New cutting-edge Android tablet beats the iPad on | Tech News

It’s almost time for Mobile World Congress (MWC), the annual technology commerce show that takes place in Barcelona yearly. This yr it runs from March 2 to March 5. Though it’s no longer the occasion the place all the yr’s prime Android telephones are launched, many enormous manufacturers flip up and use the stage to unveil their newest technology, and it appears this yr will probably be no totally different.

Leading the charge is Honor, the Chinese tech firm that was once owned by Huawei. Honor has lifted the lid early to share pictures and specs of its new MagicPad 4, an Android tablet with some very eye-catching numbers connected to it that would tempt you away from shopping for that iPad Pro you’ve been enthusiastic about.

The MagicPad 4, is Honor claims, the “world’s thinnest tablet” with a thickness of simply 4.8mm. That makes it marginally thinner than the 5.1mm iPad Pro and 5.1mm Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra that it seems to be set to compete with.

One factor Honor hasn’t instructed us but is the price, so it stays to be seen if the MagicPad 4 will compete in opposition to the £999 iPad Pro or the £599 iPad Air – although final yr’s MagicPad 3 retailed for £599, so it’s doubtless the latter.

But whichever rival tablets Honor is hoping to woo you away from, the MagicPad 4 appears to have the specs to struggle with the best of them. In a slim chassis that weighs simply 450g, the tablet packs in a 12.3-inch OLED show with 165Hz refresh price. That’s a very easy scrolling panel, technically beating the 120Hz ProMovement screens you’ll discover on the iPad Pro and positively topping the 60Hz of the iPad Air.

Honor says the MagicPad 4 is the first tablet on the market to have the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 processor – which is the not-quite-top-tier Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 present in telephones similar to the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra and OnePlus 15, however must be more than enough oomph for many tablet tinkerers.

Not solely that but it surely additionally packs in a enormous 10,100mAh battery that’s suitable with 66W fast charging so you may prime up shortly should you’re out and about and on the transfer. For those that are, Honor’s PC Mode provides a desktop-like consumer interface, and the tablet is suitable with keyboard and stylus equipment, so you could possibly invest in the MagicPad 4 and have a tablet and laptop computer in a single.

“For a complete mobile office, the tablet, keyboard, and stylus combined weigh approximately 852g, making the entire setup lighter than a 13-inch MacBook Air,” honor stated in a press release.

It wouldn’t be a tech launch in 2026 with out a bit of AI, and Honor makes sure to tick that box with the tablet getting instruments similar to AI Memo sensible assistant that may supposedly routinely generate assembly notes and even label totally different audio system, plus instruments to summarise recordings and paperwork, audio modifying options and more.

And should you can’t fairly depart all of your Apple gadgets behind, Honor says the MagicPad 4 can connect with Macs for use as an prolonged screen, and may immediately connect with your iPhone, iPad or Mac to share recordsdata.

We must wait till MWC for Honor to announce the price of the MagicPad 4, however this new slate will probably be tempting for Android followers in search of a head-turning design and up-to-the-minute specs.