Tag Archives: Tablets

OnePlus Mini Tablet Leak: Snapdragon 8 Gen 5, OLED Display, and a Real Shot at the iPad Mini

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The Oppo Pad Mini (exclusive to China) serves as a template for what OnePlus’ mini tablet will look like.

Apple, a company that charges a premium for premium display technology, has somehow never put an OLED screen in its most pocket-friendly tablet. The iPad mini sits there in 2025 with a Liquid Retina LCD while the iPad Pro ships with a tandem OLED panel that costs as much as a laptop. That inconsistency has nagged at iPad mini fans for years, the sense that Apple’s smallest tablet is perpetually treated as a second-class citizen in its own lineup. It sells well enough to survive, but never well enough, apparently, to earn the display upgrade it deserves.

OnePlus may be about to make Apple look even more stubborn on that front. A leak from tipster Abhishek Yadav describes a compact OnePlus tablet with an 8.8-inch OLED display, 144Hz refresh rate, and Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 under the hood, paired with LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.1 storage. If those specs hold, OnePlus would be shipping a compact Android tablet with a display technology the iPad mini still does not have. A global launch is reportedly targeting Q3 2026, with India expected to be among the first markets. The hardware pitch is unusually straightforward: better screen, flagship guts, same general size class.

Designer: OnePlus

The spec sheet here reads like OnePlus raided the OnePlus Pad 4’s parts bin and asked engineering to compress it. That larger tablet runs a 13.2-inch IPS LCD with Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, which is a fine machine for productivity but firmly in “bag required” territory. This rumored compact model flips the script entirely, pairing flagship silicon with a form factor you can actually hold one-handed on a commute. The 8,000mAh battery and 67W charging round out a package that looks, on paper, like the small Android tablet the market has been waiting for since the Nexus 7 quietly aged out of relevance over a decade ago.

The honest caveat here is that this hardware almost certainly has a prior life. The spec profile aligns closely with the Oppo Pad Mini, a China-exclusive device that has been doing exactly this job domestically without making a dent in the global conversation. LPDDR5X and UFS 4.1 mean fast memory and storage throughput, the kind of internals that keep a tablet feeling snappy for years rather than sluggish after two software updates. A OnePlus label, a global distribution push, and software support that extends beyond China would transform what is essentially proven hardware into a legitimate mainstream contender.

Pricing remains the missing piece. OnePlus has historically been disciplined about value positioning, which is precisely what makes this device interesting beyond the spec sheet. The iPad mini 7 starts at $499. If OnePlus lands this anywhere south of that number with an OLED panel and Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 inside, the conversation around compact tablets changes in a way it genuinely has not since Apple invented the category.

The post OnePlus Mini Tablet Leak: Snapdragon 8 Gen 5, OLED Display, and a Real Shot at the iPad Mini first appeared on Yanko Design.

Huion Note E Feels Like E-Ink Paper but Actually Draws in Color

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Digital notebooks have been having a moment. E-Ink tablets like the reMarkable and the Kindle Scribe have made a compelling case for leaving the legal pad behind, offering a pen-on-paper feel without all the clutter. But E-Ink’s inherent limitations, from its monochrome display to sluggish refresh rates, have kept it from being the obvious choice for anyone who regularly works with color content.

Huion, best known for its pen tablets and pen displays, is stepping into this space with the Huion Note E, an 8.4-inch Android electronic notebook that takes a different approach entirely. Instead of E-Ink, it uses a soft-light color IPS display with AG nano-etching technology to mimic that familiar pen-on-paper feel, while also delivering the vibrant colors and responsiveness that E-Ink simply can’t offer.

Designer: Huion

The display itself is what sets the Note E apart. It’s 1920×1200 resolution and 270 PPI pixel density outperform most E-Ink screens in sharpness, while the 60Hz refresh rate means scrolling through PDFs doesn’t feel like watching paint dry. Anti-glare etched glass and full lamination bring the pen contact point closer to the pixels beneath, giving strokes a more immediate, grounded feel.

The battery-free PW510 stylus magnetically attaches to the Note E, which helps keep it from getting lost in a bag. It delivers 8,192 levels of pressure sensitivity with a report rate exceeding 400 PPS, fast enough to keep up with even the most impatient sketchers. Pressure and tilt are both recognized, making annotations, signatures, and quick sketches feel far more deliberate than tapping at glass.

The Note E runs Android 15 on a MediaTek Helio G99 chip with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. That’s not a powerhouse and not even the latest specs, but it’s more than enough for the built-in HiPaint drawing app, PDF annotation, and everyday productivity tools from the Play Store. Think of it less as a tablet competing with an iPad and more as a focused digital workspace.

At 7.4mm thick and 348 grams, the Note E is slim enough to slip into a bag without adding noticeable weight, and its 8.4-inch footprint closely matches a standard A5 notebook. A 4,500mAh battery with 18W fast charging keeps it going through long reading and writing sessions, while the magnetic protective case doubles as a stand for more comfortable viewing angles.

Huion has also thought carefully about the software side. A customized launcher opens directly to notes and to-do lists, skipping the usual Android clutter that makes you forget what you sat down to do. Handwritten notes are searchable, PDFs can be annotated in color, and everything can be exported and shared. For project managers, students, and mobile creatives, it’s a pretty compelling combination.

The post Huion Note E Feels Like E-Ink Paper but Actually Draws in Color first appeared on Yanko Design.

Microsoft’s $1,950 Surface Pro 13 Gen 12 Got Smarter: Its Design Didn’t

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The 2-in-1 laptop has had an interesting run. What started as a novelty device that couldn’t decide what it wanted to be has gradually become a workplace staple. IT departments are increasingly looking for machines that can handle everything from a boardroom presentation to a cross-country flight without missing a beat, and the pressure to pack more intelligence into smaller form factors keeps growing.

The Surface Pro has been Microsoft’s answer to this for well over a decade, and the new Surface Pro for Business, 13-inch (12th Edition), largely keeps the formula intact. If you’re expecting a dramatic redesign, it isn’t coming. The magnesium chassis, adjustable kickstand, and detachable keyboard are all still here, which is either a testament to the original design or a sign of a very cautious product team.

Designer: Microsoft

That said, what’s happening inside tells a different story. Powered by Intel Core Ultra Series 3, either the Core Ultra 5 335 or the Core Ultra 7 366H, this Surface Pro hits 50 TOPS through Intel AI Boost, qualifying it as a Copilot+ PC. That means on-device AI is fast enough for a consultant to summarize a contract or an analyst to run through data without needing a cloud connection.

And that AI work happens on a 13-inch PixelSense Flow display running at 2880 x 1920 pixels with a dynamic refresh rate of up to 120Hz, available in an optional OLED for deeper contrast and richer color. The anti-reflective coating is genuinely useful for anyone working in brightly lit offices or outdoor settings, giving this screen a practical advantage over glossier alternatives.

For workers who annotate more than they type, the 2-in-1 flexibility is still the Surface Pro’s most practical feature. Fold the keyboard flat, grab a Surface Slim Pen for Business, and the device shifts from laptop to inking tablet. It’s a workflow that makes sense during a client walkthrough or a field assessment, and one that doesn’t require any extra hardware to pull off.

Under the hood, memory goes up to 64GB of LPDDR5x RAM for anyone running virtual machines or demanding workloads. The removable Gen 4 SSD also matters to enterprise IT teams, who can swap drives without replacing the entire unit. Battery life is promised to reach up to 17 hours on the LCD model, enough for a full day of travel without hunting for a power outlet.

Starting at $1,949.99, this is firmly enterprise territory, especially since that doesn’t include the keyboard or pen, which still don’t come in the box. But for IT teams investing in devices that double as laptops, tablets, and mobile workstations, the math starts to make sense. The 12th Edition has a lot riding on what’s happening under its unchanged exterior, and perhaps hopes that its enterprise customers haven’t yet gotten bored with its looks.

The post Microsoft’s $1,950 Surface Pro 13 Gen 12 Got Smarter: Its Design Didn’t first appeared on Yanko Design.

Microsoft’s $1,950 Surface Pro 13 Gen 12 Got Smarter: Its Design Didn’t

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The 2-in-1 laptop has had an interesting run. What started as a novelty device that couldn’t decide what it wanted to be has gradually become a workplace staple. IT departments are increasingly looking for machines that can handle everything from a boardroom presentation to a cross-country flight without missing a beat, and the pressure to pack more intelligence into smaller form factors keeps growing.

The Surface Pro has been Microsoft’s answer to this for well over a decade, and the new Surface Pro for Business, 13-inch (12th Edition), largely keeps the formula intact. If you’re expecting a dramatic redesign, it isn’t coming. The magnesium chassis, adjustable kickstand, and detachable keyboard are all still here, which is either a testament to the original design or a sign of a very cautious product team.

Designer: Microsoft

That said, what’s happening inside tells a different story. Powered by Intel Core Ultra Series 3, either the Core Ultra 5 335 or the Core Ultra 7 366H, this Surface Pro hits 50 TOPS through Intel AI Boost, qualifying it as a Copilot+ PC. That means on-device AI is fast enough for a consultant to summarize a contract or an analyst to run through data without needing a cloud connection.

And that AI work happens on a 13-inch PixelSense Flow display running at 2880 x 1920 pixels with a dynamic refresh rate of up to 120Hz, available in an optional OLED for deeper contrast and richer color. The anti-reflective coating is genuinely useful for anyone working in brightly lit offices or outdoor settings, giving this screen a practical advantage over glossier alternatives.

For workers who annotate more than they type, the 2-in-1 flexibility is still the Surface Pro’s most practical feature. Fold the keyboard flat, grab a Surface Slim Pen for Business, and the device shifts from laptop to inking tablet. It’s a workflow that makes sense during a client walkthrough or a field assessment, and one that doesn’t require any extra hardware to pull off.

Under the hood, memory goes up to 64GB of LPDDR5x RAM for anyone running virtual machines or demanding workloads. The removable Gen 4 SSD also matters to enterprise IT teams, who can swap drives without replacing the entire unit. Battery life is promised to reach up to 17 hours on the LCD model, enough for a full day of travel without hunting for a power outlet.

Starting at $1,949.99, this is firmly enterprise territory, especially since that doesn’t include the keyboard or pen, which still don’t come in the box. But for IT teams investing in devices that double as laptops, tablets, and mobile workstations, the math starts to make sense. The 12th Edition has a lot riding on what’s happening under its unchanged exterior, and perhaps hopes that its enterprise customers haven’t yet gotten bored with its looks.

The post Microsoft’s $1,950 Surface Pro 13 Gen 12 Got Smarter: Its Design Didn’t first appeared on Yanko Design.

Microsoft’s $1,950 Surface Pro 13 Gen 12 Got Smarter: Its Design Didn’t

Posted on by

The 2-in-1 laptop has had an interesting run. What started as a novelty device that couldn’t decide what it wanted to be has gradually become a workplace staple. IT departments are increasingly looking for machines that can handle everything from a boardroom presentation to a cross-country flight without missing a beat, and the pressure to pack more intelligence into smaller form factors keeps growing.

The Surface Pro has been Microsoft’s answer to this for well over a decade, and the new Surface Pro for Business, 13-inch (12th Edition), largely keeps the formula intact. If you’re expecting a dramatic redesign, it isn’t coming. The magnesium chassis, adjustable kickstand, and detachable keyboard are all still here, which is either a testament to the original design or a sign of a very cautious product team.

Designer: Microsoft

That said, what’s happening inside tells a different story. Powered by Intel Core Ultra Series 3, either the Core Ultra 5 335 or the Core Ultra 7 366H, this Surface Pro hits 50 TOPS through Intel AI Boost, qualifying it as a Copilot+ PC. That means on-device AI is fast enough for a consultant to summarize a contract or an analyst to run through data without needing a cloud connection.

And that AI work happens on a 13-inch PixelSense Flow display running at 2880 x 1920 pixels with a dynamic refresh rate of up to 120Hz, available in an optional OLED for deeper contrast and richer color. The anti-reflective coating is genuinely useful for anyone working in brightly lit offices or outdoor settings, giving this screen a practical advantage over glossier alternatives.

For workers who annotate more than they type, the 2-in-1 flexibility is still the Surface Pro’s most practical feature. Fold the keyboard flat, grab a Surface Slim Pen for Business, and the device shifts from laptop to inking tablet. It’s a workflow that makes sense during a client walkthrough or a field assessment, and one that doesn’t require any extra hardware to pull off.

Under the hood, memory goes up to 64GB of LPDDR5x RAM for anyone running virtual machines or demanding workloads. The removable Gen 4 SSD also matters to enterprise IT teams, who can swap drives without replacing the entire unit. Battery life is promised to reach up to 17 hours on the LCD model, enough for a full day of travel without hunting for a power outlet.

Starting at $1,949.99, this is firmly enterprise territory, especially since that doesn’t include the keyboard or pen, which still don’t come in the box. But for IT teams investing in devices that double as laptops, tablets, and mobile workstations, the math starts to make sense. The 12th Edition has a lot riding on what’s happening under its unchanged exterior, and perhaps hopes that its enterprise customers haven’t yet gotten bored with its looks.

The post Microsoft’s $1,950 Surface Pro 13 Gen 12 Got Smarter: Its Design Didn’t first appeared on Yanko Design.

Huawei MatePad Pro Max PaperMatte Edition Review: Thinnest 13-inch Tablet Nails Portability and Creativity

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PROS:


  • Impressively thin and lightweight

  • Excellent PaperMatte OLED display with ultra-thin bezels

  • M-Pencil feels highly responsive and natural for writing and drawing

  • Glide Keyboard adds useful productivity features, including secure stylus storage

CONS:


  • Wi-Fi only, with no cellular option

  • Glide Keyboard has no backlight

RATINGS:

AESTHETICS
ERGONOMICS
PERFORMANCE
SUSTAINABILITY / REPAIRABILITY
VALUE FOR MONEY

EDITOR'S QUOTE:

The Huawei MatePad Pro Max pairs an ultra-thin and lightweight design with a refined PaperMatte display and excellent stylus experience, making it one of Huawei’s most compelling tablets for creativity and everyday use.
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MatePad Pro Max PaperMatte Edition is the company’s largest tablet yet, and it arrives with a design that feels almost implausible in person. It is remarkably thin, unusually light for its size, and still positioned as a serious performance tablet rather than a pure showpiece. On paper, the appeal is immediate. You get a full-metal body, a 13.2-inch flexible OLED display, a 94 percent screen-to-body ratio, and a chassis that measures just 4.7mm thin.

Huawei is also aiming for a premium experience that extends well beyond the tablet itself. The ultra-thin bezel, the optional matte display treatment, the large battery, and the refined metal construction all work together to make the MatePad Pro Max feel elevated before the screen even turns on. Add in optional accessories like the Glide Keyboard and M-Pencil Pro, and it is clearly designed to stretch beyond entertainment into productivity and creative work. The real question is whether all of that sleek hardware leads to a meaningfully better everyday experience, or if it is simply a beautiful piece of industrial design wrapped around the usual tablet compromises.

Designer: Huawei

Aesthetics

The MatePad Pro Max is a sleek, premium-looking slate that relies on clean proportions and refined finishes rather than flashy details. It comes in Blue and Space Gray, and the blue version I received is especially striking. Its fine glitter finish catches the light beautifully and gives the back panel a more expressive look.

The full-metal body keeps the design simple and clean, while the round camera bump on the upper right adds a bit of visual weight to one corner, and the centered Huawei branding keeps the back from feeling too plain. Around the sides, the glossy frame adds a bit of contrast, with the power button and fingerprint scanner on the left side from the display view, and the volume rocker along the top. Huawei’s optional accessories also fit the design well, with the keyboard offered in white or black and the folio cover available in black.

Ergonomics

The MatePad Pro Max PaperMatte Edition is surprisingly manageable for a tablet this large. A 13.2-inch display usually suggests a device that is best left on a desk or propped on a stand, but here the physical experience feels far more inviting. At just 4.7mm thin and 509g, it feels notably easy to carry and hold for longer stretches.

Huawei calls it the world’s thinnest 13-inch-plus tablet, and that slimness is immediately noticeable in use. Even so, it does not feel flimsy or overly delicate in hand. The build still feels solid, though I would still handle it with some care, given just how thin the body is.

The Glide Keyboard adds 439g, but the full setup still feels very manageable for its size. What I like most is the integrated pen slot, which stores the M-Pencil more securely than a simple magnetic attachment on the side of the tablet. That small detail makes a real difference if you tend to toss your tablet into a bag and go, since the stylus feels less likely to come loose.

The keyboard itself is pleasant to type on, and the hinge feels sturdy in use. It gives the MatePad Pro Max a more laptop-like feel when you need to get work done. The main limitation is that the viewing angle is fixed to two positions, so it is less flexible than some other tablet keyboard setups. It also lacks a backlight, which makes it less convenient to use in darker environments.

Performance

Performance starts with the display, because it shapes nearly every interaction you have with the MatePad Pro Max. The 13.2-inch flexible OLED panel is large, sharp, and visually immersive, with a 3000 x 2000 resolution, 144Hz refresh rate, and up to 1,600 nits peak brightness. It is the kind of screen that makes reading, streaming, and multitasking feel immediately premium, especially with the PaperMatte finish, which helps cut glare and makes the display more comfortable to use in bright environments.

A big part of that immersive feel comes from the tablet’s extremely thin bezel. At just 3.55mm, the border around the display is slim enough to make the front feel almost all screen, helping the MatePad Pro Max reach a 94 percent screen-to-body ratio. Even more impressive is how Huawei has tucked the front camera into that narrow bezel so discreetly that it nearly disappears from view. The result is a front design that feels remarkably clean and uninterrupted, making the display look even more expansive and giving the tablet a more refined, almost futuristic presence in everyday use.

The display quality also lives up to the tablet’s premium design. OLED gives the MatePad Pro Max the deep contrast and rich color you want from a flagship tablet, while the 144Hz refresh rate keeps motion looking fluid and responsive. Whether you are scrolling through documents, flipping between apps, or watching high-quality video, the screen carries a polished sense of smoothness that fits the hardware well. Huawei also gets the basics right when it comes to unlocking the device. Both face recognition and the side-mounted fingerprint scanner worked reliably in my testing. Face unlock was even able to recognize me in the dark, which made the tablet feel quicker and more seamless to use throughout the day.

The MatePad Pro Max runs HarmonyOS 4 out of the box. Huawei does not specify the chipset, but in day-to-day use, performance feels strong and responsive. Apps open quickly, multitasking feels smooth, and the tablet has no trouble keeping up with entertainment, browsing, note-taking, and general productivity. It feels like a flagship tablet in everyday use, even without Huawei sharing much detail about the chip inside.

HarmonyOS also makes decent use of the large display. You can keep up to three apps active and move between them easily, though only one is fully visible at a time in that setup. For more direct multitasking, split-screen lets you run two apps simultaneously, either side by side in landscape or stacked vertically in portrait. On top of that, you can open up to two floating windows, which appear as smaller, resizable panels for quick access to other tasks without fully leaving your main app.

The M-Pencil is also a big part of the experience. It feels very responsive, with no noticeable latency in writing or drawing, and pressure sensitivity works very well. Combined with the PaperMatte display, the writing and sketching experience feels closer to paper than on many other tablets, which makes the MatePad Pro Max especially appealing for note-taking, annotation, and creative work.


Huawei also has one genuinely compelling creative advantage in GoPaint. It is a surprisingly sophisticated painting app that feels much more advanced than a basic bundled sketch tool. You get a wide range of features, including more than 100 brush options, color picking tools, and effects like a splatter brush, which makes it feel like a serious canvas for illustration rather than a simple note-taking extra. Paired with the M-Pencil, it gives the MatePad Pro Max a stronger identity as a creative tablet, not just a productivity device with stylus support.

The bigger consideration is software rather than speed. Because of ongoing U.S. trade restrictions affecting Huawei, the MatePad Pro Max does not come with Google Services, so users who rely heavily on Google’s apps and services will need to find workarounds.

Audio also helps sell the experience. Huawei includes a 6-speaker crossover system with a quad-driver bass unit, and the sound has enough scale to match the size of the display. It gives movies, music, and games more presence than you would expect from something this thin, which makes the tablet feel like a stronger all-around entertainment device rather than just a beautiful screen.

Battery life is also a strong point, given the 10,400mAh battery. Huawei also includes 40W reverse charging, which adds some practical versatility if you want to top up another device in a pinch. The MatePad Pro Max is clearly designed to deliver a premium media and productivity experience, with the display doing most of the heavy lifting and the rest of the hardware supporting it well.

Sustainability

Huawei’s sustainability story here feels understated, which is often the case with premium tablets that prefer to lead with design and experience. The full-metal body should help the MatePad Pro Max feel durable over time, and there is something inherently longevity-friendly about hardware that feels physically refined. A device that remains pleasant to touch, carry, and look at tends to stay in use longer, and that matters even if it is not framed as a sustainability feature.

At the same time, there is not much information that speaks directly to repairability, recycled materials, or long-term software commitments. That absence is worth mentioning because sustainability is no longer just about whether a product looks durable. It is also about whether it can remain relevant, supported, and serviceable over the years. Without stronger messaging around those areas, the MatePad Pro Max feels more premium than progressive on this front. The tablet feels built to last physically, but the broader ownership story remains less defined.

Value

The MatePad Pro Max is priced like a premium tablet. The 12GB + 512GB model with the Folio Cover costs EUR 1,399, or roughly $1,520 USD. The 12GB + 256GB version with the Smart Keyboard is EUR 1,499, about $1,630 USD, while the 16GB + 512GB model with the Smart Keyboard goes up to EUR 1,649, or around $1,790 USD.

At those prices, the MatePad Pro Max is really selling its hardware. The thin and light design, matte OLED display option, slim bezels, and strong stylus experience help it stand out from other large tablets. That said, it is worth noting that this is a Wi-Fi-only tablet with no LTE or cellular option, and there is no microSD card expansion. Storage tops out at 512GB, which should be more than enough for most users, but heavier users who install a lot of AAA games, edit high-resolution video, or keep large media libraries may want to factor that in.

Verdict

The Huawei MatePad Pro Max gets a lot right where it matters most. It is impressively thin and light for a tablet of this size, and that alone changes how approachable it feels in daily use. The 13.2-inch OLED display is the star of the experience, not just because it is large and vibrant, but because the ultra-thin bezel and discreet front camera integration make the whole front feel unusually clean and immersive. The matte screen is also a real treat, giving the display a more comfortable, paper-like quality that makes watching, reading, writing, and drawing feel more enjoyable over longer stretches.

What makes it stand out is how well the hardware and creative experience come together. The writing and drawing feel is excellent, GoPaint is more capable than expected, and the Glide Keyboard adds real utility without making the setup feel cumbersome. There are still a few tradeoffs, including the keyboard’s limited angle adjustment, lack of backlight, and the Wi-Fi-only setup with no microSD expansion, but for many users, those will be secondary to the overall experience. Huawei’s software situation also still requires some adjustment depending on your workflow.

Even with those caveats, the MatePad Pro Max is a thoughtfully designed tablet that feels distinct in a crowded category. It is not simply trying to be a bigger screen with flagship specs. It is trying to offer a more refined, paper-like, design-conscious experience, and for the right user, it succeeds very well. If your priorities are portability, display quality, and creative work, this is one of the most compelling large tablets Huawei has made.

The post Huawei MatePad Pro Max PaperMatte Edition Review: Thinnest 13-inch Tablet Nails Portability and Creativity first appeared on Yanko Design.

Galaxy Z Fold 7 Hit 4.2mm by Killing the S Pen: Worth the Trade?

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Foldables have spent the last two years chasing a simpler goal: to feel less like category experiments and more like normal premium phones that happen to open wider. Samsung pushed that idea hardest with the Galaxy Z Fold 7, officially measuring 4.2mm when unfolded and 215 grams in weight, making it the company’s slimmest and lightest book-style foldable yet, with thinness as the product’s defining promise.

That promise came with a quieter subtraction. Samsung removed S Pen support from the Galaxy Z Fold 7, cutting off a feature that had helped earlier Fold models feel connected to the company’s productivity-first identity. Nearly a year later, that choice carries more weight because the Fold 7 can now be judged as a finished design decision rather than a fresh flagship still riding its novelty.

Designer: Samsung

In practice, the Fold 7’s thinness changes behavior more than bragging rights. Reviews consistently described it as startlingly slim and easier to carry, suggesting Samsung had something more deliberate in mind than a good keynote number. The lighter frame, narrower pocket profile, and more usable 21:9 cover display all push toward the same goal: making the Fold feel less like a second device and more like your actual main one.

The missing stylus, though, changed the Fold 7’s identity as much as its feature list. On earlier Fold devices, pen support helped justify the large inner display as a workspace, somewhere to annotate documents, sketch ideas, and do precise work beyond just tapping through apps. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 doesn’t support S Pen in any form, which means the phone has let go of that precision-first promise entirely.

Outside reporting helps explain why Samsung made that call. T-Mobile’s comparison notes the company removed a layer from the inner display to help achieve the slimmer, lighter body, while others report Samsung cited low stylus adoption among Fold users to justify the cut. Even if that logic makes business sense, it still leaves the Fold 7 feeling like a foldable optimized for comfort over creative ambition.

Samsung also tried to reassure buyers that the thinner body wasn’t a weaker one. The Fold 7 uses a thicker Ultra-Thin Glass layer, a Grade 4 titanium lattice, new adhesive materials, and IP48 resistance, all meant to reinforce a slimmer chassis without making it feel fragile. Those details speak more clearly to Samsung’s engineering intent than to any definitive verdict on how the phone holds up over months of folding.

The rest of the hardware tells a similar story of selective advancement. Samsung paired the Fold 7 with Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy and launched it on One UI 8 with Android 16, giving the device a solid performance base. The battery stayed at 4,400mAh, and the ultra-wide camera remained a 12MP unit alongside the more attention-grabbing 200MP main sensor. The phone moved forward, just not evenly.

That unevenness becomes more interesting when you consider where Samsung might be heading next. We’ve already covered early renders suggesting the Galaxy Z Fold 8 could bring back S Pen support and a bigger battery, at the cost of a thicker chassis. If those rumors hold, the Fold 7 starts to look less like the start of a permanent direction and more like a controlled experiment in subtraction.

Galaxy Z Fold8 Render

For buyers who want the most elegant Samsung foldable for everyday carry, the Fold 7 still makes a strong case. It’s the first Fold that genuinely reduced the physical friction of ownership without a compromise you’d notice daily. For former Note loyalists and pen-reliant users, though, the trade reads differently, because Samsung made the Fold 7 easier to live with by moving it away from the Fold line’s original ambition.

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Honor launched a $193 Kid-focused iPad Alternative with 22 Hours of Battery and Parental Controls Already Set Up

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Setting up an iPad for a child costs $350 and about forty-five minutes of your life. You disable iCloud so your camera roll stays off their screen, lock down the App Store so in-app purchases don’t silently drain your card, configure Screen Time, and then spend the next six months re-configuring it every time an iOS update quietly resets something. Apple makes extraordinary tablets, but the parental infrastructure is clearly designed for adults who already know where to look. HONOR looked at that friction and built a tablet where none of that setup exists, because the kids-first architecture is the factory state, not a layer you construct yourself.

The Pad X8b Kids Edition starts at $193, landing it well under the entry iPad, and arrives with a dedicated Honor Kids OS environment, SGS 5-star drop resistance, a built-in kickstand handle, an integrated stylus silo, and a 10,100mAh battery that makes weekly charging a realistic schedule rather than an aspiration. The value proposition assembles itself pretty quickly.

Designer: HONOR

The blue silicone case with its lime-green handle does double duty as a carry grip and kickstand, which maps directly to how children actually use tablets: they’re either holding it or propping it against something. No separate folding stand, no accessory that gets left in a drawer. The handle is the stand. The Doodle Pen slots into a silo built into the case back so it travels with the device rather than disappearing within 48 hours of unboxing. FDA food-grade silicone throughout, SGS 5-star drop and crush resistance certification, and a construction that has clearly been tested against the kind of physical punishment children deliver with remarkable consistency and zero remorse.

The 11-inch panel runs at 1920×1200 with a 90Hz refresh rate, 500 nits of brightness, and carries TÜV Rheinland certifications for both low blue light and flicker-free performance. On a kids device those certifications carry more weight than on an adult one, given how close children hold screens and how many hours they log. The eye protection goes further than badges, though. Distance alerts, posture monitoring, brightness adjustments, and bumpy road detection that nudges kids away from reading in a moving car all run continuously without a parent needing to remember to enable anything.

The Honor Kids OS runs as a fully separate environment rather than a locked launcher sitting on top of the standard interface. The home screen uses cartoon island-style icons for Camera, Recorder, Kids Painting, and Multimedia, and parents manage the whole thing remotely through the HONOR Parental Assistant app, setting time slots and reviewing activity through visual charts. One tap activates Kids Mode, and getting back out requires authentication. None of this requires a Saturday afternoon in Settings.

The 10,100mAh battery is the unsung hero of the package. Twenty-two hours of continuous video playback means roughly eleven days of two-hour screen time sessions before a charge becomes urgent, and the 97-day standby figure means a tablet left on a shelf over a school break actually comes back to life when you pick it up. For a device category where battery anxiety is a genuine daily friction point, those numbers change the ownership experience in a way that a spec sheet undersells.

At $193, the Pad X8b Kids Edition sits in a position where competing options either underdeliver on hardware or ask parents to retrofit a general-purpose tablet for child use on their own time. HONOR made the child-safe design brief the starting point, and the result is a device that earns its price before you’ve even opened the box.

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