It’s been one year since the original MateBook X Pro was introduced, and today we get the 2019 refresh of this award-winning laptop.
The industrial design has remained similar to last year’s model (the logo has changed a bit), including the webcam hidden below a function key and the ports physical configuration. However, you will see that the internal components and several features have been upgraded.
You can read our review of the Huawei MateBook X Pro to find out why we gave it a 10/10 as one of the most innovative laptops of 2018.
What’s new?
Hardware
This year’s MateBook X Pro comes with newer Intel processor options, namely the Core i7-8565U and Core i5-8265U. This CPU update brings small performance improvements, but not on the scale that we saw last year when transiting from the Gen7 to Gen8 Intel processors.
The GPU has been updated to the most powerful version of the NVIDIA GeForce MX 250 (25Watt TDP) with 2GB of VRAM. There are many laptops that came with the 15W TDP version, which is not as fast, so keep an eye out for the TDP specs.
The SSD storage can now top 1TB instead of the maximum of 512GB last year. The RAM stays at a maximum of 16GB.
On the connectivity side, WIFI now has a 5GHz version that is capable of 1.7Gbps throughput and small devices can connect via Bluetooth 5.0.
The USB-C Thunderbolt 3 is been upgraded to 40Gbps, which means that it can connect to multiple 4K displays and even external GPUs! That said, Huawei does not have
Software
Huawei has also looked at ways to improve the user experience. For example, the original Huawei MateBook X Pro had a great command center from which you could easily update all the drivers and check the health of the computer.
In the 2019 edition, Huawei adds better connectivity options with Huawei phones (via Huawei Share), and gestures that simplify everyday tasks such as screenshots.
The Huawei intelligent connectivity provided by Huawei Share 3.0 makes it simple to transfer photos, videos, and documents from and to the phone. It involves creating an initial pairing (via NFC) then a simple touch of the back of the phone on the laptop’s NFC receiver will start the exchange. If you’re in the photo gallery, the current photo will be sent (if you accept it on the PC).
The transfer is fast, and Huawei says that the speed can be as high as 500 images/mn.
Huawei pushes things farther with the Clipboard sharing, which is an excellent idea. Anything that you copy on either device becomes instantly available in the clipboard of the other device (if you’re in range). No need to send links via text chat anymore.
Everything stays private because it’s a device-to-device connection, and there’s no intermediate server.
Other Highlights
If you’re not familiar with last year’s MateBook X Pro, it introduced several features that are still present in this 2019 edition.
The chassis is made of high-precision CNC aluminum and is available in two shades of grey. The 3:2 aspect ratio of the 3000×2000 display makes it better for general productivity purposes because you get more vertical space than with a 16:9 ratio, and an additional 15% of screen surface.
The touch display itself looks very nice and has an sRGB color gamut of 100%, which is very good, but not the absolute best. The theoretical maximum brightness is 450 Nits, and that’s one of the best available for laptops (most hover around 300 to 400).
From a multimedia point of view, this design has dour Dolby Atmos compatible speakers that deliver an impressive sound. From what we can tell, the exact same setup is at work here.
The battery remains at 57.4Wh, which is very decent for this category, even if you can find competitors that, might challenge it from a capacity perspective. We really like the compact 65W USB-C charger that is compatible with the USB PD (power delivery) standard and works with other computers as well. It can fast-charge your phone of course.
Conclusion
Although it is an incremental update to last year’s Huawei MateBook X Pro, the 2019 update of the Matebook X is a solid product. The only question is to know what the competition is going to have to oppose it by the time it is available, perhaps in May.
Filed in . Read more about Huawei, Laptops, MWC and MWC 2019.