Huawei unveils a Kindle competitor, the MatePad Paper

Huawei Technologies has launched seven new “Smart Office” products, including a top-end laptop, its first printer and e-ink tablet that will compete with Amazon.com’s Kindle.

Consumer Business Group CEO Richard Yu, speaking in a video presentation ahead of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, said the products were a “bold statement” of its Smart Office concept.

President of Huawei’s Western Europe Consumer Business Group William Tian said they would appeal to people who were increasingly working from home.

“These are not standalone devices,” he said in an interview. “We can connect and collaborate much easier with our Super Device concept.” Super Device is a technology that allows Huawei’s products to connect and share capabilities and resources.

Tian said Huawei remained committed to the smartphone market despite the US trade ban, introduced in 2019 and taking full effect a year later, which stopped it using Google’s services on the Android operating system and constrained its chip technology.

“We are going to continue to invest in new technologies to keep our leading position in the smartphone category,” Tian said.  He also said Huawei did not have any issues with the supply of chips for its products.  “We can meet the market demand, we don’t have any supply issue,” he said.

MatePad Paper

Huawei’s new Kindle competitor is called the MatePad Paper and, unlike the Kindle, comes with an electronic pen (the “M-Pencil”, second generation) that allows users to take notes by writing on its screen — Huawei has promised “paper-like writing”.

At 10.3 inches, it is also significantly larger than any of the Kindle devices made by Amazon.

The MatePad paper technical specifications include:

• 10.3-inch e-ink display with 86.3% screen-to-body ratio and a resolution of 1 874x 1 404 pixels, for a pixel density of 227ppi;
• 64GB of storage;
• Hexacore processor;
• 3 625mAh battery;
• Adjustable, 32-level backlight for nighttime reading;
• Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2; and
• Four microphones for taking audio notes and two speakers, which can be used to listen to audio books.

The Huawei MatePad Paper will be priced at €499 in Europe, with the M-Pencil and a folio cover included. TechCentral has asked Huawei whether the device will be launched in South Africa and will update this article once feedback is received.  — Paul Sandle, (c) 2022 Reuters, with additional reporting (c) 2022 NewsCentral Media