Huawei’s iPad rival is coming this week − here’s what we want from it

Huawei’s next tablet is expected to launch later this week — here’s where it needs to improve to take on the iPad.

In a social media post, Huawei has revealed that the MediaPad M6 will be unveiled on June 21 − that’s this Friday.

Related: Best tablets

There are very few rumours to go on at the moment, but GSMArena reports that it will likely ship with a Kirin 970 or 980 chip, thinner bezels and a massive battery.

When we reviewed the Huawei MediaPad M5 Pro, we were impressed by its stylus, strong battery life, and powerful speakers. When using the pen there’s no obvious latency, pressure sensitivity is among the best you’ll find, and it charges easily thanks to a USB-C port that’s revealed when you unscrew the top.

The large 7500mAh battery is very impressive, and could last you as long as six hours playing a demanding video game, or 10 hours of streaming YouTube. The four Harman Kardon speakers deliver a great, full-bodied sound, so much so that our reviewer even used it as a Bluetooth speaker.

However we also noted that it came up short in some key areas — here’s where we’d like to see it improve to take on the best the iPad range has to offer:

• No headphone jack — this tablet has a great size profile for watching videos, so it’s a shame that you’ll probably have to use an adapter for your wired headphones.
• Netflix support — it doesn’t support Netflix at native or even 1080p resolution, which is a real disappointment because the hardware could take it. The only issue is certification.
• Stylus storage — there’s no place to keep the stylus when it’s not in use, making it vulnerable to being misplaced.
• Screen — we did love the wide aspect ratio of the screen, but we’d love it to match the contrast of Samsung’s OLEDs, the accuracy of Apple’s iPad screens, and just to be a bit brighter.