Huawei MediaPad 7 review: a classic low end tablet for kids

Hi guys, welcome back again to my website! It’s awesome to see you guys here!

A while ago, there is one Huawei tablet that i’ve just showcased in my previous review. It was Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD, a 10.1-inch Android tablet packing a full HD 1920x1200 pixel resolution.

(Huawei MediaPad 7 Specs)


Besides releasing that high-end quality tablet, Huawei also doesn’t want to be left behind by its competitors in mid and low-end tablet markets.

One of their mid end tablets is Huawei MediaPad 7, which is a 7-inch tablet running Android OS.

Interestingly, this Huawei’s 7-inch tablet is also packing some specs that are just on par with the internals inside Samsung’s Tab 3, even much better than Samsung's slate, from its display, processor and it even has the same 3G cellular support, just like Samsung GALAXY Tab.

So if you’re currently looking for a cheap budget tablet that has SIM card slot, then you’re probably gonna consider of getting this tablet, probably as an alternative for Samsung’s slate.

Well, if you’re interested to know more about this device, then here you go, feel free to read my personal review of Huawei MediaPad 7.


The first time i’ve ever heard in my whole life about the tablet from Huawei was around a few months ago, or probably a year ago if i’m not mistaken.

That tablet was Huawei MediaPad 7 Youth.

I was actually not really impressed with this tablet especially with its specs that are just not attractive compared to the names like Google Nexus 7 (2012) or Sony Xperia Tablets, or iPad.

In fact, I haven’t managed to find the video review of that tablet around YouTube. I found some.. but they are not from respectable YouTube channels, or at least, not from any of my favorite YouTube channels that i always check out whenever i’m looking for video reviews about tech or gadgets.

But aside from that tablet, there is another interesting tablet from Huawei that I want to bring up to this website.


This one is actually the sibling of Huawei MediaPad 7 Youth.

And it’s called Huawei MediaPad 7. That's it. No codename and no model name.

I’m not really sure if this tablet is in the same generation with Huawei MediaPad 7 Youth or not.

But looking at the name of this tablet, i’m pretty positive that this tablet is the other model from the tablet lineup of Huawei MediaPad 7 Youth.

Huawei MediaPad 7 is a 7-inch Android tablet that is packing some pretty cool specs that are on par with the ones on Samsung GALAXY Tab 2.

I think it’s really obvious that this tablet is released by Huawei as the contender for Samsung’s slate given that they both share 1 in common.

And that is the support for SIM card slot for 3G cellular connectivity.

But the question is, compared to Samsung GALAXY Tab 2, does this Huawei tablet have all what it takes to compete with any cheap budget tablets out there, especially Samsung’s tablet?

Well, we’re about to find out about that in this review.


In terms of design, there is actually nothing very special about Huawei MediaPad 7.

This tablet has that really generic looking design with some standard elements like: rounded corners, standard bezels, thick chrome or metallic trimming around the side, and pretty much everything on this tablet just doesn’t have its own footprint or characteristic compared to rivals, although its thick metallic trimming looks really unique.

However, there is one cool thing on this tablet that is still worth showing off around the public.

And that is its premium looking back cover made from aluminum material.

Its back cover actually kind of reminds me with the design of Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD or Huawei MediaPad 10 Link, which both also have that premium aluminum-plated back cover with some plastic finish on the top area around the camera.



But aside from that, i don’t see anything special from the design of Huawei MediaPad, especially compared to Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD and Huawei MediaPad 10 Link that have that nice looking and elegant design on the front and back, despite being underdogs in tablet market.

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• Mini-SIM
• Announced 2011, Q3
• Status Available
• Weight 390 g
• 7.0 inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 800 x 1280 pixels, 256K colors (~216 ppi pixel density)
• Dual-core 1.2 GHz Scorpion Qualcomm MSM8260 Snapdragon Chipset
• Adreno 220GPU
• 1 GB RAM
• Android OS 3.2 Honeycomb, upgradable to v4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
• SRS sound enhancement
• 5 MP rear-facing camera, capable to take 720p@30fps videos
• 1.3 MP front-facing camera, capable to take 720p@30fps videos
• microSD card slot for up to 32 GB
• 5.8 GB Internal storage, 8 GB ROM
• GPRS
• EDGE
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot
• HDMI port
• No Radio
• GPS
• Bluetooth
• USB
• Java MIDP emulator
• Non-removable Li-Po 4100 mAh battery

Given that this tablet falls in the cheap budget tablet category, then you can’t complain on the specs of this tablet.

Besides, Samsung GALAXY Tab 2/3, is also packing some specs that are not that impressive, especially compared to other budget tablets out there, like Tegra Note 7, Google Nexus 7 (2013), HP Slate 7 Extreme or Kindle Fire HDX 7.

Huawei MediaPad 7 comes with some pretty cool specs on it, from a 7-inch display packing the resolution of 1280x800 pixels, which adopts a palm-friendly IPS LCD capacitive display.

And then, there is a 1.2GHz dual-core Scorpion processor (Qualcomm chipset), 1GB of RAM, Adreno 220, 5MP rear-facing camera, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich comes pre-installed, 4100mAh power battery and the most importantly, the 3G cellular connectivity support with mini-SIM card, which is still pretty rare to see around budget tablet market.

Last but not least, there are microSD card slot and HDMI port on this tablet, which have been lacking on Google Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire tablets.


As a budget tablet, i’m glad to see this Huawei MediaPad 7 already use an HD 720p display (1280x800 pixels).

This display may not be as impressive compared to the competitors like Google Nexus 7 or Kindle Fire HDX 7 that are already packing a full HD 1920x1200 pixel display.

However, having a 1280x800 pixel resolution on a smaller 7-inch screen size is actually already considered as great, even for today’s standards.

Besides, many of mid-end 7-inch tablets these days like Tegra Note 7, HP Slate 7 Extreme and 1st-gen Google Nexus 7 are still using this same 720p display.

So this tablet still deserves to be positioned on today’s tablet market.


The User Interface of this tablet is actually pretty similar with other regular Android tablets out there.

It even has many standard features that many other tablets already have, like multi-window mode (which allows you to float multiple app windows on the screen at the same time), standard homescreen with widgets, notification window, setting window and standard app drawer.

So if you’re already in love with the standard UI of Android OS, then you will feel at home when using this tablet.


In terms of performance, Huawei MediaPad 7 is definitely not a fair comparison to other 7-inch rivals like Google Nexus 7 (2013), Kindle Fire HDX 7, Tegra Note 7, HP Slate 7 Extreme, LG G Pad 8.3 or iPad mini 2.

These more superior tablets will simply blow Huawei MediaPad out of the water, when it comes to performance and hardware specs.

However, if you’re only looking for a tablet that has pretty good performance and also has 3G cellular support, then Huawei MediaPad can still be a good choice for you.

Besides, given its low-end specs, this tablet will fall in the cheap budget tablet category, so the price will not cost you arm and leg.

And then again, its closest rival, Samsung GALAXY Tab 2/3, is also not that impressive in terms of hardware and performance, especially its 1024x600 pixel display that is lower than the 1280x800 pixel display on this Huawei tablet.

So Huawei MediaPad is still considered as good in its class.

Anyway, with the specs like a dual-core Qualcomm MSM8260 Snapdragon Scorpion processor clocked at 1.2GHz per core, 1GB of RAM and Adreno 220 GPU, you can use this tablet to do anything that you want, from watching movies, reading books, browsing the web or even playing games.

And the fact that this tablet only uses a rather medium 1280x800 pixel display, also makes the performance of this tablet run much faster and smoother given that its dual-core CPU is only tasked to deliver its power to a medium-resolution display, which doesn’t require many pixels to execute.

So this will be great for its performance and the most importantly, its battery life.

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Despite not having some monster hardware specs, I’m personally pretty impressed with the gaming performance of this tablet.

It may not be as great as other competing rivals like Tegra Note 7, Google Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HDX 7, HP Slate 7 Extreme, iPad mini 2 with retina display or LG G Pad 8.3, however, for playing some graphically demanding games, this tablet surprisingly is capable to deliver a good performance.

And that is not surprising given that this tablet is powered by a dual-core Qualcomm Scorpion processor clocked at 1.2GHz per core, accompanied with 1GB of RAM and Adreno 220, which has been known as a great graphics chipset for tablets.

As a comparison, today’s 7-inch Android high-end tablets are powered by Adreno 320 or Adreno 330.

So the Adreno 220 GPU on this Huawei tablet can still be considered as pretty good for today’s standards, but not great.

For games like Modern Combat 4, Need for Speed Most Wanted, Asphalt 7: Heat and many other graphics intense games, this tablet is more than capable to play these games in buttery smooth performance, but not in high graphics setting.

As for Need for Speed Most Wanted, even though this game runs in high graphics on this tablet, this game doesn’t run so smoothly and there are consistent choppiness and stutters along the gameplay, which kind of ruins the overall experience of playing this game.

Meanwhile, for the latest high performing games like Asphalt 8: Airborne, GTA San Andreas or Dead Trigger, i don’t think these games can be played smoothly on this tablet, especially in full graphics.

So you might need to set their graphics to the low level in order to perform much smoother consistently.

But i can't guarantee if these 2 games can be played on this tablet or not. But i'll surely let you know once i've found out about that in the future.


Impressively, on this cheap budget tablet, there is a 5MP rear-facing camera, coupled with 1.3MP camera on the front, which both can do 720p video recording, which is pretty nice for a budget tablet.

But don’t expect the photos and videos taken on this tablet to be as great as other rivals out there, like iPad mini 2, Samsung GALAXY Note 8 or Tegra Note 3.

However, for a cheap budget tablet, the 5MP camera on this camera is actually still better than the 3.5MP camera on Samsung GALAXY Tab 2/3.

Besides, it might come in handy in case you forgot to bring your digital camera or smartphone, right?

Its quality may not be something to write home about, but at least, it still gets the job done, and are still worth showing off to your Instagram or Twitter followers.


It’s great to see that Huawei MediaPad is still powered by a pretty big 4100mAh power battery.

For today’s standards, especially in 7-inch tablet market, this battery capacity is actually considered as good given that many of 7-inch tablets out there are mostly powered by battery capacity around 4000mAh – 5000mAh.

So for doing some heavy daily tasks, like, say, watching HD movies, reading books, listening to music, browsing the web or playing games, this tablet could probably still last all day long, of course in one full charge.

The fact that this tablet is only packing an HD 720p display (1280x800 pixels), could also impact directly to its battery life.

But then again, given that this tablet is only powered by a dual-core processor, it might not drain too many of energy from its battery that is already big, even in heavy usage.

However, if you intend to use this tablet to do some heavy intense tasks without resting the screen, like for watching tv series in marathon or playing games in the row, then its battery life could probably survive around 5 to 7 hours, especially thanks to its HD display.

But this is still considered as pretty good for a media-consumption device, but not that great.


So my conclusion on this tablet is, despite being a cheap budget tablet, i personally think that Huawei MediaPad is still a pretty good tablet, especially in its class.

Compared to more popular rivals like Samsung GALAXY Tab 2/3, which both have 3G cellular support, i think it’s just no brainer that this Huawei tablet is much better choice than Samsung’s tablet.

Huawei MediaPad has much higher resolution display (1280x800 pixels, as opposed to the 1024x600 pixels on Samsung GALAXY Tab 2/3), it has fast processor, pretty powerful graphics chipset (Adreno 220 GPU, which is fully-supported by many game developers), a good 5MP rear-facing camera that is able to take 720p videos (which is nice for a budget tablet), a strong 4100mAh battery, and the most importantly, it has the support of 3G cellular connectivity, making it easier to connect to the internet when there is no WiFi around you.

So if you’re looking for a much better alternative than Samsung GALAXY Tab 2/3, then this Huawei MediaPad 7 can be good option for you.

It may not come from a popular brand.

However, given that Huawei has shown its seriousness in smartphone industry (proved by its Huawei Ascend family that are so awesome!), then you can also expect the same thing on the tablets made by this company.

This Huawei tablet is definitely the one that you don’t wanna miss in cheap budget tablet market.

Have any question? Leave your comment here!