Guide
How to add Google apps to Huawei devices
by Michelle Brändle
Huawei Matepad Pro 12.2: a matt OLED tablet for painting and reading
30.6.2025
Translation: Katherine Martin
Huawei’s new OLED tablet is a worthwhile investment, even if there’s a slight faff involved in getting Google apps. The Matepad Pro 12.2’s matt surface makes me lose myself in painting.
The Huawei Matepad Pro 12.2 has a stylish matt OLED display. It’s lightweight and comes with a keyboard, allowing you to browse the internet, work and watch videos on the go. If you treat yourself to the matching stylus, you can create digital masterpieces with the free painting app.
The tablet’s lack of Google services might be a sticking point for some. However, if you can get by without them or don’t mind doing a bit of tinkering, the device has plenty to offer.
Design and display: I love the matt OLED!
The Huawei Matepad Pro 12.2 hits that sweet spot for tablets used on the go. It measures in at 27 × 18 centimetres (just less than an A4 sheet of paper), is 5.5 millimetres thick and weighs just 500 grammes. This is noticeable when I get my hands on the device; thanks to its rounded edges, I can easily hold it for long periods of time.
This tablet’s pièce de résistance is its 12.2-inch OLED display in 3:2 format. Compared to LCDs, the OLED stands out with significantly stronger contrasts and deeper black levels. With a resolution of 2,800 × 1,840 pixels, the image quality is razor-sharp. If you’re keen on smooth animations, you’ll love watching them at the tablet’s 144-hertz refresh rate. Should you want to save power, you can also limit the rate to 60 or 120 hertz. This gives you up to an hour of extra battery life. Although the Matepad 12.2 only briefly achieves its very high peak brightness of 2,000 nits, the display’s always clearly readable, even in sunlight. That’s also partly down to the matt surface, which disperses reflections.
Hardware: upper-mid range
The Matepad Pro 12.2 boasts 12 GB of RAM and 512 GB of internal memory, which is more than enough for me. This is just as well, given the device doesn’t have a memory card slot. The tablet’s powered by Huawei’s Kirin T91 processor. Although the chip struggles with graphics-intensive applications, it’s absolutely fine for everyday use and most tasks.
I pitted the Matepad Pro 12.2 against two Samsung tablets for my Geekbench 6 benchmark comparison. The equally expensive Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra (with the Mediatek Dimensity 9300) achieved significantly higher scores, especially when it came to OpenCL and Vulkan. The Matepad didn’t come off too well in the 3DMark test either. Even Samsung’s predecessor, the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra, delivered significantly more computing power with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 on board. This demonstrates that Huawei’s focusing on everyday use instead of raw gaming power. The tablet copes really well with simple office tasks, videos and similar applications, even when you have several tabs open side by side.
There’s one important thing I should mention: since it doesn’t feature 5G or LTE, you can’t use mobile data on the tablet. Wireless communication is limited to Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2.
The Matepad Pro 12.2’s 10,000 mAh battery is energy efficient. It lasted almost 13 hours in PCMark, a benchmark that simulates everyday situations such as watching videos and browsing the internet. It takes about an hour and a half to fully charge the tablet with up to 40 watts – a performance in line with today’s standard.
The tablet boasts a 13-megapixel main camera with 4K video recording (3,840 × 2,160 pixels) for taking photos and videos. It captures better footage and images than a typical tablet, presenting more than just an improvised solution for scanning documents. You can also use depth of field with the additional eight-megapixel camera. There’s also an eight-megapixel front camera, which makes short work of video calls and selfies.
Accessories: comes with a well-conceived keyboard for free
It’s a major plus that Huawei provides a keyboard cover with the tablet, saving you what might otherwise be an eye-wateringly high surcharge. There’s a stylus available separately, but you can also use the device with a mouse. Nearlink technology allows you to rapidly pair the keyboard and stylus.
The keyboard looks high quality and typing on it feels nice. Huawei’s also given it a stylus slot. You can fold back the case when you’re not using the keyboard, but one side of the keyboard will always stick out a little at the rear. Even so, this doesn’t bother me when using the tablet on a day-to-day basis:
Software: sophisticated functions, but some tinkering required
The tablet runs on the HarmonyOS 4.2 operating system, Huawei’s answer to trade restrictions and the discontinuation of Google services. The manufacturer has stacked the tablet with annoying recommendations. To be exact, apps that aren’t on the tablet but are displayed as ads in numerous folders. If you want to get rid of them, you have to deselect the recommendation for each folder, which is just a faff.
I’m not happy with the two-year update periods Huawei currently specifies for the tablet’s system and security. It’s subpar – Huawei would need to add at least two more years just to get even with the competition.
As an alternative to the Google Play store, I download the Aurora store via the web browser. This is where I get all my non-Google apps, including the SBB public transport app, e-banking and my streaming app. They all run seamlessly. Just be aware that Google services such as Maps, Books and Gmail don’t work with Aurora. If you want to get Google apps on your device, you’ll need to take a different approach, such as the one I described in this article:
Using Google apps isn’t impossible, but it takes a certain amount of technical understanding, patience and a willingness to embrace fiddliness.
I adore reading, painting and watching videos on the matt display
The Huawei MatePad Pro 12.2’s matt display turns out to be my personal highlight. It also makes the tablet more pleasant to use in a number of areas:
Feels like reading on paper
I like reading on the tablet and find it much more pleasant on a reflection-free matt display. Huawei’s blue-light filter and black-and-white mode are an added bonus on that front. You can adjust the blue-light filter to preset levels and even activate it automatically using a timer for relaxed evening reading sessions. If you prefer a super-dark screen, you can switch on dark mode with the touch of a button or schedule it to come on automatically.
Getting creative with GoPaint and notes
Huawei’s in-house painting app really gets my artist’s heart racing. GoPaint is an absolute dream thanks to the matt display. It reminds me of using real paper. The app has a similar structure to the iPad’s Procreate software, so I quickly get to grips with it. Huawei provides the app free of charge, including regular updates with new brushes and improvements.
The Matepad Pro 12.2 is also suitable for taking notes. It comes preinstalled with a brilliant note-taking app, reminiscent of GoodNotes. Featuring a variety of possibilities such as numerous brush tools, formatting options and stickers, it’s perfect for recording and structuring your musings.
Enjoy reflection-free videos
I even think the matt display is great for watching videos. The OLED technology delivers rich colours and strong contrasts. And the sound? Astonishingly good for a tablet, provided you don’t turn up the volume all the way.
In a nutshell
Great even without Google apps
The Huawei Matepad Pro 12.2 is an impressive tablet with decent hardware. It also has an outstanding display that’s particularly well suited to creative tasks such as painting and writing.
Despite the Matepad lagging behind rival tablets in graphics-intensive benchmarks, its performance is still up to par. The battery lasts for more than one working day, while the included keyboard cover makes for a convenient workflow. Many potential buyers’ biggest sticking point will probably be the lack of Google services. However, if these aren’t essential for you or if you’re prepared to do a bit of fiddling, you’ll get a great device.
The tablet is too expensive for a device with a stingy two years of updates. We’re currently only stocking the gold predecessor version, and it isn’t yet clear whether that’ll change.
If you can make do with an IPS display instead of an OLED one and get by on slightly less memory (256 GB), the Huawei 12 X would be a viable alternative for you. It costs almost half as much as the Matepad Pro 12.2, is available on Galaxus and comes with a keyboard. In my opinion, it’s good value for money.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S10+, a waterproof tablet that comes with a stylus, more processing power and Google services, would be a decent option too. It’s also cheaper than the Matepad Pro 12.2, but comes without a keyboard.
Pro
- Matt OLED display
- Comes with a keyboard
- Long battery life
Contra
- Only two years of updates
- Requires some tinkering to get Google services
- Expensive
Header image: Michelle Brändle
In my world, Super Mario chases Stormtroopers with a unicorn and Harley Quinn mixes cocktails for Eddie and Peter at the beach bar. Wherever I can live out my creativity, my fingers tingle. Or maybe it's because nothing flows through my veins but chocolate, glitter and coffee.
Tablet
Follow topics and stay updated on your areas of interest
9 comments
later