Looking for a new Android tablet? Among the big name manufacturers, you don’t have many options to pick from. Google has ditched Android for tablets in favor of Chrome OS, though the Pixel Slate sadly disappointed many reviewers. Xiaomi’s Mi Pad 4 is only sold in China. Samsung just launched the mid-range Galaxy Tab S5e, but the Galaxy Tab S4 is still on sale if you’re looking for something a bit more powerful. Lastly, there’s the 2018 Huawei MediaPad series, with the highest-end tablet sporting the HiSilicon Kirin 960—the same mobile platform that debuted on the late 2016 Huawei Mate 9. Tablets are kept around a bit longer than smartphones for most users, so companies usually don’t refresh their tablet line until a year passes. We’re past due for a new MediaPad from Huawei, but according to firmware files, Huawei may be working on a refreshed version of their highest-end MediaPad M5 Pro.
We found evidence of a Huawei device code-named “CMR2” within the Kirin 970 kernel source code released back in January 2019, though the files themselves are dated from late October 2018. “CMR” is the code-name for the 2018 Huawei MediaPad M5 Pro, so we’re assuming that “CMR2” will be the successor to that model. “CMR2” has a 10.7-inch TFT LCD with a panel resolution of 1600×2560, manufactured by either InnoLux or BOE. It’s powered by the HiSilicon Kirin 970, Huawei’s flagship mobile platform from 2017 which first launched with the Huawei Mate 10 series. The tablet has a 13MP IMX258 or OV13855 sensor on the rear, though I’m not sure about the front-facing camera specification.
That’s all the information I have about the device, unfortunately. It’s possible that “CMR2” has been scrapped since I haven’t seen a single rumor about Huawei releasing any new tablets this year. We’re still in the first quarter of 2019, though. If Huawei does release any new tablets, I would expect to see them launch in September during IFA. Of course, if we learn any new information about this alleged device or other Huawei tablet products, we’ll let you know.
With Huawei, Samsung, OPPO, Xiaomi, and even TCL focusing on foldable smartphones, we may be nearing the death of non-iPad tablets from major device makers. There’s a lot of skepticism about foldables, though, so we’ll have to see if the first commercially available foldable smartphones are as impressive as they look.
Note: Huawei has stopped providing official bootloader unlock codes for its devices. Therefore, the bootloader of the Huawei MediaPad tablets can’t be unlocked, which means that users cannot root or install custom ROMs.
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