The Huawei Matebook X Pro has a sleek, sandblasted metal case. Photo: Huawei/DPA
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https://scmp.com/lifestyle/gadgets/article/3089734/huawei-matebook-x-pro-2020-review-light-bright-and-ready-remote Gadgets
Huawei Matebook X Pro 2020 review: light, bright and ready for remote work
- Chinese electronics giant’s updated laptop looks good, from its sandblasted, metal exterior to its bright, borderless touch screen
- It can control your mobile phone, has a good battery life and a hidden camera, and it will run Windows 10
Huawei Matebook X Pro 2020. A lightweight and good looking laptop.
Huawei has already given the smartphone market a thorough shake-up. The Chinese manufacture hasn’t been so quick to score points with its laptops, however. That could well change with the new MateBook Pro X (2020), which excelled in our test.
Design and Hardware
There’s no denying: this notebook is one serious eye-catcher. The sandblasted metal exterior of the Matebook X Pro in a shimmering emerald green won’t be confused with the devices of Huawei’s rivals.
The Chinese electronics giant has made this computer for people who primarily work with a laptop, and the screen is testament to this.
The Matebook X Pro’s virtually borderless 3K display has an aspect ratio of 3:2 with a diagonal of 13.9 inches – ideal for working editing texts, working with spreadsheets and giving presentations. But this new laptop is also well suited for editing photos and other media: the display covers 100 per cent of the RGB colour space and offers a native resolution of 3,000 x 2,000 pixels.
It’s also a touch screen with 10-point multitouch, meaning all 10 fingers can theoretically control different parts of a program at the same time. The brightness of the display was also impressive in our test and Huawei says the display can hit up to 450 Nits in brightness, while we measured beyond 500 Nits, helping this laptop holds its own against sunlight.
The on/off switch in the Huawei Matebook X Pro doubles as a fingerprint sensor. Photo: Huawei/DPA
Software and features
On the inside, you can choose between an Intel Core i5 or the Intel Core i7-10510U as a processor.
This is supported by an ample 16GB of RAM and – if desired – a dedicated Nvidia GeForce MX250 graphics card with 2GB of VRAM for playing resource-hungry PC games or editing media. In terms of storage space, you can choose either a 512GB or 1TB SSD drive.
Where did the webcam go? Ah, there it is, between F6 and F7! Photo: Huawei/DPA
The Matebook X Pro offers three equally handy features. First, an on/off switch that doubles as a fingerprint sensor.
Second, a retractable webcam placed in the upper row between the F6 and F7 function keys. The pop-up camera can be retracted and extended at the touch of a finger. This is designed to protect your privacy, as the camera won’t be able to film you unless you pop it out. And yet the low position means you’re filmed from a less flattering low angle, making you look rather domineering to other people in video conferences.
What’s more, if you ever type while in video chat, you’ll notice your fingers are obscuring your face from the low camera. When more people are working remotely during the pandemic, you shouldn’t underestimate the importance of a camera that does your face justice.
Finally, Huawei wanted its own answer to the extremely convenient file transfer method Airdrop from the Apple universe. With Huawei Share, a connection between smartphone and notebook can be established at lightning speed thanks to NFC.
But this function goes beyond things like transferring photos from your smartphone to the laptop: Huawei Share even lets you view and control your smartphone’s screen live on the Matebook screen.
In order for Huawei Share to run on the basis of NFC, however, you’ll have to accept a small cosmetic drawback: a sticker with the inscription “Huawei Share”, which also contains the NFC chip itself. So you’re probably better off not removing this sticker if you want NFC and the handy sharing function that comes with it.
Huawei is largely targeting the upwardly mobile working person with its new Matebook X Pro. Photo: Huawei/DPA
Performance and battery life
Although Huawei smartphones have been blacklisted in the trade war between the US and China, you’ll still find Windows 10 Home from Microsoft running on the computer. The most important chips of the computer also come from US companies.
Huawei promises an average battery life of up to 15 hours and this was in line with our experience. Another bonus here: the 65 watt fast charger weighs only 156 grams.
Together with the 14.6mm thin MateBook X Pro weighing in at 1.33kg, the laptop with charger weighs under 1.5kg, making it perfect for anyone who regularly travels with a laptop.
The Matebook X Pro also comes in an unusual deep green tone. Photo: Huawei/DPA
Conclusion
The company has not yet made a formal “promise for the future” for the Matebook family, as Huawei has made for the future security of its Android smartphones. In other words, there’s still a small question mark when it comes to this laptop’s longevity.
The Huawei MateBook X Pro with the Intel CPU i7-10510U (16GB RAM and 1TB SSD) as well as the GPU from Nvidia (GeForce MX250) is available in Space Grey and Emerald Green for €1,899 (US$2,132).
The variant with an Intel i5-10210U, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD and the Nvidia GeForce MX250 is only available in Space Grey for €1,599.