Tablets have grown fast over the last two years: better multitasking, more power, glare-free displays. But all these features remain limited to the premium models that are often too expensive for students and young professionals. Affordable tablets, on the other hand, often feel like a compromise. You get the form factor, but not the experience. The HUAWEI MatePad 11.5 aims to change that.

This new tablet offers not just a comfortable paper-like screen that banishes glare, but also a powerful creative toolkit with enhanced note-taking, all surprisingly accessible at its price point. Combine this with desktop-level office software, versatile multitasking, and a slim, lightweight build housing an impressive battery, and you’ve got a tablet designed to redefine what it means to learn and work on the go.

Eye-Friendly Screen

The first thing that the MatePad 11.5 offers as a student’s tablet is an extremely comfortable screen that feels like paper.The 11.5-inch PaperMatte Display comes with enhanced anti-glare and anti-reflective layers with paper-like comfort that stays sharp and vivid even under bright lighting.Through nano-level anti-glare etching technology, which forms hundreds of millions of nano-texture structures on the screen surface, to eliminate 99% of light interference. In practice, that means more legible text and steadier contrast under harsh lights.

The PaperMatte Display provides unprecedented anti-glare capabilities, eye-soothing effects, and a silky smooth pen-on-paper writing experience.This tablet effectively tackles the problem of distracting glare that tablet users encounter and turns out to be a major roadblock to the wider adoption of tablets for learning purposes.

Creative toolkit for students

More than just a notetaking app, the upgraded HUAWEI Notes is designed as a complete toolkit for students. Combined with the M-Pencil (3rd generation), the HUAWEI Notes make learning all the more fun and engaging. From a vibrant array of stickers to note covers and brush types, the notes app offers plenty of room for personalisation. The Resource Centre offers a stunning array of note covers, papers, and stickers, so you can customise your notes to your own style, making them more functional and adding a personal touch.

The AI Handwriting Enhancement tool makes your lecture notes remarkably more adaptable. You can use the lasso tool to select any handwriting, then tap Handwriting Enhance and choose your desired font and level. This feature enhances and refines your handwriting based on your preferred style. Currently, two English fonts are supported: Crescent and Gibbous.

Since its launch last year, GoPaint, Huawei’s own digital painting app, has made its mark in the world of digital art. Now, the MatePad 11.5 is the most affordable way to get access to this pro-level painting app with a sophisticated array of tools and brushes to satisfy seasoned artists, yet intuitive and easy to understand for enthusiasts. The app comes with the tablet and requires no extra purchase.

Office ready

The MatePad 11.5 has the software chops for light office tasks with a full PC-level WPS office suite, detachable smart keyboard, and multitasking optimisations. Unlike typical mobile office suites, the WPS suite on the MatePad offers functional optimisations and an interface similar to that of its desktop version. Spreadsheets, presentations, and formulas offer a nearly identical experience to their desktop counterparts, enabling seamless switching between PC and tablet for efficient work.

Since the tablet supports the detachable HUAWEI Smart Keyboard, users can easily turn it into a laptop-like configuration and even use an external mouse for even more flexibility. When paired with the keyboard, users can use common app/system shortcut keys to perform complex office operations. A mouse pointer appears on the screen when an external mouse is connected for precise cursor control and selection. With split-screen and multi-window support, users can keep documents, spreadsheets, and chats open side by side, effectively turning the tablet into an on-the-go workstation.

Sleek but mighty

The unibody design of the feels durable and sturdy, yet only weighs 515g and measures 6.1mm thick, 10% less than its predecessors.When you are reading or using a tablet handheld for a considerable amount of time, any bit of weight reduction makes a huge difference. But most tablets struggle to balance between slimness and battery life.

Within its compact body, though, the MatePad 11.5 holds a huge 10,100 mAh battery, a remarkable 30% increase over its predecessor and delivering over 14 hours of uninterrupted local video playback. What’s more, with 40 W HUAWEI SuperCharge, it reaches full charge in just 94 minutes.

If you need a capable tablet for study and work, the HUAWEI MatePad 11.5 is the one to buy. The PaperMatte display and desktop-like WPS suite are basically a steal at this price point.