Huawei has released the Mate 20 Pro, Watch GT, and MateBook X Pro in Southeast Asia. But the device they were pretty hushed about is the MateBook D.
It's a budget version of the MateBook X Pro. While it might not come with a powerful processor or graphics card, it's a good option for those on the budget and want the thin and light Windows experience.
It looks mighty familiar.
Straight off the bat, you will get some deja vu vibes from the MateBook D. It’s obvious that they took some subtle hints from the MacBook Pro when it came to designing the laptop.
Despite striking similarities to an Apple product, Huawei made it work in their favor.
The MateBook D does look beautiful and those that I’ve shown this laptop to couldn’t believe it was from Huawei. The full-aluminum body gives the laptop its sleek and solid feel, not to mention it looks sexy.
I might be nit-picking but they could really have made this laptop more elegant if they had removed “Huawei” from the top lid and just left their logo.
Laptop essentials are all present.
A laptop to me has to have some crucial features: Great color reproduction from the screen, keyboard and trackpad have to feel good and easy to get used to, and finally, decent battery life.
I simply love the typing experience the keyboard provides. The keycaps are big and spaced out perfectly across the board. Even the touchpad is just the right size and position. I have never experienced any accidental touches when typing furiously on the keyboard.
The laptop also offers a good variety of ports. Two USB Type-A ports, single USB Type-C port, a HDMI port, and a headphone jack.
However, I am quite disappointed with the screen. Sure it's an FHD IPS panel, but the colors just seem to feel flat and lifeless, I don’t feel immersed in the content I am watching. It seems like Huawei has hit all the right spots in this laptop, except for the screen.
Performance is on point.
The MateBook D is definitely not a powerhouse computer. It comes with an 8th Generation Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and an Intel HD Graphics 620.
You might not want to play the latest Battlefield title or a round of PUBG on it, but if you’re doing some work or just browsing the internet, it does provide a smooth performance overall.
It’s worth mentioning that the laptop has a fingerprint sensor which doubles as the power button and a damn good one at that. It's extremely fast and has officially restored my faith in laptop fingerprint sensors.
The battery life does not match the advertised 12 hours video playback, but it did offer me 5 hours of use that consist of watching YouTube videos, browsing the internet, doing some work, all while listening to music on Spotify.
Music lovers will be happy to know that the MateBook D supports Dolby Atmos, which not only offers an enhanced audio listening experience, but it allows you to tune the audio output to your preference.
Even the speakers on the laptop sound decent, it might not rival a MacBook but I'm a headphones kinda guy so it doesn't really matter much to me.
Should you ditch your old laptop for the MateBook D?
If you’re running on a laptop that comes with an 8th Intel Core processor and it’s already light weight, you might want to skip the MateBook D.
If you’re a gamer, then it’s pretty obvious that this is not the option for you.
However, with all that said, you will be paying half the price of a MacBook Pro if you decide to go with the MateBook D. It might not have the stability of MacOS or a beautiful Retina Display, but it will serve your needs without a hitch.
And not to be a broken record: It's half the price of a lower-end spec MacBook.
The Huawei MateBook D retails for RM2,999 while the cheapest MacBook Pro sells for RM5,932.
