Just under a year ago, I bought myself a refurbished iPad as some applications had stopped working on my pandemic era Huawei MediaPad, basically due to it being stuck on an old version of Android.
I expected that over the course of this year I'd gradually change over to using the iPad exclusively, and the MediaPad would go to the ewaste centre.
A great pity, as it is an excellent device, but facts have to be faced, and Apple own the tablet space in Australia and Android devices are not even a minority sport.
However, due to my being a total gonk and failing to realise that if you buy a subscription to a news website through Google, in most cases you only get access to the Android app, I've kept on using the Huawei to read the news in the morning and check the weather.
This has given me an opportunity to compare both devices over the longer term.
Tablets don't really have to do much other than run an application, download and display content, so things like memory and processor power are not important - as long as they have enough to do the job in a timely manner it doesn't matter if one has a higher performance benchmark than the other.
In fact both are roughly the same age and roughly the same specification - the Huawei has a bit more memory - certainly you don't feel any significant difference in performance when using YouTube or Spotify.
Where you do see a difference is in switching between applications or indeed cutting and pasting content between the two.
The iPad is simply clunkier. It does the job, but it's clunkier, and I put this down to the fact that Android is inherently multi tasking, while older versions of iPadOs are not.
This isn't a showstopper by any means - if all you want is a device to review documents on or watch videos, you probably don't care that much.
Strangely, the one real differentiator is long term operating system support - Apple are still pushing out updates for a five year old device while the MediaPad has dropped off Huawei's update list.
So, if I was to go out and buy a replacement device today, which would it be?
A current model iPad brought from Apple in Australia is A$600, meanwhile the current Honor Pad is around A$550 bought from Amazon in Australia. (Since I bought my MediaPad, Huawei have both rebranded their phone and tablet business unit as Honor and sold it to another Chinese electronics manufacturer to avoid US sanctions on the Huawei parent company)
Amazon also sell grey market imports of the previous Honor Pad, the 8a, for around A$250. The 8a is based around Android 14, which is still supported.
Given the price advantage of the grey market import of the previous model, I think that's the one I would go for, if I wanted a new and competent device and didn't want to spend six hundred bucks on a tablet.
Refurbished Huawei and Honor devices are not really an option - you're unlikely to get any operating system updates. Refurbished iPads are competent, but more recent models attract a price premium meaning there's little advantage over buying new.
So, there we have it. As always your mileage may vary, especially depending exactly how you intend to use the device. What I would steer clear of are some of the remaindered Huawei branded mediapads floating around various online marketplaces - the supported operating systems are simply too old, even though the hardware is still good and performs well.
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