Honor has revealed today at IFA that it is releasing two tablets – the Honor Pad 6 and the Honor Pad X6 – globally for the first time. Both tablets are already on sale in China, but now they will be coming to other parts of the world, including the UK and Europe.
Both tablets carry nearly identical internal specs, but the main differences lie in the displays. The Honor Pad 6 comes with a 10.1in screen with slim bezels and a resolution of 1920×1200. Meanwhile, the Pad X6 comes in the same size chassis, but with a slightly smaller 9.7in display with larger bezels and a lower resolution of 1280×800.
Other differences include the exterior colours, with the Pad 6 sporting a grey aluminium finish, and the Pad X6 coming in mint green. The Pad 6 and Pad X6 both offer 3GB RAM and 32GB worth of storage. However, in select markets the Pad 6 is available with 4GB RAM and 64GB worth of storage. In addition, the Pad X6 is available as Wi-Fi only, but the Pad 6 offers both Wi-Fi and LTE variants.
The Honor Pad 6 and Pad X6 both run on Honor’s skin of Android 10, Magic UI 3.1, which is paired with a Kirin 710A chipset.
The Pad 6 and Pad X6 come with a 5Mp rear camera and a 2Mp front-facing snapper, along with dual speakers and a built-in microphone. The Pad 6 also comes equipped with Honor’s new Magic-Pencil, which features 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity.
It’s worth pointing out that despite coming with Android, these tablets will come without Google Mobile Services. Honor is a sub-brand of Huawei, which means that’s also been hit by the US trade ban on Chinese companies. By default, this means that Google cannot provide their services on any phones or tablets from these companies any more.
This means no Google Drive, Google Maps, YouTube or Gmail straight out of the box, as they aren’t available on the Huawei App Gallery. The same goes for some of the major apps available on the Play Store – including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and WhatsApp – which you won’t be able to install directly from Huawei’s app store.
However, Honor does offer a workaround to get hold of some apps on these tablets outside of the official AppGallery by using the Petal Search feature, so you should be able to get most of your daily drivers installed – though it’s not guaranteed.
Nonetheless, there’s still some interesting software to explore on these tablets. Both feature ‘App Multiplier’, which is the ability to run two apps simultaneously side-by-side. There’s also an e-book reading mode, which allows the user to change the brightness and greyscale levels of the screen. Finally, there’s a ‘Kids Corner’ mode to make the tablets family friendly through app management, file access restrictions, time limits and more.
UK and EU pricing for both these tablets has yet to be confirmed. However, in China the Honor Pad 6 is on sale starting from 1,299 yuan (£142/€159), whilst the Pad X6 starts from 1,099 yuan (£120/€134). Sadly, neither tablet will be available to purchase in the USA, as Honor doesn’t typically sell any of its products there.
The Honor Pad 6 and Pad X6 launch alongside updates to Honor’s MagicBook laptop range and two new wearables from the Huawei subsidiary.
Author: Hannah Cowton, Senior Staff Writer
Hannah Cowton is a Senior Staff Writer at Tech Advisor and Macworld, working across entertainment, consumer technology and lifestyle. Her interests and specialities lie in streaming services, film and television reviews and rumours, gaming, wearables and smart home products. She's also the creator of The London Geek, a geek culture and lifestyle blog.