Huawei’s multimedia-focused MatePad T10s will set you back R4,500 in South Africa

Two years after Huawei released its MatePad T8, the MatePad T10s has rocked up. The company has all sorts of lovely things to say about the tablet, of course. It’s lightweight, powerful, works well with multimedia — the usual sort of thing you’d expect from any proud parent.

The little critter is all grown up, almost. The T10s first launched in 2020, but we were all going through some issues and didn’t really notice. It’s okay to have missed a few birthdays, surely? We’re here now, after all.

Main specs, anyone?

Huawei’s ten-incher is powered by its Kirin 710A processor, set behind a 10.1in 1,200 x 1,920 display. It features the Chinese brand’s newest EMUI 10.1 operating system and offers 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. What it doesn’t feature is access to Google’s Play Store. Yes, sadly, that’s still the case. It’s HMS from here on out.

Huawei’s ClariVu display enhancement technology amps up finer detail and colour vibrancy — says Huawei, obviously. There’s a Harman Kardon dual-speaker audio system alongside. The speakers were redesigned to provide higher volume with lower distortion, says Huawei. This would suit the T10s’ multimedia ambitions just fine. The company’s Histen 6.1 software enables 9.1-channel 3D surround and a Bass Booster. Both of these can be tweaked to your preference.

There’s an App Multiplier feature that offers users some split-screen smarts, plus Huawei Share is bundled as well. Transfers to and from the company’s smartphones and notebooks, at speeds up to 150MB/s, are a serious option. There’s an ebook mode that offers (but not quite) an E-Ink-like experience to readers. There’s also a dark mode for that Kindle stand-in, if you prefer some darkness with your darkness.

Doing it for the kids

When you think ‘multimedia’, you are probably thinking ‘electronic babysitter’. Huawei is on the case. There’s a Kid’s Corner mode that cuts down what your young ‘uns can do with the tablet while still making it an entertaining experience. Provided your youngsters don’t know more about your tablet than you do, you should handle everything from locking down websites to managing screen time.

A batch of other features are bundled with the parental control options. There’s a setting that’ll warn the kiddies if they’re slouching, sitting too close, a blue-light filter will make sure they get to sleep at night. There are a collection of other helicopter-parenty things present,  like a brightness alert and bumpy road alerts, in case you battle to let your kiddo outside without a helmet.

Sound like just what you need? It’s available for R4,500 from Huawei directly, or via Incredible Connection. If you snag it from either, you should pick up a flip cover valued at R700. That’ll save you a trip back to the store, at the very least.