Faster and smarter in every way

Huawei wants to be known for more than just its excellent Android phones. Last year, the tech titan surprised everyone with the thin and powerful MateBook X Pro — arguably one of the best laptops of the 2018 — as a serious competitor to Apple’s MacBook Pro.

At Mobile World Congress, Huawei announced a revamped version with updated specs including a faster Intel 8th-generation Core i7 processor, more powerful discrete graphics, faster wired and wireless connectivity, and several new ways to wirelessly connect a Huawei phone to boost productivity.

Huawei also took the wraps off a more affordable MateBook 14 with many of the same features. It’s a great time to consider a Windows 10 laptop if you’re not satisfied with the compromises in Apple’s latest MacBook Pros.

SEE ALSO: Huawei MateBook X Pro is a MacBook Pro copy that’s better than the original

There’s only one way to tell the 2019 MateBook X Pro from the old one: The lid of the aluminum laptop only says “HUAWEI.” The company’s ditched the lotus flower from its logo to give the new Matebook X Pro a cleaner look. I like it.

Aside from this one cosmetic change, the MateBook X Pro’s hardware is identical to the original and that’s fine by me because it still looks great and feels very premium.

The Windows 10 laptop is still 0.57-inches thin and weighs 2.93 pounds. The 13.9-inch display has the same 91 percent screen-to-body ratio with ultra thin bezels and the touchscreen is still very responsive. The touchscreen also has a new trick: you can perform a three-finger swipe down to take a screenshot.

The webcam is still embedded in the keyboard and pops up with a press, and yes, it still points up your nose. Not a flattering angle, but it beats putting a piece of tape over the webcam on other laptops. 

And the keyboard is of course still a pleasure to type on with good key travel. Same goes for the trackpad; it’s large, smooth, and responsive.

Inside, the MateBook X Pro is all new. There’s an Intel 8th-gen Core i7 8565 processor that’s up to 10 percent faster than the previous 8550 chip. The laptop’s configurable with up to 16GB of RAM and SSD storage is configurable at purchase up to 1TB compared to the previous version which maxed out at 512GB.

The graphics performance has also improved as well. Huawei’s included an NVIDIA GeForce MX250 discrete GPU with 2GB of GDDR5 video RAM. And if you want, you can use an external GPU with NVIDIA’s newest RTX 2080 graphics cards to get even more graphics performance for resource-intensive  tasks such as video editing and gaming.

One of my favorite things about the first-gen MateBook X Pro is its mix of old and new ports. The 2019 MateBook X Pro has all of the same ports (full-sized USB-A, two USB-C ports, and headphone jack), but both USB-C ports are now full-speed Thunderbolt 3 with support for up to 40Gb/s data transfer speeds. Previously, only one of the ports was Thunderbolt 3. Huawei’s also added faster WiFi (up to 1.7Gbps) and 2x faster Bluetooth connectivity.

Huawei could have stopped at updating the internal hardware and called it day, but it didn’t. Recognizing certain strengths from mobile, Sean Ding, senior product manager for Huawei in the U.S., told me the company set about creating an “intelligent experience” that connects its new MateBook X Pro with its smartphones.

One of these features is called “OneHop to transfer” enabled via Huawei Share 3.0. Tap a Huawei phone to the NFC chip embedded in the palm rest area to the right of the trackpad and you can instantly transfer photos, videos, or documents between the two. Huawei says users will be able to transfer up to 500 photos in a minute at a transfer rate of 30 Mbps.

Another “OneHop” feature lets you record the MateBook X Pro’s screen by simply shaking your Huawei phone near the NFC chip.

A third feature is called “Clipboard Sharing” and lets you copy and paste text between the laptop and a Huawei phone. It’s similar to Apple’s “Universal Clipboard” feature which lets iPhone users copy and paste between iOS devices and Macs.

I didn’t get to see any of these OneHop features in action since the software was pre-production on the demo MateBook X Pro on hand. But if they work as well as Huawei claims, they could be a hit with productivity junkies.

MateBook 14: For dongle haters

The new MateBook X Pro is Huawei’s new top-of-the-line laptop, but if you want something more affordable you might wanna go with the new MateBook 14.

Huawei says the MateBook 14 sits between its entry-level MateBook D and premium MateBook X Pro lineup.

It shares many of the features as the MateBook X Pro, but in a less svelte design. It has a larger touchscreen with 2,160 x 1,440 resolution, same pop-up webcam, and fingerprint sensor embedded in the power button.

Specs are similar as well with new Intel 8th-gen Core processors, up to 16GB of RAM, up to 512GB of SSD storage, and up to NVIDIA GeForce MX250 graphics. The MateBook 14 also has the same improvements to WiFi and Bluetooth.

Where the MateBook 14 really differs from the MateBook X Pro is ports. The MateBook 14 has two full-sized USB-A ports (one is USB 2.0 and the other is USB 3.0), one USB-C port (non-Thunderbolt 3), a full-sized HDMI port, and a headphone jack. In other words, the MateBook 14 is for users who would rather not live the #donglelife.

The laptop also has an “eye comfort mode” that uses a special chip algorithm to filter out blue light from the display. Huawei says this special mode reduces eye strain.

Pricing will be make or break these laptops

Both of Huawei’s new laptops appear mighty. I’m particularly interested in the new MateBook X Pro considering how much I liked the original.

My only concern is pricing. Huawei sold the MateBook X Pro at an incredible value: $1,200 for the Intel Core i5 processor with 256GB and $1,500 for the Intel Core i7 with 512GB of SSD and discrete NVIDIA graphics. With these prices, it was no wonder the laptops were sold out for weeks after launching in the U.S.

Huawei hasn’t announced U.S. pricing for the two new MateBooks, but Ding told me they will most likely cost more, suggesting the laptops will be priced similar to computers from competitors.

Higher pricing won’t be something U.S. consumers will openly welcome, but Huawei doesn’t seem worried. Ding says the company’s PC business grew 335 percent globally last year and it’s already sold over 100 million computers worldwide.

That’s impressive growth, but one of the main reasons anyone buys a Huawei laptop is because they’re a great value. I personally recommended the MateBook X Pro to a handful of friends last year even though they’d never heard of the brand or were skeptical of the quality of the laptop. They all ended up buying the MateBook X Pro because it offered so much bang for the buck. 

If not priced aggressively, Huawei’s new laptops might not be able to adequately compete with PC giants like HP and Dell in the U.S. But until then, fingers-crossed the price tag will be just right.