Huawei MateBook X Professional 2022 evaluate

Introduction

The MateBook X Professional has all the time been Huawei’s premiere laptop computer – extra succesful than the fanless MateBook X, far sleeker the extra {powerful} 16-inchers in Huawei’s vary, and higher than most different laptops in the marketplace.

It began out as Huawei’s MacBook Air competitor however has developed into a category of its personal and has been nearly unmatched in it, pound for pound.

Let’s start with unboxing and comparisons with the 2021. The MateBook X Professional 2022 Core-i7 comes with a 90W charger, a USB cable, and a USB-C to HDMI dongle. The brick is adaptable, providing completely different outputs starting from 10W, via 27W, 36W, 75W, and 90W.

The Core-i5 mannequin ships with a 65W charger. Each are Huawei Tremendous Cost licensed however will provide most PD quick charging units with the right mixture of amps and volts.

The MateBook X Professional 2022 is the largest replace to the lineup since its inception in 2017. This yr’s mannequin retains the 3:2 side show, however at 14.2-inch, making it the primary within the collection to maneuver previous the 13.9-inch diagonal, and the panel refreshes quicker at 90Hz. Additionally, the show is rated brighter at 500 nits.

There are two USB-C ports on either side – that is yet another port than the outgoing mannequin, and the touchpad has grown, now edging over the rim of the keyboard deck. There’s additionally a webcam within the correct place – above the show, not hidden beneath a secret button on the keyboard.

The brand new laptop computer boasts a six-speaker setup, two greater than its predecessor. There’s additionally a barely greater battery with quicker charging.

The ultimate huge bounce over the MateBook X 2021 is all the way down to Intel’s Twelfth-gen processors. The Core i7-1260P is a generational leap over the Core i7-1165G7 we had in final yr’s mannequin.

Now that we have coated how the MateBook X Professional 2022 improves on its predecessor, let’s take a deeper dive into its design and construct high quality.

Physique, show, sound, keyboard, and touchpad

The Huawei MateBook X Professional 2022 is available in White, Ink Blue, and this decidedly purple House Grey shade now we have for evaluate. Sadly the stunning Emerald Inexperienced is not on the cabinets this yr.

The laptop computer weighs 1.38kg and is 310mm large, 221mm deep, and 15.6mm thick.

It has, for essentially the most half, retained the full-sized keyboard of its predecessor. As earlier than, the arrow keys are bunched collectively.

Key journey is nice at 1.5mm and typing is pleasant on this mix of chicklet model and good measurement, because it was final yr.

The keyboard continues to be flanked by speaker grilles and there is a spherical energy button-slash-fingerprint reader within the higher proper nook.

There is a small Huawei plaque beneath the keyboard that is new on this yr’s mannequin. Additionally new is the larger touchpad. Huawei calls it the Free Contact touchpad and it is stable state, which means that any clicks you’re feeling are vibrations from a motor beneath the glass.

You may tune the vibration energy in addition to the sensitivity of the touchpad. There are intuitive gestures you are able to do as effectively – taking a screenshot by knocking on the touchpad twice together with your knuckles, adjusting the brightness and quantity with swipes on both fringe of the touchpad, and shutting an app by urgent within the high proper nook. Study these and you will pace up your workflow immensely.

The touchpad spills over to the sting of the body of the MateBook X Professional 2022, creating a stunning infinity pool impact. It would not hinder opening and shutting, which may be executed with a single finger. The 4 microphones are dealing with you, beneath the touchpad.

The six-speaker array on the MateBook X Professional 2022 sounds elegant. These are, by far, the perfect laptop computer audio system we have had at HQ, exterior of the MacBook Professional 14’s. And it is nearer than you’d assume.

We measured round 88dB at arm’s size however the sound high quality is what’s spectacular. Mids are pronounced and crisp however there’s additionally some stable, quality-feeling rumble from music, that we have been unprepared for from a laptop computer.

Huawei Sound means that you can optimize the standard via three settings – Sensible Optimization which balances element and bass, the self-explanatory Extremely-bass, and Sound Turbo, which simulates spacial audio.

The MateBook X Professional 2022 would not compromise on biometric choices – you get a fingerprint scanner inside the ability button and infrared face scanning above the show. Each are glorious for various causes – the fingerprint scanner helps caching so it is going to get up the laptop computer and log you in with a single faucet, whereas the Home windows Hiya digital camera is among the quickest we have used.

The digital camera itself has 720p decision and helps Huawei’s suite of digital backgrounds. You get to select between Workplace, Caffe, Assembly room amongst different and it’s also possible to apply a Magnificence filter. There’s auto-centering, which leverages the large discipline of view to maintain you within the heart.

Home windows Hiya choices

There are a complete of 5 ports on the Huawei MateBook X Professional 2022 – on the left, a 3.5mm audio jack and two USB-C’s; and two extra USB-C’s on the precise. The 2 USB’s on the left are 40Gbps Thunderbolt 4, whereas these on the precise are non-Thunderbolt compliant, however all 4 ports assist charging, knowledge switch, in addition to show connectivity.

What’s handy is which you can cost the laptop computer from any of the 4 USB-C ports on the quickest Tremendous Cost pace.

All USB-C on either side, no USB-A

The show is the centerpiece and the perfect function of the MateBook X Professional 2022. It is barely greater (14.2-inch vs 13.9-inch), and better decision (3,120×2,080px, 264ppi vs 3,000×2,000px, 260ppi) than its predecessor, and it refreshes quicker at 90Hz (however it runs at 60Hz by default).

The panel is rated at 1.07 billion colours with a 1500:1 distinction. It helps the DCI-P3 and sRGB shade gamuts and is VESA DisplayHDR 400 licensed to ship HDR content material at as much as 400 nits. It is also a 10-point touchscreen.

This yr’s show is rated at 500 nits, up from 450 nits on the earlier mannequin. However whereas final yr’s mannequin outdid its score by 30 nits at 480, the MateBook X Professional 2022 scored a whopping 580 nits on the heart. It received all the way down to as little as 500 nits within the corners, which is not good uniformity however you are unlikely to note. Suffice it to say that is one very vivid show.

The one factor letting this display down is the higher-than-average reflectivity. You may see any kind of mild supply mirrored on the glass to the purpose the place it will possibly change into a hindrance. It diminishes the intense panel’s efficiency open air however is a matter indoors as effectively.

Huawei permits panel settings for its most-advanced shows and you may select whether or not the display is within the extra vibrant DCI-P3 or sRGB. Deciding on sRGB tones down the show to 8-bit and lowers the distinction and saturation, in comparison with the 10-bit DCI-P3. DCI-P3 has a 26% wider shade gamut compared.

We love this function as a result of it makes it a complete lot simpler to decide on the precise setting on your wants. You may select sRGB for picture modifying and DCI-P3 for video modifying, or watching a film.

Efficiency and battery life

Huawei’s PC Supervisor app is an ideal companion. It encompasses the entire particular settings and options like Huawei Sound, the digital camera settings, and Huawei’s Free Contact touchpad, however it additionally routinely updates the drivers and retains the machine working easily.

It is also the place you select a efficiency profile, with a alternative of Balanced and Efficiency.

This yr’s Intel processors have adopted the large.LITTLE structure of most smartphone chips, and Apple’s ARM-based M1 and M2 processors. You’ve two clusters of cores – efficiency cores and environment friendly cores.

The Huawei MateBook X Professional 2022 comes with a alternative of the Intel Core i5-1240P and the Core i7-1260P. The Core i7-1260P has 4 efficiency cores, 8 effectivity cores, and 16 threads. That is a giant bounce from final yr’s Core i7-1165G7, which had 4 cores and eight threads. The i7-1260P additionally has a a lot bigger L3 cache – 18MP vs the 12MP of the Eleventh-gen mannequin.

The GPU is similar Intel Iris Xe G7, which might deal with mild gaming and picture modifying. There is no discrete GPU possibility on the MateBook X Professional 2022.

In comparison with its predecessor, the Huawei MateBook X Professional 2022 scored 18% higher in single-core and 49% higher in multi-core in Geekbench. It is a terrific instance of the brand new structure’s potential and its efficiency leap over Eleventh-gen.

In Cinebench R23, the single-core rating is 10% higher than the Eleventh-gen Core i7 and 30% higher in multi-core. The multi-core and multi-thread efficiency bump can be most felt in apps like Photoshop and video modifying suite DaVinci Resolve, the place computing is extra essential than graphics {hardware}.

Cinebench R23

One letdown of the MateBook X Professional 2022 is the SSD. It is a 512GB SK Hynix PCIe 3.0 SSD that scored respectable numbers however is a technology previous for the MateBook X Professional 2022’s motherboard. You can get pleasure from practically double the speeds should you swap the preloaded SSD with a PCIe 4.0-class unit, just like the one we had in our Honor MagicBook 14 2022 unit.

The Huawei MateBook X Professional 2022’s thermal efficiency is on par with that of its predecessor – at peak load, we measured 42°C on the heart of the keyboard – not one thing you will discover beneath regular use.

When plugged in and within the Balanced setting, the MateBook X Professional 2022 will ramp up for a short stint at round 3.0Ghz after which throttle all the way down to 1.7GHz the place it stays for so long as you want it to. The laptop computer was heat within the heart and beneath the show however the touchpad and keyboard deck have been cool. The followers have been nearly inaudible in an workplace setting.

When plugged in and Efficiency mode issues are slightly completely different. After the identical peak the laptop computer was sustaining the upper 1.9GHz-2.0GHz speeds with a slight enhance in fan noise and heat. That is the mode you must allow should you want most efficiency.

The i7-1260P could not maintain the identical degree of efficiency when the laptop computer was unplugged. It dropped all the way down to 1.4GHz with the occasional spike as much as 1.7GHz. The upside is that on this situation, the followers are a lot quieter and the laptop computer by no means reached 40°C.

Huawei has tuned the MateBook X Professional 2022 to be a refined workplace laptop computer – a noticeable detriment to the potential of its Twelfth-gen Intel processor. Nonetheless, you possibly can nonetheless unlock some affordable efficiency while you plug in and allow Efficiency mode (Fn+P or via the PC Supervisor app).

The Huawei MateBook X Professional 2022 comes with a 60Wh battery, barely greater than its predecessor’s 56Wh. Nonetheless, it scored decrease in our steady looking check – 6:00 hours of steady looking at 100% display brightness and eight:30 hours at 50% display brightness. In comparison with the 2021 mannequin’s 8 hours at 100% brightness and 12:30 hours at 50% brightness. The older laptop computer might rating higher attributable to a mix of the dimmer show and less-powerful processor.

The MateBook X Professional 2022 achieved 5:30 hours of steady YouTube streaming at 50% brightness and 50% quantity – good, however not the perfect on this class.

Wrap-up

The Huawei MateBook X Professional 2022 16GB/1TB prices €2,199, CNY 10,999, which is about the identical as an Apple MacBook Air M2 16GB/1TB (€2,189), Dell XPS 13 Plus 16GB/1TB (€2,200), cheaper than the 16GB/1TB Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen 10 (€2,600), and costlier than the 16GB/1TB Asus Zenbook 14X OLED (2022) (€1,799) – all costs legitimate on the time of writing.

These are among the many greatest laptops on this class however there are different, AMD-based ones as effectively. You will discover a less expensive gadget should you’re prepared to have a look at older fashions with Intel’s Eleventh-gen or AMD’s 5000 collection processors. Huawei’s personal MateBook X Professional 2021 is wickedly-priced at €1,099 in the mean time.

Final yr’s MateBook X Professional 2021 stood taller than its competitors on the shoulders of its glorious display and unmatched design and construct high quality. It was nearly unimaginable to match it for the value. This yr the competitors has caught on a bit – an increasing number of laptops sport the sort of svelte design and blistering display brightness because the MateBook X Professional.

All of this results in the query – is the MateBook X Professional 2022 a worthy successor to the good lineup? And our reply is sure, completely. It is a particular laptop computer from each angle. It has a really vivid, crisp, and seamless show, nice keyboard, excellent touchpad, glorious specs and ports, and good battery life. You’ll completely be joyful proudly owning one.

However then comes the tougher query – is the MateBook X Professional 2022 a terrific deal? We would say no. It certianly is not €1,100 higher than its predecessor. It is usually how factor work with newest cutting-edge expertise, is not it? However whereas shares final we would get the excellent 1-year-old mannequin and go on a trip with the remainder of the money. Yolo!