The first review of the Huawei MateBook X Pro 2019: an updated business laptop

Usually at the mention of Huawei immediately recallpopular smartphones of the Chinese company. This association has been fixed for a long time. However, with the advent of the laptop MateBook X Pro 2019, the situation began to change. If you remember, the webcam of the previous model was hidden in the keyboard. And here we were shown an update - Huawei MateBook X Pro 2019.

MateBook X Pro 2019 is different from its predecessornew Intel Whiskey Lake processors and a modified design. It stands out among others in that the screen has an aspect ratio of 3: 2 and installed the MX250 video card here, this makes the laptop more universal.

Design and construction

Ports and camera

Laptop display

Performance

Video card

Total

Design Huawei MateBook X Pro 2019

Huawei's designers certainly took their inspiration by looking at the Apple MacBook. As a result, the updated MateBook X Pro also boasts a solid body.

Only 2 versions will be available - SpaceGray and Mystic Silver, that is, gray and silver. It is a pity there is no model in gold color, although I was waiting for this. In my opinion, the Space Gray version of the color is extremely similar to the MacBook of a similar coloring. But, on closer comparison, I noticed that their color shades differ by a couple of tones.

Overall, the hull material of the Huawei MateBook X Pro 2019 feels cool and perfectly sleek to the touch. The design in the details changed, and therefore on the lid was not the company logo, but the name.

By the way, I immediately noticed how similarturned out to be a keyboard and touchpad MacBook and X Pro. The only difference is that in the Huawei laptop, the keys are slightly higher, with a pleasant surface, which makes it easier and faster to type. The height of the keys - 1.2 mm.

The trackpad has similar capabilities, and quitespacious. It is clearly more than those that can be found in Windows laptops and about the same as in the MacBook. Feedback is clear, with a clear click. By the way, a fingerprint scanner is built into the power button for fast and reliable login via Windows Hello.

Ports and camera

Fortunately, when creating a solid case MateBookX Pro 2019, Huawei did not have to resort to compromises. There is a complete set of necessary connectors: 2-ports USB-C and USB-A 2.0, there is support for Thunderbolt 3 for connecting a 4K-screen or an external video card.

As for the webcam Huawei MateBook X Pro 2019, it is still hidden in the keyboard. It is necessary to press the button with the camera icon - the camera opens.

Of course, this is an interesting decision and givesthe confidence that no one is spying on us. However, the lens is of low quality and is clearly lagging behind most other laptops. Frankly, this camera is worse than the one that was in the past XPS 13.

Laptop display

For a long time, the standard format for displaysthere was a 16: 9 aspect ratio, however, recently almost all manufacturers began to leave this issue. For example, MacBook Pro now has a screen with a ratio of 16:10, and Surface Book 2 has a ratio of 3: 2. The trend can be traced in MateBook X Pro 2019. Although this display is no longer a novelty, the new format is more convenient.

The 13.9-inch screen of the Huawei MateBook X Pro 2019 has a resolution of 3000 × 2000 pixels. Its brightness, amazing - 450 nits, so when working with the browser, I had to reduce the parameter to 20%.

To be honest, we get the same panel,which was put in the previous version of X Pro. Yet this particular display was one of the strengths of the past laptop model. It also has an impressive contrast ratio of 1240: 1. Almost as much as the leader of the segment, the MacBook Pro.

As for the ratio of the screen and the case, itreaches 91%. This means that the display frame is as thin as possible. It seems to me that even when opening some applications, this panel looks more than 13.9-inch.

Equally important, the X Pro 2019 display -sensory. This is not even the MacBook Pro, which greatly simplifies the interaction with the laptop. For example, to take a screenshot, you only need to hold three fingers from top to bottom on the screen. After that, the image will open for editing and saving.

All the features of the Huawei laptop are becomingavailable for the company's smartphones, through Huawei Share 3.0. With a tap, you can transfer photos from the new MateBook X Pro to your phone. When shaking a paired smartphone, a screenshot is taken on the laptop display. It also supports data exchange in a shared buffer that works on NFC. The option is similar to the one in MacOS and iOS.

Iron productivity

Previously, some users hadperformance claims for MateBook X Pro. With the transition to the Whiskey Lake processors, the problem was solved. However, these chips are already available in most business laptops, including the Dell XPS 13. As a result, the updated model X Pro 2019 was faster than last year on the Intel Core i7-8550U.

To check the capabilities of the updated iron,I launched 20 tabs with heavy sites in the browser at the same time. As a result, Intel Core i7-8565U was able to pull it all out without delay. At the same time, Huawei still has a trump card hidden in its sleeve, this is graphics.

In addition to switching to Whiskey Lake processors,Huawei laptop received a new motherboard and wireless communication module. Due to this, the speed of data transmission via Wi-Fi has increased - up to 1733 Mbit / s. For comparison, the last MacBook Pro gives up to 867 Mbps.

Graphics Card Huawei MateBook X Pro 2019

The new Huawei MateBook X Pro 2019 is installedNvidia MX250 graphics card with 2 GB dedicated video memory. Let me remind you that before this was MX150. While I have not seen the MX250 on other laptops, so I can not say anything about its capabilities. Huawei promises that this video card can be up to 3.5 times faster than the integrated graphics, and by 5-10% MX150.

However, I tested the MX150 more than once, this is far fromThe fastest graphics card for games. I got 60 fps in Fortnite, so any improvements are welcome. Hopefully this will allow the MateBook X Pro 2019 to become some kind of alternative to gaming laptops with more powerful graphics processors.

Total

Regarding pricing and availability of Huawei MateBook XPro 2019, while nothing is exactly known. The laptop should appear in May. If the price does not change, then last year’s model at the start cost about 80,000 rubles. I think the MateBook X Pro 2019 is rated at about the same.

What we get in the end: comfortable keyboard and touchpad, MX250 graphics, a large screen with minimal frames and an excellent premium all-metal case. From the minuses I can only note the inconvenient location of the webcam, but this is a completely subjective remark.