Huawei are really making a push into the Australian market of late, with the Ascend P2 being released exclusively on Telstra earlier this month, and now the MediaPad 10 Link 4G – a Vodafone exclusive, and the first tablet in Australia to make use of the new, ultrafast Category 4 LTE.
The unweildily-named MediaPad 10 Link 4G is powered by the same 1.5 GHz quad-core K3V2 system-on-a-chip that powers the Ascend P2, but ups the display size to 10.1 inches with an unfortunately-low resolution of 1280 x 800. Have a gander at the rest of the specs:
- 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 IPS LCD display
- 1.5 GHz quad-core CPU
- 1 GB RAM
- 16GB internal Storage (with up to an additional 32 GB via the microSD card slot)
- 3 megapixel rear camera, VGA front-facing camera
- Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth v 3.0
- 2G: 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz
- 3G: 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 MHz
- LTE: 850 / 900 / 1800 / 2100 / 2600 MHz
- Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2 with Huawei Emotion UI
- 6400mAh Battery
- 257.44 x 175.9 x 9.9 mm, 640 g
Vodafone are billing the MediaPad 10 Link 4G as the fastest tablet in Australia, using their Cat 4 LTE network, which is available in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide, to give theoretical download speeds of 150Mbps, a solid 50Mbps faster than the Cat 3 LTE that’s in most devices on the market.
Huawei’s Mark Treadwell, Devices Head of Marketing, had this to say:
The Huawei MediaPad 10 Link 4G has been built for speed at a price everybody can afford, and makes the best technology accessible to all Australians
He’s not wrong about the price – the MediaPad will be available on the a number of plans, the cheapest of which is the $35 Tablet Plan with 2.5 GB data over 24 months. If you want more data, you can also get the tablet on the $45 and the $60 Tablet Plans, with 4 GB and 8 GB respectively.
my Galaxy S4 LTE-A from sunny Korea works a treat with Vodafone 4G and is CAT4 compatible so to people in the know that Tablet is a bit old hat
Disappointed this is Vodafone’s first 4g tablet offering. Tablets of this size are generally used for media consumption. What use is cat 4 speeds in a mediocre package. Bringing this tablet to market with mid 2012 specs is baffling. 1gb ram and only 1280×800 resolution? Sounds like Vodafone just wanted to be the first in Australia to offer a cat 4 device and this is all they could dig up.
“Sounds like Vodafone just wanted to be the first in Australia to offer a cat 4 device and this is all they could dig up”
Sounds right on the money to me, but that doesn’t sound like a problem to me Please show me a Cat 4 tablet that meets your lofty standards, fine sir. Or does this unicorn tablet not actually exist yet?
Dean, clearly it’s all about price, mate. Honestly, the specs aren’t too bad and for the prices they are offering this represents excellent value. High-spec, high-cost tablets would not sell well. If you want a high end device go out and buy one outright…
Will Vodafails 4G network actually be of any use to anyone in the country? Well that remains to be seen…
I get the part about price but I’d have thought Vodafone need a hero device to introduce consumers to their 4g network. Optus and Telstra offered up Samsung’s note 10.1 which was the best 4g tablet at the time. Where is the xperia tablet z or note 8.0?