Last week saw Huawei release their 2020 range of laptops, headlined by the MateBook X Pro. On paper, it looks mighty impressive with a full range of specs and hardware that will please anyone. We jumped at the chance to have a play test this amazing toy pieces of hardware. After a few days of “testing”, it’s fair to say that the MateBook X Pro has left quite the first impression.
Gorgeous Hardware
Clearly a lot of effort has been put into the design, presentation and capability of the MateBook X Pro. Honestly, it’s something I’d put side by side with a top-spec Macbook Pro. It has a similar feel to it and the same sleek, polished look but it’s a Windows machine and it’s got a few tricks to share as well.
There are three things to touch on that contributed heavily to the first impression of this hardware starting with the FullView screen. It’s a 3K resolution touchscreen with a 91% screen to body ratio What this means for users is the bezel around the edge of the screen is near to non-existent.
The touch screen also opens the door to other features such as gestures and one of these that is particularly useful for me is the screen capture. Triggered by a three-finger swipe down the screen, the screen is then available for a segment capture or full screen. Huawei’s software then reads the screen and captures the text for you separately, making it easy to copy and paste if needed or store the information for later reference.
The issue that comes from having such a slim bezel and panel is where to put the web camera. There just isn’t space in the screen, but a clever bit of engineering has that covered. Between the F6 and F7 keys is the web camera, discretely hidden away by a pop-up mechanism that helps make the laptop really pleasing to the eye and safeguards your privacy. It also presents the old up-nose camera issue, but we can’t have it all can we?
Finally (for today at least) we have the laptop charging, which normally I’d call a brick but it’s not… it’s a slightly oversized phone charger that puts out a whopping 65W and will — while the marketing says all Huawei — charge all your USB-C equipment. I’ve found the charger compatible with my Tab S4, multiple phones in my house and even My Macbook.
The performance is excellent
While the specs are at the leading edge of available technology that doesn’t tell the whole story of just how good laptop is. In my daily use — I’ve been using the MateBook X Pro for 4 days now — it’s given me nothing but a fast and fluid response with not a single sign of lag.
The battery life (56Wh) is enough to see most users through a solid day of work. I’ve been charging it overnight and getting 10+ hours of screen time with a variety of applications running including the Office 365 suite of software, Android Studio, some basic video editing and of course… Lots of web and chat activities.
I even found a bit of time to test out the video capacity of it and — for a laptop particularly — I’m impressed. While it’s not the latest and greatest FPS that’s going to stress test the video card to it’s fullest, I played some Diablo III very successfully with no real lag or noticeable performance issues. The high resolution of the FullView screen made the game a pleasure to play even on the smaller screen of the laptop versus the Ultrawide monitor I have on my desk at home.
So far it’s been a really good experience with The MateBook X Pro as it really packs a punch. It’s positioned alongside the Macbook Pro range and for the $3,299.00 it will cost you it would want to pack a serious punch. We’ll keep it on the test bench for the next few weeks for a more in-depth review including the Huawei Share experience.
