HUAWEI MateBook X Professional (2024) evaluate

Regardless of years of engaged on a laptop computer, I’ve someway managed to eschew skinny and light-weight “ultrabooks” for the added bulk of what I believed to be correct power-user laptops. Primarily, as picture modifying is a large a part of my job, I’ve all the time struggled with the idea of engaged on something lower than a 16-inch display screen when away from my desktop displays. Nonetheless, I’ve modified my thoughts after spending a while with the brand new HUAWEI MateBook X Professional 2024.

For starters, the MateBook X Professional (2024) is splendidly constructed. It’s eminently moveable, weighing simply 980g and reaching 13.5mm at its thickest level. The draw back of my extra acquainted cumbersome, highly effective laptops has all the time been further weight within the bag, however the MateBook X Professional (2024) received’t weigh you down on the every day commute.

Flip open the lid, and also you’re handled to an excellent 14.2-inch, 3,120 x 2,080 “versatile” OLED touchscreen show, full with rounded bezels that complement the outer aesthetics. A sub-1 delta-E for sRGB, Adobe RGB, and P3 colour gamuts means you’re effectively coated for correct media modifying, paired with full-screen brightness that caps out at 600 nits. As I mentioned, I’m used to engaged on a much bigger display screen, however the 3:2 side ratio simply suits two tall home windows side-by-side with ample room for content material with out fixed scrolling.

Housed within the higher bezel, you’ll discover a compact 1080p webcam (HUAWEI’s privateness nostril-cams within the keyboard have been mercifully deserted) and Home windows Good day face recognition. Talking of biometrics, a fingerprint scanner is discretely tucked into the facility button, do you have to want to safe your machine that manner. Test marks on all of the core options to date, however what about efficiency? Can a light-weight laptop computer duke it out with one of the best?

Powered by an Intel Core Extremely 9 185H in a 40W TDP configuration, this ultrabook is constructed for work. With 16 cores totaling 22 threads, the chip flies by way of traditional CPU workload checks; see our GeekBench 6 and Cinebench outcomes beneath, and fingers in fairly first rate graphics efficiency, too. On-chip Intel Arc graphics nonetheless don’t compete with a devoted GPU, however efficiency makes it satisfactory for mild gaming and older titles. There’s additionally AI acceleration onboard Intel’s Extremely collection, which hurries up some workloads in purposes like Audacity, DaVinci Resolve, Zoom, and others. Total, you’re taking a look at wonderful efficiency right here that outstrips even Apple’s extremely regarded M3 chip, making this a significantly potent ultrabook. Nonetheless, the bigger M3 Professional and Extremely push forward, and you may nonetheless discover further efficiency from bigger Intel/AMD laptops, however few will want extra.

Sadly, all that energy means this isn’t a fanless design (we’re nonetheless ready for highly effective Home windows on Arm {hardware}). The twin HUAWEI Shark Fin followers (now with 22% higher airflow) kick out a good bit of noise (and warmth) when operating the chip at full tilt. Fortunately, the laptop computer is whisper quiet in additional humdrum duties.

This ultrabook doesn’t pull any punches on the subject of connectivity. Although the body is just too skinny for HDMI and three.5mm connectors, HUAWEI crams three USB-C ports into the MateBook X Professional (2024) and a discrete privateness digicam change. The 2 USB-C ports on the left are Thunderbolt 4 compliant, offering 40Gbps bidirectional bandwidth for knowledge, 10 Gigabit ethernet networking, as much as 90W charging, and supporting a number of exterior shows.

If this laptop computer has a weak spot, it’s the 70Wh battery. It’s solidly sized for a sub-15-inch ultrabook, and can take you thru practically a full day of principally workplace use on a full cost. I averaged round six hours of display screen time for lighter duties, dropping to 5 hours with photograph modifying thrown in. Satisfactory, however you’d battle to spend a full workday away from a plug, even for those who can obtain HUAWEI’s 6.5-hour declare. It’s not precisely nice when making use of the processor’s further energy for heavier duties like picture modifying.

Once you ultimately run out of juice, charging is speedy with the bundled HUAWEI 90W plug. This plug takes the laptop computer from empty to full in below two hours, which is fairly nippy. The MateBook X Professional (2024) additionally helps USB Energy Supply for wider charger compatibility. Nonetheless, it received’t cost as rapidly, capping out at 65W.

HUAWEI imbues the MateBook X Professional (2024) with acquainted software program enhancements on prime of the standard Home windows 11 expertise. These embody Tremendous Machine for mirroring and lengthening shows, in addition to sharing recordsdata rapidly between different HUAWEI units. SuperHub acts as short-term clipboard storage to maneuver a number of property between apps, whereas AI Search helps discover recordsdata, apps, and net pages quicker than the built-in Home windows search. AI noise cancelation and voice enhancement are additionally included.

I can’t say I discovered a lot further utility from these extras, as they’re all an additional click on away from the core OS alternate options, and I don’t use different HUAWEI units in my every day workflows (the affect of the HUAWEI-US ban remains to be a serious subject). Nonetheless, these extra embedded into HUAWEI’s ecosystem would possibly discover these far more useful.

• HUAWEI MateBook X Professional (16GB/1TB): €1,999
• HUAWEI MateBook X Professional (32GB/2TB): £2,099.99

The MateBook X Professional doesn’t are available in an inexpensive configuration; it’s 16GB/1TB in Europe or 32GB/2TB solely within the UK, and that’s your lot. As such, the laptop computer’s worth is available in on the larger finish of the market, and provided that HUAWEI definitely isn’t reinventing the ultrabook wheel, there are a number of highly effective slimline laptops additionally price your time.

For instance, the Apple MacBook Air ($1249 at Amazon) is a giant identify on this house, and for the hefty sum HUAWEI is asking, you possibly can deal with your self to the 16GB/2TB 13-inch mannequin powered by Apple’s potent M3 chipset. Apple’s M3 surpasses the newest Intel chip in single-core CPU workloads, however Intel’s sheer core depend provides HUAWEI’s laptop computer a bonus for closely threaded workloads that make up the overwhelming majority of recent purposes. However Apple’s M3 Air has astonishingly good battery life, not like the X Professional.

If you wish to spend prime greenback on a laptop computer of an analogous measurement however with added gaming efficiency, the Dell XPS 14 ($1699 at Dell) may be configured into an analogous ballpark worth. The Intel Extremely 7 155H CPU isn’t far off the 185H, however Dell helps you to commerce up the graphics to a GeForce RTX 4050 for a reasonably succesful little gaming GPU. You’ll must spend further to seize greater than 512GB storage, 16GB RAM, and an FHD+ panel, although, so HUAWEI’s laptop computer isn’t outright awful worth for cash for those who’re on the lookout for a work-focused mannequin.

As we’ve mentioned in lots of earlier years, HUAWEI’s MateBook X collection {hardware} is prime of the road, however the asking worth might be just a few hundred kilos too excessive to make it a significantly aggressive selection.