Huawei MatePad 11.5S (2026) Review

Design

• Well-built and nice to hold
• Optional detachable keyboard with good typing
• Optional stylus offers excellent writing

Huawei hasn’t tinkered with the design of its tablet too much. It looks a lot like the Huawei MatePad 11.5 (2025) before it, though of course, there’s only so much you can do with a giant rectangular screen.

The dimensions are very similar indeed, with a fractionally smaller 261 x 177.3mm footprint and an identical 6.1mm thickness. It weighs the same, too, at 515g.

Together with that gently curved rim (an unusual feature in today’s iPad-dominated tablet market), the Huawei MatePad 11.5S (2026) is a pleasure to wield. The optional keyboard case turns it into an altogether bulkier customer, but adding it on makes it eminently chuck-aroundable.

My model comes in a fetching light metallic Green, but you can specify it in dull old Grey if you really want it to blend into the background. Once again, it’s noticeably lacking in antenna lines (achieved by packing them into the camera module), giving it a nice clean look.

The main element that disrupts the flow of the tablet – aside from the usual USB-C and speaker ports (x4) are the contact points on the bottom of the tablet. These are present to hook the tablet into the optional Huawei Smart Magnetic Keyboard.

We should talk about the MatePad 11.5S (2026)’s accessories for a second, because they’re a highlight. Both the Huawei Smart Magnetic Keyboard (£100) and the Huawei M-Pencil Pro (£39.99) are optional extras, but they’re well worth considering, bordering on essential.

The Huawei Smart Magnetic Keyboard itself is lovely bit of kit. At first it seems rather inflexible, with just the one angle available when it’s attached to the tablet’s contact points. However, you then realise that it can be used even when detached thanks to Huawei’s NearLink technology, allowing you to pose and position the tablet however you like using the rear case stand. Pop it back on when you’re done for the full protective benefits while in transit.

The typing experience itself is unimpeachable, with a generous 1.5mm of key travel and 15mm keycaps for a distinctly laptop-ish feel. It’s a bummer there’s no touchpad element though, especially given that you’ll mostly be using the keyboard detached, making it a bit of a stretch to interact with the screen.

The latest model of the Huawei M-Pencil Pro is arguably even better than before, with three pen tips included in the box – two for writing, one for “painting” – and a beautifully calibrated level of screen resistance. The slightly scratchy feel makes for arguably the most convincing approximation of a pen and paper I’ve ever used.

I also really like the integration of discrete hardware controls on the stylus. Give the pen a squeeze to bring up a handy shortcut menu, or press the end of the pen (biro-style) to access the Notes app. The latter is fully remappable, naturally.

When not in use, you can snap the Huawei M-Pencil Pro to the top edge of the MatePad 11.5S (2026), where it’ll gain charge.

It really should come with the tablet, given how good it is, and how tightly it works within the HarmonyOS 4.3 ecosystem. Still, at £39.99, it’s a relatively easy addition to the basket before you check out.

Screen

• 11.5-inch 2.8K LCD
• PaperMatte finish reduces glare
• Also aids a natural stylus experience

As with its predecessors, the Huawei MatePad 11.5S (2026)’s key selling point is its screen. It’s another high-quality 11.5-inch LCD, and it’s even sharper than that of the Huawei MatePad 11.5 (2025) at 2800 × 1840 (also known as 2.8K).

You also get a more fluid 144Hz refresh rate. I’m not entirely convinced this is necessary, especially with the lack of ready access to the most advanced games on Huawei’s limited AppGallery. Even if you manage to find and install some decent games, meanwhile, the MatePad 11.5S (2026)’s humble processor probably wouldn’t be able to run them at sufficiently elevated frame rates.

The colours are nice and natural, providing you select the appropriate screen mode. Elsewhere, the maximum brightness hits 500 nits, which is more than acceptable for the kind of indoors use such tablets tend to receive.

None of that is why you should be interested in the MatePad 11.5S (2026)’s display, however. That would come down to Huawei’s custom PaperMatte Display technology, which utilises a nano etching process to dramatically cut down on surface reflections.

View the screen off-axis on most screens, and you’ll likely catch a glint of a light source. Here the picture is undisturbed, appearing to be printed on the surface. It also serves to minimise glare, thus reducing eye strain.

This etched finish also lends a more natural writing feel when using the optional M-Pencil Pro stylus. Even without the stylus, though, the extra resistance feels nice under the finger.

Camera

• 13MP rear-facing camera
• 8MP selfie camera
• Up to 4K@30fps video capture

Cameras are arguably the least important aspect of any tablet. If you’re using these hulking screens as your primary means of obtaining photographs and videos, you’re doing something wrong.

We’re not remotely bothered that Huawei hasn’t advanced its camera formula with the Huawei MatePad 11.5S (2026), then. Like the Huawei MatePad 11.5 (2025) you’re getting a 13-megapixel f/1.8 wide camera on the back and an 8-megapixel f/2.0 camera around front.

Both just about qualify for the term ‘adequate’, but don’t let that fool you into thinking they’re any good. They’re just good enough for a £300 tablet.

The front camera is arguably the more important of the two, as it’s primarily there to facilitate video calls. It’ll do a solid enough job, as long as you feed it sufficient light.

You could say the same for the main camera, which will produce just-about-passable shots in good lighting – and nothing more. Shots taken with this component tend to struggle in scenarios that call for HDR intervention, not to mention in limited lighting.

It’ll do a job as a document scanner, though, which is really all I really want from my tablet camera, regardless of the price.

Video capture is extremely modest, topping out at 1080p and 30fps. Terrible for a phone – acceptable for a cheap tablet.

Performance

• Kirin T92C
• 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage
• Smooth, if not lightning-quick performance

Huawei’s problem with Western sanctions doesn’t just affect its software efforts. It also means that the company is severely restricted when it comes to accessing modern chip technology.

As such, the Kirin T92C processor powering the Huawei MatePad 11.5S (2026) isn’t the fastest. In the CPU-focused Geekbench 6 test, Huawei’s tablet falls about 30% short of the similarly priced Poco Pad X1.

It’s certainly not a terrible result, however, given the aforementioned restrictions that Huawei faces. Crucially, the Huawei MatePad 11.5S (2026) feels fluid in the hands. Backed by a capacious 12GB of RAM, it’s a decent workhorse when it comes to hopping between multiple apps.

This isn’t the affordable tablet to buy if you’re an avid gamer, mind. I was able to find and play modern multiplayer shooter Delta Force at a playable (if not totally smooth) frame rate, but the graphical settings refused to be bumped up much beyond minimum.

It is a stable and relatively cool runner, though, sailing through the Wild Life Extreme Stress Test with a nigh-on-perfect score of 99.4%, indicating that performance doesn’t degrade under sustained load.

Software

• Smooth, fluid UI
• Familiar glaring flaw of no Google Play access
• Sideloading possible, but fiddly

And so we come to the sticking point of literally every Huawei device released over the past six or so years.

HarmonyOS 4.3 is a relatively crisp and fluid take on Android, offering responsive menus and screen transitions, as well as ample personalisation potential.

It also features a neat productivity system called SuperHub, which acts as a temporary storage space for ferrying files in between apps. Just touch and drag images and other files into the little floating menu, and they’ll be there to access whenever you next need them.

Functional UI aside, HarmonyOS still lacks basic access to Google Play Services. This means that you don’t get the Google Play Store, which is a lifeline to any Android-driven device. No Play Store, no apps.

Or at least, not many apps. Huawei has its own AppGallery app store, as usual, but it’s nowhere near as well populated as Google’s. Many of the major apps we all count on are intrinsically linked with Google in their Android form, so they simply don’t appear here.

There’s no Netflix, no Instagram, no Uber, and no WhatsApp. Huawei has gone some way to making up for this by allowing AppGallery (through its Petal Search system) to scour third-party app stores for the appropriate app, but this is neither wholly reliable nor intuitive when it comes to the installation process.

No matter how many times I turn to APKPure (one such third-party app store) to download an app I need, it still feels frustratingly flaky and long-winded, not to mention a tad risky.

In recent years, we’ve seen initiatives like GBox and MicroG, which manage to get Google (and Google-reliant) apps running by creating a virtual sandbox environment. But even this is far from universally effective, and you’ll need to go searching for the instigating app in the first place.

Huawei’s stock selection of apps will serve you well enough, though they’re not without their confusion. There’s a Notes and a Notepad app, for example, while there’s also plenty of unwanted bloatware like Booking.com and Baby Panda World, as well as several folders dedicated to recommended (but uninstalled) apps and games.

Those restrictions also mean you don’t have access to underlying Google services, such as the company’s Password Manager, making logging into apps and websites a chore.

It’s possible to get a decent tablet experience up and running on the Huawei MatePad 11.5S (2026), but it takes work – and that’s work you can easily avoid by going with literally any other brand of Android tablet.

Battery Life

• 8,800mAh battery
• Decent everyday battery life
• 66W max charging

Huawei has equipped the MatePad 11.5S (2026) with an 8,800mAh battery. That’s 15% smaller than the MatePad 11.5 (2025)’s, but the same as the previous Huawei MatePad 11.5S.

Not that this appeared to make a huge difference in my testing. It’ll still drop the same 8% as the regular MatePad 11.5 when watching an hour of HDR YouTube playback, while 30 minutes of gaming sapped around 6%.

It’s a tablet that should see you through a light working day involving note-taking/word processing, email triage, and a little light web browsing. That’s pretty much what it’s custom-designed for, especially if you buy that keyboard cover and stylus.

More intensive use is likely to drop that battery bar a lot quicker. But as we’ve already discussed, if you’re after a tablet to perform high-end tasks or run demanding apps, you’ve come to the wrong place.

Huawei has granted its tablet up to 66W of charging, which is reasonably rapid for a cheaper tablet. However, while you do get a charger in the box (a relative rarity these days), it’s only a 40W brick. Still plenty speedy, though.

Should you buy it?