HUAWEI’s MateBook series, introduced back in 2019, marks a new age for HUAWEI. Not just HUAWEI though, it marks a new age for smartphone makers that are not Apple. To be fair to other manufacturers though, HUAWEI is not the first smartphone-first manufacturer that makes PCs. Its biggest competitor in the Android smartphone market used to make notebook PCs as well.
Still, while other smartphone manufacturers have either left the smartphone market or abandoning the PC market, HUAWEI gladly embraces the market, shifting focus from making productivity focused Android tablets and upping the game in terms of a complete ecosystem that works seamlessly together for work and play. It does seem like they are learning from the biggest ecosystem outside of the Android world, Apple. Let us be honest though, it is not such a bad thing, this total coverage of the ecosystem thing.
HUAWEI’s most premium notebook for the discerning users is the HUAWEI MateBook X Pro. There is a new one for 2022. On paper at least, it looks quite special.
HUAWEI MateBook X pro
It shares pretty much the same design from the old MateBook X Pro, or almost every other MateBook bred to existence. It is also the thinnest MateBook device in its range. At 15.5mm though, it is a little thicker than its predecessor. It gained some weight too at 1.38 kg over 1.33 kg of the 2021 variant. The minor heft gain for the MateBook X Pro 2022 comes with some extra power to make the MateBook X Pro the ultimate thin-and-light though.
You get a slightly bigger display now at 14.2-inch. With bigger display too, HUAWEI can squeeze a little bit more display out of it at 3,120 by 2,080 pixels to achieve an impressive 264 pixels per inch, higher than the predecessor. It covers 92.5% of the laptop body, which is even more than before too, leaving us to wonder how they made the bezels even thinner.
It is a stunning display too. The 3.1K LTPS panel produces up to 500nits of light at DisplayHDR 400 standards. It boasts 1,500:1 contrast ratio on its 1.07-billion colours on tap. It also offers an average △E<1 in P3 and sRGB standards. It is not a gaming display, but the 3:2 aspect ratio display still offers up to 90Hz in refresh rate. Did we mention that it is a touch sensitive display too? What we are saying is that you are really going to enjoy this display, no matter what you do.
The 2022 HUAWEI MateBook X Pro flagships come with class leading six-speaker set up with HUUAWEI SOUND. There are two tweeters for brilliant and detailed higher-end frequencies from the top firing speaker grilles. The other two are mashed to create a woofer sandwich which, in theory, should produce even more powerful low frequencies for deeper, more immersive bass notes, more boom. The speaker array should also benefit users when it comes to video calls alongside four far-field mics with AI Noise Cancellation algorithm.
Powered by an 11th Generation Intel Core i7-1195G7 CPU, the MateBook X Pro might sound a little old fashioned, but the processor is still quite a powerful one. It also packs Intel’s Iris Xe Graphics to ensure that the display gets enough juice to run on full chat. Of course, we would like to see what the HUAWEI MateBook X Pro could do with 12th Generation Intel processors.
HUAWEI Super Device Ecrosystem
It is not a new device that HUAWEI released here. It is more of introduction of a complete ecosystem for HUAWEI’s many devices. A sort of unifying piece to puts all of HUAWEI’s devices together.
The HUAWEI Super Device centers itself on HUAWEI’s PC experience. It starts from HUAWEI’s MateBook devices with the latest version of the HUAWEI PC Manager. The new ecosystem does not just allow HUAWEI’s devices to share screens and quickly share files across the connected devices. It now allows each device to be individual device modules to form a larger collaboration tool. You can take up a video call from your smartphone for example and later transfer it to a HUAWEI MateBook when you get yourself in front of one.
Super Device also introduces HUAWEI’s Mobile App Engine for their PC devices. Mobile App Engine gives HUAWEI MateBook devices access to the HUAWEI AppGallery. That also means that the Windows 11 device can now work with mobile apps reserved for the smartphone ecosystem that HUAWEI has built over the years, allowing users to be even more productive than ever with their HUAWEI MateBook devices.
Availability
HUAWEI’s Super Device function will be shipped with the HUAWEI MateBook X Pro, MateStation X, MateBook E, MatePad Paper, and MatePad. All of the devices that are launched in their MWC 2022 announcement. While HUAWEI mentions that existing HUAWEI MateBook devices will be able to take advantage of the new Super Device feature, there are no mentions on whether existing smartphone and tablet devices will get the function. At this point, judging by HUAWEI’s update history, older devices might not be getting the new Super Device feature.
There are also no mentions on when the HUAWEI MateBook X Pro will hit the markets. It will be priced at EU 1,899 (MYR 8,923*) when it is available. There are also no colour options for the new flagship MateBook as well, just a plain Grey.
*Approximately based on exchange rate of EU€ 1 = MYR 4.70 as of 01/03/2021 on xe.com
