Application Block helps organizations easily thwart unwanted applications from launching on Windows endpoints.
Malwarebytes is excited to announce Application Block, a new module for Nebula and OneView for MSPs which helps organizations easily thwart unwanted applications from launching on Windows endpoints.
For as many applications out there that help you keep business running as usual, there are just as many that can spell big trouble for your network security. Threat actors can embed malicious code in seemingly legitimate applications, which end users then innocently execute on their Windows endpoints. (And the bad guys are in).
Or threat actors can find an application on your network with a known vulnerability for which no patch has been developed. (And again, they’re in.)
Application threats also don’t just stop at hoodie-wearing hackers: organizations also just might not want employees using unproductive or unapproved applications and the security risks that follow.
All of this is to say that having the ability to blocklist certain applications from running is a key part of an effective layered defense. We released Application Block for Nebula to make it easy for under-resourced orgs to meet this important security requirement.
Let’s dive in to see how it works!
Features
Log and monitor blocked application activity on endpoints.
Block device access to specified software applications, though this does not include cloud applications.
Block list rules are created and applied to policies across the console or sites.
When setting or modifying a policy in the Nebula console, go to the Software management tab at the bottom.
There you’ll find the Application block option for Windows. Let’s go ahead and check it and then save this policy.
Block Rule Creation/Management
Heading over to the Monitor tab, we’ll find Application block near the bottom of the drop-down menu. Let’s click into that.
We’re taken to an activity log dashboard of blocked applications. Find the Rules tab near the top and click “New”.
Rules in Application Block for Nebula define which software applications and executables are blocked across your endpoints. We can apply this rule globally or to specific policies only. Basic application block rules select the Application or Vendor name to block the service. Advanced rules are available to use file information to block the service including Certificate property, File path, File property, and Hash value.
For example, we can create a rule that blocks VPNs and torrent applications from being downloaded on a group of endpoints.
Let’s save this rule and head back over to our activity log!
Application Block Activity Log
The Activity Log tab displays blocked applications across all your managed endpoints. Blocked records are retained for approximately 90 days.
View the following information for each endpoint’s activity record, including agent version, application data, and time blocked!
For auditing or external reporting purposes, you can even download DNS activity information to your local machine by selecting all or checking specific boxes for the rows you want to export and clicking Export.
Blocked Applications dashboard widget showing activity over the last 30 days
We can get a full and quick picture of our endpoint data by heading over to the Nebula Dashboard. Here we can add, remove, and rearrange widgets—including one for Application Block—that give us insight into endpoints and detections in our environment.
Plugging the holes in your Windows endpoint security
From within Nebula—our user-friendly console that you already use for endpoint protection and remediation—you can activate Application Block and immediately start blocking at-risk Windows applications.
Have a burning question or want to learn more about Application Block? Get a quote below.
Bally Sports’ parent-company, Diamond Sports Group, is preparing to file for bankruptcy. This is after skipping an interest payment that was due to bondholders on Wednesday.
Diamond Sports is an unconsolidated and independently run subsidiary of Sinclair. The company decided to skip out on the $140 million in interest payments that was due to its bondholders and would instead enter the 30-day grace period.
Diamond has been in discussions with creditors in recent months, as it is looking to restructure its $8 billion in debt. It is planning to use its 30-day grace period to continue those discussions. They have been discussing a debt-for-equity swap. Which would see the creditors take some form of ownership over the company. And according to those familiar with the matter, this is a very likely scenario.
Cord-cutting is really hurting regional sports networks
Sports are expensive, and regional sports networks are even more expensive. As they are hosting multiple teams and every game that isn’t on primetime or national TV. Not to mention that they have a smaller audience versus a national game. Which means there’s less money for them to make. And those cutting the cord are helping to accelerate this.
Of course, Diamond Sports Group deciding to remove its Bally Sports networks from most streaming services did not help. As those that had cut the cord had almost no way to watch Bally Sports. Unless they opted to switch to DIRECTV Stream. Which cost Bally Sports a whole lot of money. The group is home to more than half of the MLB, NHL and NBA teams in the US. So they are a pretty big deal.
The leagues have been concerned that Diamond could forego paying rights to the leagues while under bankruptcy protection. Diamond is focused on keeping the networks alive, however. Which does require the rights to the NBA, NHL and MLB.
Sinclair acquired these networks in 2019, after Disney bought FOX. Disney had to divest the sports networks (Fox Sports RSNs), as it already owned the ESPN empire. So Sinclair stepped in and bought them for $10.6 billion. It also included around $8 billion in debt. Now that you look back on it, that was probably not the best idea. But sports are expensive, so to see that kind of debt is not a surprise.
Twitter may be artificially boosting CEO Elon Musk’s tweets. Platformerreports that the company’s engineers have deployed a code that allows tweets from Musk to bypass all of Twitter’s filters. At one point, his tweets were reportedly being boosted by a factor of 1,000.
Musk’s tweets were all over Twitter a few days back. Whether you followed the multi-billionaire or not, you must have been bombarded by his tweets on the “For You” feed. While the Twitter CEO didn’t explain what was happening, he acknowledged that it was not normal. He blamed the “algorithm” for it and said that the company is working to fix the issue.
However, Platformer is saying something else. According to the publication’s sources, Musk was unhappy with the engagement on his tweets lately. Particularly, his tweet about the Super Bowl got less engagement than President Joe Biden’s. According to the report, Biden’s tweet generated nearly 29 million impressions, while Musk saw just over nine million impressions. He reportedly deleted the tweet in frustration and went tearing into Twitter engineers.
According to the source, Musk threatened to fire the engineers unless they make his tweets get more impressions. The same publication previously reported that the Twitter CEO fired an engineer who suggested that his tweets are generating fewer impressions because people aren’t interested in them anymore. Of course, no one likes to lose their job abruptly. As such, around 80 Twitter employees started investigating potential issues with Musk’s tweet impressions.
Twitter allegedly created a way to artificially boost Musk’s tweets
Twitter engineers contemplated various possibilities. Musk could have been generating fewer impressions because many people blocked or muted him. Not everyone has been a fan of the way he handled the social network after acquiring it in late October last year.
They also checked if there was a technical fault. Since Twitter usually boosts tweets from users whose contents are popular among both followers and non-followers, Musk’s tweets shouldn’t have drastically lost impressions.
After evaluating all possibilities, they came up with a solution. The engineers developed and deployed a code that ensured that Twitter’s filters didn’t block Musk’s tweets from reaching anyone. Unless you have blocked or muted Musk, you will see his tweets on your “For You” feed.
This artificial boost is still active, though not by a factor of 1,000 anymore. “Musk’s handful of tweets Tuesday reported around 43 million impressions, which is on the high end of his recent average,” the report states.
The amazing ChatGPT language AI is everywhere these days! People use it to write articles (this one may or may not have been written by the bot, ha!), compose songs, invent new recipes, solve mathematical equations, and, most importantly, get information on every topic imaginable.
Sounds familiar? That’s what Google has been doing for decades, and unsurprisingly, the behemoth company is concerned about the future. So concerned that it’s developing its own version of ChatGPT. According to CNBC, Google is currently testing several iterations of ChatGPT competitors after company CEO Sundar Pitchai declared “code red” and decided to accelerate Google’s AI efforts.
The company aims to unveil at least 20 AI products this year, and some of them will engage in the battle of the bots with the almighty ChatGPT. One potential candidate for this battle is the so-called Apprentice Bard, a chatbot that uses Google’s LaMDA conversation technology. CNBC’s sources say that the LaMDA team has been asked to work on creating competitors to ChatGPT.
Last year, one employee from the said team made headlines after declaring the LaMDA chatbot sentient and getting fired shortly afterwards. We should expect Google to move at a more conservative pace, though. As Google AI chief Jeff Dean told employees during an all-hands meeting to discuss the company’s response to ChatGPT, it’s moving “more conservatively than a small startup.”
That makes sense. ChatGPT includes a disclaimer that the bot may provide wrong information or harmful instructions, and it also has limited knowledge about the world after 2021. Google is a much more popular company, and a wrong answer or instruction could result in a massive scandal and dozens of lawsuits.
We can’t wait to see Google’s answer to ChatGPT, but in the meantime, we’re looking at a potential career switch in the agricultural field or something with bartending involved.
It can be pretty expensive to create an impressive sound system with Sonos for your living room. But thanks to the Sub Mini, is it now cheaper? Sonos debuted the Sub Mini in September 2022, as a cheaper wireless sub. It comes in at $270 less than the regular Sonos Sub. But the real question here is, what are you losing with that cheaper Sub Mini? And is it worth buying? Let’s find out.
Setting up the Sonos Sub Mini
Setting up the Sonos Sub Mini is super easy. If you already have a Sonos system in your home, just open the app and it’ll pop up a banner for setting up the Sonos Sub Mini. A nice touch that Sonos has is the ability to show you how long it should take to set it up. So if you don’t have a lot of time right now, you can set it up later.
Sonos’ newer speakers have NFC built-in, so you just tap your phone onto the speaker to pair them and start the setup process. This is so much easier than trying to connect to the speakers WiFi, like a lot of other smart home products try to do.
It takes about 5 minutes to setup, and then you’re all good to go. In my home, it’s paired with the Sonos Beam 2, so now in the app I see those two paired together all the time. Of course, if you have other Sonos speakers in your home like I do, you can also pair those when you want to. For instance, I have the Beam 2 and Sub Mini in the living room, and then a Sonos One downstairs on my desk. I can pair them all together to play music, or watch TV. That’s the beauty of Sonos.
How it looks
Sonos makes some really beautiful looking speakers. Their whole approach is to make audio products that fit into your home, rather than stand out. And the Sonos Sub Mini does just that. It is available in white and black – Sonos provided us with the black model. It’s a soft-touch plastic material, which means it won’t show dust as easily as the older Sub would. Since the older Sub was shiny plastic.
It’s a cylinder sub, with a hole in the middle, allowing for audio to come out at all angles. There’s a pairing button on the back, that you likely won’t ever need to use. The outlet is on the bottom, and since there are feet on this Sub Mini, it doesn’t actually sit on the cord. This is another nice touch, especially since a lot of living rooms are carpeted. The bottom also features an ethernet port, but you likely won’t need it.
There’s no other buttons on the Sub Mini. And that’s because you won’t be interfacing with it. You’ll be interfacing with the soundbar you have connected to it. Whether that is the Sonos Beam (1 or 2), the Arc or the Ray. Which have buttons on them for volume, play/pause and a microphone button. The Sonos Ray doesn’t have a microphone so there’s no button available.
How well does it perform?
So the big, $429 (plus tax) question is, how well does it perform? Is it worth buying? I’ve been using Sonos soundbars for quite a few years, so I didn’t think I’d notice a big difference. But after setting up the Sonos Sub Mini, I really noticed much punchier bass while watching a movie. And this was before bumping up the bass on the Sub. Which you can bump up to +15.
While you can push the bass up higher on the Sub Mini, it’s not really recommended. Just at +8, the floor in my living room was shaking. It was a cool experience, but a bit too much bass. So I usually keep it around +3. A bit more bass so you can actually feel it, but not so much that it is overpowering the soundbar. It is really nice that Sonos does allow you to control the bass on the Sub Mini independently from the soundbar (in my case, the Beam 2).
So bass here is incredible. And it’s wireless, so it can be placed anywhere you want. By using a Sub like the Sub Mini, it allows the soundbar to focus more on the mids and highs, making them crystal clear. While the Sub Mini handles the bass.
It’ll probably sound a bit odd, but watching College Football with the Sub Mini on, is a whole new experience. It’s an even cooler experience when watching an action movie with lots of explosions. Something like the Fast and the Furious or even Top Gun: Maverick will really make you appreciate the Sub Mini.
Should you buy the Sonos Sub Mini?
If you already have a Sonos soundbar, then yes, the Sub Mini is a great purchase. The Sonos Sub was a hard recommendation, since it was $699. That’s more than a lot of Dolby Atmos soundbars are these days. But with the Sub Mini at $429, it’s still expensive, but a much easier pill to swallow. Though, pairing the Sonos Beam 2 and the Sub Mini together is going to cost you nearly $900. But that’s $900 well spent.
Sonos speakers are not cheap, and that’s because they are such good speakers. Not only due to the multi-room features for sound, but the build quality of these speakers is top-notch. And they work with virtually every streaming music service out there. Additionally, they are still the only ones that allow you to choose Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, at the tap of a button.
So yes, if you do have a Sonos speaker and/or soundbar in your home already, it’s definitely worth it to buy the Sub Mini. You won’t regret that purchase.
G2 has released their Winter 2023 reports, ranking Malwarebytes as the leader across a number of endpoint protection categories based on customer reviews.
G2 has released their Winter 2023 reports, ranking Malwarebytes as the leader across a number of endpoint protection categories.
Based on verified customer reviews, Malwarebytes has been ranked #1 over top EDR vendors for endpoint malware and antivirus protection, detection and remediation of web-based threats, product usability, and more. These results continue Malwarebytes’ top ranking by G2, reinforcing Malwarebytes leadership in the endpoint security platform market.
Badges are awarded to products that receive the highest overall ratings along certain categories. For example, the Highest Quality of Support badge goes to the product with the highest overall quality of support score.
Summary Report
Malwarebytes has ranked #1 for 5 reports OVERALL across all vendors and market segments
Grid (main report)
Results Index
Relationship index
Implementation Index
Usability Index
Malwarebytes has ranked #1 for 5 Mid-Market reports
Malwarebytes has ranked #1 for 1 Small Business reports
Fastest implementation
Security teams need a solution that is quick to deploy, easy to set-up, and uncomplicated. Malwarebytes is that solution.
Ranked #1 in G2 Crowd’s Winter 2023 Implementation Index report, Malwarebytes’ endpoint protection suite had the shortest go-live time in its category of all competitive solutions in the market today.
Best ROI
Looking for endpoint security that will provide maximum return on your investment? Malwarebytes is the answer.
Ranked #1 in G2 Crowd’s Winter 2023 Results Index report, Malwarebytes provides the best estimated ROI of all endpoint protection suites based on our unique combination of rapid time to go live and time to ROI.
Malwarebytes ranked #1 for 5 reports OVERALL across all vendors and market segments
Grid® Report for Endpoint Protection Suites
Implementation Index for Endpoint Protection Suites
Contributing factors: Ratings for “Ease of setup,” “Implementation time,” and “User adoption.”
Earned badge for highest implementation score.
Relationship Index for Endpoint Protection Suites
Contributing factors: Ratings for “Ease of business,” “Likely to recommend,” and “Quality of support.”
Earned badge for highest overall Results score.
Results Index for Endpoint Protection Suites
Contributing factors: Ratings for “Likely to recommend,” “Meets requirements,” and “Estimated ROI.”
Earned badge for highest overall Results score.
Usability Index for Endpoint Protection Suites
Contributing factors: Ratings for “Ease of admin,” “Ease of use,” “Meets requirements.”
Earned badges for highest overall Usability score and highest ease of use rating.
Malwarebytes ranked #1 for 5 Mid-Market reports
(Reviews from someone who works at a company with 51-1,000 employees.)
Mid-Market Results Index for Endpoint Protection Suites
Contributing factors: Ratings for “Likely to recommend,” “Meets requirements,” and “Estimated ROI.”
Earned badges for highest overall Results score and highest likelihood to recommend score.
Mid-Market Relationship Index for Endpoint Protection Suites
Contributing factors: Ratings for “Ease of business,” “Likely to recommend,” and “Quality of support.”
Earned badge for highest overall best relationship score.
Mid-Market Grid® Report for Endpoint Protection Suites
Mid-Market Implementation Index for Endpoint Protection Suites
Rated for “Ease of setup,” “Implementation time,” and “User adoption.”
Earned badge for highest implementable score.
Mid-Market Usability Index for Endpoint Protection Suites
Contributing factors: Ratings for “Ease of admin,” “Ease of use,” “Meets requirements.”
Earned badges for highest overall Usability score and highest ease of use rating.
Malwarebytes ranked #1 for 1 Small Business report
Small-Business Grid® Report for Endpoint Protection Suites
Quotes from G2 users about Malwarebytes
Easy, effective, and efficient cyber protection validated by real users
Malwarebytes is committed to delivering a stellar experience for our users, and it shows.
Customer reviews are critical to ensuring that endpoint security solutions perform well where it counts, whether that’s ease-of-use, implementation, or overall satisfaction. To read more about what customers have to say about Malwarebytes Endpoint Protection and EDR, check out our case studies page.
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WhatsApp, the popular messaging service, offers a plethora of features to enhance your chatting experience. And one of these features is disappearing messages, which automatically deletes your chats after a set period. However, a downside of this feature is that it applies to the entire chat, so even if you wanted to save the messages for future reference, you could not.
Fortunately, WhatsApp has been working on a solution called “Keep Messages,” which enables users to save their disappearing messages without taking screenshots. The feature has interestingly been in testing for over a year and appears to be now ready for prime time, as spotted by WABetaInfo. During testing, the keep messages feature had two options- “Keep” and “Unkeep” a disappearing message, and WhatsApp also included a fast and convenient way to access these saved messages from the chat window itself.
Quick and easy access to saved messages
The team over at WABetaInfo found that WhatsApp has also added a “Kept Messages” feature to the profile info page in its latest beta. This feature will enable users to access all the disappearing messages they have saved in one convenient location. Moreover, all participants in the chat, including group chats, will be able to view this section and retrieve their saved messages. However, it is also important to note that anyone with access to these saved messages can also delete them.
At present, the Keep Messages feature is exclusively accessible to certain Android users who have installed the latest beta versions of both WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business. Additionally, WhatsApp is only granting access to this feature on a per-account basis. There is no specific timeline as to when this feature will be available to all WhatsApp users. However, users can expect WhatsApp to release the feature soon, considering it has been in testing for almost a year now.
As many of you know, Apple still didn’t release its first foldable device. Some info regarding it did just surface, though. Based on a new patent filing, the first foldable iPhone may feature touch sensitive edges.
A foldable iPhone may end up featuring touch sensitive edges
The title of this patent filing is “Electronic Devices With Display And Touch Sensor Structures”. This patent was spotted and shared by AppleInsider, by the way, and it seems to refer to a foldable phone from Apple.
Now, this is just a patent filing, not a confirmation or anything of the sort. Just because Apple patented something like this doesn’t mean it plans to use it in its first foldable phone, or at all, for that matter.
Those edges are supposed to be useful when a phone is in a folded state
So, what’s this exactly about? Well, exactly what you think, touch-sensitive sides. The whole premise of this is to use those sides when the phone is folded, to get more functionality, basically.
The patent says: “Buttons and other input devices may be used to gather input from a user, but this type of input device may not be as convenient and versatile as a touch sensor. Displays are sometimes not visible from certain directions and may be smaller than desired”.
You can check out the included sketch below. This is just a generic sketch, of course, not the actual look at a foldable device, so keep that in mind.
This approach does seem interesting
In the description, Apple also added the following: “The front wall and portions of the sidewalls may be formed from a glass layer or other transparent member. A touch sensor layer and display layer may extend under the front and sidewall portions of the glass layer… [a] touch sensor layer may also extend under the opposing rear wall”.
Now, all of this does sound quite interesting. We do wonder if it’ll work well in actual usage, though. Considering this is Apple we’re talking about, chances are this will get tested thoroughly before it gets implemented. If it doesn’t meet the requirements for ease of use, it’ll likely get scrapped.
Apple is allegedly aiming to ditch physical buttons in the relatively near future, so this move is not all that surprising, actually.
Snapchat ran a commercial during last week’s AFC Championship game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Cincinnati Bengals. The 30-second ad promotes the app’s AR filters but some viewers felt that the spot was creepy, to say the least. That’s because the ad starts by stating “Our eyes can only see so much. But what if they could see more?”
The HorseHead lens is used to turn co-workers into horses and the spooky wide-eyed look at the end of the ad comes from the Shook lens. To find it on Snapchat, open the app and tap the smiley face icon to the right of the camera shutter button. Tap on the Explore tab on the bottom right and type “Shook” in the search bar and the first filter is the one used in the ad.
Snapchat is the 12th most popular social media app worldwide
There are two versions of the commercial, a 60-second spot and the 30-second spot that was shown during the football game. During the fourth quarter (of the year, not the game), the app had 375 million daily active users. It is the 12th most popular social media app worldwide. If you have an iPhone, you can install the app from the App Store, or if you have an Android device, download it from the Google Play Store. The ad says that with the filters “you can make imaginary friends real or see your real friends in an imaginary way.”
What if our eyes could see more? Scan this spot with your Snapchat camera to start exploring the unseen world around you. pic.twitter.com/CFji0gtJKL
The comments from Twitter users were pretty much along the lines of this response from Van Lathan Jr who wrote that “this Snapchat commercial is demonic af.” Alison Haislip asked, “Nobody was okay with that Snapchat commercial, right?” And Rosa Sparks tweeted this, “Well that Snapchat commercial was unnecessarily terrifying.”
You can’t help but feel bad for Snapchat. After all, it was the app that introduced social media subscribers to “Stories.” Instagram took the idea and ran with it…all the way to the bank. Instagram Stories is one of the most popular features of the Meta-owned app.
Snapchat reported Q4 profits of 14 cents a share, three cents a share above estimates
Snapchat parent SNAP reported its Q4 earnings yesterday and revenue, at $1.30 billion, failed to meet analyst estimates of $1.31 billion. Earnings at 14 cents a share, topped the consensus estimates of 11 cents per share. And the average revenue per user came in at $3.47 per share which was 2 cents a share below the figure that analysts were expecting Snapchat to report.
For all of 2022, revenue rose 12% to $4.6 billion. In a statement, the company said, “On the monetization side, we anticipate that the operating environment will remain challenging, as we expect the headwinds we have faced over the past year to persist throughout Q1.” Now that doesn’t sound so good, does it?
The company’s Snapchat+ subscription service, which offers pre-release and exclusive features for only $3.99 per month, now has over 2 million subscribers after debuting last summer.
Overall, investors are planning to spank SNAP on Wednesday morning as the stock dropped nearly 15% in after-hours trading to $9.83. The 52-week high is $41.97 while the 52-week low is $7.33.
Originally launched for iOS as “Picaboo” in July 2011, the app was rebranded as Snapchat in September of that year. In October 2012, Snapchat became available for Android users. The next year, Snapchat reportedly received a $3 billion offer from Facebook which it turned down. Higher bids were supposedly being bandied about including a $4 billion valuation placed on Snapchat by Chinese e-commerce firm Tencent Holdings. Before SNAP’s decline on Wednesday morning, the company had a valuation of $18.5 billion.
Huawei makes some of the best tablets on the market these days. It’s a shame they don’t come with Google services, but if you don’t need Google apps, these tablets are extremely well equipped. Huawei usually nails the design, and they usually perform really well, and have a lot to offer. The same is the case with the Huawei MatePad Pro 11 (2022), actually, as you’ll be able to find out in our review.
Huawei’s new tablet does come with some improvements in comparison to last year’s model, not to mention a new and improved case. I’m going to ramble on about that case for quite some time, probably, as it’s easily the best tablet case I’ve used to date. In any case, let’s get this party started, shall we? We’ll kick things off with the design, and cover various different aspects of this thing. I’ve used it for about two weeks before typing this review, just to be completely transparent.
Premium-feeling with thin bezels
The first thing you’ll notice when you power on this thing is that it has thin bezels. Huawei’s edge detection is really good, luckily, so you can comfortably grip it without a problem. There is also a display camera hole in the top-left corner (looking from a landscape orientation). This tablet is only 5.9mm thick, or should we say thin. It weighs 449 grams, and it’s actually quite comfortable to use. I’ve used noticeably thicker and heavier 11-inch tablets.
One thing to note, is that this weight is made possible by the use of plastic, I’d say. I was unable to find any clear information on what materials Huawei used, and even though the frame feels extremely nice and solid, it doesn’t seem to be cool enough for it to be metal. I could be wrong. The backplate feels like paper, on the other hand. That is great, in a way, as it’s less slippery than glass. I’m not sure what material is this, but it’s matte, and it doesn’t seem to be too prone to collecting fingerprints, at least not yet.
An audio jack is not included, unfortunately
Huawei, unfortunately, decided not to include a 3.5mm headphone jack on this tablet. That is an odd decision in my eyes, for tablets, but there you have it. The buttons are very clicky, and feel really nice to use, no complaints there. There is no IP certification here, or anything of the sort, so you might want to watch out for rain and whatnot.
Two great first-party accessories are on offer
The Huawei MatePad Pro 11 (2022) launched with some interesting accessories. Do note that both of these are sold separately. One is a case that you definitely should get if you’re buying this tablet, and the other is Huawei’s M-Pencil stylus. Let’s talk about the case first, shall we.
The best case + keyboard combo I’ve ever used
This year’s MatePad Pro comes with a redesigned Smart Magnetic Keyboard case. This is the best case I’ve ever used for a tablet. You’re getting this leather-like feel, which is not too slippery. It’s a bit smoother than your regular leather would be, and it feels really nice to the touch. This case is actually a combination of two different parts, which connect one to the other with magnets. One part is the keyboard, and it covers the tablet’s display when connected. You can disconnect it, in which case you end up with a back side of the case, which is magnetically attached to the tablet at all times. There’s also a kickstand on the back.
When the keyboard is connected, you can unfold this case so that it stands on its own, and that the keyboard sits in front of you. The tablet itself remains magnetized to both pieces of the case, and you can type away. The keyboard is actually still really good, as it was on previous iterations of this case. It’s a chiclet-style keyboard, and considering how very little space Huawei had to provide depth for key travel, the company did an amazing job. All in all, it feels like a great case, and a modular one at that. I simply loved using it.
Huawei’s very own stylus is quite useful
You can also buy the second-gen Huawei M-Pencil for this tablet. It’s not as fancy as an S Pen, but it’s far more than your regular stylus. This tablet comes with various features made for this stylus, and it actually feels nice to use. You’re getting two replaceable tips on the inside, and if you’re into sketching, you can really do a lot with this. It has extremely low latency, and 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity.
Charging it is really easy, as it magnetizes to the side of the tablet, and charges that way. That’s also how it connects to the tablet, so it’s really seamless. Truth be said, I didn’t use it much, except for testing, as I’m not really good at sketching, and I didn’t really find another use for it. That being said, I never really preferred using styluses, so… there you have it. If you do, chances are you’ll like this one.
The Huawei MatePad Pro 11 (2022) has an excellent, color-accurate display
The Huawei MatePad Pro 11 (2022) has a gorgeous display. It is an 11-inch QHD (2560 x 1600) OLED display. It can project up to 1 billion colors, and it is TUV Rheinland certification (display 3.0 certification). This tablet has around a 92-percent screen-to-body ratio, and the display offers a wide P3 color gamut. It is also equipped with 1,440Hz high-frequency PWM dimming, and we’re looking at 274 ppi here.
On paper, it seems to be a great display, and the same goes for real-life use. If you prefer editing your images on a tablet, and you need a truly color-accurate display, this one will do. It also has great viewing angles, it’s quite vivid, and the brightness will be enough for most people, as long as you don’t use it much in direct sunlight. The touch sensitivity is also great, and quite frankly, I don’t have major complaints here.
The performance is great, despite an older SoC
There are two versions of this tablet, one comes with the Snapdragon 888 SoC, and the other with the Snapdragon 870. We tested the latter, so that’s the one we’ll focus on here. There are 8GB and 12GB RAM models, and we tested the former, with 256GB of storage. The tablet worked really well during our usage. For everyday stuff, and even heavier multitasking, we didn’t have any issues. The Snapdragon 870 is still a very powerful processor, and in combination with LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.1 flash storage, there were no issues. A hiccup here and there was present, as on almost every device, but nothing worth singling out.
Games ran perfectly fine
I did try out a couple of games during my testing, though do note that Huawei’s AppGallery is still quite limited when it comes to games. I couldn’t test Genshin Impact, Call of Duty, or anything of the sort. Truth be said, I did find some interesting games to check out, though, such as Rise of Kingdoms and Asphalt 9. They both ran fine, and the tablet never got hot, not even too warm, to be quite honest. Too bad more popular games are not available, though. I’m hoping we’ll see more of them in the AppGallery moving forward.
Battery life is not something you will need to worry about
Depending on which variant you get, you’ll get different charging speeds. Both models do include an 8,300mAh battery. The Snapdragon 888 model comes with 66W charging, while the Snapdragon 870 variant supports 40W charging. Both variants do come with a charging brick, by the way.
The battery life on this thing has been great. So, I used it in two different ways, just to get you the most accurate info. The first was with some heavy gaming. I cranked it up over the weekend, and played games quite a bit. The tablet managed to go through over 8 hours of that. In more regular usage, I was able to go over 11 hours on a single charge, over the course of two days. So, yeah, the battery life is not a problem, at all.
The cameras managed to surprise me
I don’t really like talking about tablet cameras, as they’re usually really bad. Well, that’s not really the case here. They’re not great, just to be clear, and they can’t compete with smartphones, but for a tablet, they’re pretty good.
These are some of the best tablet cameras out there
Huawei opted for a 13-megapixel main camera on the back, and even included an 8-megapixel ultrawide unit as well. On the front, you’re getting a 16-megapixel selfie shooter. Let’s start with the front-facing camera. It is actually quite good. Even in dimmer lighting, it ends up providing an image that is brighter than the actual scene. It’s more than passable for video calls, which is what you should be using this for.
The two cameras on the back can actually take some really nice, sharp, and vivid images in good lighting. Things do change when the light goes away, though. In terms of video recording, the footage is quite shaky, due to the lack of EIS, but the image quality is good.
If you plan on using its cameras, this is the tablet to get
So, you can use these cameras and not be completely disappointed, but people really should stay away from taking pictures and videos with tablets. It’s nice to see that OEMs do their best to offer options in that regard, but the vast majority of people probably never fire up rear cameras on tablets. There are always exceptions, of course.
It has some of the best speakers on tablets, period
This is the company’s first tablet to come with ‘Huawei Sound’, which we’ve seen in the company’s laptops. There are six custom speakers included here, and the sound is… excellent. So, even if you’re holding your tablet in a position for gaming, you won’t exactly be able to block the sound. You will, partially, but not nearly enough to make you not enjoy it. If you’re watching a movie, listening to music, or something like that, and you have this thing sitting down or propped up, you’ll be able to truly enjoy it. These are side-facing speakers, and they do offer plenty of bass as well. These are some of the best speakers I’ve ever seen on a tablet, actually, maybe even the best ones. One thing to note, though, sound-wise, is that there is no 3.5mm headphone jack included here. Bluetooth 5.1 is on offer here, and the Snapdragon 888 model comes with Bluetooth 5.2.
The software is really good, but…
The Huawei MatePad Pro 11 (2022) is equipped with Android 12, though it comes without Google services. That is the case with all Huawei devices these days due to the US ban. What you do get is Huawei’s own services, and app store, the so-called AppGallery. Before we get into that, however, do note that HarmonyOS 3 comes pre-installed on top of Android here. That being said, AppGallery grew immensely over the last couple of years. Huawei invested a lot in its development, and the investments do continue.
You may not find all apps & games you’re looking for
There are a lot of apps and games available there, but still, quite a few popular ones are missing. If you’re used to having all the apps readily available in the Google Play Store, you’ll likely miss some here. Also, you cannot use Google apps. Well, you can try sideloading them, and some may work, which is kind of odd, but not all will. Plus you may experience problems with the ones that are working. The selection of games is not that great either, as Genshin Impact is not here, nor is Call of Duty, and so on. Sideloading apps / games is always an option, and Huawei has a solution for that as well, in form of Petal Search.
There are many multitasking features built-in
If you do not need Google apps, however, and you already checked AppGallery for the apps relevant to you, that’s great. Then there’s really nothing that should stop you from buying this tablet, as the software is really good. The animations are buttery smooth, as is the general performance of HarmonyOS 3. That is not surprising at all. You also do get a number of features that take advantage of that large display, such as advanced multitasking. It’s possible to enlarge folders to make them more tablet-friendly, and then launch apps directly from them. You can easily open apps in windows, utilize a split screen feature, and so on. Such features are usually just a swipe away, or a couple of taps. Using the tablet feels really nice, especially in collaboration with its keyboard.
The Huawei MatePad Pro 11 (2022) is not for everyone, but it’s great nonetheless
Starting at €649 the Huawei MatePad Pro 11 (2022) is not cheap by any means. However, Huawei did a great job with it. This tablet runs really smoothly, even during those prolonged gaming sessions, and all that despite the fact it doesn’t have the latest and greatest SoC. It has a great display with excellent touch response, and really fluid software. Even its cameras are serviceable, and if you do choose to get some accessories for it, you won’t be sorry.
However, if you do install tons of obscure apps on your devices, or need some specific ones that are not available in the AppGallery, well, you may have a problem. You can always sideload, but be careful while you do it. Google apps are also out of the question. What I’m trying to say is, the main problem with the tablet is caused by the US ban on Huawei. This product, on its own, is really great, and premium-feeling. It’s up to you to decide whether it’s worth it to you.
