Huawei’s MateBook 13 is available in Australia today, starting at $1,799

Huawei’s entry into the PC market has been underway for a little while now. Despite hitting the Australian market late (the original MateBook X Pro launched in Australia last November and has already been superseded at MWC this year), the company is committed to ranging its PC products here alongside its other consumer electronics devices.

Bouyed by the success of the MateBook X Pro in Australia, Huawei is today launching the MateBook 13 in Australia, in two SKUs based around eighth-generation Intel Core i5 and i7 processors.

MateBook 13 sits in Huawei’s mainline MateBook range – it’s not part of the premium “X” series, although it’s not hard to trace some of that line’s DNA in the physical design and specs of the device. The focus is on making these devices personal and portable, weighing in at just 1.28-1.3kg depending on the model, and measuring just 14.9mm thick.

The laptops run Windows 10 Home on 8GB RAM with a 3.5mm headphone/microphone jack on the left and USB-C ports on both sides. The USB-C charger will also work with phones, so you could see your way clear to carrying less chargers if you’re using a modern Android phone (and let’s be honest, you’re reading Ausdroid so that’s pretty likely).

As is popular on premium laptops these days, the main chassis is a single piece of aluminium, milled into a unibody construction. There’s large keys on the keyboard with 1.3mm travel, and of course it offers backlighting.

The 13-inch display has a 2K resolution and 88% screen-to-body ratio and features 100% sRGB gamut coverage. It’s also a 3:2 aspect ratio, which is popular for browsing and office work (eg working on documents), although it means you’ll end up with a letterbox effect when watching 16:9 (or wider) content.

While the X series has a pop-up camera in the keyboard, the MateBook 13 carries a more traditional front-facing camera in the top bezel above the display. It’s a 1MP camera, so it likely won’t be anything to write home about but should be serviceable.

Where the specs on the SKUs differ further is on storage and graphics. Core i5 model features 256GB internal storage (SSD) and Intel graphics, while the Core i7 model features 512GB storage and Nvidia GeForce MX 150 graphics – quote a coup at the asking price.

Huawei announced a number of features for their PCs designed to work with their newest premium phones at MWC through the Huawei Share One Hop system like photo sharing, screenshot gestures and more. Those features are also present in the MateBook 13, with its front-right inbuilt NFC chip.

The laptop also supports biometric security with Windows Hello and the inbuilt fingerprint reader – the company says it can go from off to desktop in just 10 seconds.

The MateBook 13 is available in Australia exclusively from the Microsoft store, meaning you’ll be able to walk into the store in Sydney’s Pitt St Mall, or order online. The Core i5 version retails for $1,799 while the Core i7 version comes in at $2,199.