Review of Huawei MateBook X Pro 2021  Huawei has a high-end portable computer, the MateBook X Pro 2020. That means its youth is within. Th...

 

Review of Huawei MateBook X Pro 2021 

Huawei has a high-end portable computer, the MateBook X Pro 2020. That means its youth is within. The Chinese company has installed its latest low-voltage Core processors from Intel, and developed Nvidia graphics, and… that’s all. Everything else has remained the same, so let’s take a deeper dive and see what makes the new MateBook X Pro new, and what doesn’t work. Is it worth the price? Let’s find out . Review of Huawei MateBook X Pro 2021

The Matebook X Pro introduces a new colour, and replaces the interior with two processor options, both Intel 10th generation Core models. This is paired with 16GB of RAM, 512GB or 1TB of PCIe NVME storage, and a dedicated Nvidia GeForce MX250 GPU. The battery is still 56Wh, and the screen is the same excellent 3000×2000 3: 2 IPS front panel, with 100% sRGB coverage and 450 light points. Review of Huawei MateBook X Pro 2021

The Core i5 model, with 512GB of storage, is priced at € 1,599, while the Core i7 version with 1TB of Review of Huawei MateBook X Pro 2021 storage goes to € 1,899. Some specs are similar between them, and our review unit is the last one.

• Design

If you buy the Space Gray model, you will be under a lot of pressure to tell just considering that this is the 2020 title. Of course you can choose a variety of Emerald Green, in case you are sure you will be different from some of your office colleagues. Although homework is becoming more and more common these days due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the display factor can be somewhat reduced. That said, we are excited to see flashier hues for laptops, something that has been the foundation of the smartphone world for many years now. Of course, black, gray, silver are all right and ‘look artistic’ but they also stand out, unfortunately.

However, our review unit is Space Gray, and it’s exactly the same as before. We don’t mean “mostly”, or “you have the same design language”, or “you have the same vibes” here – it’s the same. So you get a whole metal construction with glass over the touch screen. The laptop feels very comfortable in the hand, is sturdy and has zero creaks at all.

Weight-weight, there is somewhere in the middle of its class. It’s not the easiest thing to do, but it’s not so hard that it becomes hard to walk with you all day. The whole steel structure combined with a weight of 1.33 kg lends itself a sense of quality, that the heft is not so big that it can cost this much to handle. The quality of the construction is outstanding, we have nothing to complain about there.

Opening a hinge with one hand is attainable, but not surprisingly easy. When you talk about the door, you can’t even open the lid all the way up to 180 degrees, let alone 360. At this price point, that’s really unfortunate. The high door offering will give you a good position in comfort no matter how you use the laptop, but it is not there, we would appreciate more flexibility here.

The pop-up camera is located in the function key, between F6 and F7, and this is good for privacy freaks but bad for everyone who wishes to use it. Position obviously means that we will be looking up at your nose all the time, so you’ll be that weirdo in every conference call. You can only minimize this problem if you use a different webcam. We give Huawei points of view outside the box here, because it had no space on the small bezels to display the camera setting. But apart from the obvious privacy benefits in this position, there is only a downside, and competitors like Dell have somehow figured out how to install cameras on smaller bezels anyway.

• Holes, input devices

The MateBook X Pro comes with two USB-C ports on the left, with support for fast charging and DisplayPort), and a 3.5 mm combo mic / headphone jack. On the other hand you only get one USB-A 3.0 port and that’s all. Consistency had to be made to make this device smaller, but as you can see it is much cheaper in this area than other MacBooks.

The keyboard is reversed, and you can rotate in three different levels and ‘off’ mode with the F3 key. Backlighting is enough, but there is absolutely no customization of anything about it, so keep that in mind.

The keys do not feel like they have a ton of movement, but it may be enough for most people, although this reviewer would have preferred if it was easier to press – as before, he had less resistance to pressure. That’s another important aspect of how the keyboard feels, no matter how much movement. While the most important navigation we can rate the MateBook X Pro as good, the durability is very high, but obviously you probably don’t care about any of this. The sound of the keyboard isn’t as annoying as the others, and it’s a little quieter too, and the keyboard area doesn’t change at all, it sounds very solid without the creaks – which, naturally, as it should be at this price point.

The trackpad is big, focused (which is a big plus for us), and it just stands out. It sounds really nice to touch, and the buttons are very clickable (though some don’t like this). Gestures on the trackpad work well, and all of these combined features mean that you can access a much smaller mouse than when you use other laptops, even if you are a “permanent mouse” type, like this reviewer.

Fingerprint sensor is plugged into the power button, and it beats-missed. We would love to know our print from the first attempt at about 70% of the time, which is not too bad, but it is also not very good. Fingerprint scanner is also your only biometric security solution that you can use with Windows, because there is no support for face scanning with Windows Hello. And compared to the powerful fingerprint sensors on Smartphones, this one is much worse, for some reason. Obviously it’s not a big problem to just touch it again when it doesn’t see your finger from the first attempt, but it’s one of those things that can get annoying over time. Hopefully the new driver updates can fix this situation.

• Display and sound

The 13.9 ”3: 2 3000×2000 IPS touch screen is the highlight of the MateBook X Pro. That was true of the first iteration of the series, and it is still true today, with the 2020 model. The practice of cutting the bezel that has been doing its thing for a long time in the smartphone world finally got to laptops a year or two ago, and we are all in that.

The word “immersion” has been used extensively throughout the tech world, but it is actually the best way to describe this panel, and that is because of its small bezels, with a 91% body screen size, but also because of the excellent display, which includes 100% color space. sRGB.

The panel of our review unit is made by JDI, and it seems to be exactly what was used in the previous duplication of the MateBook X Pro – LPM139M422A. It is part of a very high quality, this, and good pixel durability as well. Because it is a touch screen that is completely covered with glass, no plastic bezels here come out, like the lower screen laptops that can be held. That simply adds to the look and feel of the premium.

The screen of the MateBook X Pro 2020 is light, up to 450 nits, which means that it is definitely not possible to use it outside on a sunny day, but that, unfortunately, will not be a problem. Although it is shiny, it is also very reflective, so you may need to blend in well so that you are not distracted by the thought of anything that is happening around you. We really wish Huawei would make it less reflective of this year’s model, as that light reduces the high light somehow.

The 3: 2 aspect ratio is still not very popular except for a few laptop manufacturers including Microsoft (and, apparently, Huawei). Its sponsors highlight the fact that it is better suited for office work than 16: 9 or 16:10, but that obviously comes with the price of large black bars above and below when viewing any type of video content. Also, make the screen a little smaller than the 16: 9 14 ”panel, which means that if you tend to have two windows on the side when you work, that will keep things very tight.

There is also a light sensor around it, which seems to have its own sense. We were forced to constantly adjust the light settings because the sensor seemed out of place. This is for you, of course, so you may not have to worry about it, and the good news is that you can close it if it is very annoying. It jumps, and everywhere, in this reviewer experience, however, so while it is a good thing to have it, it may require some adjustment or perhaps its placement is less than fair which is why it is not very reliable.

• Speakers

The sound quality from the portable computer speakers is good, but definitely not in line with the best out there. They get enough noise in most use cases, so that’s compact compared to most laptop speakers, but you really shouldn’t expect to be hit with sound quality. It’s decent, but you can’t really enjoy it. Also, adequate volume levels may be more important than quality.

• Battery life

The most amazing thing about the battery life of the MateBook X Pro is its charger. No, of course not. It’s a story made on its own, there are no two separate strings flowing through the unsightly brick. In this it is similar to a phone charger, and is actually almost double the size of your mid-range phone. And then charge the laptop via USB-C, there is no such thing as crazy here. The unit is 65W, and it will also make you enjoy your smartphone. Its small size and weight make the MateBook X Pro more versatile than it would be with one of the larger power bricks some manufacturers use, because the total weight (and volume taken) decreases if you take it with the same power adapter.

Now, the endurance from the 56Wh battery was really good, you can easily get into the normal day of office work on this device. Since the case of individual direct use varies, it is difficult to put a specific number on it. Well, it’s not that hard, as it would be nice and useless. Eight hours of Internet browsing and office work are easily accessible, and that’s the level we hold this computer, for its intended purpose. Charging times are also fast, so overall battery life shouldn’t be a problem at all unless you’re playing all the time – but why not do that on the GeForce MX 250?

The fan rarely arrives at all during low-level tasks, but when you press the laptop hard you will start to feel it. Happily, it is one of the most annoying fans to hear, it doesn’t sound strange and its sound won’t stop your ears. It’s not silent about any extension of thought, but you’re one of the tamer there, not so loud but in its audible range.

• Computer hardware, performance, heat

Our upgrade unit has a new Intel’s 10th generation i7-10510U CPU, 16GB of 2133MHz LPDDR3 RAM, Nvidia GeForce MX250 graphics card, and 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD. There is also an inexpensive version with Intel’s Core i5-10210U and 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD.

The Core 7-10510U CPU in our unit is part of the Intel’s Comet Lake family, with a TDP of 15W at 1.8GHz, but is upgraded to 10W at 800MHz, a watch used by the MateBook X Pro for sure when idling or given heavy tasks . The processor has 4 characters and 8 threads, with 8MB Intel Smart Cache. It supports DDR4 and LPDDR4, but Huawei has chosen to stick to LPDDR3. This component is still built with 14nm processor, or Intel will be happy to add a few “+” features to it to show that it is constantly being upgraded. While that may be the case, AMD is using the 7nm process for its latest laptop APU designs, and Intel’s migration to anything less than 10nm is still on hold.

• Hardware details

The GeForce MX250 discrete graphics solution is Nvidia’s current approach for this purpose, so you should not expect miracles in it. It is intended to provide improved graphics performance compared to what Intel integrated graphics would be able to do.

Performance is enough for all our time with the MateBook X Pro. The Core i7-10510U processor is Intel’s latest low power output, and needless to say, there has been no explosion. 16GB of RAM is enough for anyone who is not in extreme video editing, and works well in concert with the CPU to keep things smooth at all times. Happily enough, Windows still stutters with a split second in some cases – like selecting multiple items on the desktop, and then right-clicking. The popup menu always comes too late, no matter how hard you try.

Our PCIe NVMe SSD update unit comes from Western Digital, while the Wi-Fi network card is the Intel Wireless AC 9560, which gives you 2×2 802.11ac connectivity for high-resolution theory of 866Mbps. In practice we saw more than 600Mbps every time we tested a laptop in an area near our router. That’s a good performance right there, but the abandonment of Wi-Fi 6 (aka 802.11ax) is kind of weird in 2020.

We install MateBook with a Furmark pressure test tool, starting with one hour of CPU testing, using one thread and then all eight. In a single cable test, the CPU upgraded to 4.4GHz, then stabilized at about 3.4GHz to 3.6GHz for the rest of the time, with short random programming speeds up to 2.1-2.4GHz. It never went below 2.1GHz. Physically, the maximum CPU temperature was 91 degrees Celsius at first, which then dropped to 80+ degrees before charging 74-82 degrees until the end.

In eight CPU pressure tests, we saw an increase to 3.8GHz, then a slight decrease of 2.5GHz and a further, 100MHz, up to 2.1GHz. In this test, the maximum CPU temperature we observed was 75 degrees Celsius, and it stayed between 70 and 75 degrees across. Review of Huawei MateBook X Pro 2021

After these tests, we ran a one-hour GPU test, to see how the MX250 controls itself. It started above the 800MHz clock, went down to 620-632MHz for about ten minutes, after which it stabilized 700-800MHz until the end. The initial GPU temperature was 68 degrees Celsisus, a maximum of 79, a minimum of 52, and 70+ most of the time.

While the GPU test was running, the CPU went up to a maximum temperature of 93 degrees Celsius in a split second, and then stayed at about 70, while the CPU clock speed significantly exceeded, from a minimum of 798MHz all the way to 4.3 I -GHz.

What does all this mean? While surprisingly we have not yet seen an increase in CPU to its maximum frequency of about 4.9GHz, laptop thermals are good, and they do not break the record in any way. That means, if you look at the type of work you are doing, we can say that you have nothing to fear from the worsening and normal warmth.

• Software

It is always refreshing to see a PC with zero bloatware installed before, and the MateBook X Pro 2020 is one of the rarest devices. Technically come with one integrated app, and that’s Huawei PC Manager, but we won’t even call this bloatware. It handles driver updates (and performs very well) within an easy-to-use interface, and is also what you use to pair your compatible Huawei smartphone so you can use Huawei’s sharing app. This works with an NFC sticker labeled Huawei Share, and you can place your Huawei or Honor handset on it to initiate communication.

• Huawei PC Manager

You can sync your messages, data, and take calls on your laptop while your phone is connected in this way, and we find it all very helpful. Just in case you have a non-Huawei. Review of Huawei MateBook X Pro 2021
Other than that, you get Windows 10 Home “as intended by Microsoft”, without the extra wallet, no additional ads, nothing more. It’s a premium laptop software experience, as it should be.

• Decision, alternatives

Since the launch of the first MateBook X Pro, many laptops have come out with smaller bezels, so seeing the MateBook X Pro 2020 up close might not have the big ‘O’ effect from that point of view. That said, this design, while redesigned, makes the device look amazing.

Carrying is also hard to overstate, given its interlocking screen display of nearly 14 ”, as well as its small USB-C charging brick. The new MateBook X Pro feels very good to use, good performance in its target market, and the build quality is very high.

So, in a vacuum, this can be surprisingly easy to recommend for workflow that does not involve complicated video editing or gambling. But nothing really lives in an empty space, and the MateBook X Pro 2020 does not work. Its price tag, apart from configuration, makes it very affordable, so let’s look at some possible alternatives.Review of Huawei MateBook X Pro 2021

The 13-inch MacBook Pro is an obvious product to compare MateBook with the Apple side of the phone. This starts at € 1,499, but for that price you get the 8th Core i5 generation, just 8GB of RAM, and only the last 256GB. To upgrade to the 10 i5 generation, compare Matbook’s RAM and storage (with its i5 model), you will have to pay € 2,129 compared to Huawei’s € 1,599. That’s a big mark, and you lose the touch screen in the process.

The Dell XPS 13 7390 may have the same i7 CPU as Huawei, the same amount of RAM, and a share of € 1,329, which is € 570 less, but that comes with Intel integrated graphics, and a full HD touchless display. When you go up to the 4K touch screen, you pay € 1,489, which is much lower than the MateBook in its advanced configuration. The new, 2020 XPS 13 9300 starts at € 1,659 with a 1920×1200 touch screen, the same RAM and storage as € 1,899 Huawei, but a different branch of the Core i7 (so it does not match exactly).Review of Huawei MateBook X Pro 2021

The HP Specter x360 brings a 360-degree hinge to the table and touch screen, and for the same inquiry price of € 1,899 as a top-of-the-line MateBook model, you also get a very powerful 7-9750H CPU, much of which is a better GeForce GTX1650 GPU, but only 512GB of storage.

Note that all these prices come from the official stores of German manufacturers, you may be able to find all these cheap products elsewhere. We have brought these other laptops into the discussion to show that the MateBook X Pro 2020 is by no means a league of its own. In fact, there are many other devices that offer slightly different packages at the same price (or less).Review of Huawei MateBook X Pro 2021

So you will choose the Huawei MateBook X Pro 2020 from all the other options out there because it strikes the right balance for you. If you are looking for one of the world’s leading Windows laptop screens, which has enough res while not 4K, and has a very unusual 3: 2 ratio, this is a winner.

The portable computer will also work very well in a variety of ultrabook applications. As long as you don’t throw heavy games at it or try to set hours for 4K footage, you’ll be fine. Battery life is great for most use cases, charging is fast (and the brick is small and light and can charge your smartphone via USB-C), the software has no blocking, there are many things for MateBook. Review of Huawei MateBook X Pro 2021

No longer a big draw for design. It was a change, at least before the screen bezels, back in 2018 when it was first introduced, but now after two years this chassis could definitely use some upgrades. Oh, and the position of the webcam means you will have to buy.

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