In the past, Huawei was best-known for their top-of-the-line “P” series and “Mate” series flagship phones that were well-accredited for their photography prowess and mind-blowing performance.
While Huawei’s smartphone launches inevitably slowed down due to the ongoing trade restrictions, the company isn’t planning to bow down to any challenges and is instead working doubly hard to make its presence in the consumer electronic space stronger than ever.
So as the company temporarily closed the chapter on smartphones, it opened up a whole new chapter on laptops that are highly-capable of competing against other top dogs in the market like ASUS and Acer.
Quite similar to their smartphone line, Huawei’s laptops come in several different series that are specially tailored toward different group of users – so whether you’re a student or a business professional, there will be at least one model that suits your need perfectly.
Among the most recent laptop launched in Singapore, we have the all-new Huawei Matebook X Pro 2021 which we’ll be checking out in this review. Unlike the Huawei Matebook 14 2020 AMD which we reviewed recently, the Matebook X Pro 2021 is a top-of-the-line Ultrabook targeted towards the premium high-end segment.
Priced at S$2,598, the Huawei Matebook X Pro 2021 surely isn’t the cheapest model within the segment. So, does it have what it takes to convince you over the additional premium? Let’s find out in this review!
Minimalist Design, Solid Build
If you ask me one thing that I really love about Huawei laptops, it’ll definitely be their design. Huawei is probably one of the few laptop manufacturer in the market that keep their design language consistent across the entire laptop series as well as its next-generation’s models.
While some may claim it to be boring or uncreative, we can’t deny it’s actually a success formula that worked not just for Huawei, but also other major companies like Apple. Just look at the Apple’s MacBook, didn’t they look similar over the years albeit the slimmer chassis, thinner bezels, revamped keyboard layout and new colorways?
As such, we get the usual sleek and minimalist design on the new Huawei Matebook X Pro 2021 that’s totally free of any intricate design elements that only gamers appreciate. Though I was a huge fan of the Space Grey colorway that’s usually seen among the Matebook laptops, but the Emerald Green paintjob looks really gorgeous on the Huawei Matebook X Pro 2021. It kind of reminds me of the Spruce Green Huawei Freelace Pro (Review) that I really love.
Boasting an overall thickness of 14.6mm, the Huawei Matebook X Pro 2021 is really slim and is just around 5mm thicker than its Huawei Mate 40 Pro (Review) flagship phone. Along with its amicable weight of 1.33kg, the laptop is ultra-portable and is able to fit easily into a medium-sized backpack.
It’s metal-clad chassis provides the laptop with extra durability, and feels premium all around. It certainly offers an excellent build quality that you would expect from a laptop of its price.
Underneath the laptop cover, you’ll find a 13.9” touch display that offers an unique 3:2 aspect ratio rather than the typical 16:9 aspect ratio. Although it might takes you several days to get use to the new aspect ratio, but you’ll soon appreciate the extra vertical screen estate that put more contents and reduces the amount of scrolling required to browse through an article or a page.
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Thanks to it’s slim bezels enveloping the touch display, it’s able to boast an impressive 91% screen-to-body ratio which almost put it on par with the ASUS Zenbook 14 Ultra (Review). Furthermore, it also brings you a sharp 3000 x 2000 screen resolution with support for 100% sRGB colour gamut that never fail to deliver an immersive graphical experience with popping colors and wide dynamic range.
As you may have noticed, the Huawei Matebook X Pro 2021 doesn’t have a webcam housed along the top bezel of the screen. Instead, the webcam is hidden within a spring-loaded button which sits between the “F6 and “F7” keys. It’s a unique feature that’s kind of exclusive to Huawei’s Matebook laptops. As most of us will agree, it’s not exactly an ideal location to house a webcam as it usually requires you to do some adjustment to either your laptop or sitting position in order to fit your face amicably into the frame.
Amicable Keyboard Layout
Next up, the Huawei Matebook X Pro 2021 features a comfortable keyboard layout that offers delectable amount of key space between each individual key. Most importantly, it also provides you a right amount of key travel and tactile feedback that give you an unexplainable satisfactory when typing.
The robust, metallic construction of its keyboard deck also ensures that it doesn’t flex under you fingertip, which is another piece of good news for heavy-typers. That’s an issue that’s usually faced by slimmer and lighter laptops, but certainly not something you will experience on this laptop.
Probably due to the taller aspect ratio of the laptop, the Mate X Pro 2021 also gives you ample of space below the keyboard to rest your palm on when typing. Seems like this aspect ratio do have another “hidden” ergonomic benefit too!
Better Performance Than Ever
Under the hood, the Huawei Matebook X Pro 2021 is powered by Intel’s 11th Gen i7-1165G7 Processor – the same processor that’s also used in the ASUS ZenBook 14 Ultralight. It’s a 10nm processor that’s based a quad-core architecture that can reach a maximum turbo frequency of 4.70GHz.
On the graphics side, it’s handled by Intel’s Iris Xe Graphics that’s capable of supporting up to 1080P with 60 FPS in select game titles which is actually quite an impressive feat for an integrated graphics.
This hefty setup pans out well in real life performance. Indeed, multi-tasking and video editing (1080p @ 60fps) felt like a breeze on the Huawei Mate X Pro 2021 without any notable stutters.
Similarly, the the laptop is also equipped with a new dual-fan cooling system at the helm which might get audible occasionally (especially when it’s charging), but works well in keeping the laptop cool to ensure a smooth and consistent performance output.
Other than that, you also get 16GB worth of blazing-fast LPDDR4x RAM clocked at 4266 MHz, alongside 1TB SSD storage in the memory department that’s probably more than sufficient for the majority of us.
Decent Battery Life Too!
On an average usage, it’s 56Wh battery gives me slightly more than 9 hours of screen time including three to four hours of video playback, with the rest of the time spent editing graphics and publishing articles at 50% screen brightness.
It doesn’t have the longest-lasting battery life within the segment, but is certainly good enough for a day of productivity usage without the need to plug in a charger. Therefore, you can confidently take the Matebook X Pro 2021 outside your house or office without bringing along any charger.
Speaking of charger, it’s accompanying 65W pocket charger is capable of charging a flat battery to 100% in just around 90 minutes. Interestingly, the same charger can also be used to charge select Huawei smartphone and tablet models that support USB-C port.
Additional Perks For Huawei Smartphone Users
As usual, Huawei smartphone users will also be able to take advantage of the Huawei Share/ Multi-screen collaboration feature by simply tapping your phone on the touchpad.
Once connected, your phone screen will be mirrored to the Huawei MateBook X Pro 2021 which will open you to all sort of possibilities including controlling your phone apps or seamlessly transfer files or pictures from your laptop to your phone.
This is definitely an intuitive feature that’s unique to Huawei laptops and set them apart from other models. However, do note that this feature only works for Huawei smartphones running on EMUI 10 and above. Likewise, some of the more complex tasks like running multiple phone tasks using your MateBook may require the latest EMUI 11 software as well.
For more information about the supported models and requirements, you may visit Huawei’s official support page which gives you every single bit of details.
Verdict
At S$2,598, the Huawei Matebook X Pro 2021 falls into the typical price range of a premium Ultrabook. However, it definitely has what it takes to justify such exorbitant price with it’s premium build quality, ultra-immersive touch display, latest Intel’s Tiger Lake processor, as well as a whole load of extra features for Huawei smartphone users.
It’s yet another neat and tidy flagship offering that gives you the same enjoyable and satisfying experience that you normally enjoy when using the company’s renowned “P” and “Mate” series smartphones. There’s really nothing much you can nitpick on this piece of machine aside from perhaps the placement of its webcam.
For those who’re interested, the Huawei Matebook X Pro 2021 can be purchased via Huawei’s official store on both Shopee and Lazada, or any of the Huawei Experience Stores island-wide.
