Huawei is a Chinese manufacturer best known for its selection of high-end phones such as the Huawei P10 or Mate 9, but now the company is expanding into laptops too.
The MateBook X is the company's first attempt at making a laptop and it's positioned as a competitor to the Apple MacBook.
It features a high-quality and slim-line design, top-of-the-range internal specs and Huawei wants this to be competition for some of the best ultrabooks on the market.
As it's the company's first attempt, you may be nervous to buy a laptop from Huawei, but there are a lot of impressive features here, and there's a chance you may be buying this as your next laptop.
Price, availability and value
Huawei launched the MateBook X in Berlin towards the end of May 2017, but the official details of pricing and the launch date have so far been limited.
Starting at €1,399 (about $1,570, £1,210, AU$2,090) with an Intel Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD, it’s notably more affordable than the €1,699 ($1,499, £1,449, AU$2,199) MacBook Pro.
You’ll be spending quite a bit extra here to be able to get the i7 versions of the laptop though, so you may end up spending a lot more than that to buy the version of the MateBook X you want. We expect to see official pricing and release date info very soon.
Design and display
As soon as you pick up the Huawei MateBook X, you'll realize this is a high-end piece of kit. It's slim, sports an attractive design and, most importantly, light.
One of the best elements we found from the MateBook X is its portability. You'll need to buy a case to haul this laptop around as it does sometimes feel fragile, but it only weighs 1.05KG.
The keyboard is backlit and has tactile keys, which makes typing on the MateBook X not only comfortable but actually a joy to write with. There's an easy to use trackpad just below the keyboard too, but apart from that physical features are limited and it makes for an attractive design.
To keep the laptop slim, Huawei has opted for two input ports here and it does feel a little limited. There's a USB-C on the left hand edge for charging while the one on the right is intended for optical input.
The adapter that comes in the box will be able to do the rest for you, but that is also limited as there's no ethernet option on the MateBook X. If you're planning to only connect to Wi-Fi, you won't see that as a problem but it may be a big issue for some.
One annoying quirk we did find was the way you open up the MateBook X: we regularly found ourselves trying to open it the wrong way as there's no clear distinction on the way you open it up.
Color options for the Huawei MateBook X are black, gold and rose gold but it seems the former option won't be available in the US or UK.
The screen on the MateBook X is a marvel though. It's a 13-inch display in a 12-inch body, and Huawei has managed to achieve this by including a slightly different aspect ratio of 3:2.
Compared to most other laptops this makes the screen feel unique, but it isn't so strange that it's uncomfortable to use.
The bezels are slim and it feels like no space is wasted, while the screen itself is QHD and bright offering fantastic picture quality.
If you're looking for a comfortable experience for watching video, the display on the MateBook X will be perfect for you.
Specifications
The spec for the MateBook X is largely the same as other flagship ultrabook laptops on the market right now, but we didn't get sent the top version of the MateBook X as there's also an Intel Core i7 version of the laptop up for sale.
In our usage, we didn't find there to be much use for the extra processing power but you may want to opt for it if you're planning to use this for intensive tasks such as gaming.
Performance and benchmarks
With everyday tasks such as word processing, internet browsing and watching video we found the MateBook X to have excellent performance.
Programs load quickly without any further input after you've opened them up and we found it to work as quickly as most other best laptops on the market right now.
In our benchmarking tests for the MateBook X, we found it to get a single core score of 3741 within Geekbench 4. In our battery test we found the MateBook X to last for 10.5 hours at 50% screen brightness while playing video.
Features
Huawei has partnered with Dolby to include the best audio experience possible on the MateBook X and it makes a major difference compared to other laptops on the market.
It's called Dolby Atmos Sound System and you will notice the difference here. Dolby have been allowed to fiddle with the placement of the speaker drivers
and include software that makes audio stunning when watching video on the MateBook X.
This is a go-to laptop if you want to use it for listening to music or watching movies, but considering how you may be using headphones with your laptop at most points it may not affect you much.
There's also a fingerprint scanner built-in to the MateBook X. It's part of the power button at the top right of the keyboard and is simple to setup and easy to log-in with.
It should mean your details will be more secure than just using a password, and it works at a light touch so you won't find yourself accidentally turning off the laptop either.
You may be nervous to buy the MateBook X considering the manufacturer hasn't dabbled in the computing space much before, but everything from this attempt adds up and makes for an enjoyable laptop experience.
It's sometimes difficult to recommend products from new manufacturers, but this seems to be one of the best laptops on the market right now.
Whether it will suit you perfectly is still up for debate though as it's not built for everyone right now and there's a hefty price tag here too.
We liked
The design of the MateBook X is a particular highlight and rivals anything else on the market right now. The lightweight and thin design looks gorgeous while being one of the most portable options on the market right now.
We have similar feelings on the screen as well. In a market that's trying to increase the resolution on your screen, we prefer the QHD option here that is bright and great for consuming media.
Plus watching films without headphones on this laptop is a great experience thanks to the input from Dolby. It changes the way everything sounds on your laptop and means you may not have to listen to it as loud as on your current computing option.
We disliked
Not everything is perfect on the MateBook X. If you're looking for a laptop with great battery life, this isn't going to suit you perfectly.
Running at 50% brightness, we found the laptop to last for around eight hours but if you want to have the screen up a little higher you're going to be looking at around four hours from a single charge, which isn't particularly great and is the price you pay for having such a slimline laptop choice.
The price of the MateBook X is also particularly high and we had hoped Huawei would opt for a slightly lower price to try and entice users who wouldn't have heard of the Chinese company before.
Final verdict
Huawei has succeeded in its first attempt at making a laptop. This device is sleek, offers everything you'd expect and has a similar price to competitors on the market.
If you don't mind spending quite a bit of money on the MateBook X, you will like this Huawei device and it should be able to handle all of your computing needs.
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