Review Huawei MateBook 13: An attractive ultraportable laptop

Now Huawei has successfully created the best copy of the MacBook Pro - MateBook X Pro. Apple has finally updated its entry-level laptop with a sharp, high-resolution screen, but the MateBook 13 starts at $ 200 less and offers much faster performance. , thanks to the Whiskey Lake U-series processor. Huawei's keyboard is also nicer than Apple's.

The biggest downside, however, lies in the battery life of the MateBook 13. But if speed is your main priority, it's still worth considering this laptop.

Specifications of Huawei MateBook 13

Bluetooth Bluetooth 5.0 Brand Huawei CPU Intel Core i7-8565U Screen size 13 Graphics Card Intel UHD Graphics 620, Nvidia GeForce MX 150 SSD hard drive capacity 512GB SSD type NVMe SSD type Highest resolution available 2160 x 1440 Native resolution 2560 x 1440 Windows 10 Operating system Port (excluding USB) USB Type-C RAM 8GB Size 286 x 211 x 14.9mm Number of USB Ports 2 Weight 1.3kg WiFi 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac

Design

MateBook 13

Like Huawei's MateBook X Pro, the MateBook 13 looks a lot like a MacBook - with a minimalist design. The article tested the Space Gray version of MateBook 13, with elegant colors.

The screen-to-body ratio of the MateBook's frame is also superior to that of the MacBook Air. The MateBook 13 has a slightly thicker bezel than the MateBook X Pro, but that's because its webcam is stored on the top bezel.

Gate

The MateBook 13 has 2 USB Type-C ports. However, both of these Type-C ports are not Thunderbolt 3, the super high-speed version of Type-C that allows for dual 4K display connections.

The MateBook 13 has 2 USB Type-C ports

The MacBook Air has 2 Thunderbolt 3 ports, while the MateBook X Pro has a Thunderbolt 3 port and traditional USB 3.0 port, so older devices don't require a dongle.

Inside the power button, you'll find a fingerprint reader for Windows Hello credentials.

Screen

The 13-inch, 2K display in the Huawei MateBook 13 offers good color reproduction, but should be a bit brighter. According to the test colorimeter, the screen of MateBook 13 generates 122% of the sRGB spectrum, which exceeds the average of high-end laptops (117%) and of the XPS 13 (119%), almost equal to the MateBook X Pro (124%). The screen of the MateBook 13 emits up to 318 nits of brightness, which is close to the average (321 nits) and higher than the MacBook Air (234 nits).

13-inch, 2K display in Huawei MateBook 13

The MateBook 13's touch screen accurately tracks and swipes when navigating the desktop and opening Windows menus.

Keyboard and touchpad

Huawei MateBook 13 keyboard is easy to type. The keys of MateBook can move 1mm, higher than the keys in MacBook Air (0.6mm) and by XPS 13.

Huawei MateBook 13 keyboard is easy to type

The touchpad in MateBook 13 provides high accuracy when navigating the desktop. It even keeps up with the doodling speed in MS Paint.

Sound

The Huawei MateBook 13 offers decent volume and the bundled Dolby Atmos app. But if you try adjusting the app's settings for music and movies, you won't see any noticeable difference.

Efficiency

The Huawei MateBook 13 has a very high speed, thanks to the 8th Gen Core i7-8565U processor and 8GB of RAM.

In the Geekbench 4 general performance test, the MateBook 13 achieved a fairly high score of 17,136, surpassing the average of a high-end laptop (13,058), from MateBook X Pro with a Core i7-8550U and 16GB of RAM ( 13,769), MacBook Air with Intel Core i5-8210Y and 8GB of RAM (7,871), as well as XPS 13 with Core i7-8565U processor and 16GB of RAM (14,936).

The 512GB NVMe SSD in MateBook 13 copied 4.7GB of media files in 8 seconds, for a blazing fast 636MBp speed. SSDs in MateBook X Pro (283 MBps) and XPS 13 (565 MBps) are both slower. However, the MacBook Air's 2,066 MBps speed is hard to beat.

The MateBook 13 successfully passed the Excel VLOOKUP test, matching 65,000 names and addresses in 1 minute and 5 seconds, far exceeding the 1 minute and 31 minute average, as well as 1 minute 49 seconds from the MateBook X Pro, 3 minutes. 26 seconds from MacBook Air and 1 minute 10 seconds from XPS 13.

The MateBook took another victory in the Handbrake test, transcoding 4K movies to 1080p in 18 minutes and 30 seconds, lower than the average of high-end laptops 21 minutes 48 seconds and 19 minutes 20 seconds from the XPS 13. The MateBook X Pro takes nearly 10 more minutes (27 minutes 18 seconds) to complete the task, while the MacBook Air needs nearly 20 minutes more than the MateBook 13.

Graphics

The graphics section of MateBook 13 is quite good quality

On the Mark Ice Storm Unlimited 3D graphics test, the combination of integrated Intel UHD Graphics 620 and Nvidia GeForce MX 150 (2GB) GPU achieved a high score of 141,995, surpassing the 88,029 average. The score of 116,359 from MateBook X Pro (Nvidia MX150 with 2GB memory) and 88,473 from XPS 13 (Intel UHD Graphics 620) are both significantly lower.

The MateBook 13 also beats the competition when running the Dirt 3 racing game, at 166 fps, which is much smoother than the 75 fps average, or the MateBook X Pro (117 fps). ), MacBook Air (22 fps) and XPS 13 (88 fps).

Battery life

Unfortunately, the Huawei MateBook 13 has a pretty bad battery life. On the Mag battery test for laptops (surfing the web at 150 nits), the MateBook 13 lasted only for 6 hours and 15 minutes, shorter than the average of 8:38 and less time than the MateBook. X Pro (9:55), MacBook Air (9:32) and XPS 13 (7:50).

Webcam

The 0.9-megapixel webcam in the top border of the MateBook 13 captures selfies like most other built-in laptop cameras, but in general the colors aren't very accurate.

Heat

Huawei MateBook 13 does not overheat when running. After playing 15-minute Full-HD video on this laptop, the heat on the touchpad was 30 ℃ and the keyboard was 32.5 ℃, quite pleasant. But the underside of the machine reaches 36 ℃, which is higher than the comfortable threshold.

Software

The PC Manager tool - the only thing Huawei installed, besides the Dolby app - is a driver download application that also runs useful system diagnostics.

Compared to laptops from other companies, it's a very light preloaded toolkit.

Conclude

The MateBook 13 is an attractive ultraportable laptop with a good keyboard, but the battery life is too short.