The Huawei MateBook X Pro Review: Calling Out The Competition
by Brett Howse on June 27, 2018 8:00 AM EST
Huawei has not been in the PC game very long, but in just a short couple of years they certainly raised the bar for the competition in the Ultrabook category. Today we’re taking a look at the latest Huawei MateBook X Pro, and with this release, the traditional PC makers need to stand up and take notice.
The MateBook X Pro features a laundry list of features you’d look for in a new Ultrabook. The PC world has fully embraced the thin-bezel revolution, and Huawei has taken this to an impressive 91% screen to body ratio on their latest Ultrabook, which features just 4.4 mm bezels all the way around. The small jump from the previous generation’s 88% was achieved by relocating the webcam to the keyboard, which we’ll cover later. In addition to the thin bezels, Huawei has kept the fantastic 3:2 aspect ratio display as the MateBook X, but increases the display size and resolution, to 13.9-inches and 3000x2000 respectively.
The laptop offers pretty much every feature you could hope for in thin and light Ultrabook, with Intel’s 8th generation Core U series processors in the i5-8250U and i7-8550U, both of which are Kaby Lake Refresh with four cores and eight threads. The Core i7 model also comes with NIVIDIA’s GeForce MX150 GPU, with 2 GB of GDDR5 and 384 CUDA cores, which should offer substantially more grunt than the Intel HD 630. RAM is 8 GB of the Core i5 and 16 GB of LPDDR3 on the Core i7, which is the maximum amount of LPDDR3 you can fit in a U series laptop.
| Huawei Matebook X Pro (2018) | |||
| Core i7 With MX 150 (model reviewed) |
Core i5 Without MX 150 |
||
| Processor | CPU | Intel Core i7-8550U | Intel Core i5-8250U |
| Cores | Quad Core with HT | Quad Core with HT | |
| Base Freq | 1.8 GHz | 1.6 GHz | |
| Turbo Freq | 4.0 GHz | 3.6 GHz | |
| L3 Cache | 8 MB | 6 MB | |
| TDP | PL1 = 15W | PL1 = 15W | |
| Graphics | NVIDIA MX150 2GB GDDR5 384 CUDA Cores |
Intel HD 630 24 EUs 300-1100 MHz |
|
| Display | 13.9-inch 3000x2000 LTPS 100% sRGB 450 nits 1500:1 contrast ratio 10-point touch |
||
| DRAM | 16 GB LPDDR3 | 8 GB LPDDR3 | |
| Storage | 512 GB NVMe PCIe 3.0 x 4 |
256 GB NVMe PCIe 3.0 x 4 |
|
| Wireless | Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8275 802.11ac 2x2:2 Dual Band |
||
| Connectivity | 1 x Type-C (Power and Data) 1 x TB3 (Power and Data) 1 x Type-A 3.5mm TRRS |
||
| Camera | Spring Latch 1MP |
||
| Battery | 57.4 Wh | ||
| Dimensions | H x W x D | 304 x 217 x 14.6 mm | |
| Mass | ~1.33 kg | < 1.33 kg | |
| Price | $1499.99 USD | $1199.99 USD | |
But the fun hasn’t stopped there. Huawei has also outfitted the MateBook X Pro with two USB-C ports which both support power and data, and one of them is also Thunderbolt 3 enabled. For those that still need access to normal USB, which is most people, there’s also a USB-A port as well. There’s no SD card slot, which would be the one thing that might be missed, but it’s a small sacrifice.
The MateBook X Pro also ships with the Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265 network adapter, which is a 2x2:2 adapter with 80 MHz channels, meaning a maximum connection speed of 867 Mbps, and integrated Bluetooth 4.2. Since Intel added MU-MIMO support, it’s easily the adapter of choice with great performance and high reliability.
Huawei has managed to pack in pretty much everything you could wish for in an Ultrabook, but they’ve still kept a thin and light design which we’ll take a look at now.
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Ruimanalmeida - Thursday, June 28, 2018 - link
A personal computer isn't a good computer without a reasonable technical support from manufacturer. And Huawei just don't have it.mritunjaysp - Friday, June 29, 2018 - link
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Lolimaster - Friday, June 29, 2018 - link
Do people were asking for screen to body ratio over funcionality on the laptop market? Don't think so. Another good device ruined by a webcam located in the most retarded place.Also I think Ryzen 2700/2500U would've been better options, not much different in gpu than the MX150 while the whole cpu/gpu combo being way less expensive. As I always says, AMD should release their own laptops mimicking this designs.
Phartindust - Saturday, June 30, 2018 - link
Ask and you shall receive:https://www.walmart.com/ip/Huawei-MateBook-D-Signa...
Phartindust - Saturday, June 30, 2018 - link
https://hothardware.com/news/huawei-matebook-dmilkod2001 - Monday, July 2, 2018 - link
That's really great value. Luckily for you yanks. In EU such specs go for:€800-900 :( and they act like they do you a favour to sell that cheap (im not talking about Huwei but laptop prices in general).markiz - Wednesday, July 11, 2018 - link
Well, tax?markiz - Wednesday, July 11, 2018 - link
To each it's own. I know of very few people who actually use a webcam on a laptop.So it's ruined for YOU and your like, not for everybody.
s.yu - Saturday, July 21, 2018 - link
It also lacks a card reader, ruining it for some other folks.bailey9 - Sunday, July 1, 2018 - link
Great review, but I found no mention of touch functionality on the display. I assume Matebook X Pro lacks this. That seems like a significant omission to me, given Microsoft's software. I would value a table of peer devices with interfaces and ports compared, similar to the outstanding battery life tables in the review. That is a key differentiator with the Surface line, for example. Am I the only one who feels that Windows 10 devices need touchscreens?