Huawei Matebook X Pro review: The Chinese tech giant’s laptop is a true MacBook Pro rival
Huawei has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons lately. The news comes at a time when the Chinese phone giant is only just beginning to drum up some real brand recognition in Western markets.
In a few short years critics have stopped making jokes about how difficult it is to pronounce the company’s name (it’s wah-way). Its latest phone, the Huawei Mate 20 Pro, is the first to stand shoulder to shoulder with the very best of Apple and Samsung. And now, the Huawei MateBook X Pro looks set to take on the MacBook Pro as the tool of choice, and is certainly one of the best PC laptops you can buy. If politics is giving Huawei’s PR department grey hairs, then at least its products aren’t.
The MateBook X Pro is a thin, light laptop with a gorgeous 13.9-inch, 3000 by 2000 pixel display that stretches right up to a 5mm bezel. It has an old school USB port on one side and two newfangled Type-C ports on the other, a postcard sized touchpad, a 10-point touchscreen, 12 hour battery life, Dolby Atmos 10 sound and the option of a dedicated Nvidia GPU. The keyboard, often a weak point on laptops this compact, has decent travel and is easy to type on, backlit and spill-proof.
It’s powerful as hell too, with the highest spec device carrying an 8th generation i7 CPU. That’s a big enough engine to run proper games, video editing software and anything else you could feasibly need to do while away from your desktop.
There are some wrinkles. To preserve the thin bezel (and assuage privacy concerns) Huawei hid the webcam underneath one of the top keys. It pops up like a car headlight, but points up your nose rather than at your face. It’s a minor quirk on an otherwise premium device.
The MateBook X Pro is the most accomplished laptop Huawei has made.
Price and availability
The 13.9” Matebook X Pro is available for £1499,99, the 13” is available for £1349.99
Specifications
OPERATING SYSTEM
Windows 10 Home
SIZE
Width: 304 mm
Height: 217 mm
Depth: 14.6 mm
Weight: About 1.33 kg
COLOUR
Space Grey / Mystic Silver
DISPLAY
Size: 13.9 inches
Type: LTPS
Screen-to-body ratio: 91%
Resolution: 3000 x 2000, 260 PPI
Aspect ratio: 3:2
Viewing angle: 178 degrees
Colour: sRGB 100% colour gamut
Contrast: 1500:1
Maximum Brightness: 450 nits
Touchscreen: 10-point, anti-fingerprint
PROCESSOR
8th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-8550U processor
8th Generation Intel® Core™ i5-8250U processor
GPU: NVIDIA® GeForce® MX150 with 2 GB GDDR5 / Intel® UHD Graphics 620
MEMORY
8 GB / 16 GB LPDDR3 2133 MHz
SSD
256 GB / 512 GB NVMe PCIe SSD
CAMERA
Front camera: 1 MP
PORTS
One touch power button
3.5-mm stereo headset jack
USB-C x 1 (Allow data transfer, charging and connection with MateDock 2)
Thunderbolt™ 3 (USB-C) port x 1 (Allows speedy data transfer, charging and connection to MateDock 2)
USB-A x 1 (USB3.0, max output 5 V / 2 A)
BATTERY
Material: Lithium polymer
57.4 Wh
AUDIO
Dolby Atmos Sound System
Quad digital microphones and Quad speakers
WI-FI
IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, 2.4 / 5 GHz 2 x 2 MIMO
BLUETOOTH
BT 4.1 (compatible with 3.0 and 2.1+EDR)