A recently spotted patent for a Huawei tablet bearing model number d-02K and the equipment name “Huawei Mediapad M5 wp” may, in fact, be a water-resistant variant of the company’s MediaPad M5. That’s according to a newly sighted FCC approval and recent reports speculating that the “wp” in the equipment name actually points to a “WaterPlay” branded device. For those who may not be aware, WaterPlay is a designation Huawei places on its waterproof devices. While there is plenty of room for skepticism, that would actually make quite a lot of sense and could provide some insight into what the new Huawei device will bring with it when it launches. It is worth mentioning that the following specs are purely speculative at this point, however.
Bearing that in mind, this device would be expected to arrive in an 8-inch form factor running the latest version of Android. Namely, that’s Android 8.0 Oreo and that would presumably be driven by the same Kirin 960 SoC found in the less water-resistant variation of the tablet. Meanwhile, Huawei would likely choose to stick relatively closely to the script on other specs as well. The smaller of the two Huawei MediaPad M5 devices ships with 4GB of RAM and three different storage sizes – 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB. It’s not impossible that the WaterPlay edition would ship with a smaller range of options and less RAM. So user’s may want to expect a minimum of 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. Beyond that, the MediaPad M5 ships with a 5100mAh battery. So the new WaterPlay, if that is what the tablet turns out to be, should be comparable on that front as well. Last but not least, it should be expected to arrive at around 8mm thick and tip the scales at around 310 grams, give or take a few grams.
As noted in previous reports, the tablet is shown with a Harman/Kardon branding at the back and a dual-camera setup, too. The former feature is found on the original MediaPad M5 so there isn’t much deviation there but the cameras will certainly be different if this does turn out to be a waterproof version of that tablet. Having said all of that, there is probably enough going on with this new patent to keep at least some mystery going until an official announcement is made. So it’s a good idea to take reports about the device with a grain of salt for now.