Huawei MatePad Pro 12.6 review

Triple-camera on the back

The Huawei MatePad Pro 12.6 has three cameras on its back - there is a primary shooter accompanied by an ultrawide snapper and a ToF sensor. A single LED flash is around, but you will probably use it more as a torch and less as an actual flash.

The primary camera uses a 13MP sensor with 1.12µm pixels behind a 26mm f/1.8 lens. Autofocus is supported. Night Mode is available, too.

The ultrawide camera uses an 8MP sensor with 1.4µm pixels behind 16mm f/2.4 lens. The focus is fixed. There is no Night Mode on this camera.

The third camera is a 0.1MP ToF sensor utilized by the Portrait mode.

The front camera has an 8MP sensor with 1.12µm pixels and a 26mm f/2.0 lens. The focus is also fixed.

The camera app UI looks a lot like the one we've seen on the Huawei Mate X2. There is a shutter key on the right, a switch to enable selfie mode, gallery shortcut, and Mode selector (Aperture, Portrait, Night, Photo, Video). The selector's More entry houses a few additional modes. Things like Slow-Mo, Panorama, Monochrome, Documents, AR Lens, Light painting, Time lapse, Stickers etc.

Camera app

Pro Mode is supported on the main camera - it offers a maximum ISO of 1600, and the slowest shutter speed is 8s.

Photo quality

The 13MP photos from the MatePad pro 12.6 primary rear camera are sharp enough and detailed. The noise is kept reasonably low.

<з>The photos show accurate colors, the contrast is pretty good, too, and the dynamic range was always great.

There were some areas of high complexity, such as intricate foliage and the building blinds, which were not as nicely presented either due to the aggressive noise reduction or as a result of not so competent image stacking. There are noticeable oil-painting-like areas here and there, too.

Main camera, 13MP

The 8MP ultrawide photos are detailed, with good sharpness and low noise for such type of camera. The dynamic range is once again great.

The colors are okay, though a bit cooler than they should be, and the contrast isn't as impressive as on the main camera. Still, those are more than good for social networks.

Ultrawide camera, 8MP

Portraits are shot with the primary snapper with the help of the ToF camera, and you can choose between many different blur effects. Thanks to the ToF hardware, the subject separation is proficient, and then the blur is looking really good.

The portrait photos show balanced skin tones, good sharpness, and pleasant transition between person and background.

Portraits, 13MP

Aperture mode is also available. It defaults at F/4.0 simulated aperture, but you can choose between F/0.95 and F/16. The Aperture photos of objects are superb.

F/4.0 • F/2.4 • F/0.95

The low-light photos from the main camera offer good color saturation and balanced exposure. They are lacking in detail big time, though. The photos are soft, hurt by an overly aggressive noise reduction.

Main camera, 13MP

Huawei's signature Night Mode is available, and shots usually take about 10 seconds, meaning you need to keep your hands steady - with a 13" tablet - for quite some time. It does improve the overall exposure and exposes more detail in the background and the sky. But the images turned out soft and have this oil painting look. But for a non-flagship device, the Night Mode does a good enough job.

Night Mode, 13MP

You can use the ultra-wide camera at nighttime, but the photos are smudgy, noisy, desaturated and lacking in detail.

Ultrawide camera, 8MP

The 8MP selfies are great across the board - they are detailed, with excellent colors and accurate colors. The dynamic range is good, and the exposure is appropriate for selfies.

You may have noticed the focus seems to be fixed somewhere behind the subject. It's not that the person is blurry or unpleasantly soft, it's just that the background is sharper.

Front camera, 8MP

And here are a few samples from afar.

Front camera, 8MP

Video quality

The Huawei MatePad Pro 12.6 records video up to 4K at 30fps with its main and ultrawide cameras. The front shooter is limited to 1080p at 30fps. Thanks to the ToF sensor, the main camera can do Aperture videos with blurred background.

Electronic stabilization is available on all cameras and for all resolutions. It's always-on, you cannot opt out of it.

You get a choice of the h.264 and h.265 codecs, and we stuck with the h.264. The 4K footage is treated to a generous 50Mbps bitrate. Audio is always captured stereo with about 192Kbps bitrate.

The main camera captures very good 4K footage with excellent contrast. There is enough detail, and the noise is rather low. Dynamic range is nice and wide, the colors are mostly accurate. Intricate detail such as foliage is once again a bit of a challenge, but for a tablet, the 4K clips are pretty great.

The ultrawide 4K videos are okay with commendable dynamic range. The footage is a bit soft, the color saturation is colder than it should be, and the contrast took a minor hit. Still, those are good for this type of camera and device.

Thanks to the ToF camera, the MatePad Pro can do aperture video - it can blur your background in real-time. The videos are capped at 1080p at 30fps and look convincing, but your subject better stay still, or the focus hunting and exposure shift may ruin the footage.