Safety first: Huawei’s new MatePad T8 is the perfect tablet for children

Choosing the perfect tablet for your children can be tricky. While tablets are brilliant for both education and entertainment, being connected is, understandably, daunting. From screen time to durability, there’s a lot to consider when it comes to exploring the digital world safely.

Huawei’s Android-based MatePad T8 tablet ticks all the child-friendly boxes. From its long-lasting battery life (12 hours) to its sharp 8-inch HD screen, the MatePad T8 is an ideal home school companion. Portable and powerful, it has everything you would need from a connectivity perspective — Wi-Fi or LTE to get online, Bluetooth to pair wireless headphones, and a 5MP rear camera and a 2MP front-facing camera for video calls, photography and more.

What really makes the MatePad T8 shine is its security features. Face recognition for unlocking means no more complicated codes or sequencing to remember — the facial recognition sensor (in the front camera) provides quick and easy access every time.

Downloading apps using Huawei’s AppGallery — preinstalled on the MatePad T8 — is oh-so-easy but safe too. In the parental control settings, you can select the apps which can be downloaded based on age restrictions. So no matter if your child is five or 15, they’ll only have access to appropriate apps that have been carefully curated for their age group.

Just like parents need a work-life balance, children need to navigate between tech and play, and one of the best features of the MatePad T8 is Kids Corner, a dedicated app that not only guides children towards better, healthier tablet use, it shows parents what they’ve been up to. Huawei has thought of everything so there’s even bumpy road alerts and a very cool ebook mode.

You’re in control

Kids Corner provides a safe environment for children because parents can set time limits and control access to content, from other apps on the tablet down to photos and videos in the gallery. It’s completely up to you. In Kids Corner, time limits will help to manage every aspect of your child’s usage by setting daily access frequencies, usage durations, and break times.  

Posture perfect

Did you know that too much screen time can affect your child’s posture? The effects can be long-lasting and lead to chronic back pain and even affect balance. Often when using a tablet, laptop or even smartphone it is easy to become overly relaxed and sometimes slump into postures and positions that are damaging to muscles and joints.

Luckily, the MatePad T8 has posture alerts which can tell when your child is lying still for too long, or if they’re looking at the device while lying down or at certain angles. Posture alerts will also encourage children to find a better body position.

Eye spy 

All digital devices emit blue light (also known as high energy visible light). While blue light is natural, too much exposure can cause eye strain which is why so many smartphones, for example, have a night mode and why some people invest in antiglare glasses. Huawei’s MatePad T8 has made it simpler to protect your eyes with a blue ray filter which reduces eye strain by blocking out that colour of light — the ambient light sensor adapts the on-screen colour and brightness automatically based on surroundings.

The Covid-19 pandemic has left many parents looking for the perfect device to add to their household line-up, and the MatePad T8 is a budget-friendly buy worth considering. It’s an affordable family tablet that truly takes digital wellness, performance and peace of mind to heart.

The Huawei MatePad T8 costs R2,999 and is available now on Huawei’s online store as well as from Vodacom, MTN, Cellucity, Telkom, Incredible Connection, Makro and Game.

This article was paid for by Huawei.