The status of Android tablets in Australia is relatively poor, but there could be some new hardware from Huawei about to launch which could make for some excitement if they arrive here.
The new MediaPad M5 series, which we’ve previously seen skating through the US Federal Communications Commission, will have some decent specs, at a decent price if the specs become a reality. Roland Quandt of WinFuture.de has shared the details of the tablets in a tweet which gives us information about an 8″ tablet, and two 10″ tablets that include the M-Pen Stylus support.
Huawei MediaPad M5 8 "Schubert" (SHT-xxx), 4/32GB ~329 Euro (~380 w/ LTE)
Huawei MediaPad M5 10 "Cameron" (CMR-xxx), 4/32GB, ~379 Euro (~420 w/ LTE)
Huawei MediaPad M5 10 Pro "Cameron Pro", 4/64GB, supports M-Pen stylus and comes only with LTE, ~520 Euro
grey color only (?)— Roland Quandt (@rquandt) February 13, 2018
With 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage – with presumably microSD card storage – and 64GB of storage on the pro model, the tablets sound like they’ll offer some decent options for those still interested in tablets. The M-Pen support for the pro model should be interesting, with stylus support a handy inclusion for some users on tablets – and phones.
The Wacom designed M-Pen was first introduced around the M2 series offering 2048 points of pressure. Whether the M5 series would look to update this pen is something we will have to wait for an official announcement on.
With no P20 reveal scheduled for Mobile World Congress it’s conceivable we may get some new tablets at the upcoming MWC press conference on the 26th of February – so the word is stay tuned.
I bought a m3 around 6 months ago with lte for $300 shipped brand new. Extremely happy with it, has 7.0 but yeah no security updates since May 2017
I have a MediaPad M2 8.0 that I purchased directly from Huawei and it has 4G, with an Optus sim sourced separately. I manually upgraded it from Android 5.1 to Android 6.0 by downloading an image from Huawei. It is great hardware and still works fine. But, it needs regular security updates and I have never had one, which puts me off ever buying another newer model.
Android Security Patch level = 1 October 2016
Thanks I will look for that image. My build number ends in 207
So moral of the story is don’t go for the Pro version with LTE or otherwise you don’t get updates? I need to upgrade my N10 this year.
I’d be interested in a 10 inch tablet. I’ve got the huawei mate 10 pro through optus and recently received the January security update so happy with that.
give me a tablet with Chrome and i will start getting interested.
My Mediapad M3 was updated from M to N but it’s not carrier locked. My Samsung S8+ on Optus hasn’t been updated at all, it’s the telcos not the manufacturers
I have a Samsung S8+ too on Optus and the latest security update it received is October 2017 which is the same as *unbranded* S8+.
So, in this case, it’s *Samsung* to blame for not providing security updates. Other regions are on January security update.