When it comes to thin and light Windows laptops, there are a few brands that come to mind such as Dell or HP. But for the past few years, Huawei has been getting up there with their MateBook lineup.
Design & Hardware
The look of the new MateBook X Pro hasn’t changed all that much compared to the 2018 version I last tested. That being said, the laptop does look premium with an Aluminum alloy body that comes in a nice Space Gray colour option.
The new MateBook X Pro is just 1.33 kg and 14.6mm thin which makes it perfect to travel with.
The display is a 13.9-inch touchscreen with a resolution of 3000 x 2000 and 100% sRGB colour gamut. The screen is good but I would have liked it if Huawei upped the resolution to 4K.
The bezels on the device are so thin that Huawei has included a pop-up camera within the keyboard’s FN row. The camera isn’t the best quality but it’ll get the job done. I would have liked Huawei to put the webcam in the display’s top bezel, similar to what Dell has done with their XPS laptops.
Powering the laptop is the 10th Gen Intel Core i7 processor with 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. There’s also an Nvidia GeForce MX250 GPU, which is slightly older now that the MX350 has been released earlier this year.
Using the MateBook X Pro for everyday tasks such as web browsing, writing articles or watching videos had no issues. And thanks to the MX250 GPU, you can use the MateBook X Pro for light gaming of not-so intensive games like Fortnite on low-medium settings.
The battery in the MateBook X Pro is 56 Wh, which the company claims can get you 13 hours of video playback. While using the laptop, I got closer to 8 hours even when not under intense workloads.
The keyboard on the MateBook X Pro is good and feels like a cross between Apple’s Butterfly keyboard and Dell’s MagLev keyboard in the latest XPS 2-in-1. On either side of the keyboard are the speakers (of which there are four of them). The speakers can get fairly loud which works great when watching videos on YouTube or movies on Netflix.
The keys are backlit and the power button doubles as a fingerprint sensor for Windows Hello login. The trackpad on the laptop is a good size and with a good amount of clickiness to it.
For ports, the MateBook X Pro has two USB-C ports (both Thunderbolt 3 enabled), USB-A and a headphone jack. Huawei also includes their 65W USB-C Power Adapter and a USB-C adapter in the box which adds another USB-A port, USB-C port, VGA and HDMI out.
The new Huawei MateBook X Pro is available from the following retailers in Canada:
The Canadian MSRP for the laptop is $2,499 CAD. The 2018 model of the MateBook X Pro I previously reviewed was $1,999 CAD.
For less a few hundred less, you can pick up the Dell XPS 13 (2020) that has a 4K touchscreen for around $2,249 CAD. or even a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro for around the same price as the MateBook X Pro.
Software
On the software side of things, Huawei hasn’t made any major changes other than adding their own apps pre-installed. Of which there are a few pre-installed apps, Huawei Keyboard Hotkeys, Huawei Share and PC Manager.
You’ll also have your usual set of pre-installed apps such as Microsoft Office.
Huawei Keyboard Hotkeys have to do with the Fn row of keys. The PC Manager is where you would update your laptops’ drivers and scan for any hardware issues.
Huawei Share lets you connect to your Huawei phone to transfer files. You can also use the app to control your phone from the MateBook X Pro using screen mirroring.
You can find out more about Huawei Share here. I had no real issues using the MateBook X Pro but I did notice quite a bit of fan noise even when just browsing the web and the bottom of the laptop would also get quite warm.
Final Thoughts
The MateBook X Pro (2020) is a great Windows laptop that offers good specs in a thin and premium body but there are some issues to fix like the fan noise and webcam placement.
Pros
- Premium look and feel
- Good selection of ports
- Solid battery life
- Fingerprint sensor for Windows Hello
- Good specs
Cons
- High price tag compared to the competition
- Odd webcam placement
TheCanadianTechie 