Huawei MateBook X Pro review: Undone by its sibling

Note: This review was first published on 28 August 2020.

Huawei’s flagship ultraportable

Confused? Seeing double? Does it look like you have seen this notebook somewhere before? You are probably thinking about the MateBook 13 that I reviewed last in June. This is the MateBook X Pro, which is similar but different in some ways. Let’s find out how they are different.

Same same but different

For a start, the MateBook X Pro is positioned as Huawei’s flagship ultraportable notebook. To fit the billing, it has a larger display, it’s better built, and it’s more powerful. It’s the MateBook 13's bigger and badder sibling.

To quickly get up to speed on the differences between the two, let’s take a look at their specifications and then I’ll walk you through some of the highlights. Thereafter, I’ll talk about some of the other things that are not apparent from the specs sheet.

And also to be clear, I’m referring only to the configurations of the MateBook X Pro and MateBook 13 that are available locally. Configurations may differ around the world, especially in China.

Design and size – There’s no getting around it, the MateBook X Pro and MateBook 13 look almost identical. They even come in nearly identical shades of grey. Both have aluminium bodies but the MateBook X Pro features a unibody construction so there are no breaks in the chassis. The edges of the MateBook X Pro are also bevelled.

Because of its larger display, the MateBook X Pro is larger than the MateBook 13. However, because of its unibody construction, it is oh-so-slightly thinner – 14.6mm vs 14.9mm. As for weight, the MateBook X Pro comes in 1.33kg, which is a mere 30g more than the MateBook 13. Overall, though the MateBook X Pro is a tad larger, the two are very comparable in terms of size and portability.

Display - The MateBook X Pro has a slightly larger 13.9-inch touchscreen display. But like the MateBook 13, the display has a 3:2 aspect ratio. As I said before, I would like to see more ultraportable notebooks adopt this aspect ratio because it has more vertical space which is greatly beneficial for productivity apps and web browsing (just like on the Surface Laptop 3). The resolution is greater too. It’s now 3,000 x 2,000 pixels which gives it a greater pixel density of 260 pixels per inch – 30% greater than the MateBook 13. Huawei also claims that the MateBook X Pro has a greater screen-to-body ratio of 91% against the MateBook 13’s 88%. However, it's a glossy display so reflections and glare can be problematic especially if you are using it outdoors or near windows.

Are the improvements obvious? Unless you have the two side-by-side, I think it’s hard to tell. But the important thing is that the MateBook X Pro has an excellent display. It’s razor-sharp and the colours are vibrant and punchy. It’s also one of the few notebooks that has a display that I feel gets sufficiently bright. In short, it’s easily one of the best displays in an ultraportable notebook today.

Specs – The big difference here is obviously the processor. Though the two have quad-core processors, MateBook X Pro has a faster Core i7-10510U processor whereas the MateBook 13 relies on a slightly less powerful Core i5-10210U processor. The other difference is storage: the MateBook X Pro has a 1TB PCIe SSD, the MateBook 13 has to make do with 512GB. Both have the same 16GB of 2,133MHz LPDDR3 memory and both have discrete graphics in the form of the NVIDIA GeForce MX250 with 2GB of GDDR5 framebuffer.

Ports and connectivity - Like the MateBook 13, the MateBook X Pro also has two USB-C ports but it also has a single USB-A port that supports USB 3.1 Gen 1. The USB-C ports are quite unusual because although Huawei claims it’ll support transfer rates of up to 40Gbps and can be used for charging and video – just like Thunderbolt 3 ports – it isn’t actually designated as a Thunderbolt 3 port. I tried plugging a Thunderbolt 3 external SSD in and I got no response. So even though it might have Thunderbolt 3 specs, it isn’t actually a Thunderbolt 3 port and might have problems working with Thunderbolt accessories. Even so, both USB-C ports support power charging so at least that’s a step up from the MateBook 13.

As for wireless connectivity, the MateBook X Pro supports Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) and Bluetooth 5.0. Yup, like the MateBook 13, support for Wi-Fi 6 is curiously missing. If it’s any consolation, it employs a high-end Intel Wireless-AC 9560 card that supports Wi-Fi 5 speeds of up to 1,733Mbps. And as I mentioned before in the review of the MateBook 13, the lack of Wi-Fi 6 isn’t necessarily a dealbreaker because Wi-Fi 6 routers are still quite pricey and you need most, if not all of your devices to be Wi-Fi 6-compatible to fully maximise and enjoy the benefits of this new wireless standard.

Keyboard, trackpad, and Huawei Share

The keyboard here is similar to the one in the MateBook 13 with well-sized keys and nicely printed legends. However, it feels more tactile to me. Huawei also claims that the keyboard is spill-resistant – obviously I dare not test this. My only gripe is that it feels quite shallow and I would prefer a bit more key travel. One thing to note is that the review unit that I have has an ISO layout – identifiable by the inverted L-shaped return key. But rest assured that units in retail here will have the more familiar ANSI layout with a standard rectangular return key. The power button also doubles up as a fingerprint scanner for quick logins.

One unique thing about the keyboard is the hidden webcam, which hides under a key between F6 and F7. Press it and the webcam springs into place. Admittedly, this is not the most ideal position for a webcam but at least it ensures that the webcam is properly hidden when not in used and can’t be used by hackers for nefarious means. The webcam itself shoots at 720p and it’s decent enough for the occasional web conferencing and web chats. If video quality is of utmost importance to you, you'll probably need a standalone webcam.

The trackpad is excellent. First of all, it’s massive for a notebook of its size. I measure it at 12cm in width and 7.7cm from top to bottom, which makes it a whopping 18% larger than the MateBook 13’s trackpad which is already one of the largest in its class. It’s also a staggering 50% larger than the trackpad of the HP Spectre x360, and 20% larger than the trackpad of the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1. It uses Windows Precisions drivers so it tracks fluidly and accurately.

Play

Like the MateBook 13, the MateBook X Pro also supports Huawei Share which lets you connect your compatible Huawei phone to the notebook so that you can quickly share files, access the Message app, and run apps. In essence, it lets you use a number of critical functions of your Huawei phone on your Huawei notebook. At any rate, it’s a nice bonus feature for owners of this notebook who have compatible Huawei phones.

Performance analysis

To evaluate the performance of the Huawei MateBook X Pro, we will be comparing its performance against the current crop of ultraportable notebooks like Huawei's own MateBook 13, the ASUS ZenBook 14 UX434, Dell XPS 13 2-in-1, and HP Spectre x360. Here are the configurations of the tested notebooks and how they stack up. It will be interesting to see if the thinner chassis of the MateBook X Pro will affect performance in any negative way.

Computing performance was a bit of a mixed bag. On PCMark 10, the MateBook X Pro didn’t manage to post any solid advantage over the MateBook 13. And on Cinebench R20, the MateBook X Pro recorded a slightly higher single-core score but a slightly lower multi-core score. It only posted a distinct advantage on WebXPRT 3, where it managed a score of 229 which was 10% more than the MateBook 13’s 207.

Graphics performance was quite surprising because even though the MateBook X Pro has the GeForce MX250 GPU as the MateBook 13, it was managed significantly lower scores on 3DMark. The MateBook 13 was about 30% faster. In fact, on 3DMark, the MateBook X Pro’s scores were the lowest even against notebooks with Intel’s integrated Iris Plus graphics.

Things were looking better on Tomb Raider. Here, the MateBook X Pro was clearly faster than the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 and HP Spectre x360 which are running on Intel’s integrated Iris Plus graphics. It was also about 26% faster than the Acer Swift 5 which also uses a GeForce MX250 GPU. However, the MateBook X Pro was again outdone by the MateBook 13. Despite the slower Core i5 processor, the MateBook 13 was on average about 20% faster than the MateBook X Pro.

Overall, it’s quite clear that the MateBook 13 is the better performer. Its advantage in graphics-intensive workloads and games is clear. My guess is that the slightly thicker chassis of the MateBook 13 enables it to handle the heat from its CPU and GPU better, therefore allowing its CPU and GPU to run faster for longer. The MateBook X Pro, on the other hand, has better burst performance but that advantage goes away quickly as heat builds up within its thinner chassis and the notebook is forced to throttle. This could explain why, on PCMark 10, it had the best scores on the Express workload and its worst score on the Extended workload.

Battery life

Note: Battery tests were conducted using PCMark 10's battery benchmark with display set to 100% brightness.

Battery life was quite impressive for a thin and light notebook with a high-resolution 3K display. To be fair, the MateBook X Pro’s battery is on the slightly larger side (56Wh) but it still managed 373 minutes or 6 hours and 13 minutes on the Modern Office workload. That’s more than most of its competitors. This is really remarkable considering how sharp the display is and how bright it gets. Also impressive is that it almost lasted two whole hours on the more intensive Gaming workload. Looking at the power consumption figures, we can see that it’s perhaps lower than expected, especially on the Gaming workload. Here, it was only consuming around 30W of power, which is lesser than its rivals and lends credence to my theory that the MateBook X Pro’s performance is heavily throttled.

Unfortunately, despite the long recorded battery life, the MateBook X Pro’s Portability Index score was average. This has to do with its overall dimensions and weight. Its 13.9-inch display means it footprint is a little larger and at 1.3kg, it’s one of the heavier ultraportable notebooks. Nevertheless, I still think it’s a very portable machine.

Undone by its sibling

The MateBook X Pro has a lot going for it. It’s well-built, the display is superb, connectivity options aren’t bad, it has an interesting webcam implementation, and it has a massive and fluid trackpad. Insofar as premium ultraportable notebooks are concerned, it’s a very solid option that will give contenders from rivals like Dell and HP a run for their money.

That said, it’s hard to recommend the MateBook X Pro when the MateBook 13 exists. Sure, the MateBook 13 doesn’t have a unibody construction, but it’s not as if it’s shoddily made. And while the MateBook 13’s display isn’t quite as sharp, it is still sharper than all of its Full-HD competitors. Furthermore, the MateBook 13 performs a lot better than the MateBook X Pro and it is just as thin and light. But most of all, the MateBook 13 is significantly more affordable. S$1,598 vs. S$2,698 – that’s S$1,100 less! Let's not forget that you could get a convertible premium notebook at that price point from competitors.

Ultimately, I can’t think of any compelling reason to pick the MateBook X Pro over the MateBook 13. I said in that I consider it to be one of the standout notebooks of the year and I feel even more confident in saying that after my evaluation of the MateBook X Pro. The MateBook X Pro might be Huawei’s flagship and it does certain things really well, but it’s irrefutable that the MateBook 13 offers greater value and is arguably the better choice for most people.

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