Huawei MateBook X Pro's infinity display puts the competition to shame

MateBook X Pro

Nearly 1 year ago I reviewed the Huawei MateBook Ten a thin, well-built Ultrabook that had a 3:ii brandish and outstanding audio. Competing in the aforementioned class equally the Surface Laptop I couldn't expect to see what the company did adjacent.

Today, I take my answer in the form of the MateBook X Pro, a high-stop, premium laptop that blurs the line between Ultrabook and operation laptop.

MateBook 10 Pro – What you lot need to know

If I had to position the MateBook X Pro it would be against the Surface Laptop, but with many improvements.

Commencement, it'south running a newer 8th generation Intel processor, which brings quad-core for multi-tasking, improve thermals, and improved battery life. Toss in some outstanding audio in the form of iv, Dolby-tuned Atmos speakers and a giant Precision touchpad and the MateBook X Pro is a blast to employ.

Category	Huawei MateBook X Pro
Display	thirteen.nine-inch 3K LTPS touchscreen 3000 10 2000 resolution, 260ppi 450 nit brightness, 100% sRGB color gamut
Processor	eighth Gen Intel Core i5 8250U or Cadre i7 8550U
Graphics	NVIDIA MX150 + 2GB GDRR5 RAM
RAM	8GB or 16GB DDR3 2133MHZ
Storage	256GB or 512GB NVMe PCIe SSD
Ports	2x USB-C (1x Thunderbolt iii), 1x USB-A, audio jack
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 802.11ac 2x2 MIMO, Bluetooth four.1
Sound	Quad-speaker assortment, quad-mic assortment
Battery	57.4Wh, up to 12-hr bombardment life
Dimensions	11.97 x 8.54 x 0.57 inches (304 x 217 x 14.6 mm)
Weight	2.9 lbs (1.3 kg)

Unlike the Surface series, Huawei is not afraid of using a lighting fast SSD in the course of the latest from Lite-On resulting in three,000 MB/due south for read and 2,000 MB/due south for write speeds.

Even the 14-inch 3:2 display with its 3,000 x 2,000 resolution manages 99 percentage sRGB color accuracy (and a solid 77 percent AdobeRGB). And yeah, information technology's a touchscreen too with not a ton of gloss (there is no pen support, however).

For the display, there is a 91 percentage screen to body ratio, with ultrathin bezels on all four sides. It's a stunning achievement and makes yous wish all laptops looked similar the MateBook 10 Pro.

I also had no issue with the jumbo Precision touchpad, which had a proficient click and touch-accurateness.

The MateBook X Pro'due south clever hidden webcam is actually pretty bully.

The keyboard is excellent to type on with proficient travel and responsiveness. It reminds me a bit of HP's EliteBook series and is excellent for those who type a lot. The backlight works well too generally due to the black keys with a white light gives excellent contrast.

There's also a fingerprint reader hidden in the power push button, which is user-friendly. Huawei has it so that turning on the device it remembers your fingerprint, negating the demand for a second printing at the Windows login screen – it jumps into Windows.

Finally, for ports, Huawei did a great task of balancing the modern (two USB Type-C; ane is Thunderbolt 3) with a nod to the past (ane USB Type-A), which in this thin of a course factor is commendable.

MateBook Ten Pro battery and performance

Powered by the 10W NVIDIA GeForce MX150 for a GPU the MateBook 10 Pro gets an impressive 41,593 for a GeekBench CUDA score. That'due south a significant bump over last year'southward 940MX, which only clocked in at 24,412, or the Intel UHD 620 at 23,080. While you lot won't be using the MateBook X Pro for gaming, it can handle platformers and casual games with ataraxy and even get your foot in the door for first-person shooters at a lower resolution.

Battery life is as well much better than expected. The 57WHr battery can easily get eight hours on a single charge depending on screen brightness (which machine adjusts). That screen effulgence is perfect for everyday usage, simply I did find at nighttime it was overly ambitious making the display too dim for my liking. Luckily, turning off the motorcar-screen brightness in Windows settings is a snap letting me use the handy keyboard shortcuts to bring it to my taste.

Surprisingly, Huawei is also not doing a lot of throttling with the Cadre-i7 processor either, which even after 20 minutes of sustained usage under Intel XTU did not drop beneath two.0GHz. That means the thermals are doing quite well and while you can hear the fan under heavy load – a whooshing effect – it was never abrasive or distracting for regular usage.

MateBook X Pro: An excellent performer with few drawbacks

MateBook X Pro

The MateBook X Pro is easily i of my favorite laptops right now mostly due to that 3:two display with super thin bezels. Sure, the tradeoff is the clever webcam that pops up from the keyboard, but even then, information technology's a ameliorate webcam than most laptops!

The fundamentals – bombardment life, typing, brandish, and sound – are all well above average. Those speakers tell me that companies like Dell, HP, Acer, Lenovo, etc. are not trying hard enough. For those who watch movies or listen to music, the MateBook 10 Pro is one of the best on the market place, menses.

Where the MateBook X Pro falters is its dated metal unibody design. Information technology'south no mystery that Huawei copied the Apple MacBook Pro. Whether it's the keyboard, or the side-inhalation vents for cooling, or fifty-fifty infinite gray color scheme, the MateBook 10 Pro very much a replica of Apple's finest – simply improved. In that location's now a Type-A port, better brandish, upgraded sound, and information technology runs Windows 10.

MateBook X Pro

Is this mimicking a bad thing? If you are an Apple user looking to leap to Windows x, well the MateBook Ten Pro is your device. You'll feel very comfortable making the switch with this laptop.

Nonetheless, when you see what HP and Dell are doing with their unique design languages for laptops, information technology makes Huawei wait non-expert, fifty-fifty if it's executed well. Huawei has proven they take the engineering skills to make fantabulous, premium hardware. They need to now evidence information technology with an original pattern, for once.

There is too the controversy around Huawei and security. Bloomberg recently did an fantabulous article about the company and where this fearfulness comes from. I won't tell you not to buy this laptop considering of this controversy, but it is something to exist aware of. As an average consumer, it wouldn't stop me from using this laptop, just others may have concerns.

Putting that aside though and Huawei managed to brand an splendid laptop running Windows 10. It'due south fun to use, lasts all day, and hits all the right notes. Sure, it may look like a MacBook Pro, but that doesn't hateful the experience is whatsoever worse for information technology. Far from it. I now regularly apply this as my favorite Ultrabook, mostly considering I'grand biased towards that brandish aspect.

MateBook X Pro The MateBook Ten Pro hides its fingerprint reader in the ability button.

Pricing is said to be over $two,000 for the Core i7 model (there'southward also a cheaper one with Core i5). I think that's a fair price for the quality of the hardware, which is fifty-fifty improve than Surface in some areas. There is a prejudice that because Huawei is Chinese, it must be cheap, but that's non the case at all. While you lot'll pay a pretty penny for the MateBook Ten Pro, I think its worth it for the experience. The laptop just works with no bugs, and I had no significant complaints.

Exact pricing and availability are not yet known for the U.S. We'll update this review accordingly when information technology is made bachelor.

See at Huawei

Pros:

Amazing brandish that is color accurate.
Best-in-class quad-core Dolby Atmos audio.
Very good battery life and performance.
USB Blazon-A port and Blazon-C is a expert balance for ports.

Cons:

Price may be off putting for some.
Looks like a MacBook Pro.
Odd webcam placement.

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