Huawei MateBook X Pro Review - Review 2022

The Huawei MateBook X Pro (starts at $1,199; $ane,499 every bit tested) is a breathy Apple MacBook Pro clone. From the proper noun to the color to the keyboard switches, well-nigh everything near this sleek ultraportable laptop looks similar it was dreamed upward by designers who were handed a MacBook Pro and told to replicate information technology. But in a surprise twist, Huawei's replica is superb, and fifty-fifty improves upon Apple's design in a few central ways. It'south inappreciably only a knockoff.

A Stunning Display

The virtually striking feature of the MateBook X Pro ($1,407.42 at Amazon) by far is its display. The screen's borders (known as bezels) are extremely thin, with the screen occupying 91 per centum of the laptop's total surface surface area, according to Huawei. The attribute ratio is a rather retro-looking 3:ii instead of the xvi:9 widescreen format that most electric current laptops and TVs use. Information technology matches the aspect ratio of the Microsoft Surface Book ii, and is ideal for web browsing or give-and-take processing since it lets you run into more of the page without scrolling down.

The panel is touch on-enabled and coated with Corning Gorilla Glass, which serves both to strengthen it and repel fingerprints. After several days of testing, fingerprints did announced on the screen, simply they were more like vague shadows instead of the distracting smudges that frequently mar glossy touch panels. A few wipes with a microfiber material returns the screen to its pristine status.

The best parts of the display are its resolution, effulgence, and vivacity. Its 3,000-by-2,000 resolution isn't quite 4K, which would need to be 3,240 by 2,160 at this attribute ratio. Simply I think the MateBook 10 Pro's resolution is a sweetness spot, since you'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference, and slightly fewer pixels means better energy efficiency and thus longer battery life.

The MateBook X Pro'due south display is also incredibly bright thanks to its 450-nit backlight. Information technology's almost the same brightness level equally the xv-inch MacBook Pro ( at Amazon) , and brighter than the 13-inch MacBook Pro with which it is designed to compete. When using information technology at home, I found any brightness setting higher up 50 pct to exist too bright, which ways there'due south tons of headroom to work with when you bring the laptop outside or to a fluorescent-lit office. Moreover, colors are brilliant at near any brightness setting or viewing angle, thanks to the glossy finish and the In-Airplane Switching (IPS) engineering.

A digital stylus isn't available, which means the MateBook X Pro isn't a corking choice for digital artists. If you're interested in writing on your laptop's display, you'll want to check out a 2-in-one convertible laptop or a detachable Windows tablet similar the Surface Book 2 instead.

The balance of the laptop is nearly as gorgeous equally the screen. The configuration I tested has a Infinite Gray color, which is what you'll want to choose if you're going all-in on the MacBook clone thought. The MateBook X Pro is also available in a lighter shade chosen Mystic Silver. Whichever color y'all choose will exist applied to a sleek aerospace-course aluminium torso that slopes ever so slightly from back to forepart. I prefer abiding thickness, but I appreciate the fact that the slope allows Huawei enough room to add both a USB Type A port and two USB-C ports (ane of which has Thunderbolt support), compared with the USB-C-only design of the MacBook Pro.

Even at its thickest, the MateBook X Pro is yet just 0.57 inches tall, which compares favorably with many of its competitors. The MacBook Pro is 0.59 inches and the Surface Volume two measures 0.nine inches, while the the Dell XPS 13 ($784.78 at Dell) is slightly thinner at 0.46 inches. And then is the 0.41-inch HP Spectre xiii. Cheers to its aspect ratio, the MateBook X Pro too feels smaller than a comparable 13-inch ultraportable, measuring 11.96 inches wide and 8.5 inches deep. It weighs two.93 pounds, similar to the MacBook Pro (3.02 pounds) but a bit on the heavy side compared with the Dell (2.68 pounds) and the HP (ii.45 pounds).

Unfortunately, the aluminum finish attracts fingerprints, which are even more noticeable since there's next to nothing to interrupt the MateBook X Pro's sleekness other than a Huawei logo on the brandish hat. Even the Nvidia and Windows logos are located on the bottom of the laptop and thoughtfully placed on a plastic adhesive that can hands be removed.

Tap the Excellence

The MateBook X Pro's touchpad is the best I've ever used on a Windows laptop. That'southward not surprising when you lot consider that it's inspired past the Apple tree Force Touch pad, which itself is far better than fifty-fifty the nigh precise of Windows Precision Touchpads. The MateBook X Pro's pad isn't quite equally good equally Apple tree's, merely it'south all the same huge, sturdy, and extremely responsive. In fact, the only discernible difference betwixt it and the touchpad on the MacBook Pro is a physical switch mechanism, which means that it's harder to click at the top than at the lesser. Apple tree gets around this problem by using haptic feedback to provide uniform virtual click sensations no matter where your finger is located.

Huawei'due south attempts to re-create Apple tree don't cease with the first-class touchpad. The company'south designers have likewise recreated the MacBook Pro'south keyboard, complete with the extremely shallow fundamental travel that has polarized MacBook users. The keys are very sturdy, but they hardly move at all when y'all press them. Yous'll either love or detest this typing sensation, but in either case yous'll quickly go used to it. Over several weeks of using the MateBook X Pro'south keyboard for Google searches and crafting emails, my fingertips grew to look the shallow travel.

In the upper right corner in a higher place the keyboard, you'll notice a ability push that doubles as a not bad and extremely accurate fingerprint reader. It never failed to read my print, which is more than than I can say most many fingerprint readers, meaning that a single press is all it takes to first up the PC and log into your Windows 10 business relationship. This is even more useful since the MateBook 10 Pro's webcam lacks the infrared sensors required for confront recognition logins.

In fact, this laptop's webcam is borderline unusable, and it'south perhaps the only serious flaw. The lens is creatively located beneath a pop-upwardly housing in the middle of the keyboard's superlative row, since in that location'southward no room for information technology on the incredibly thin bezel. Yous press information technology once to popular it upwardly, and press it again to stuff it into the keyboard. The location ways you really can't use the keyboard when you're on a video call, since your fingers will block the lens. How much of a business organisation this is for y'all depends on how often you lot make video calls. For people who rarely do, the fact that the webcam is subconscious in the keyboard is actually a adept thing, since it means you won't take to tape over it if you're worried near hackers spying on you.

In add-on to the three USB ports (one of which serves equally a receptacle for the USB-C power adapter), there'due south likewise a headphone jack. You don't become whatever dedicated video outputs, which means you'll likely need an adapter to connect to an external monitor. Yous'll too need an adapter if you'd like to employ an Ethernet connection instead of the MateBook'south built-in 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Superb Audio Quality

The audio quality and book of the audio that emanates from the MateBook X Pro's four speakers is astonishing. Two small speakers flank the keyboard, fitting into well-nigh impossibly thin grilles, while ii larger ones push sound through long, thin louvers forth the left and right edges on the bottom of the laptop. The result is zero distortion at any volume, even at the incredibly loud 100 percent setting. What's more, both music and dialogue sounds rich, clear, and immersive, something that rarely happens on ultraportables or even larger desktop-replacement laptops.

The sound quality is amend than what you can expect from the thirteen-inch MacBook Pro's speakers, which are upward-facing simply, and leagues better than downward-facing speakers like those on the Lenovo Yoga 730 ($729.00 at Amazon) .

Huawei offers a one-year warranty for the MateBook X Pro.

Enough Power, Even for Light Gaming

With an Intel Core i7-8550U processor running at a clock speed of 1.8GHz, 16GB of memory, 512GB solid-state drive and an Nvidia GeForce MX150 graphics card, the specs of our $1,499 MateBook 10 Pro configuration set it upwardly well for the types of everyday activities y'all're probable to perform on a conventional ultraportable laptop. In that location's also enough headroom for video or photograph editing in a pinch, or some casual gaming at medium quality settings and lower resolutions.

If your computing needs are less demanding—perhaps y'all only need a sleek machine to watch videos and cheque email—you'll be fine with the $1,199 entry-level model, which comes with an Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of memory, a 256GB solid state drive and Intel UHD Graphics 620. This is the configuration that more closely matches the entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro. To get a sense of how good a deal the high-end MateBook X Pro configuration is relative to its Apple competition, consider that a 13-inch MacBook Pro with a Core i7, 16GB of retentiveness, and a 512GB SSD costs a cool $2,199.

On our functioning benchmarks, the MateBook X Pro recorded comparable results with its similarly configured competitors, since many of them have the aforementioned Cadre i7-8550U CPU and displays with resolutions greater than 1080p. Its PCMark 8 score (two,961), Handbrake time (1 minute, 25 seconds), and Photoshop time (two minutes, 53 seconds) are all inside a few points or seconds of the Razer Blade Stealth ($1,679.99 at Amazon) and the Dell XPS xiii. The MacBook Pro is considerably slower on these tests because of its less powerful Core i5 processor.

Meanwhile, the HP Spectre xiii's lower full HD screen resolution helps it perform amend on the PCMark 8 test, which is highly dependent on pixel density. In real world employ, still, you likely won't notice whatever languor on the MateBook X Pro while surfing the web or editing documents. I certainly didn't.

The MateBook X Pro gains a clear reward on the graphics and gaming benchmarks thank you to its GeForce MX150 graphics menu. While its result on each of these tests is best in course, you should be aware that there is still not enough power to play graphics-intensive games unless you are willing to play them at medium quality settings and lower resolutions. If you practise this, yous'll likely experience frame rates shut to the 40 frames per 2nd (fps) level the MateBook X Pro achieved on our medium-quality Sky and Valley benchmarks.

See How Nosotros Test Laptops

At more 11 hours, battery life is first-class for such a thin and light machine with a high-resolution brandish. The MacBook Pro fared significantly better at xvi hours and 26 minutes, merely the fact remains that yous'll accept enough juice to get you through a full work day and and then some without visiting a power outlet. When you practice need to recharge, it shouldn't have you very long. During testing, I typically spent less than an hour going from about 15 percent to a full charge.

A Summit-Notch Clone

It's true that the Huawei MateBook X Pro is an unapologetic clone of the Apple MacBook Pro. Just information technology'south an excellent 1, offering an intriguing screen ratio, superb sound quality, and a much meliorate blend of price and performance than the machine that inspired it. Information technology's not a useful machine for videoconferencing, only the oddly placed webcam will simply be a deal-breaker for someone who spends a lot of time on video calls.

For everyone else, the MateBook X Pro is excellent equally an alternative to both mainstream Windows ultraportables like the Dell XPS xiii, as well equally macOS laptops. If you lot're prepared to spend about $one,500 on a conventional laptop, it should be at the acme of your listing.

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Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/netbooks-products/19742/huawei-matebook-x-pro-review

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