The screen’s an inch bigger, but the 2022 model is lighter overall (The Independent)
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Huawei’s MateBook range is home to some of the best, and most aggressively priced, laptops on the market.
Roughly following the Apple’s MacBook pro series in terms of design and aesthetic, it manages to run rings around similarly priced laptops when it comes to specifications and price.
We loved the 2021 version of the MateBook X Pro. It offered speedy performance for tackling serious professional workloads and a striking new emerald green finish.
The 2022 version, however, comes in a new semi-matte metallic coating and fixes one of our biggest grievances with the laptop – that wonkily placed webcam – while upgrading the internals with a 12th generation Intel CPU. That’s a big performance boost over last year’s model.
We’ve been testing the 2022 update to the Huawei MateBook X Pro to bring you our verdict. Read on for our full review.
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Huawei Matebook X Pro: £1,699, Currys.co.uk
The new semi-matte metallic finish is a bit of a fingerprint magnet
(Steve Hogarty / The Independent)
- CPU: Intel Core i7 1260P
- Graphics: Intel Iris Xe
- RAM: 16GB DDR4
- Screen: 14.2in, 3120p x 2080p
- Storage: 1TB SSD
- Pros: Bright, rich display, sleek design, powerful performance
- Cons: Expensive, average battery life
The Huawei MateBook X Pro is one of the best Windows laptops on the market. At a pricey £1,699 it feels premium down to the very last penny, and is the closest thing to a Windows version of a Macbook you’ll find, but the all-round performance and lusciously contrasty display proves that it’s more than just a simple copycat notebook.
The 2022 Huawei MateBook X Pro pro is a serious contender to Apple’s dominance in the ultralight laptop category, and in terms of performance-to-price it’s a better laptop than some similar offerings from Microsoft and Dell.
Design
The chassis of the 2022 Huawei MateBook X Pro isn’t too different from last year’s version. It’s still a beautifully constructed, magazine-thin, sleek machine with minimal fuss and branding bar an Intel Evo sticker, disguised venting and a shallow, compact keyboard that’s a joy to type on.
This year, Huawei has opted for a matte finish, which should appeal to middle-of-the-road users who weren’t fans of the shimmering beetle-shell shine of the emerald green 2021 model.
The 3.1k display is physically larger than last year’s model
(Steve Hogarty / The Independent)
Like last year, the laptop has been engineered in such a way that it can be opened elegantly, with a single finger. The 2022 model is slightly bigger, yet slightly lighter, than the previous edition. The touchpad also now extends to the bottom edge of the laptop, but you’d need to have them side-by-side to spot the difference.
Display and audio
Open the Huawei MateBook X Pro and you’ll see why this laptop remains one of our top-rated. The 14.2in display runs at a 3120 x 2080 resolution and at a smooth 90Hz refresh rate, which gives movement on-screen a fluid and realistic feel. It’s also very bright, without losing detail in darker parts of the screen, making it a great laptop for entertainment, as well as for office environments and working in daylight, when dimmer screens can look washed out and pale.
The 3:2 screen ratio gives the Huawei MateBook X Pro a screen that’s roughly the same size and shape as a sheet of A4 paper. That’s taller than the increasingly outdated 16:9 widescreen display (the same you’ve got on your television) and is better for more practical things like web browsing and document editing.
We were impressed by the 2021 model’s four front-firing speakers, which delivered impressive sound for a thin laptop. The 2022 version improves on this slightly with an extra pair of speakers, which manage to produce bassy, full sound without too much distortion. They’re particularly clear in the vocal range, which is good news for video conferencing and Zoom calls.
Webcam
The biggest mark against the Huawei MateBook X Pro last year was its ridiculously placed webcam, which lived under a pop-up key on the keyboard, meaning colleagues were treated to an unflattering view directly up your nostrils during calls. The 2022 version fixes this, placing the webcam above the screen where it belongs, and giving you a less alien-appearance in meetings.
The pop-up keyboard webcam is no more. You can now log into Windows using your face
(Steve Hogarty / The Independent)
Huawei managed this without increasing the size of the screen’s border noticeably, but the quality of the camera still isn’t great. The 720p resolution looks grainy and unfocused in poor lighting conditions, which for the UK is five months of the year, but the audio quality is clear and crisp, and gets zhuzhed up by Huawei’s fancy processing effects.
Performance
The biggest changes this year can be found under the hood. The configuration of the Huawei Matebook X Pro we reviewed uses the latest 12th generation Intel Core i7 1260P processor, a power-efficient chip designed for ultrathin portables, supported by 16GB of memory. This is more than enough juice to handle everyday tasks, as well as juggling memory-hogging Chrome tabs and streaming entertainment.
It’s also plenty of performance headroom for more demanding jobs, such as the kind of creative work that demands lots of memory. So photo, video and audio editing with Adobe Creative Suite is well within this lightweight laptop’s wheelhouse.
However, the energy-sipping CPU and integrated graphics chip aren’t a great combination for serious gaming – this is still a productivity-focused device – but they’ll happily handle less graphically intensive games. The odd game of Football Manager or Minecraft won’t faze this laptop, and when it does start working hard, the cooling system is generally quiet and unobtrusive.
The chiclet keyboard is comfortable to type on for long periods
(Steve Hogarty / The Independent)
The MateBook X Pro offers a limited selection of ports, with two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C connections on one side and another pair of USB-C connections on the right. That’s enough to fast charge the laptop and connect a monitor at the same time, though the removal of the older USB-A port means you’ll need an extra dongle to plug in some accessories. Huawei includes a USB-A adaptor in the box, but you’ll have to shell out extra if you need an HDMI connection or an SD card reader.
Battery life
The bright, high-resolution display and 90Hz refresh rate means the Huawei MateBook X Pro can chew through battery like it’s at an all-you-can-eat battery buffet. But keep the refresh rate set to the default 60Hz and be mindful of screen brightness and you’ll get a good seven or eight hours of use between charges.
At 1.26kg, the MateBook X Pro is as portable as ultrathin’s get
(Huawei)
That’s fine if you tend to use your laptop near a plug socket, but if you need a truly portable machine that can confidently last a trans-Atlantic flight without shutting down over Greenland, something like the new Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 or the non-OLED configuration of the Dell XPS 15 is a better option in this price bracket.
The verdict: Huawei MateBook X Pro 2022
The 2022 update to the Huawei MateBook X Pro is an excellent Windows laptop with an impressively sharp, 90Hz display and top-end performance. Aside from refreshing the internals around the 12th generation Intel chip, Huawei’s fixed our biggest gripe with last year’s design by repositioning the webcam to the top of the screen.
The stripped back selection of ports is disappointing though, and makes connecting external devices like dedicated webcams and microphones a bit of a faff. The laptop does at least come with a dongle for HDMI, VGA and USB-A type connections.
At £1,699 the MateBook X Pro doesn’t come cheap, but in our opinion it’s a better looking laptop than the smaller Dell XPS 13, which costs £50 less. It also has a superior display to an identically specced Surface Laptop 5, also priced at £1,699. You could spend less, but you’d struggle to find an ultralight Windows 11 laptop that’s this refined.
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