Over past couple of months, Huawei had already launched quite a number of noteworthy products in the local market including it’s first HarmonyOS-powered Huawei GT Watch 3 Pro (Review) premium smartwatch as well as the Huawei FreeBuds 4 (Review).
Despite that, it’s well-evidenced that the company isn’t planning to take a break from it’s launch frenzy any time soon, especially with the recent launch of the new Huawei MateView monitor – the first Huawei-branded flagship monitor in the local market.
On paper, the Huawei MateView monitor certainly has all the bells and whistles of a high-end monitor. However, does it really lives up to it’s S$998 (US$742) asking price when it comes to real life usage? Let’s find out in our Huawei MateView review!
An Ultra-Sleek & Elegant Design
Sporting a full-metallic chassis, the new Huawei MateView is a luxurious 28.2” monitor that looks ultra-sleek and elegant at all angles. In fact, it’s unsophisticated, minimalist design allows the Huawei MateView monitor to fit in any home deco or office settings.
Unlike it’s smartphones which normally give you plenty of color options to pick from, the Huawei MateView is available in a single Mystic Silver colorway that comes with a smooth matte finish that goes well with it’s overall design.
However, what I find most interesting from it’s design is actually the adjustable tilt angle of the hinge that sits between the screen and the stand, as well as the adjustable height of the screen (from it’s base).
This is perfect in ergonomics point of view as it allows you to get yourself the most comfortable viewing angle which helps reduce discomfort after prolong usage. It’s definitely a standout feature which sets the Huawei MateView apart from other mainstream monitors.
Most importantly, it’s robust metal-clad chassis should also offers you peace of mind whenever it takes a knock. In fact, this may happens quite frequently if you’re constantly shifting it around your home like what I did (from my work room to bed room back and forth), to take advantage of it’s portability and multipurpose-nature.
A Much-Appreciated 3:2 Aspect Ratio
Huawei’s MateBook series laptops were among the early adopters of 3:2 screen aspect ratio and we’d already seen it’s advantages in our past Huawei MateBook X Pro 2021 and Huawei MateBook 14 2020 AMD reviews.
With so many positive feedbacks regarding the taller aspect ratio on the MateBook series laptops, there’s absolutely no reason for Huawei not to adopt a similar aspect ratio on the Huawei MateView.
For those who may not know, having a tall aspect ratio basically means that the screen has extra vertical space to put up more contents as compared to those with a wider aspect ratio like 16:9 or 4:3.
This reduces the amount of scrolling required to go through the contents and is therefore great for those who love to indulge in reading e-book on the monitor.
Likewise, it’s 3:2 aspect ratio also enables you to fully fit two A4 sized documents side-by-side, which comes really handy whenever you need to cross reference any data or information from any of the documents.
Sharp & Vibrant Display
Moving on to the most important aspect of the monitor, the Huawei MateView sports a super sharp 3840 x 2560 pixels screen resolution which probably has more pixel counts than most of the high-end smartphones.
The benefits of such pixel-dense monitor is real, and is evidenced by the rich and crisp details you get when browsing photos or streaming you favorite movies on it’s 28.2” screen.
Sharpness aside, the Huawei MateView monitor also scores well in terms of color accuracy courtesy of it’s impressive 98% DCI-P3 color gamut coverage with Delta E level of less than 2.
As such, color reproduction on the display appears really close to what we see in real life. This not only makes photos and movies seem more realistic, but also allows you to see exactly what game developers intended you to see.
Similarly, it’s accurate color reproduction can be crucial for those who intend to use the monitor for lots of photo or video editing work that rely heavily on color accuracy in order to ensure consistencies between different monitors.
Blessed with a 500 nits peak brightness, the Huawei MateView is able to get reasonably bright indoor and shouldn’t encounter any issue even when the sun is shining directly through the window.
Innovative Smart Bar
Contrary to most monitors that rely on buttons along the bottom-bezel of the screen for various display controls, the Huawei replace that with it’s own innovative Smart Bar which does exactly the same functionalities with the help of a simplified set of gesture controls.
For instance, you can simply swipe to the left (with one finger) to decrease it’s volume, or to the right if you want to increase. Likewise, gesture controls are also used for navigational purposes within it’s control panel.
No doubt, it’s Smart Bar feature is probably one of the most interesting aspect of the Huawei MateView which makes it’s overall design looks more appealing and futuristic.
However, I did realized that the surface of the Smart Bar does get slightly warm after several hours of usage. That being said, it doesn’t really affects me since I have a wireless mouse connected to it all the time.
An Enjoyable Audio Experience
While the monitor’s stand may appear slim on the outside, but it’s actually incorporated with a powerful, forward-facing dual-speaker system which offers loud enough volume that can easily fill a room.
In terms of sound quality, I would say that it’s pretty impressive for a built-in speaker, and you can well rely on it for your nightly binge watching or gaming sessions.
This means there’s probably no need to get any external speaker aboard, since the built-in ones are more than good enough for a decent audio experience for both work and entertainment.
A Host Of Connectivity Options
Whether you’re talking about wired or wireless connections, the Huawei MateView got them largely covered. Starting with wired connections, the MateView monitor features a good selection of ports around the back of the stand for HDMI 2.0, Mini DisplayPort 1.2 and USB-C (for 135W charging adapter) connections.
Likewise, along the right edge of the stand, there’s also various ports like a pair of USB 3.0 Type-A ports, USB-C port (for display, data transfer and charging), as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack which allows you to connect your favorite wired headphone to the monitor.
On the wireless side of things, you can also connect your laptop (for screen projection), or other peripherals like wireless mouse and keyboard to the Huawei MateView via the typical Miracast and Bluetooth connections respectively.
And for those who happens to be a Huawei smartphone and tablet user, the Huawei MateView will bring along some exclusive features like OneHop Projection which allows you to project your Huawei smartphone or tablet in desktop mode by simply tapping the device against the base of the stand.
While this feature is sadly available only for Huawei smartphones running on newer version of EMUI or HarmonyOS, but it’s nonetheless a really nice and intuitive feature that helps a great deal with productivity especially when you have a mouse and keyboard connected to the Huawei MateView as well.
Verdict
The new Huawei MateView certainly lives up to it’s name as a premium, high-end monitor which not only doubles up your productivity, but also provides an immersive and enjoyable entertainment experience thanks to it’s vibrant and sharp display.
On top of that, the Huawei MateView also gives Huawei smartphone, tablet and laptop users extra reasons to pick it over it’s competitors with exclusive features like ”OneHop Projection” and ”Huawei Share OneHop” that help to further accelerate workflow.
For those who’re interested, the Huawei MateView is available for purchase in Singapore at S$998 via Huawei Official Store (Shopee).
