Huawei MateBook 16 Review

The Huawei MateBook 16 is described by Huawei as a “Creative” laptop computer in a skinny & mild aluminum chassis that appears elegant in a boardroom or any customer-facing exercise.

It could be very potent for some sorts of Creative purposes reminiscent of mild Photoshoping and excels at multimedia and leisure actions. In this assessment, we’ll present you its strengths and weaknesses in a extremely aggressive market.

Note: the Ubergizmo definition of a Creative laptop computer is one which’s able to profiting from heavy graphics duties, reminiscent of video modifying and compression. Graphics processors extremely speed up this.

Specifications highlights& configurations

As normal, Huawei’s configuration choices are easy. The principal variation lies within the CPU choice, the place you possibly can choose an AMD Ryzen 5 5600H or the extra highly effective AMD Ryzen 7 5800H CPU (like our take a look at unit). The 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, and show are an identical to all MateBook 16.

The draw back of this simplicity is that Huawei won’t fulfill niches the place customers may need 32/64GB of RAM or 1/2TB of storage. I’ll guess that Huawei’s goal person profile is the one who needs a basic 15.6-16 inch skinny & mild productiveness pc, and for that, these choices are acceptable.

Design

The Huawei MateBook 16 makes use of a variant of the confirmed MateBook design language, as seen just lately within the MateBook X Pro, which we beforehand reviewed. It appears to be like nice and might be the poster little one of company boardroom-friendly designs.

The chassis is fabricated from CNC aluminum which makes it further inflexible whereas having a skinny profile (17.8mm) however on the expense of weight (4.38 Lbs / 1.99 Kg) when in comparison with computer systems just like the Lenovo X1 Extreme Gen4 (3.99 Lbs) or the MacBook Pro 16 (3.5 Lbs).

“THE POSTER CHILD OF CORPORATE BOARDROOM-FRIENDLY DESIGNS”

The aluminum floor remedy feels good to the contact and is sort of immune to fingerprint smudges, making the laptop computer look clear always. At the second, “Space Grey” is the one coloration accessible.

Keyboard and trackpad

The keyboard appears an identical to the MateBook X Pro when it comes to width and key sizes, however the important thing journey appears barely longer, and a few customers may admire that. The keyboard has agreeable tactile suggestions that’s agency and bouncy in the correct quantities.

The outsized glass trackpad appears to be like spectacular, is ultra-smooth, and is good for big scrolling motions or advanced 3-4 finger Windows gestures for optimum productiveness. There are not any bodily trackpad buttons, however you should utilize a two-fingers press to emulate the Right mouse button in case you don’t like going to the lower-right nook for a one-finger click on.

I discover the inputs to be very snug and match for intensive typing, however I needed that the keyboard’s backlight was brighter.

Ports and connectivity

Due to its measurement, the MateBook 16 has a greater port choice than its 14-inch cousin. You can discover two full-size USB ports on the correct facet. There are two USB-C (+energy), a full-size HDMI, and the three.5mm audio connector on the left facet.

The lack of a full-size SD card reader signifies that Creative customers are usually not the first goal, despite the fact that this pc is quick with CPU-heavy inventive apps like Cinebench.

The USB-C ports don’t help Thunderbolt as it’s an Intel expertise not accessible on this AMD-powered platform. That stated, until you intend to make use of this pc as a desktop substitute (with a cool laptop computer docking station), it shouldn’t be a sensible challenge.

Wi-Fi 6 (2×2 MIMO) and BT 5.1 ensures near-universal connectivity, however understand that some rivals now function Wi-Fi 6E, which is extra future-proof in case you improve your router within the subsequent few years.

On a 1000 Mbps symmetrical connection, we reached real-world Wi-Fi speeds of 205/434 Mbps in downloads and uploads, respectively.

Sound high quality

This 16-inch chassis leaves ample room for the stereo audio system positioned on both facet of the keyboard. The two audio system are highly effective and output excellent-quality audio, one thing that Huawei has labored laborious to incorporate and protect in all their dearer laptop computer designs.

Watching films or listening to music could be very nice, and you may flip the laptop computer into an impromptu cellular speaker for a small out of doors gathering if you could.

Display

The 16-inch 3:2 side ratio show is outstanding as a result of it gives almost ~9 inches of vertical usable house as a substitute of the ~7 inches for a basic 15.6-inch (16:9) laptop computer show. The further floor makes any pc exercise extra “productive.” I like this, however I additionally want there was multi-touch help.

The 2520×1680 decision shouldn’t be spectacular, however I discover it ample for office-type work, multimedia leisure, and optimum battery life, which is the first purpose. There’s no 4K choice.

The 360 NITs of brightness we measured is common as there are laptops able to reaching as excessive as 600 NITs. Since this display has a shiny floor, you’ll must orient the show to keep away from as a lot glare as doable, particularly outside. If you usually work in that sort of surroundings, it’s one thing to consider.

“THE IMAGE QUALITY IS EXCELLENT WITH HIGH COLOR GAMUT AND COLOR ACCURACY”

That stated, the picture high quality is great with excessive coloration gamut and coloration accuracy. Therefore, the show additionally works for net improvement, mild Photoshop, and different actions the place you want color-accurate visible content material.

The digicam is hidden in a keyboard key between the F6 and F7 keys as normal with Huawei. Hiding the digicam permits for an exquisite high bezel, however the lens location isn’t very best for making you look good throughout video calls.

Camera location apart, the picture high quality is common and nowhere pretty much as good as Huawei telephones’ selfie cameras, however it’s fairly normal for PCs, sadly.

Huawei ecosystem

As you understand, Huawei additionally makes smartphones and tablets. The firm has created an ecosystem with Huawei Share, a platform to attach various kinds of Huawei gadgets. Connecting laptop computer and pill is completed over BT and is each simple and safe.

With it, you possibly can shortly switch recordsdata between Huawei cellular gadgets and the laptop computer or remote-control the cellphone to work together with mobile-only apps with out having to succeed in for the handset on a regular basis.

It’s additionally doable to reflect or prolong the Windows desktop onto a Huawei pill, thus turning it into an exterior monitor. I like this concept as a result of the pill you carry throughout a flight turns into your monitor within the resort, making it much more useful (and price carrying).

The display’s content material is shared over Wi-Fi, so there’s a bit little bit of lag however I discover it to be acceptable for workplace use. If you personal each gadgets, the Huawei MatePad Pro 12.6 makes for a wonderful show and with the E-Pen you could possibly even create a really fascinating Photoshop sketching setup.

I’d recommend utilizing the pill’s USB-C enter for the HDMI sign over a wired connection sooner or later (along with the Wi-Fi connection).

Finally, it’s additionally doable to make use of a Huawei cellphone to document the pc’s display for demo functions. Overall, Huawei share might help hold prospects inside the identical ecosystem.

Huawei MateBook 16 Performance

Our MateBook 16’s AMD Ryzen 7 5800H (35W) reveals comparable CPU efficiency to the Intel Core i7-11800H discovered in lots of high-end laptops reminiscent of the brand new ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen4. Benchmarks reminiscent of Geekbench 5 or Cinebench present this clearly.

For the worth you pay, the Huawei MateBook 16 has excellent CPU efficiency and our Geekbench/Price chart demonstrates this very properly. That’s exactly why AMD CPUs have been all the fashion just lately, however Intel is preventing again, at the very least on Desktops.

Below, the PCMark 10 “Creative” sub-score tends to be CPU (+Disk) heavy, which is why the MateBook 16 rating is akin to the ACER Predator Triton 300 SE which has a lot quicker graphics, as demonstrated by 3DMark.

“FOR THE PRICE YOU PAY, THE HUAWEI MATEBOOK 16 HAS VERY GOOD CPU PERFORMANCE”

The CPU pace, paired with very respectable SSD efficiency, yields a excessive PCMark rating that confirms this laptop computer’s standing as a wonderful productiveness laptop computer.

However, a scarcity of discrete GPU makes GPU-intensive duties (like gaming or GPU video modifying) much less performant than computer systems outfitted with an RTX 3050 Ti (and above). It’s not an issue for many individuals who don’t want such graphics pace, however different “Creative” laptops have higher GPUs in case you use graphics-heavy apps.

Huawei MateBook 16 Battery Life

With an 84 Wh battery capability, the MateBook 16 takes benefit of its measurement to pack loads of power reserves that may be replenished with the 135W USB-C energy provide.

In our workplace productiveness checks, the laptop computer scored 16 hours of battery life, one of many highest endurance we’ve seen to this point. The chart additionally reveals the battery life distinction with laptops designed to realize larger peak graphics efficiency, like workstations or gaming laptops.

The battery cost pace is okay as you’ll get about 27Wh price of power in 30mn of charging. Some laptops can do significantly better, however this can be a typical charging pace.

Conclusion

The Huawei MateBook 16 (official page) is a cultured pc that might be a wonderful alternative for workplace productiveness and light-weight creativity customers who need a big show. I like the good industrial design and construct high quality. The laptop computer could be very agreeable to make use of, even in case you work many hours with it day by day.

From a specs/worth standpoint, there are potent rivals such because the Dell Inspiron 16, Lenovo’s Legion 5i, or the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE. But on this fashion of CNC-aluminum chassis, the MacBook 16 may very well be an alternate for these prepared to change over to macOS and pay way more.

“HAVING EXCELLENT CPU PERFORMANCE AND LONG BATTERY LIFE IS A RARE COMBO”

The Huawei MateBook 16 retails for 1199 Euros (~$1385), almost half the price of the most affordable MacBook 16 ($2499). That’s a large distinction in worth for the use case we’ve described.

This laptop computer may very well be very fascinating for Creative customers who largely require excessive CPU efficiency (Cinebench) as a result of the Ryzen 7 5800H CPU can compete with Intel’s Core i7-11800H at a considerably cheaper price. Having glorious CPU efficiency and lengthy battery life is a uncommon combo.

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