Huawei's new MatePad Pro 12 is thinner than an iPhone — but good luck buying one
Huawei has taken its thinnest tablet yet to a global stage, unveiling the MatePad Pro 12 (2026) in Munich. At just 4.7mm thick and 454 grams, it's slimmer than an iPhone 16 and lighter than a Galaxy Tab S11 — and at €799, it's positioned well below the iPad Pro 11's €1,299 European price. The catch: Huawei has given no confirmed release date or pricing for the US or UK.
The hardware
The MatePad Pro 12 packs a 12-inch OLED display running at 3036×1952 pixels, 144Hz, and up to 1,600 nits peak brightness. A PaperMatte anti-glare version is also available for those who work outdoors or under harsh office lighting. The Kirin T93 chipset pairs with 12GB of RAM and either 256GB or 512GB of storage. The tablet ships with HarmonyOS 4.3, supports Huawei's M-Pencil Pro stylus, and snaps to a magnetic Glide Keyboard — the combination Huawei is pitching as a laptop replacement.
Huawei MatePad Pro 12 (2026) — 4.7mm profile in Blue and Space Gray.
The EU model carries a 9,760 mAh battery, slightly smaller than the 10,400 mAh unit in the Chinese and rest-of-world versions — a regulatory difference that's becoming common for large-capacity cells sold in Europe. All variants top up at 66W wired charging. A 50-megapixel main camera rounds out the spec sheet.
The PaperMatte OLED display option reduces glare for outdoor and bright-light use.
The availability problem
The Munich event was a global debut in name, but Huawei disclosed no regional release dates or retailer partnerships, per GSMArena. European pricing of €799–€899 was confirmed, according to PhoneArena, but that's the extent of what's solid.
For US buyers, the picture is bleaker. US import restrictions effectively block Huawei hardware from American retail, and the absence of Google services makes the tablet a hard sell even if it does ship. UK availability is also unconfirmed, with no retailer or launch window announced.
Worth watching
If the MatePad Pro 12 reaches European shelves broadly, it puts real pressure on iPad Pro pricing — a €500 gap is hard to ignore, even accounting for the HarmonyOS ecosystem trade-off. The form-factor story is genuine: 4.7mm is thinner than almost anything on the market right now. Whether that translates into a product most people can actually buy remains, for now, an open question.