Huawei MatePad Air (2024) arrives with ultra-thin design and 1,000-nit display
Huawei has updated the MatePad Air, which it now sells as the MatePad Air (2024). Arriving alongside the MatePad Pro 12.2, the new MatePad Air has a bigger footprint than its predecessor thanks to the inclusion of a larger display. Specifically, Huawei now equips its iPad Air (curr. $559 on Amazon) rival with a 12-inch IPS display, which stretches its body from 261.9 x 178.2 x 6.4 mm to 270 x 183 x 5.9 mm.
For reference, this new display continues to output at the same 2,800 x 1,840-pixel resolution as its predecessor. Consequently, the MatePad Air (2024) has a less pixel-dense panel than the MatePad Air (2023), although this is offset with 1,000 nits peak brightness and the return of a 144 Hz refresh rate. Additionally, this year's MatePad Air weighs 555 g, a 9.25% increase on its predecessor.
Nonetheless, the extra 47 g in weight has allowed Huawei to incldue a 22% larger battery, which has grown from 8,300 mAh to 10,100 mAh while also gaining 66 W wired charging. On top of that, Huawei has equipped its new tablet with 13 MP primary, 8 MP ultra-wide-angle and 8 MP front-facing cameras. Unfortunately, Huawei has not provided any information about the chipset that powers the MatePad Air (2024), nor if it is more powerful than the Snapdragon 888 that underpins its predecessor.
The MatePad Air (2024) starts in China for CNY 2,899 (~$405) with 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. Alternatively, the tablet can be purchased with 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB or 512 GB of storage for CNY 3,199 (~$447) and CNY 3,899 (~$545), respectively. As is often the case, Huawei has not confirmed whether or when it intends to release the MatePad Air (2024) globally.
