Huawei has had a relatively meteoric rise into mainstream tech consciousness over the past five years. Its P10 is an excellent smartphone, its MediaPad M3 a great tablet. Now, following on from last year’s 2-in-1 MateBook, it has entered the Windows 10 laptop market with the MateBook X.
The device is slick, metallic, and well thought out, and Huawei clearly hopes it will be enough to tempt people away from the MacBook – and macOS. We spent a week working with the Windows 10 device to find out if it’s up to the task.
UK PRICE AND AVAILABILITY
It's still not clear exactly when the MateBook X will be available to buy in the UK, but Huawei has promised it'll be along in summer 2017 so hopefully we don't have too long to wait.
The company also hasn't announced pricing for the UK yet, but we do know how much the three available models will cost in Europe. The base model, with a Core i5 processor at 256GB storage, will cost €1399. To upgrade to 512GB you'll need to spend €1599, while throwing in a Core i7 will set you back €1699.
The closest comparisons to the base model are the MacBook at £1249 and the Surface Laptop at £1249, so the pricing is roughly in line with Apple and Microsoft. The Core i7 version also compares favourably to the Surface Laptop's £1549 model, which only comes with 256GB storage.
Still, there's no getting away from the fact that whatever you compare it to, the MateBook X is an expensive laptop. So what do you get for your money?
DESIGN AND BUILD
The MateBook X is a real looker, there’s no denying it. Available in Prestige Gold, Space Grey, and Rose Gold, the machine clearly takes its cues from Apple’s 12in MacBook - something Huawei executives admitted to us in an interview at the launch.
Huawei has built a unibody metallic laptop that is, as they proudly point out, smaller than an A4 sheet of paper. The full dimensions are 12.5 x 286 x 211mm, while it weighs 1.05kg. There's a slight taper to the body, though it's less extreme than on some of Apple's laptops, and the overall impression is still that this is slim, lightweight, and ultraportable.
In that space they’ve crammed a good looking 13in non-touch display that runs at 2160x1440 and 200 ppi, with an aspect ratio of 3: 2. The slightly squarer screen takes a little getting used to if you're coming from the more common 16: 9 ratio, and it will mean some extra black bars if you're watching video, but we loved the extra screen real estate it provides, especially when working on long documents and spreadsheets.
The Gorilla Glass display sits completely flush, with no rubber bumper and pretty minimal bezels, and houses a front facing 1Mp camera. It's crisp and bright, with impressively wide viewing angles and solid contrast. There's really very little to complain about here.
It might irk some that the company has jumped on the USB-C bandwagon, but it is now inevitable. The MateBook X has two ports at least, which is good - the one on the left is for power and data transfer, while the right is for data transfer and docks. There's also a single 3.5mm headphone port right next to the power port.
The new MateDock 2 is also included in the box, with USB-C, USB-A, HDMI, and VGA, so there's really no need to feel that the switch to USB-C limits the MateBook X's functionality.
One notable addition is the subtle circular power button above the keyboard that acts as a fingerprint sensor, and works very well indeed, letting you turn the laptop and sign into your Windows account with just a single button press through Windows Hello.
It sits to the right of the dual speaker grill, which boasts a Dolby Atmos sound system - the first time one's ever been put into a laptop. More on that later.
The keyboard has pleasantly responsive chiclet keys that match the colour of the device exactly, and have a comfortable, low travel. It's backlit, as you'd expect at this price point. The trackpad is also smooth, responsive, and a comfortable size.
Really, it all just works, and there's v.
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