhile option that should be considered by everyone on the market for a versatile, premium tablet.
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