I’ve reviewed a few Huawei laptops, including a few MateBooks, in my time. Indeed, we even had Huawei MateBook D14 in for review and were impressed by the build quality and the value offered by the mid-ranger. Huawei MateBook X Pro is a premium Windows ultra-book at around €1,949 for our review model and that certainly raises the bar of expectation for the device.
Form Factor
Huawei are well known for great build quality and pushing the envelope with slimmer devices. MateBook X Pro is another example of Huawei’s craft in this respect. At just 14.9mm thick when closed, it’s a waif of a 14-inch ultrabook. MateBook X Pro weighs just 1.33 kgs and that weight is distributed fairly evenly along its keyboard/touchpad area. The device is easy to hold in one hand in the intuitive places.
The 14-inch screen has minimal bezel and practically every square centimetre of its height and width are in use. Huawei Matebook X Pro is a marvel of portable practicality in terms of how much is squeezed into such a device.
For something so light, slight and slim, Huawei MateBook X Pro feels strong and resilient. That typical Huawei engineering rears its head again.
Block Aesthetic
Our Space Grey has a frosted aluminium outer that is unmistakably premium. It feels good in the hand too. There isn’t much room for adornment on such a space-conscious device and there are only two non-functional elements to the visual design.
One small silver logo sitting under the screen in the under-bezel. It’s something to fill that little space and remind you of what you paid for.
The logo on the outer shell is probably a little too large and takes a little away from the pleasing minimalist overall design.
Other functional elements have a cohesive visual design that is easy on the eye. The round power key with in-built fingerprint reader is matched by the round pinholes of the audio grille next to the key board. The keys have a roundness as do the corners of the device.
In fact the device is very square, almost angular, from middle-distance and softens as you approach it.
A Working Device
Our review model sports a Intel Core i7-10510U. That’s a four core, eight thread CPU with a clock speed of up to 4.9GHz on a base frequency of 1.8GHz. 16GB of RAM is about par for any good PC built.
Huawei MateBook X Pro is capable of decent graphics and image quality from its 4GB of VRAM. NVidia MX250 is definitely a mobile-centric GPU and the latest visual effects aren’t going to work at reasonable frame-rates. If you can take ‘Medium’ at 60fps then this will do nicely.
The display’s 3:2 aspect ratio is a selling point to business folk since it allows for comfortable viewing for most documents and presentations. Some may dislike resizing their games and media but working at 3:2 was noticeably easier for me in a few use cases.
Huawei MateBook X Pro makes some sacrifices to preserve its portable prowess. There isn’t much room for I/O ports and our review model featured just one full-sized USB-A ports, two USB-C and a headphone/mic combo socket.
There is a handy USB-C extension I/O adaptor included with the device to offset this. The puck-style device comes with VGA, two USB-A, two USB-C and HDMI sockets and ports.
Novel Display
Huawei MateBook X Pro’s display is not just novel for its work-friendly 3:2 aspect ratio. The LPTS screen tech is supposedly superior in colour accuracy to IPS-LCD while offering a battery life advantage over AMOLED displays.
In practice, the display is incredibly sharp and a little cold (blue) by default. The colours are certainly natural in tone despite that blue hue. The display is rated to cover 100% of SRGB colour gamut and it’s readily visible. At 450 nits (typ.), it’s bright enough to work in all manner of lighting conditions.
Contrast is better than your average IPS at 1,500:1 but black doesn’t go near as dark as the true per-pixel lighting seen in AMOLED displays.
The tiny frame of Huawei MateBook X Pro coupled with the stark, bright display give the display some extra pop.
Keys and Mouse
The keyboard covers as much of the surface area available. The pinhole speaker grilles on each side eat some of the space but it’s still a usable space to type in. The keys have zero flex despite their flat shape. The travel around 1.5mm is gives just feedback for a swift overall input.
The mousepad fills the space below the keyboard and offers a large touch area for a 14-inch notebook. The mousepad has a slightly coarser matte to it so you can feel you are on the touch surface. Touch gestures are enabled and quite easy on the generous tracked pad.
The round power key houses an excellent fingerprint reader. It’s accurate, quick and big enough that the finger easily finds the mark out the corner of the eye.
Every single review of Huawei laptops since they implemented the pop-up webcam has left it to the reader to decide whether they mind the unflattering angle or appreciate the simpicility and security of the feature. This review is no different – I like the webcam, you may not.
Portable Powering
Like many premium portables, Huawei MateBook X Pro charges via USB-C. This simplifies carrying the notebook with other devices along with easy replacement of the forgotten or lost charger. It’s an elegant solution, only helped by the 3-metre USB-C cable.
The 65W SuperCharge charging kit supplied will give the user 3-4 hours of use when charged for 30 minutes from flat. This feature came in handy a few times in our few weeks with the device. A full charge from 0% will take around two hours.
That two-hour charge will net the average user around ten hours of work and some light entertainment. This is about average in its price-range and category. Working the machine a little harder will see that figure plummet hard. Streaming at 1440p or playing complex 3D games will run the battery down in 4-6 hours.
Specifications
| CPU | Intel Core i7-10 510U, max. turbo 4.9GHz, base 1.8GHz – 4 core – 8 thread |
| GPU | NVidia MX250, 4,096MB – 1,518-1,582 MHz |
| RAM | 16GB, LPDDR3 2,133 MHz |
| Display | 13.9″, LTPS, 3,000 x 2,000, touchscreen – 450 nits (typical) – 1,500:1 contrast ratio |
| Storage | 1TB, NVMe PCIe SSD |
| Ports, I/O | USB-C x 2 – Charging/Display, Dual 4K@60Hz, Max.3840 x 2160 – Data, Max.40 Gbps USB-A 3.2 x 1 3.5 mm Headset and Microphone Jack x 1 |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi – IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax – 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz – 2 x 2 MIMO – WPA/WPA2/WPA3 Bluetooth 5.1 |
| Battery | 56W, Li-Po |
| Charger | 65W USB-C Supercharger |
Premium Touch, Premium Price
Huawei MateBook X Pro asks for a premium and delivers on that price in most respects. The form factor, light weight and specs justify the near-two grand price-tag. For those who need power without the bulk, MateBook X Pro will be worth it.
The battery life is middling for a device in its category but this is offset by its quick-charge feature. Similarly, the device lacks on-board ports but gets around this with a handy adaptor.
Review model provided by Huawei. Model reviewed at €1,949.
