Huawei MatePad Pro 12.2 (2025) review
Design, build quality, handling
The Huawei MatePad Pro 12.2 (2025) really looks the part. The entire front is all about the screen, the subtly rounded frame is thin, and the back is good-looking no-nonsense flat piece with a small camera housing.
The AG glass covers the screen, and it feels nice to touch, close to paper even. It is also fingerprint and smudge resistant - some welcome improvements in addition to the reduced eye fatigue, and the improved legibility.
The frame and back appear to be manufactured from plastic, even if they look like metal. The only real metal piece on this tablet is the ring that circles around the camera housing on the back.
There is no ingress protection on the MatePad Pro 12.2, no matter which version you get.
The tablet is available in Green (ours) and Black colorways.
The 12.2-inch OLED has reasonably thin bezels, enough to rest your fingers without obstructing the picture. The small 8MP front camera is barely visible on one of the longer sides, inside the bezel.
The back has a slightly sticking out camera housing with the 50MP primary, 8MP ultrawide shooter, one microphone, and the LED flash. We are not fans of such eyesores on tablets, but it is what it is. The tablet's profile is only 5.5mm thik, so there was no way to fit these cameras flush.
The MatePad Pro 12.2 packs four stereo speakers placed 2x2 across the two shorter sides.
Also on the shorter sides are the Power/Lock/Fingerprint button and the USB-C port.
One of the long sides has nothing but magnets for the Glide keyboard or the M-Pencil. The other has three microphones, the volume control, and more magnets plus wireless charging bed for the M-Pencil. Yes, you can attach the pencil to both sides, but it will charge only on one of them.
The MatePad Pro 12.2 (2025) is a good-looking tablet with a solid build and fingerprint resistant design. We are appreciating the PaperMatte screen more with each day, and we found this slate easy to handle.
Accessories
The MatePad Pro 12.2 (2025) ships with the Glide keyboard, which bolsters the tablet's value. We didn't get one with our review unit so our impressions of it are limited and based solely on in-store use. The keyboard is custom-designed to fit the tablet, so it's not interchangeable with other Huawei tablets. It has five rows of keys, a reasonably large touchpad, and a special bed where you can keep the M-Pencil so it doesn't get detached and get lost.
Speaking of the M-Pencil, that's probably the other accessory you are considering buying or merely getting as Huawei is bundling it for free with the tablet at the moment. The model here is the M-Pencil Gen 3 and it's based on Huawei's proprietary NearLink wireless protocol instead of Bluetooth. This version has been around for a while now and operates flawlessly.
It offers 10,000+ pressure levels, high-precision writing and sketching, and it supports wireless charging off the frame of the tablet.
Huawei announced the M-Pencil Pro for the Chinese market recently, but that's yet to come to Western markets.
Finally, Huawei now also has this Mouse Star Flash Edition in black. It's a wireless mouse, which can work with Huawei's proprietary NearLink, but also Bluetooth or a dongle. It's not rechargeable, but the 1xAA battery should last a long time.
We found the mouse operation to be super nice, with prominent clicks, excellent scroll, and a comfortable enough shape. It works on most surfaces, as expected. We wish it were a bit slimmer, as we find it somewhat bulky for smaller bags.
Huawei appears to be doubling down on the laptop-replacement utility of the Matepad Pro by offering not only an excellent keyboard, but also a wireless NearLink mouse and a PC-grade version of the WPS Office application (in supported markets).
