Huawei has announced the Huawei MediaPad X1, a 7-inch Android tablet looking to capitalise on the trend for smaller devices.

Annouced on the eve of Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona, the new Huawei tablet sets its sights on devices like the popular Nexus 7, offering a slim design, full HD display and quad-core processor under the hood.

The MediaPad X1 measures just 183.5 x 103.9 x 7.18mm and weighs 239g, cramming in a 7-inch IPS display with a 1920 x 1200 pixel resolution, that's 323ppi. That display is capable of producing 515 nits brightness and is protected with Corning Gorilla Glass.

Returning to design, not only is the MediaPad X1 slim, but it boasts an 80 per cent screen to body ratio. That means there's very little bezel on the aluminium unibody device.

Hauwei has managed to put a 5000mAh battery inside, offering 25 hours of life, as well as providing reverse charging - i.e., you can recharge your smartphone from it.

Inside there's a Huawei 1.6GHz HiSilicon Kirin910 quad-core processor with a Mali 450 GPU. There's 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage, with a microSD card slot for expansion up to 32GB.

On the rear is a 13-megapixel camera with a Sony Exmor R BSI sensor with a f/2.2 aperture and a 28mm wide angle. On the front is a 5-megapixel fixed focus camera with f/2.4 aperture and 22mm wide lens.

READ: Huawei MediaPad X1 7.0 vs Nexus 7: What's the difference?

The packed spec sheet extends to connectivity, with the MediaPad X1 offering 4G LTE, although there will be different models for different networks. This tablet has been designed to be connected, offering full phone capabilities so you could use if for calls if you wish. There's no Wi-Fi only version at the moment, although Huawei says it's planned for the future.

Perhaps the only questionable element is that the MediaPad X1 launches on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, so it's out of date on arrival, and it has been skinned with Huawei's Emotion UI.

There's no date set for launch just yet - which makes the software version a little more worrying - but Huawei tells us to expect it early in the second half of 2014. The 16GB LTE-equipped MediaPad X1 can be yours for €399, about £329.

We've been playing with a pre-release version of the MediaPad X1 for a couple of days, so make sure you head over and check-out our first impressions.

READ: Hands-on: Huawei MediaPad X1 review