Huawei MateBook X preview: Huawei goes after the MacBook

Huawei is stepping into laptops, expanding the MateBook family beyond the 2-in-1 tablet that kicked off the line in 2016 and now introducing the MateBook X and MateBook D.

The MateBook X is potentially the most interesting device, looking to challenge the current line-up of slim and light Ultrabooks. This is a device that’s been designed for portability, while still retaining the power you’ll need for everyday computing.

For those who know the Huawei brand, the design might not come as a surprise. Huawei’s focus on smartphones has been around industrial designs, premium materials and offering devices that a slim and well-specified, which the MateBook X repeats.

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Huawei Mate X: Design

• 286 x 211 x 12.5mm, 1.05kg
• Premium metal designs in gold, rose gold, grey

Turning its hand to laptops seems to have come out well in the case of the MateBook X: as Huawei boasts, it’s slimmer than the 12-inch MacBook and it adopts premium techniques that you’ll find on Huawei’s phones, like the so-called diamond cutting leaving a precise chamfer to the very edge of the display, although there’s also a hint of Asus’ ZenBook 3 about it.

It’s a 13-inch device although it doesn’t look like it, with bezels around the display that only measure 4.2mm; there’s no wasted space, there’s only a hint at a black border, with the metal of the lid framing the edges neatly. 

The MateBook X will be available in three colours: gold you might expect if you know the company and might be a little too bling for many, but there’s a more subdued grey – called “Space Gray” – so there’s no mistaking where Huawei has set its sights. If you want a little lift, then the rose gold pulls off pink rather nicely. There’s a lack of good pink laptops and Huawei is setting things right. 

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The parallels with the MacBook can’t be ignored, from the styling of the rubber feet on the bottom to the look of the keyboard and the trackpad, Apple’s design is reflected here. That’s no bad thing because the results are rather good. It’s a good-looking premium laptop, but at 1.05kg, it’s light enough to be ported around on long days. The footprint itself is smaller than a piece of A4 paper, so slipping it into any bag is going to be a breeze. 

For the most part it feels solid too. We like the cool touch of the metal and the matching keyboard colour is nicely done, but there’s a surprisingly spongey section of the speaker grille above the keyboard. The keyboard action doesn’t seem to be affected however, and we were happy to clatter out words, with good travel from those chiclet keys. The touchpad is large and clicky, although we’ve not used it to an extent to really judge its performance.

When it comes to connectivity, the MateBook X also adopts some of Apple’s approach, although you’re given two USB Type-C connections, as well as a 3.5mm headphone socket. It’s a fusion of conventionality with the adoption of new standards, but there’s also a dock/dongle that comes in the box. This will expand you to USB, HDMI and VGA, so it’s more of a desk dock than on-the-go connector for your other devices.

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Huawei MateBook X: Hardware and display

• 13-inch IPS, 2160 x 1440 pixels, 200ppi, 350 nits
• Intel Core i5-7200U or Core i7-7500U; 4/8GB DDR3 RAM
• 256/512GB SSD

To the meat of the MateBook sandwich now and you’re looking at a 13-inch fully laminated touchless panel with a resolution of 2160 x 1440 pixels, giving you a 3:2 aspect. That results in a little more height than some rivals, meaning a little more working space on that document you might be tapping away on.

First impressions of the display are good: we’ve not had the chance to use it for any period of time, but it appeared to be vibrant enough, offering respectable contrast, but we can’t really judge how well it handles bright conditions just yet, although its specced at 350 nits. We’ve mentioned that there’s no touch, so although that cuts down one of the familiar aspects of Windows 10, it will at least give you a nice clear display and one that’s topped with Gorilla Glass too. 

Powering the MateBook X are seventh-gen Intel Core i processors, but this is a fanless design. That means quiet in operation, with Huawei telling us that it has been designed with the latest space-age technologies to dissipate heat; exactly how it really performs under pressure, we just don’t know yet, but you get the choice of i7-7500U or i5-7200U processors, with Intel HD Graphics 620.

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There will be 4 or 8GB RAM versions, with SSD storage options of 256 or 512GB. We’d expect a range of models to be offered, but we suspect this will vary from region to region and naturally, we don’t know all the prices yet. 

One of the aces in Huawei’s desk is the collaboration with Dolby. This, reportedly, is the first laptop to come with Dolby Atmos Sound System. In the increasingly muddied waters of what Dolby Atmos means (it’s now in cinemas, home movie setups, smartphones, tablets and laptops), here it means that you’re getting great separation and a degree of object placement.

We’ve experienced some demo clips and the effect is surprisingly good. So while the definition of that Dolby Atmos means might be changing, it’s certainly a boost to the normal flat acoustics you’d expect from a laptop.

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Dolby says this is a result of working with Huawei from early on in the design process: Dolby wasn’t handed a laptop carcass and told it make it sound good, they were able to have an input on hardware and software design to make sure they could get the effect they wanted. In reality, it means that if you’re sitting in your hotel room watching movies, they’re going to sound better than you’d expect from such a slim device.

Then there’s the fingerprint scanner that’s built into the power button. It’s a nice touch, adding a little convenience and avoiding the need to have a separate ugly scanner elsewhere.

First Impressions

First impressions are good. The MateBook X provides another option if you’re after a premium thin and light laptop; exactly how well it runs under pressure and how the 41.1Wh battery will last remains to be seen. Huawei says it’s good for 10 hours of use and we’ve got our fingers crossed hoping that it does.

The MateBook X offers a good design and it appears to be well appointed. With some rivals offering just one USB Type-C you’re getting a 100 per cent lift here, at least meaning there’s somewhere to connect your dongle and keep the thing connected to the power easily.

The Huawei MateBook X will be available from €1399 for the i5/8GB/256GB model, up to €1699 for the i7/8GB/512GB version.