Huawei MateBook X Pro 2020 Review - Premium compact ultrabook
Huawei finally brings the Matebook X Pro 2020 flagship ultrabook to the Philippines. This is our deep dive into its overall performance.
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| Huawei MateBook X Pro 2020 |
In our first impressions, the MateBook X Pro impressed us with its premium build materials, its eye-catching design, and its large immersive display with super slim bezels. You can read more about it at the link below.
For our review part 1: Huawei MateBook X Pro 2020 Unboxing and First Impressions
How does it perform after two weeks of daily use? Let's find out.
How does it perform after two weeks of daily use? Let's find out.
Multimedia Experience
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| Massive touch screen display with 91 percent screen to body ratio |
Huawei Matebook X Pro features a massive 13.9-inch LTPS touch screen with a 3000 x 2000 resolution display. Together with the slim bezels, the display offers a 91 percent screen to body ratio.
Like the Dell XPS 13, Huawei was able to place a large near 14-inch display in a 13-inch chassis by shrinking the top and side bezels down to 4mm. The result is a truly immersive experience while the 3 x 2 aspect ratio gives users that extra vertical real-estate to see more of what you're working on or what you're looking at the screen.
Beautiful display with tiny bezels!
Like the Dell XPS 13, Huawei was able to place a large near 14-inch display in a 13-inch chassis by shrinking the top and side bezels down to 4mm. The result is a truly immersive experience while the 3 x 2 aspect ratio gives users that extra vertical real-estate to see more of what you're working on or what you're looking at the screen.
The display's brightness is rated up to 450 nits and supports 100 percent sRGB color gamut. There is no mention of DCI-P color gamut support. The display can detect up to 10 points of touch simultaneously which can be handy when in productivity and gaming related applications.
These specs translate into a great viewing experience. At maximum brightness, we were able to read the items on the display even when under direct sunlight while the colors are accurate but with a pop. The experience is consistent across the 178-degree viewing angles.
Lastly, the Display supports HDR video streaming but does not support HDR games nor does it support wide color gamut apps. This means that the display is great more most cases except for color-critical applications and professional work.
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| Display Manager |
Like the MateBook D 15, the MateBook X Pro also has the Display Manager where you can turn on and off the TÜV Rheinland-certified Eye Comfort mode and customize the color temperature of the screen to Default, Warm, and Cold.
The Eye Comfort mode with yellowish tint could be useful to those who like to use their laptops for long periods of time as it can reduce visual fatigue and eye strain.
The Eye Comfort mode with yellowish tint could be useful to those who like to use their laptops for long periods of time as it can reduce visual fatigue and eye strain.
For audio, the MateBook X Pro features include four speakers and four microphones. The speakers deliver rich audio with consistent sound quality across the volume range. At maximum volume, you can hear the different sounds clearly and distinctly. Compared to other laptop speakers, the MateBook X Pro's sound quality is very competitive.
From our experience, the only laptop speaker better than MateBook X Pro is the Apple Macbook Air and Macbook Pro. It's that good.
From our experience, the only laptop speaker better than MateBook X Pro is the Apple Macbook Air and Macbook Pro. It's that good.
MateBook X Pro is equipped with a 3.5mm headphone jack for wired audio and is also equipped with Bluetooth 5.0 that delivers stable low-latency connection that offers sound quality that is near to that of wired audio experience.
In terms of mic quality, the four microphones work together to produce above-average mic recording quality that makes it ideal for video calls. But like most laptops, it is not for high fidelity audio recording. You'll need an external mic for that.
As mentioned, it has a hidden web camera on the keyboard. It is a 1MP camera that you can use to take selfies and video calls. Like the MateBook D 15, the angle is not the most flattering and will take pictures and record video that looks up the user's nose.
As mentioned, it has a hidden web camera on the keyboard. It is a 1MP camera that you can use to take selfies and video calls. Like the MateBook D 15, the angle is not the most flattering and will take pictures and record video that looks up the user's nose.
Like most laptops, the quality of images and videos is just alright. Use it in a well-lit place to get recent results. But, it is better than the 1MP of MateBook D 15.
Performance
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| System information |
Inside the MateBook X Pro 2020 a 4.3 GHz 14nm Intel Core i7-10410U (Comet Lake) quad-core processor with Intel UHD Graphics and NVIDIA GeForce MX250 2GB GDDR5 GPU. It works with 16GB LPDDR3 RAM and 1TB SSD.
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| Strong Geekbench score |
With these specs alone make it value for money because a custom Apple MacBook Pro 13 configured with the same specifications would retail for PHP 161,990 while the MateBook X Pro 2020 costs under PHP 120K.
Fast and reliable work performance!
In GeekBench, the MateBook X Pro 2020 was able to score a respectable 1022 in single-core tasks and 3050.
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| PCMark 10 |
PCMark 10 is a benchmark that tests the PC's capabilities in modern office workloads like spreadsheets, web browsing, video conferencing scores, photo and video editing, 3D rendering, and the like. The MateBook X Pro 2020 scored a massive 3800 which makes it ideal for most office workloads. It may struggle a little with video editing and 3D rendering though.
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| SSD read/write speeds are insane! |
Included inside the MateBook X Pro 2020 is a 1TB SSD with super-fast read and write speeds. It scored up to 3462.41MB/s in sequential read speeds and up to 2856.58 KB/s sequential writes speeds. This is immediately noticeable when installing or opening applications in the SSD or when transferring files to the SSD.
Transferring files to and from the USB Type-C 3.1 and the USB Type-C 3.0 ports at fast speeds too. The USB Type-A 2.0 isn't as fast but it gets the job done.
For gaming, we were able to run Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with respectable frame rates at the lowest graphics settings at the resolution of 1280 x 768. We successfully installed Call of Duty: Warzone on the MateBook X Pro 2020 and were able to get to the main menu. As soon as we tried starting the game, the top part of the keyboard area heated up and then the app crashed. This laptop is not meant for gaming, it is a premium compact ultrabook for productivity.
For gaming, we were able to run Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with respectable frame rates at the lowest graphics settings at the resolution of 1280 x 768. We successfully installed Call of Duty: Warzone on the MateBook X Pro 2020 and were able to get to the main menu. As soon as we tried starting the game, the top part of the keyboard area heated up and then the app crashed. This laptop is not meant for gaming, it is a premium compact ultrabook for productivity.
We tried rendering a 1080p 60fps video in Sony Vegas and we were able to scrub through the footage with little framerate drops. It was able to render the video but the area below the monitor and around the keyboard became noticeably warmer. Not as hot as when we tried Call of Duty: Warzone on it.
For connectivity, it has WiFi 802.11 b/g/n/ac (2.4GHz/5GHz) 2x2 MIMO and Bluetooth 5.0. The ports include the 2x USB-C, 1x USB-A 2.0, HDMI, and 3.5mm headphone jack. For sensors, it has hall and gravity sensors.
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| Battery Benchmark |
Inside the MateBook X Pro is a 56WHr Li-Po battery that is charged via USB Type-C with the included 65W charger. In our PCMark 8 Battery test, the MateBook X Pro 2020 was able to offer a respectable 5 hours and 33 minutes.
In real-world usage wherein the WiFi is connected all the time with daily tasks like e-mail, Chrome web surfing, video conference calls, YouTube, Spotify, Netflix, Documents, Spreadsheets, and PowerPoint Presentations, we were getting 5 to 6 hours of continuous use.
The 65W fast charger can charge the laptop from 0 to 100 percent in under 90 minutes.
Fun Fact: The included 65W fast charger can also charge some Huawei devices with Huawei SuperCharge.
In real-world usage wherein the WiFi is connected all the time with daily tasks like e-mail, Chrome web surfing, video conference calls, YouTube, Spotify, Netflix, Documents, Spreadsheets, and PowerPoint Presentations, we were getting 5 to 6 hours of continuous use.
The 65W fast charger can charge the laptop from 0 to 100 percent in under 90 minutes.
Fun Fact: The included 65W fast charger can also charge some Huawei devices with Huawei SuperCharge.
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| PC Manager |
Pre-installed is Microsoft Windows 10 Home with software like Huawei PC Manager and Byte Fence Anti-Malware. Like the MateBook D 15, it comes with Huawei PC Manager. Its purpose is to keep the PC optimized, up-to-date, and at peak performance.
Huawei smartphones with NFC, the MateBook X Pro can take advantage of Huawei Share which allows users to drag and drop files from the smartphone to the MateBook X Pro and vice versa with super-fast speeds and stable connection.
To view how Huawei Share works, click here.
Another key feature is that using WiFi, Bluetooth, and NFC, you can mirror the Huawei smartphone's screen into the MateBook X Pro.
Pros - Premium machined body, compact design, large display with slim bezels, powerful for productivity, massive 1TB SSD storage, Huawei Share, fast fingerprint scanner
Cons - Awkward position of the webcam, cooling is enough for productivity but not enough for gaming, no face unlock
To view how Huawei Share works, click here.
Another key feature is that using WiFi, Bluetooth, and NFC, you can mirror the Huawei smartphone's screen into the MateBook X Pro.
Pros - Premium machined body, compact design, large display with slim bezels, powerful for productivity, massive 1TB SSD storage, Huawei Share, fast fingerprint scanner
Cons - Awkward position of the webcam, cooling is enough for productivity but not enough for gaming, no face unlock
Huawei MateBook X Pro 2020 Specs
Display: 13.9-inch LTPS touch screen w/ QHD 3000 x 2000 resolution at 259 ppi
CPU: 4.3GHz 14nm Intel Core i7-10510U quad-core processor (Comet Lake)
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce MX250 w/ 2GB GDDR5, Intel UHD Graphics
RAM: 16GB LPDDR3
ROM: 1TB SSD
Selfie Camera: 1MP
Battery: 56WHr w/ 65W Switching Power Adaptor
OS: Windows 10 Home
Connectivity: WiFi 802.11 b/g/n/ac (2.4GHz/5GHz) 2x2 MIMO, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, 1x USB-C 3.1, 1x USB-C 3.0, 1x USB-A 2.0, HDMI, 3.5mm headphone jack
Sensors: Light, hall, gravity
Others: Power button/fingerprint scanner, backlit keyboard, 4x built-in microphone, 4x speakers, Colors: Space Grey
Dimensions: 304 x 217 x 14.6 mm
Weight: 1.33 kg
Price: PHP 119,990
Verdict
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| Huawei MateBook X Pro with box |
Huawei MateBook X Pro deserves to be considered when purchasing a premium compact ultrabook because of its build quality, design, large display, and overall specifications.
At first glance, the MateBook X Pro is eye-catching. When you look closer, the fit and finish screams premium. Inside are components that don't slouch with that powerful 10th-Gen Intel Core i7 processor with the 16GB RAM and the 1TB SSD.
The keyboard and trackpad offer tactile feedback that is a delight to use. Couple that with the massive display with slim bezels make the MateBook X Pro a worthy option.
Lastly, yes it is priced at PHP 119,990 but if you compare it to an Apple MacBook Pro with the same i7, 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD storage will cost over PHP 161,990.
Update: On May 4, 2020 Apple announced a new 13-inch Macbook Pro with the same configuration as this MateBook X Pro 2020. This new Macbook Pro is priced at PHP 116,990.
Update: On May 4, 2020 Apple announced a new 13-inch Macbook Pro with the same configuration as this MateBook X Pro 2020. This new Macbook Pro is priced at PHP 116,990.
So if you want a compact ultrabook with eye-catching design, solid specs, and runs on Windows, we highly recommend the Huawei MateBook X Pro.
Build/Design - 4.5
Multimedia Experience - 4.5Performance - 4.5
Average - 4.5/5
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