Huawei MediaPad 7 Vogue review: a pretty impressive gaming tablet, but only for older games

Hi tablet gamers, glad to see you guys again!

Yesterday, there was a bunch of Huawei’s homemade tablets that just got reviewed on this website, ranging from low to mid and to high-end models.

(Huawei MediaPad 7 Vogue Specs)


Talking about Huawei premium tablets, then it leads me to 2 of Huawei tablets, Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD and Huawei MediaPad 10 Link.

Both of these tablets actually fall in 2 different markets. And it’s shown clearly by the entire spec sheet of both tablets.


However, despite being 2 completely different category tablets, they both actually can be considered as on par on the performance, given that these 2 tablets are packing the same exact K3V2 quad-core processor, which is designed, engineered and manufactured by Huawei’s subsidiary, HiSilicon.

And i’ve personally already seen the gaming performances of these 2 tablets around YouTube, which are pretty impressive.

So with that being said, then you can expect the same thing on the same tablet I'm going to talk about here, Huawei MediaPad 7 Vogue.

In fact, i strongly believe the gaming performance of this tablet will be much even faster and smoother than on 2 of the aforementioned tablets above.

The reason to back that argument is because, just like Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD and Huawei MediaPad 10 Link, this Huawei MediaPad 7 Vogue is also packing the same exact K3V2 quad-core processor and 16GHz graphics chipset, which is powerful for handling heavy tasks, especially high-performing games.

But i’ll talk more about its gaming performance later on (after the break? :D).

Well, if you’re currently looking forward to getting this tablet but still want to find out about its performance, especially its gaming performance, then here you go, my personal review of Huawei MediaPad 7 Vogue.


As an unpopular brand, apparently, it doesn’t mean that Huawei will sacrifice the quality of their devices.

In fact, from many manufacturers around the tablet market, i think Huawei is one of the tablet manufacturers that really takes this business seriously.

And it’s clearly shown by its Huawei tablets.

I mean, most of us already know that, when it comes to Android tablets, then the things that will pop up in our head are around ugly design, laggy performance, horrible build quality and so on and so on.

And we will always compare them with Apple’s pride slate, iPad, with all of its smooth experience, fast performance, premium design, well-built quality, well-optimized apps, bla.. bla.. bla..

But i think that is SO wrong about that stereotyping.

In the past few years, Android tablet manufacturers have improved quite significantly especially in making so much even better Android tablets to end users, followed by Google that also keeps improving its Android OS to be much faster and smoother, and still using the full-fledged features that we’ve come to love.

Not to mention, many game developers that are starting to notice how profitable it is to make games on Google Play Store, thus supplying more and more well-optimized apps for Android tablets.


Anyway, talking about Huawei, the reason why i’m pretty impressed with this tablet manufacturer is because, besides developing its own processor for its tablets, most of Huawei tablets actually look kind of cool and even have premium feel just like the iPad.

That’s thanks to Huawei’s brave decision to use aluminum material on its tablets, especially the high-end ones, instead of using cheap polycarbonate plastic material.

And this is something that is probably rare to see around Android tablet market these days (with the exception of LG G Pad 8.3 and Sony Xperia tablets that have premium design and material).

Huawei MediaPad 7 Vogue is one of them.

Despite being a budget tablet, Huawei MediaPad 7 Vogue still inherits the same premium material of its older brothers, Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD and MediaPad 10 Link.

But design is not the only thing that makes this low-end tablet feel premium.

On the performance sector, this tablet could also deliver the similar performance with those 2 siblings, thanks to the same K3V2 quad-processor that is embedded inside this tablet.

But the question is, with these goodies found on this tablet, does Huawei MediaPad 7 Vogue have what it takes to compete with the other 7-inch rivals in the low-to-mid-end category, like Tegra Note 7, HP Slate 7 Extreme, Kindle Fire HDX 7 or Google Nexus 7? Well, we’re about to find out about that in this review.

So stick around guys !


The design of Huawei MediaPad 7 Vogue actually looks really generic with other Android tablets out there, of course the budget ones.

It actually kind of reminds me with the design of Asus MemoPad 7 HD, although not as cheap as the design of this Asus’ tablet.

The great thing that i like from this Huawei tablet compared to Asus MemoPad 7 HD is that, its back cover is made from a more premium aluminum material, which makes it look sturdy and feel premium on the back.

The back cover of this tablet also reminds me with most of Huawei MediaPad tablets i’ve already showed you before on this website; with those different layers used especially around the camera area, which uses plastic finish, contradicts with the entire aluminum-plated material all over the back.

I think this has become the design language of all Huawei tablets, in order to give them more characteristic compared to other generic Android tablets out there.

I personally never saw any Android tablet has the same 2 different materials, plastic and aluminum, being used on the back cover, although there is nothing new about this because Google Nexus 10 from Samsung also has the same type of back cover design, with the plastic material being the part that can be opened manually, maybe for SIM card slot or microSD card slot.

Overall, i kind of like the design of this tablet.

I think it’s impressive to see such a budget tablet like this can have this premium feel and material, which is really rare to see around the Android tablet market, even until now.

And more impressively, this tablet is not even a mid-end device, given its entire spec sheet (like its low-resolution display, low quality camera), although it still has 2 powerful elements, SIM card slot and powerful quad-core processor.

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• Mini-SIM
• Released 2013, July
• 7.0 inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 600 x 1024 pixels, 16M colors (~170 ppi pixel density)
• Quad-core 1.2 GHz Huawei K3V2 Chipset
• 1 GB RAM
• Android OS 4.1 Jelly Bean
• Emotion UI 1.5
• 3.15 MP rear-facing camera,
• VGA front-facing camera
• microSD card slot for up to 32 GB
• 8 GB Internal
• GPRS Class 12
• EDGE Class 12
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, DLNA
• GPS
• Java MIDP emulator
• Bluetooth
• USB
• No Radio
• Non-removable Li-Po 4100 mAh battery
• Up to 20 hours for talk time

Specs-wise, Huawei MediaPad 7 Vogue can be quite confusing.

I mean, by looking at its design, especially its aluminum material, i think this tablet deserves to be called as mid-end device.

However, when looking at some of its sectors, like its display and camera, which are 2 main important elements on any tablet, Huawei MediaPad 7 Vogue could also fall into a low-end budget tablet, given that most of mid-end tablets (like Tegra Note 7, Google Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HDX 7 or HP Slate 7 Extreme) already adopt the higher resolution display and 5MP rear-facing camera.

And then, the fact that this Huawei tablet also comes with SIM card slot and powerful K3V2 quad-core processor, makes Huawei MediaPad 7 Vogue look better than other 7-inch rivals that don’t have 3G cellular support.

However, despite all the goodies like SIM card slot and powerful processor, Huawei MediaPad 7 Vogue should sit alongside Samsung GALAXY Tab 3 7.0, which both share the same quality specs, like 1024x600 pixel display, 3.15MP camera, around 4000mAh battery and also SIM card slot.

Anyway, Huawei MediaPad 7 Vogue comes with a 7-inch display sporting the resolution of 1024x600 pixels, a quad-core K3V2 processor clocked at 1.2GHz, 16GHz graphics chipset, 1GB of RAM, 3.15MP rear-facing camera, VGA camera on the front, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean out of the box, 4100mAh power battery, microSD card slot for up to 32GB, mini-SIM card slot and many more.

Huawei MediaPad 7 Vogue is packing a low-resolution 1024x600 pixel display, which makes it on par with other cheap budget tablets like Samsung GALAXY Tab 3 7 or Acer Iconia Tab A100.

So there is nothing special about its screen.

It doesn’t look that sharp and you will always need to do pinch-to-zoom gesture all the time when your eyes can’t read the text or see the images perfectly in normal view.

Even so, thanks to this low-resolution display, it actually makes the overall performance of this tablet much even faster and smoother.

As a result, the tablet will deliver a great and fast performance, and its battery life could also last much longer due to low-power usage from its processor and low-resolution display.


When it comes to User Interface, there are not many significant differences found on this tablet.

In fact, this tablet comes pre-loaded with some standard features found on other Huawei MediaPad tablets.

So there will be the standard Android homescreen, standard notification window, setting window, app shortcut ring UI on lockscreen key, app drawer and even the multi-window mode that we’ve all come to love from Android tablets, which allows you to float multiple apps on the screen at the same time.


The performance of this Huawei’s tablet is actually similar with other Huawei high-end devices like Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD or Huawei MediaPad 10 Link, given that they all share the same processor, a quad-core K3V2 processor.

In fact, the performance of Huawei MediaPad 7 Vogue could be much even faster and smoother given that this tablet is only packing a rather low-resolution 1024x600 pixel display, compared to its 2 older brothers (or sisters maybe?) that use 1280x800 pixel display (on Huawei MediaPad 10 Link) and a full HD 1920x1200 pixel display on Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD.

So as a result, the overall performance and experience of Huawei MediaPad 7 Vogue will be blazing fast, even for doing some heavy tasks at once, thanks to its 1GB of RAM.

And if you’re gonna use it as a media-consumption device, like for watching movies, browsing the web, reading books or magazines, using live wallpaper and even playing games, then you will feel comfortable when using this tablet because it handles all of these tasks nicely without any lag whatsoever.

I think its quad-core K3V2 processor inside this tablet is really powerful, especially in handling only a low-resolution 1024x600 pixel display on this tablet.

And it’s already proved on its older brothers, Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD and MediaPad 10 Link that both sport the same exact K3V2 processor and are capable to handle most of the tasks so smoothly without any meaningful lags.

So if these 2 tablets are doing great with that processor, then its performance is going to be the same with Huawei MediaPad 7 Vogue, even much faster due to its low-resolution display.

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No doubt this tablet is more than capable to deliver its best performance when playing games.

Thanks to its powerful quad-core K3V2 processor clocked at 1.2GHz per core, accompanied with 1GB of RAM and 16GHz of graphics chipset, this tablet can handle most of the games on Google Play Store in buttery smooth performance and in full graphics.

So if you’re into tablet gaming, then you’re in luck as this tablet is capable to run even the most graphically demanding games like Asphalt 7, Need for Speed Most Wanted, Dead Trigger 1, Modern Combat 4 and N.O.V.A 3, all in smooth performance and the most importantly, in full graphics.

I’ve actually already seen these game run on its sibling, Huawei MediaPad 10 FHD, and they run great and in full graphics, even with that full HD display.

So that’s easy to guess that these games will run much even better on Huawei MediaPad 7 Vogue.

Therefore, if these latest games can all run smoothly and in full high graphics on this tablet, then you can also expect the older-gen games like Modern Combat (1, 2, 3), N.O.V.A (1, 2), Asphalt (5, 6), GTA III, GTA Vice City, ShadowGun, PES 2012, Need for Speed (SHIFT or Undercover), GT Racing Academy, Dungeon Hunter (1, 2) and many other games released in 2013 or before it, to run perfectly well and in full graphics on this tablet.

No doubt about that.

However, when faced with some of very latest games like Asphalt 8: Airborne, GTA San Andreas or GT Racing 2, this tablet may suffer to run these games, especially in full graphics.

In fact, i can’t guarantee you that these games will run greatly on this tablet, even in medium graphics setting given that they are just too heavy to play, with all of their graphics, details and sophisticated visual effects.

But luckily, you can always set their graphics manually through the setting. You’re probably have luck in playing these heavy games in smooth performance.


In terms of camera, interestingly this tablet is packing similar type of camera just like on Samsung GALAXY Tab 3, which is 3.15MP. So this kind of makes me think that Huawei MediaPad 7 Vogue is released by Huawei to counter attack Samsung’s 7-inch GALAXY Tab 3, probably in the hopes to become a better alternative than Samsung’s slate.

So when it comes to quality, the photos and videos taken with this Huawei tablet may not be something to write home about.

In fact, there is nothing special about its camera, other than it’s put there by Huawei to just provide users a facility to take urgent photos or videos.

However, despite not being able to take some great shots, i think it’s still great to see this budget tablet is packing a rear-facing camera on it, regardless its low-quality.

Besides, you’ll never know, it might come in handy in case you forgot to bring your digital camera or smartphone at your disposal.

It might not give you the best photos ever, but at least, it still gets the job done and the photos are still worth sharing to your Instagram or Twitter followers, right?


Huawei MediaPad 7 Vogue is packing 4100mAh power battery inside.

This battery capacity is actually pretty huge given that most of 7-inch tablets are still using the similar amount of battery capacity.

Besides, its closest rival, Samsung GALAXY Tab 3 is still using a slightly lower 4000mAh battery.

So the 4100mAh battery of this Huawei tablet still sounds more impressive, right?

Anyway, with that amount of battery capacity, you can expect to see this tablet last all day long, especially given that it only sports a low-resolution 1024x600 pixel display.

However, if you’re a type of power users and will always use this tablet in heavy usage, its battery life might not last that long because its K3V2 processor, which is probably power hungry given its 4 set of cores, could drain its battery much even faster in less than a day, especially when doing some heavy tasks.

And if you’re going to use this tablet for some heavy intense tasks without resting the screen, like for watching movies/tv series in marathon or playing games in the row, then its battery life could probably last around 5 to 7 hours, which is still considered as good for a 7-inch tablet.


So my last words about this tablet are, i personally think that Huawei MediaPad 7 Vogue is still a good value for the money, despite having some low-end specs.

As a budget tablet, this device definitely falls in the same basket with Samsung GALAXY Tab 3 7.0, given their same quality specs.

They both have the same low-resolution 1024x600 pixel display, the same 3.15MP camera, the on-par processors, equal battery capacities and they both even have 3G cellular connectivity.

But the question, which one of these 2 tablets is better?

Well, i think the answer for that question can be a bit blurry given that they are actually equal one to another.

However, if Huawei’s slate is priced lower than the 7-inch Samsung Tab 3, then without a doubt, Huawei MediaPad 7 Vogue is definitely a much better choice because you’ll get everything that Samsung’s slate has, although its software features will be different.

But on all aspect, i think Huawei tablet is a more suitable choice given that it has a premium feel and design with its aluminum-plated back cover, compared to Samsung’s tablet that probably is not worth showing off in front of public.

Huawei MediaPad 7 Vogue surprisingly is also great for gaming.

And that’s really impressive because i didn’t expect this budget tablet can have a great gaming performance.

So some of the latest graphically demanding games like Asphalt 7, Need for Speed Most Wanted, N.O.V.A 3, Modern Combat 4 and even GTA Vice City, all can be played on this tablet in buttery smooth performance and full graphics (according to video reviews around YouTube).

So if these latest games can all run perfectly and in full graphics on this tablet, then the older-gen games released before 2013 will also play nicely in full graphics on this tablet.

So in conclusion, i personally think that Huawei MediaPad 7 Vogue is a good budget tablet.

It has fast processor, great gaming performance and the most importantly, it comes with mini-SIM card slot, which is really useful to connect to internet whenever you’re not around in WiFi hotspot area.

So yeah, this tablet is definitely worth recommending to you, of course in cheap price range below $199.

However, if you’re looking for a much better choice than this Huawei tablet around $199, you can aim your target at Tegra Note 7, HP Slate 7 Extreme, Google Nexus 7 or Kindle Fire HDX 7.

They may not have SIM card slot, but they have monster specs, way better gaming performance, greater camera and even 2 of them, Tegra Note 7 plus HP Slate 7 Extreme, have great stylus.

Have any question? Leave your comment here!