Huawei MateBook X Pro 2020: Display, Price, and Specifications in 2020.

Huawei MateBook X Pro 2020: Display, Price, and Specifications in 2020.

Although Huawei does not have many models, it captures a similar variety on the laptop side as well. The MateBook D 15, MateBook D 14, and MateBook 13 2020 models, which have been released so far, were designed for those who are more budget-conscious, but want good performance. Huawei MateBook X Pro, which is at the top of the series, targets users who aim for higher performance than their budget, who want to work with a quality screen and a fast processor wherever they go, and also to avoid battery problems.

 Huawei is associated mainly with smartphones and telecoms. However, the Chinese IT giant is not afraid to try its hand at other market segments: in 2018, it introduced its first laptop, the MateBook X Pro. The model turned out to be extremely interesting, and after two years they decided to refresh it. Finding out if the MateBook X Pro 2020 can push the competition on Windows, as well as the MacBook Pro. In this article, we will give you a quick review regarding the MateBook X Pro.

 Design & Display.

 The MateBook X Pro is built to all the standards of a premium laptop: the chassis is made from a single piece of aluminum, and all panels are treated and painted the same way. The edges have received subtle polished bevels, which adds an additional polish to the strict style of the device.

The body, which is 14.6 mm thick at its thickest, weighs only 1.3 kg. These elements make the MateBook X Pro both eye-catching and portable. Its smooth metal surface is average in handling fingerprints and dirt, neither too good nor too bad. Its lightweight body makes you comfortable while carrying it in the office or home, and it does not weigh in the bag. It also allows you to comfortably carry your tablet or similar items in your bag.

On the flip side, there is a Huawei logo placed in a pleasant way. The space gray body gives a professional laptop feel too. In fact, when viewed from the outside, it looks like a slightly larger version of the MateBook 13. But when we move our fingertips over the aluminum surface, we realize that it is ahead of it in terms of material quality. As a result, it has high-quality materials and a stylish design that pays off for its high price.

You can easily open the MateBook X Pro lid with just one finger, without cutting the base off the floor. The hinge opens to an angle of around 135 degrees, no 180 degrees we see on high-end laptops. Let's not even talk about 360 degrees as it is not in convertible form. However, we can say that it offers a comfortable view when using it on a tablet or laptop at maximum angle.

You will see a camera icon in the function key row of the keyboard. Pressing this will open the camera. This build of the camera is very good for those sensitive to privacy. They can keep the camera turned off when not in use, without any additional precautions. However, since it is located on the keyboard, the webcam does not offer a good view in terms of viewing angle. You get an impression as if you are looking at the people and people you are facing from high. For this reason, it would be appropriate to remember that the camera is below as much as possible in conversations and talk accordingly. Of course, it is also possible to use an external webcam if you wish.

 On the left side are two USB Type  C ports (USB 3.1 and Thunderbolt 3) and an audio jack, on the right is the only full-sized USB 3.0. By the way, both USB Type  C support charging, which is convenient. However, it would be better if they were spread on different sides.

 As far as display is concerned, Huawei MateBook X Pro comes with a very thin bezel screen. The 13.9-inch matrix is ​​made using LTPS technology and has a resolution of 3,000 × 2,000 pixels. The pixel density of 260 PPI. This screen, which Huawei calls Ultra FullView, offers a screen-to-body ratio of over 90 percent. This results in a smaller surface area than a standard 14-inch screen computer. Indeed, the bezel surrounding the three sides of the screen is almost the same thickness and quite thin. The thinness of the part under the screen also draws attention. Due to this thin bezel, we see that Huawei has placed the webcam on the keyboard as we have seen in previous models.

Vivid colors of the MateBook X Pro are supported by high brightness. It offers an above-average brightness for a laptop, such as 450 nits. Thanks to the high brightness, it is possible to use the laptop in the outdoor environment. However, the relatively high reflection coefficient of the screen glass reduces the vision in a bright light environment. IPS screen is sufficient in terms of viewing angles. When looking at the screen from the side, there is a slight decrease in brightness, but there is not much reduction in colors. For those who collaborate or watch something together, the viewing angle will be more than enough.

The aspect ratio of the screen is 3: 2, which makes it particularly suitable for productivity-oriented jobs. As for video content, the situation is worse than notebook computers with 16: 9 aspect ratio. You will see black bars at the top and bottom of the screen while watching YouTube videos or most Netflix TV shows and movies. At the same time, when you place two windows on the screen at the same time, the width left to these two windows will be smaller. Nevertheless, it should be noted that we prefer the 3: 2 aspect ratio screen over the 16: 9 aspect ratio display.MateBook X Pro 2020 has a 13.9 inch, 3: 2 aspect ratio IPS touch screen with a resolution of 3000 x 2000 pixels. This screen is among the most prominent features of the laptop. As we mentioned above, an immersive visual experience awaits users thanks to the thin screen frame.

This screen, which has a 91 percent body ratio, also covers 100 percent of the sRGB color gamut. The glass covering the top of the screen also has an edge-to-edge structure, and this small detail increases the value of the laptop, strengthening the impression that it is a valuable computer.

In the meantime, the screen brightness is dynamically adjusted thanks to the environmental light sensor. It should be noted that the screen brightness is adjusted well and most of the time we don't need to adjust the screen brightness manually. Even if the screen brightness has dropped to 50 percent when using it in battery saving mode, this brightness is sufficient for us to work comfortably. With Huawei's application called Display Manager, you can turn on Eye Comfort feature and reduce the amount of blue light emitted by the screen. At the same time, this application allows you to adjust the color temperature of the screen as you wish.

The MateBook X Pro has a keyboard that is almost the same size as the MateBook 13 2020. The key sizes and spacing are the same. But the keys are a bit stiffer, so they make a little louder when typing. There is no difference in terms of depth. There is a comfortable and sufficient range for fingers to navigate along the keyboard, there is no problem while typing. The depth and hardness of the keys also reduce the familiarization time and contribute to comfortable typing. The top row of the keyboard has control keys for screen brightness, microphone, volume and so on. At the same time, this row is devoted to function keys, but they are secondary. You are using it by pressing the Fn key.

The keyboard is backlit and you can switch between three different brightness levels using the F3 key, or turn the backlight off completely. The intensity of the backlight is sufficient, but we would have preferred a slightly larger range of motion when it comes to changing the brightness.

Trackpad or trackpad, whatever you call it, it's big enough. Compared to the MateBook 13 2020, it is slightly more advantageous in terms of size. There are controls that fit a few fingers comfortably and allow you to perform touch gestures. Although your palms come into contact with the trackpad while typing, this does not cause incorrect movements. The trackpad's surface is smooth, your fingertips move easily. Good responsiveness too, no trouble controlling the pointer. You can do your work without a headache with the trackpad without using an external mouse.

 Operating System and Process.

 We have a 10th generation Intel Core i7-10510U low-voltage CPU, 16 GB 2133MHz LPDDR3 RAM in the Huawei MateBook X Pro 2020 model; There are Nvidia GeForce MX250 GPU and 1 TB PCI NVMe SSD. The Core i7-10510 CPU is a member of Intel's Comet Lake family, has a TDP value of 15W, and has an operating frequency of 1.8 GHz. The operating frequency can be reduced to 800 MHz, in this case, TDP decreases to 10W. The MateBook X Pro usually runs at this level when running in standby mode or for tasks that don't require much processor power. The processor has four cores and eight execution units. It also has 8 MB of Intel Smart Cache. Despite DDR4 and LPDDR4 support, Huawei has opted for LPDDR3 RAM. The processor is still one of the options based on Intel's 14nm architecture. AMD has already started to appear before consumers with 7nm processors.

On the graphics processing unit side, we see the GeForce MX250 discrete GPU, which we started to see in most high-priced laptops. One should not expect huge jobs from this graphics processor unit. However, we can say that it is very helpful for graphic editing, video production or optimum gaming performance.

The MateBook X Pro is practically a laptop that works well. The Core i7-10510U processor knows how to handle almost any job well. While we were using the laptop, we did not experience any noticeable lag or stutter, even though we opened multiple applications and dealt with different, power-intensive tasks. At this point, it is necessary to give the necessary right to the existence of 16 GB RAM. This high amount of RAM will be enough for multitasking users like us who work with many Chrome tabs, Edge tabs, Premiere Pro, several Windows Explorer windows at the same time.

1 TB capacity PCIe NVM SSD also performs well. Its applications are fast to open, and file transfer from peripheral devices such as USB drives is also fast. However, we see Huawei's habit of partitioning the disk in MateBook X Pro 2020. There is a C for Windows files and a D volume for other files. 

Because of the larger disk space, there is more space in C than in the MateBook 13 2020. However, you can quickly fill this C partition with this large space of files you download or apps you install. Therefore, when you first start using it, it will be useful to set the D directory instead of C for applications or other content you will download from the Microsoft Store.

When we look at the base of the MateBook X Pro, we see that there is a generally closed structure. Airflow is provided by a thin and long channel placed on the hinge side. The laptop gets noticeably hot during use, but the temperature doesn't get too extreme. On top of that, we did not hear the fan noise at very high intensity during our use of the laptop. This shows that the MateBook X Pro's thermal system is good. Moreover, we have not observed that the rising temperature has a negative effect on the performance of the laptop. When we look at the benchmark tests, we see that the Huawei MateBook X Pro achieves good results for a productivity-focused laptop.

 According to the operating system, Huawei MateBook X Pro comes with Windows 10 Pro installed on 2020. As with other Huawei computers, the number of applications installed on the MateBook X Pro is very limited. It would not be wrong to call it a "pure Windows" experience, so to speak. Huawei offers an application called PC Manager installed. This application is also of great importance in terms of establishing a relationship with the Huawei ecosystem.

Huawei is committed to ensuring that the MateBook X Pro 2020 communicates seamlessly and easily with other Huawei devices. That's why Huawei Share is at the heart of the experience. With MateBook X Pro 2020, you can easily connect a smartphone or tablet. For example, turning on the NFC on the P40 Pro and touching the phone to the Huawei Share labeled area to the right of the MateBook X Pro's trackpad initiates the pairing process and all that's left is to confirm the process from the computer. Afterward, you can see the P40 Pro's screen mirrored on the computer, you can write using the keyboard, or navigate the phone's user interface with the trackpad. Moreover, you can even perform easy file transfer between smartphones and computers by the drag-and-drop method.

In addition to this easy and practical connection and control function, PC Manager allows you to easily store photos and videos on a computer with smartphones and tablets. By the way, you can connect the tablet-like Huawei MatePad Pro to the computer, but screen mirroring does not work. We hope Huawei will soon develop a solution that allows using tablets like the MatePad Pro as a second screen that will work alongside the MateBook X Pro. We think this is also important for a seamless ecosystem and experience.

If you don't have a Huawei smartphone, you can still easily connect your smartphone to your computer. Thanks to Microsoft's Your Phone application, you can connect your Android phone to MateBook X Pro, see incoming notifications and messages on the computer screen, even control the phone by connecting to the user interface, and transfer files with drag and drop.

On the other hand, the PC Manager application allows uninterrupted work with Huawei smartphones and tablets, as well as for hardware scanning, driver, and BIOS updates.

Apart from what we have explained above, you are free to download and use the application or game you want, either from the Microsoft Store or using conventional methods. 1 TB of storage space provides you sufficient flexibility at this point.

 Storage, Price, and available colors.

 Huawei MateBook X Pro 2020 price depends on the selected variant. The basic variant of the MateBook X Pro with 8GB RAM and 256GB variant and 8th generation processor i5-8250U, it will cost you about 959.00USD on Amazon. While the variant with 16GB RAM and 512GB variant and 8th generation processor i7-8550U, it will cost you around 1,299.00USD on Amazon. It is available in Emerald Green, Mystic Silver, and Space Gray colors.

 Security and Ports.

For security, In the upper right corner is the power button where the fingerprint reader is integrated. This key has also appeared on other notebook computers of Huawei. There is no difference in quality and functionality. The accuracy is high enough, we didn't have any significant weight or trouble getting past the screen lock. Only when the fingerprint was introduced for the first time was a little longer than normal. Apart from the fingerprint reader, there is no other authentication method that can be used with Windows Hello. You cannot use face recognition.

In terms of port options, the MateBook X Pro 2020 is neither too lacking nor too much approach. Of course, the possibilities of the company that wants to keep the device as thin as possible are limited. There are two USB-C ports on the left edge. These ports also offer fast charging and DisplayPort support. There is also a 3.5mm audio jack on this edge. On the right side, there is a single USB-A port. Thanks to this port, you can easily connect many existing devices without the need for an adapter.

There is 802.11ac support on the wireless side. The Wi-Fi network card is offered in Intel Wireless AC 9560 and a maximum speed of 866Mbps in theory, 2x2. There is good wireless performance in practice, but seeing Wi-Fi 6 support available on a 2020 laptop would be a good investment in the future.

 Sound System.

In terms of sound quality, MateBook X Pro 2020 is sufficient. The two speakers on the front offer a balanced sound output. It is satisfying, if not very high in terms of bass. It also has a satisfying sound in terms of highs. No interference at the highest volume. By the way, it is possible to benefit from Dolby Atmos support in applications such as Netflix. You don't need another speaker while watching movies.

 Battery and charging.

  

The MateBook X Pro has a 56-watt-hour battery. The fact that the Core i7-10510U behaves in a balanced way in terms of power consumption contributes greatly to this laptop meeting the criterion that it will provide the power required for a working day. In our tests with the MateBook X Pro, in line with our normal workflow, a total of 30 tabs were open in Chrome and Edge, while an Android phone was actively connected through Microsoft's Your Phone app. We set the battery mode as power saving and set the screen brightness to 50 percent. The laptop promises a working time of 8-9 hours in this way. Considering that the workflow changes dynamically in such a scenario, it can easily take 6-7 hours in heavy use. This means that employees who spend most of the day outside can spend a day on a single charge.

The 65W charger adapter included in the box of the laptop also complements the battery performance with fast charging. It's not too big, about twice the volume of charging adapters of smartphones like the Huawei P40 Pro, but well below the laptop average. Thanks to its dimensions, it can be carried easily in the bag. It is even possible to charge your smartphone with this charger adapter. It also brings flexibility in terms of cable and charging adapter. In addition, with this charger adapter, you can quickly get the battery charge that will allow you to use the MateBook X Pro for a few hours.

Speaking of the charging adapter, the MateBook X Pro 2020 comes with an adapter that includes HDMI, VGA, USB-A, and USB-C ports. When using this adapter, you can also charge via the USB-C port. This accessory is useful for connecting MateBook X Pro to an external display device such as a TV, projector. Moreover, if you have a smartphone like the P40 Pro, you can use this adapter to connect your smartphone to the TV or external monitor, and by turning it on in Desktop mode, you can further expand the phone's capabilities.

 Conclusion.

 Huawei MateBook X Pro is a laptop with many features you wish to have in a high-end laptop, and you can checkmark for many items on the list. It makes you feel really valuable with its material quality and design. The 13.9-inch screen provides slightly more productivity than computers with 13-inch screens. The thin screen bezel adds more elegance to the laptop and helps to limit the overall body size while increasing the screen size. Although it does not have a wide body, its keyboard allows for comfortable typing. The webcam embedded in the keyboard is not in a very good position for video calls, but privacy-minded people will appreciate it due to its nature. The screen with a 3: 2 aspect ratio and high resolution like 3K makes a strong impression when you are editing photos or videos or watching something with its high brightness and wide color support. We can say that we also found the stereo sound system successful.

The 10th generation Intel Core i7-510U processor provides the best performance from the 56 watt-hour battery thanks to its efficient power consumption mechanism. As mentioned above, this laptop offers power for those who spend most of the day outside, allowing them to work on a single charge. Apart from that, it does not cause stutter or interruption even when working with many applications. Even the fan noise is not very loud. We can say that it is a laptop that meets expectations in terms of performance and battery.

Of course, one of the most important features that distinguish the Huawei MateBook X Pro from other laptops is that it is included in the Huawei ecosystem, and it gets along well with smartphones and tablets of this brand. If you own one of Huawei's smartphones, especially a high-end phone like the P40 or P40 Pro, you can increase your productivity with the MateBook X Pro. Moreover, you can do this not with multi-screen collaboration features, but also by taking advantage of accessories such as the charging adapter and display adapter included in the box of the MateBook X Pro.

MateBook X Pro is an above-average laptop with a price of 1,200USD. However, we find that it is good value for money in many aspects such as design, hardware, performance, and software features. What do you think? Do you recommend this laptop? Share your knowledge with us.