Huawei MateBook X Pro
The MateBook X Pro is a class act: long-lasting, fast, slim and light, it’s a fantastic ultraportable
SCORE PRICE From €1,499 from huawei.com
There’s so much more to the Huawei MateBook X Pro than its most eye-catching feature: a webcam that pops up, periscope-like, from beneath a key in the centre of the keyboard’s function key row. That’s a circus trick, designed to do little more than catch the eye in a promotional video.
What really makes the Huawei MateBook X Pro special is its design, with Huawei employing a similar trick to the Dell XPS 13 – but this time with a 14in screen. The bezels measure 4mm all the way around, including the bottom of the screen, giving the MateBook X Pro a stunning screen-tobody ratio of 91%.
There’s nothing wrong with the display, either. It’s a 3,000 x 2,000 resolution LTPS touchscreen, clad in scratch- and smudge-resistant Gorilla Glass, with a peak brightness of 488cd/m2. It has a punchy contrast ratio of 1,515:1, reproduces 96.2% of the sRGB colour gamut and has superb colour accuracy, returning an average Delta E of 1.27.
It’s a display that deserves a sumptuous housing, and Huawei delivers. Our review model was finished in a satin-smooth “space grey” (it’s also available in silver), complete with diamond-cut chamfering around internal edges and a huge, glass-topped touchpad that occupies roughly half of the palm rest.
It looks fabulous, but close scrutiny revealed uneven gaps between the bottom panel and the edging, while our test unit arrived with a loose-onone-side cursor key. I’ll be charitable and assume these issues are down to early manufacturing.
Aside from those problems, the MateBook X Pro is every bit as usable as a MacBook Pro. The keys on the keyboard have a positive action and just enough space in the troughs around each one to keep typos at bay. That huge touchpad is sensitive, yet rarely succumbs to accidental activation, while its built-in mechanical button is perfectly tuned for double-clicks.
The fingerprint reader is built into the power button above the keyboard to the right and works, along with Windows Hello, to unlock the laptop with a simple touch. It’s even better than before, though, in that you can now power up the laptop from cold and log in by pressing it once, instead of clicking it to boot up, then tapping it once again at the login screen.
There’s even decent connectivity, with two USB-C ports on the left edge. One supports Thunderbolt 3, the other USB 3.1, and both are capable of outputting a video signal and accepting power. You also get a 3.5mm headphone jack and, on the opposite side, a full-sized USB Type-A port. Wireless connectivity comes in the shape of an Intel AC-8275 chip with support for 2x2 MIMO and Bluetooth 4.2.
Even the speakers are great. A quad-driver array supporting Dolby Atmos supplies treble from either side of the keyboard, while “bass” notes emerge from slots beneath at the sides firing downwards. The result is a broad, detailed sound with plenty of volume.
Video conferencers will appreciate the quad-microphone array, which offers a range of effects for enhancing recordings and audio pickup in various situations. Beamforming is the highlight, cutting out all sound that isn’t immediately in
“The MateBook X Pro is a star buy – if you can find it for sale. Let’s hope Huawei changes its mind and makes it available in the UK”
front of the laptop, but you still can’t talk to Cortana from across the room without her mangling your words.
There are three configurations available, the most powerful featuring an Intel Core i7-8550U, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB NVMe SSD and discrete Nvidia MX150 graphics. That costs €1,899 including sales tax. Less potent Core i5-8250U models with integrated graphics, 8GB of RAM and either 256GB or 512GB of SSD storage cost €1,499 and €1,699 respectively.
Our top-end review unit performed superbly, scoring 76 overall and pipping the Toshiba opposite. This great result is no surprise: I’ve been using the MateBook X Pro for a few weeks and haven’t once cursed it for slowing down, overheating, running out of battery at a critical moment or spinning its fans up to annoying levels. Combine this with strong battery life and you have an absolute star buy. If, that is, you can find it for sale. It looks like the MateBook X Pro won’t be released in the UK, and if you import it from Europe you won’t get a UK-specific keyboard. Not a big issue, but potentially irritating. Otherwise, the MateBook X Pro is a class act. Let’s hope Huawei changes its mind and makes it available here too. SPECIFICATIONS Quad-core 1.8GHz Intel Core i7-8550U processor 2GB Nvidia GeForce MX150 graphics 16GB RAM 512GB SSD 13.9in 3,000 x 2,000 touchscreen 802.11ac Wi-Fi Bluetooth 4.2 Thunderbolt 3 USB-C USB-C 3.1 USB-A 3.1 304 x 217 x 14.6mm (WDH) 1.3kg Windows 10 Home 1yr RTB warranty