Huawei MediaPad 10 Link review: a mid end tablet, but pretty impressive in performance

Written by B Johnson February 23, 2014
Huawei MediaPad 10 Link Specs
Hi guys, welcome back again to this website!

Earlier, i’ve just showed you one of Huawei tablets called Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD, which is a 10.1-inch Android tablet sporting the full HD 1080p display (1920x1200 pixels).

(Huawei MediaPad 10 Link Specs)


One interesting fact about this tablet is that Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD is powered by Huawei’s homemade processor named K3V2, a quad-core 1.2GHz CPU accompanied with 16GHz GPU.

This chipset is actually manufactured by Huawei’s subsidiary company, HiSilicon.

Besides great in delivering a fast performance, this quad-core processor is also capable to handle many high performing games like Need for Speed Most Wanted or Asphalt 7, which sounds impressive, given that it manages to deliver a smooth gaming performance in a full HD display.

Huawei MediaPad 10 Link benchmarks and gaming performance

Today, i want to show you another Huawei tablet which also is powered by that same K3V2 processor.

This one is called Huawei MediaPad 10 Link, another 10.1-inch Android tablet sporting a rather medium-resolution 1280x800 pixel display, as opposed to the 1920x1200 pixel screen on Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD.

Well, if you’re interested to know more about this tablet, especially its gaming performance, then here you go, my personal review of Huawei MediaPad 10 Link.

But as usual, before you go straight to read this review, please allow me first to explain to you the brief introduction of this tablet.

Enjoy!

Introduction

Most of tablet shoppers out there usually are not really familiar with tablets from either Huawei, HP or Acer.

In fact, if you go explore to the tablet or mobile stores in your town, it’s probably still pretty difficult to find any stores that sell tablets from these 3 companies.

Well, that’s not much of a surprise because Huawei, HP or Acer tablets are not as popular as other big names like iPad, Samsung GALAXY, Asus Transformer or Sony Xperia tablets.

However, in term of quality, tablets from Huawei, HP or Acer are actually not that bad despite being underdogs in tablet market.

Huawei MediaPad 10 Link - Full tablet specifications/SPECS

Huawei for example, there are probably not many slates from this Chinese manufacturer that are on par with tablets like iPad, Sony Xperia or Asus Transformer tablets.

But the thing is, tablets from Apple, Sony or Asus are mostly expensive compared to tablets from small players like Huawei, Acer or HP.

The good news is, despite being “cheaper” tablets, you can't just take a final conclusion that tablets from manufacturers like Huawei, HP or Acer are really bad in quality.

Well, that’s just so wrong about that.

Even though the price of Huawei, HP or Acer tablets are not that expensive compared to iPad, Samsung GALAXY Note 10 or Sony Xperia Tablet, they actually are good quality tablets.

Huawei MediaPad 10 Link could be one of them.

Huawei MediaPad 10 Link is a 10.1-inch tablet running Android OS, which automatically makes us think that the quality of this tablet will be as awful as other cheap Chinese tablets, right?

The truth is, there are many great things about this tablet that probably are gonna change your mind quite a bit.

If you take a lot at the glance, this tablet actually looks quite good compared to those cheap tablets on the market right now.

In fact, i’m personally really impressed with how cool the design of this tablet. It’s just nothing like other cheap tablets out there.

And if you look through its specs, you’re probably gonna raise your respect bar on this tablet a little bit more.

It got a fast processor, good quality display, cool software and features and the most importantly, a 4G LTE cellular connectivity, which is still hard to find on regular tablets around the market.

Well.. well.. well.. having known that, then you just have to admit that this tablet is probably the one that you’re looking for.

But there is one question that needs to be answered, with all of these great things on this tablet, will Huawei MediaPad 10 Link really stack up against other rivals around the market, especially the mid-end ones (given its specs that are so mid-end)?

Well, we’re about to find out about that on this review. So stick around!

Design

In terms of design, i’m personally quite impressed with this tablet.

I mean, i think it’s pretty rare to find Android tablets that use aluminum-plated material, which has become the standard for premium tablets, and also, the sector that Apple iPad is really superior in.

I know that there are other Android slates that use premium aluminum material, like LG G Pad 8.3.

But considering that this Huawei's tablet is not positioned to compete with that LG’s tablet, let alone iPad, then it’s great because this tablet could probably gain success in mid-to-low-end tablet market, which mostly are crowded with cheap plastic Android tablets.

Huawei MediaPad 10 Link Review and Gaming Performance

Besides that premium aluminum material, the other thing that makes this tablet stand out among other budget Android tablets out there is definitely its design.

This tablet may not have some unique characteristic on its design, especially compared to iPad, Sony Xperia Tablet, Lenovo Yoga Tablet 10, HP Slate 7 Extreme or LG G Pad 8.3.
Huawei MediaPad 10 Link Review and Gaming Performance
However, there is just something that makes this tablet look cool.

It’s probably just me, but in my personal opinion, i kind of like the whole design of Huawei MediaPad 10 Link.

It got that nice looking rounded edge on its corners, pretty awesome metallic trim around the side, and there is some cool plastic finish on top of its back cover, around the camera.

So overall, i’m pretty impressed with the entire design of this tablet, especially considering that Huawei MediaPad 10 Link is sold in mid-to-low end market.

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  • 4G Network LTE
  • SIM Mini-SIM
  • Released 2013
  • 10.1 inch IPS LCD, capacitive touchscreen, 1280 x 800 pixels, 16M colors (~149 ppi pixel density)
  • Quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A9 Huawei K3V2 Chipset
  • 1 GB RAM
  • Android OS 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich upgradable to 4.1 Jelly Bean
  • Dolby Digital Plus sound enhancement
  • 3.15 MP rear-facing camera
  • VGA front-facing camera
  • MicroSD Card slot for up to 32 GB
  • 8/16/32 GB Internal storage
  • GPRS
  • EDGE
  • Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot
  • GPS
  • Java MIDP emulator
  • Bluetooth
  • USB
  • No Radio
  • Non-removable Li-Po 6600 mAh battery
The specs of Huawei MediaPad 10 Link are actually not as amazing as other competing rivals, say, Google Nexus 7 (2013), Kindle Fire HDX 7, Tegra Note 7, LG G Pad 8.3, Sony Xperia Tablet Z, iPad Air or any other top shelf tablets.

But then again, considering that this tablet falls in the low-to-mid end category, then we can’t argue a lot about the entire spec sheet of this tablet.

Besides, Huawei MediaPad 10 Link comes with 4G LTE cellular connectivity on it.

So if you manage to snatch this tablet at low price point, or cheaper than LG G Pad 8.3 or Sony Xperia Tablet Z, then you’ll make no mistake when getting this tablet.

Huawei MediaPad 10 Link is packing a 10.1-inch display sporting the resolution of 1280x800 pixels, which is pretty standard for 10.1-inch tablets, and then there is also a quad-core K3V2 processor clocked at 1.2GHz per core, 1GB of RAM, PowerVR SGX544 GPU, 6600mAh power battery, 3.15MP camera on the back, VGA camera on the front, 4G LTE connectivity with mini-SIM, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich comes pre-installed and many more.

With all of these specs, then it’s pretty safe to say that this Huawei tablet is still better than Samsung GALAXY Tab 2 or even 3.

Screen

Unlike its sibling, Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD that already uses a full HD 1920x1200 pixel display, this Huawei MediaPad 10 Link is still stuck in the past with its HD 720p display.

However, it doesn’t mean that the display quality of this tablet will be bad. Well, that’s completely wrong about that.

In fact, its display still delivers a satisfying experience to the users.

It still looks sharp, bright, vivid and the color reproduction on this tablet is also really good.

Besides, it’s actually good that this tablet is only packing this 720p display, making its performance run much even faster and smoother.

The most noticeable results of using this display can be seen when playing games.

Compared to the Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD, the gaming performance of Huawei MediaPad 10 Link is definitely so much even better because its quad-core K3V2 processor is only tasked to deliver its best performance on a rather medium-resolution 1280x800 pixel display, unlike its sibling that uses the same K3V2 processor but is given a much heavier full HD 1920x1200 pixel display, which requires more pixels to execute.

As a result, gaming on Huawei MediaPad 10 Link is much better and smoother than on Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD.

User Interface and Features

The UI of Huawei MediaPad 10 Link is also really similar with other Huawei MediaPad tablets out there. In fact, they all have the same exact set of features, skins and wallpapers on their software.

However, the overall experience of UI on this tablet is basically the same one on any other regular Android tablets with standard Android UI.

So you’ll get the same standard homescreen with widgets, same notification window, setting window, app drawer and many more.

Not to mention, this tablet is also equipped with the multi-window mode, which allows you to float multiple apps on the screen at the same time.

Performance

The performance of this tablet is actually pretty similar with its sibling, Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD, which also is powered by a quad-core K3V2 processor made by Huawei’s subsidiary, HiSilicon.

However, given that this tablet is only packing a medium resolution 1280x800 pixel display, as opposed to the 1080p (1920x1200 pixels) display on its sibling, then the overall performance of this tablet will be much even better and faster than Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD.

So for doing some basic heavy tasks like watching HD movies, reading books or magazines, browsing the web, using live wallpaper or even playing games, this tablet will do all of these tasks just fine and smoothly without any hiccup whatsoever.

Its K3V2 quad-core processor is more than powerful to handle 720p resolution on this tablet.

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If Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD is already great in gaming performance, then you can also expect the same exact thing on Huawei MediaPad 10 Link.

In fact, given that this tablet is only packing a medium-resolution 720p (1280x800 pixels) display, which is lower than the 1920x1200 pixel display on Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD, then the gaming performance of Huawei MediaPad 10 Link will be much even better than its sibling.

Earlier, i’ve already seen Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD capable to run some of the latest games like Asphalt 7: Heat and Need for Speed Most Wanted, which are considered as graphically demanding games.

So having known that, then Huawei MediaPad 10 Link will also be more than capable to handle these 2 games in buttery smooth performance and in full graphics.

I believe its processor, K3V2 quad-core processor with 16GHz GPU, is the one that makes this tablet so powerful in handling graphics intense games.

So if games like Need for Speed Most Wanted and Asphalt 7 can run seamlessly on this tablet, then other graphically demanding games like Modern Combat (1, 2, 3, 4), N.O.V.A (1, 2, 3), Dead Trigger (1, 2), GTA Vice City, GTA III, Riptide GT 2 and many more, all can also be played perfectly on this tablet.

However, for the latest games like Asphalt 8: Airborne and GTA San Andreas, i don’t think these games will run smoothly on this tablet given that these games deploy some heavy graphics and visual effects in the game, not to mention, GTA San Andreas uses some huge maps in it.

The good news is, on these 2 games, there is some specific setting that allows you to decrease the use of graphics, particles and visual effects, plus resolution, in the game, so you’re probably still in luck when playing these 2 games on Huawei MediaPad 10 Link.

Camera

Too bad that Huawei MediaPad 10 Link is only packing a 3.15MP camera on its back, coupled with VGA front-facing camera.

It’s really disappointing because other Huawei tablet named Huawei MediaPad (a 7-inch tablet with 1280x800 pixel display) already comes with 5MP camera on the back and 2MP camera on the front that surprisingly are able to take 720p videos.

However, it’s still good to know that this tablet still has that rear-facing camera.

Its quality may not be something to write home about, but at least, it still gets the job done, especially if you’re only using it to take some decent shots that you wanna brag on your Instagram or Twitter followers.

Battery Life

On the battery life sector, Huawei MediaPad 10 Link comes with a huge 6600mAh battery.

This battery capacity may not be as huge as other rivals on the market to date, which mostly use battery capacity more than 7000mAh, however, for doing some heavy daily tasks, this tablet could still deliver a great battery life performance to the users.

It could probably last all day long in one full charge, especially given its medium-resolution display that doesn’t ask too much energy from the battery, although its processor is power hungry, given its 4 set of cores.

However, if you intend to use this tablet for doing some heavy intense usage without resting the screen, like for watching some tv series in marathon or playing games in the row, then its battery life could drain much even faster than expected, probably around 5 to 7 hours in those heavy intense usage, which is still considered as good for a media-consumption tablet, but not that great compared to rivals.

My Personal Opinions

So to end this review, i just want to say, this tablet is pretty impressive, especially with its 4G LTE support.

It has a good 1280x800 pixel display, a fast powerful processor, a good amount of battery capacity, elegant design and premium feel and the most importantly, a good gaming performance.

One of the highlights on this tablet is definitely its quad-core K3V2 processor made by Huawei’s subsidiary, HiSIlicon, which is pretty interesting given that it’s rare to see Huawei’s homemade processors around the market.

However, there are still many weaknesses found here and there on this tablet.

The most noticeable con on Huawei MediaPad 10 Link is definitely its 3.15MP camera, which is pretty disappointing given that most of 10.1-inch tablets these days are already packing some great 5MP camera, even 8MP camera.

In fact, the other Huawei tablet named Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD, even already comes with 8MP camera on its back.

So this kind of makes us think if this tablet is worth enough to buy, compared to its sibling, Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD, which has full HD display and great 8MP camera, not to mention, it also has the same 4G LTE just like Huawei MediaPad 10 Link.

But then again, the gaming performance of this Huawei MediaPad 10 Link must also become your first consideration because the processor inside this Huawei tablet (quad-core K3V2 processor) probably could deliver a much better and faster performance on a rather medium-resolution 720p display on Huawei MediaPad 10 Link, compared to the full HD (1920x1200 pixels) display on Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD, which would make the gaming performance run pretty laggy, especially when playing the latest graphically demanding games.

So the decision now will come down to yourself.

If you’re fine with the medium-resolution 720p display on this Huawei MediaPad 10 Link, then go buy it.

And its price might be cheaper than the full HD Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD.

However, if you happen to have more cash in your budget, then you should definitely aim your target at Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD instead given that it has a much higher resolution display, a way higher 8MP camera and many other things that make this tablet much better than Huawei MediaPad 10 Link.

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