Huawei MateBook X Pro 2020 Review: A Key Part Of Huawei’s New Ecosystem

Unlike the smartphone scene, which has to constantly evolve every six months to keep consumers interest and reviewers from getting snarky, standards for the laptop spaces seems a lot less demanding. Year after year, companies from Apple and Dell keep the exact same form factor while upgrading just the internals—otherwise known as a "spec bump."

There's nothing wrong with this in the laptop space, I suppose—we just need these things to work as a productivity machine—and that's what Huawei's done with the 2020 edition of the MateBook X Pro.

I last reviewed the 2018 model of this four-year-old laptop line (I skipped the 2019 model) and this 2020 model looks very familiar, if not identical. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, since the MateBook X Pro’s hardware, particularly the slim bezels, thin frame and charging prowess, was noticeably ahead of the pack back in 2017 to 2018.

We still have the 13.9-inch 3K LCD panel that spans almost edge to edge; the same one-touch fingerprint scanner that goes from off machine to fully booted up in under 30 seconds; the same excellent well-spaced keyboards; and the same hidden webcam inside said keyboard that some people really dislike.

Weight and dimensions are identical too: 14.6mm at its thickest point; and weighing 2.93 lbs. This was a really impressive machine in terms of looks and design when it first debuted in 2017 and still is the case now, even if rivals have caught up a bit (Apple, for example, shaved the bezels off its MacBook Pros beginning last year, so it doesn’t look as outdated next to Huawei’s machine as it did in 2018).

However, the MateBook X Pro’s price has changed, at least for the west. The base i5 2018 model, starting at $1,150, was one of the best deals in its class, several hundred dollars cheaper than the same spec'd models from Dell, Microsoft, and especially Apple. This year, the entry level's price has jumped to the equivalent of $1,600 in Europe for the base i5 model. To be fair, base storage and RAM in 2020 has doubled to 512GB and 16GB (in 2018, the base model offered 256GB and 8GB), but the price hike is enough to push the MateBook X Pro from one of the cheaper laptops to one of the pricier ones.

Good news for those in Asia: the machine is a better value here. In China, the same base model starts at 8,999 yuan, which is $1,275, and similar prices can be found in Hong Kong, too. But for a chunk of the world, the value factor of the MateBook X Pro has declined.

The internals are obviously the latest generation, so on my test unit it’s a 10th-gen Intel core i7 with 1TB of storage and 16GB of RAM, and an Nvida GeForce MX250 graphics card. The latter is just enough to run most games at a base level, and graphics work, but not quite top tier enough for heavy duty video editing.

Other than editing 4K footage on Adobe Premiere, just about all other productivity tasks run here with no hiccups. I frequently ran a half dozen Chrome tabs while streaming Spotify and running a desktop version of EMUI with no lags.

Huawei’s 1+8+N

The latter feature — desktop EMUI — is a key differentiating factor that sets the MateBook X Pro from other Windows machines. Huawei is trying to build its own eco-system, one with complete hardware and software synergy. Huawei calls the vision “1 + 8 + N,” with “1” being the smartphone—the “central key to everything we do in today’s digital age,” according to a Huawei rep. The “8” represents Huawei’s eight major non-phone consumer product categories (laptop, tablet, smartwatch, etc.), and the “N” representing the “Internet of Things.”

Here’s how it works on the MateBook X Pro: tap a Huawei phone on the lower right corner of the MateBook X Pro’s base, the two devices connect. Once linked, users can run their Huawei phone’s screen on the laptop screen in real-time with almost no noticeable lag. This proved to be very useful during heavy workdays, as it allowed me to respond to WhatsApp messages directly on the laptop screen without needing to grab the phone. Many popular apps, such as Instagram, also don’t have a proper Windows app, so being able to browse Instagram on the laptop, through the phone, is a unique experience.

This connection also allows direct file and data transfer. So it’s sort of like Apple’s AirDrops, but instead of wirelessly it’s done via NFC tap-and-go.

From my test using the MateBook X Pro and a Huawei P40 Pro, everything worked as advertised, and I think loyal Huawei users will find much benefit to using a Huawei laptop, too. However, if you’re on another phone, all these features are lost.

Typing and navigating

The keyboards are backlit and offer 1mm of travel (very good). As a very fast typer, I found the typing experience here to be near flawless. However, the trackpad’s “tap to click” feature is too sensitive; I am constantly accidentally triggering unwanted clicks when I’m trying to scroll. I dug through settings and tried to tweak the sensitivity level, but to no avail. The problem bothered me so much I had to turn off “tap to click” entirely and just physically click into trackpad instead. This is not ideal, as “tap to click” is a very natural movement most laptop users have gotten used to doing it.

To be fair, this may just be my personal swiping habits; I have not seen many other complaints about the trackpad. But I think objectively, the trackpad of the MateBook X Pro isn’t as great as the one see in Apple’s MacBook Pros.

Multi-media

The LCD screen gets relatively bright—enough for outdoor use—but not as bright as any of my flagship phones. This goes back to my gripe that the smartphone scene just innovates and evolve at such a faster pace. Almost any smartphone released today gives me a high refresh OLED panel, but in the laptop space we’re still stuck with just a 60Hz LCD screen. The MateBook X Pro’s screen is one of the best in laptops, but I’ve been spoiled by my smartphone screens, which produce punchier colors and zips around with more fluidity.

Still, watching movies on this laptop is great, thanks to the loud and full speakers.

Other performances

Running a mostly clean version of Windows 10 Home, basic performance with the MateBook X Pro has been pleasant. I do, however, think Microsoft’s Windows UI is dated and not as intuitive as Apple’s MacOS, but that’s a gripe with Microsoft, not the laptop maker.

The 56Wh battery here remains unchanged from the past two years: the MateBook X Pro can eek by an 8-hour workday of word processing and surfing the internet. If I do heavier tasks, like run Adobe Photoshop or watch videos, endurance drops. Overall, battery life is acceptable, though Apple’s line of MacBook Pros tend to last longer.

The webcam, as mentioned, is not everyone’s cup of tea. Due to its location, it points up at the user, at an unflattering angle. I don’t mind it much, but it really depends on preferences.

In terms of I/O, you get a headphone jack, two USB-Cs with Thunderbolt capabilities, and a USB-A. The latter is increasingly a rarity in laptops (it’s gone in all Apple machines) so it’s great to see here, as many laptop accessories still use the old port.

Conclusion: lots to offer for Huawei fans

Huawei’s MateBook X Pro won rave reviews in 2018 (the Verge called it best laptop of the year; and I certainly liked it a lot, too). The 2020 model brings back almost the whole package with a newer processor, so by default it is still a very, very good machine. But the combination of the price jump and other brands catching up a bit (Apple has fixed its terrible keyboards from 2016 to 2019), means the MateBook X Pro 2020 no longer wins an easy recommendation.

It is now one of the best options around, instead of clearly the best. And seeing how much the smartphone scene innovates, I want laptops to step up and start pushing forward with tech and new form factors. Give us a dual-screen laptop like the Asus Zenbook Duo, give us OLED screens, give us high refresh rates.

Still, this is a really good portable work machine if price is no issue, and those using Huawei phones and plan on sticking with them will find a very intuitive ecosystem, one that’s not available on, say, Dell laptops.