This midrange tablet with a matte OLED display is a gaming surprise
A slim tablet actually designed for productivity and creative work turns out to be a real gaming surprise in our review. Not because the Huawei MatePad Air (2026) impresses with high-frame-rate gaming, but because the Android tablet, which is just 5.3 millimeters thick and does not perform very well in our graphics benchmarks, delivers quite convincing results in current Android games.
Combined with the excellent viewing experience offered by the MatePad Air's 12-inch PaperMatte OLED display, its impressive sound system and good battery life, it is certainly an option for casual gamers.
The MatePad Air 2026 delivers a solid 60 fps in the open-world game Genshin Impact
At the heart of the Huawei tablet is an in-house Kirin T93C, backed by 12 GB of RAM. In GPU benchmarks such as GFXBench, the Huawei chip manages a meager 13 fps in the 4K test.
In everyday gaming, however, the MatePad Air performs surprisingly well. Classic games such as Dead Trigger 2 run smoothly as expected, but so does PUBG Mobile at high graphics settings (UHD setting). Here, the Huawei tablet achieves a steady 40 fps.
The MatePad Air 2026 also runs the demanding open-world game Genshin Impact very smoothly at high detail settings. At maximum graphics settings, we measure a frame rate of 60 fps.
The only drawback with Huawei's mid-range tablet is that true high-frame-rate gaming above 60 fps is not possible.
An outstanding sound system in an Android tablet
The built-in sound system creates the right gaming atmosphere. Huawei impresses with its six speakers in our review. Thanks to the high volume, even enemy footsteps can be pinpointed accurately.
To keep the gaming fun from ending too soon, Huawei fits a 10,100 mAh battery despite the slim design. With 66-watt fast charging, this great alternative of the iPad Air (available on amazon.com) is ready to go again fairly quickly.
Source(s)
Review of the MatePad Air 2026
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