Huawei MateBook X Pro

Because I am often on the road for photo and video work and I preferred to take my heavy Pro edit laptop with me less often and my 'compact lightweight for on the road Surface Pro 4' no longer really met my video work requirements (more and more video work in 4K video format, which soon reached the limit of flexible working) ..I decided to look for something in the format weight of an ultrabook. Besides the fact that it had to be compact and light, there were a number of factors that were very important, namely a high-resolution screen, with great color fidelity and contrast/brightness. Good processing power of the processor and graphics chip, and sufficient working memory to make photo and video editing all run smoothly. But also battery life, and the right connection options, as well as fast storage space, keyboard and touchpad and good sound were big points that counted. And all within my budget… Quite a few options came by, which were quickly dropped because of 'important' negatives, or that they were unfortunately far out of budget. Until I saw the Huawei Matebook X Pro! Huawei, a name I previously only knew from beautiful phones, but didn't think about it at all when it came to laptops/ultrabooks. All specifications soon seemed to tick my 'must-have' factors, but to gain more clarity about the quality and performance of this 'unknown' ultrabook, I first did some extensive research online. In the end, everything was confirmed in the many reviews… This became my ultrabook editing workhorse on the go! I've had it in my possession for a few weeks now, and after taking it on the road several times, I can confirm that it has been more than worth the purchase! It's really a relief not to have to carry around my big edit laptop and still be able to do everything. The 1st plus point: The speed and manpower in this small size.. From photo editing to editing 4k (Sony XAVC-S) video material in Premiere Pro. It amazes me how well and smoothly it goes on this little gem of an ultrabook! Although the 4k video editing in Premiere Pro is not as fast as on my Pro machine, compared to my old Surface Pro 4 with Intel Iris Graphics chip, the Huawei is certainly a big leap forward. Not only the quad-core processor, but also the MX150 make editing with 4k material very well possible. Where on the SP4 I had to turn down the preview resolution considerably and often had to pre-render to make it run smoothly, now I can just have multiple effects layers and edit smoothly at half resolution. Also photo editing in Photoshop or Lightroom works wonderfully, especially working with layers in Photoshop is a pleasure, because it just doesn't falter like it did on the SP4. The 2nd plus point, (but the first thing you notice when you turn it on) THE screen… WOW! Beautiful colourfast, Perfectly calibrated (better even than my Pro laptop), very contrasting, beautiful black levels, beautiful high resolution ... and blindingly bright! It is really fantastic to edit photos and videos on it, or to view multimedia on it. And the fact that this screen also has 10 finger Touch support is a wonderful plus, which comes in handy especially during photo editing. In addition, the 3:2 aspect ratio is also very pleasant for browsing or working with word processors and other screen-filling programs. The other, certainly no small pluses are Battery life: The battery life is top notch. Without worries, I can just edit a lot of photos while there is no mains power nearby, and even with video editing on battery it lasts a lot longer than I expected. Keyboard and touch pad: Typing on the (spindle-proof!) keyboard works very well with enough 'key travel' and the large touchpad also works nicely (feels almost as nice and registers my touches almost as well as on my Macbook Pro.) Connections: The connections also work fine, especially the USB-C Thunderbolt 3, normal audio jack for headphones, but also the older USB-A, to which I can connect older devices such as mice, USB sticks, etc. without a dongle. (the free included Dock is also welcome) Audio/(Dolby Atmos) Speakers: The speakers sound really fantastic! Watching a movie in between, or putting on some music makes this ultrabook in combination with the Dolby Atmos speakers a true multimedia pleasure… The sound is Loud, Full, ..and very nicely spatial. Build quality and design; Sturdy and solid, no plastic. Design, (especially the very thin bezel around the screen) very nice. Yes, it seems a lot has been copied from Apple, (but you won't hear me complaining!) Are there any downsides? For me the only negatives are: Upgrading your SSD is possible, but a bit more difficult than I would like. And there is no Micro-SD reader in it. --since I use the 'normal' SD-Card format with my cameras anyway, it's not a big problem, because that doesn't fit in an ultrabook anyway. As a solution I have a nice little fast USB-C Dock where I have almost all the necessary connections, including an SD and Micro-SD card reader, of which the Micro-SD card is standard full with a super fast 400GB card as 'fixed Storage expansion on the go. And what about the 'weird' webcam hidden in the keyboard? ..I never use it, so no downside for me. (but users differ) Summarized: I am more than happy to purchase the Huawei Matebook X Pro to replace it as my go-to on the go photo-video editing laptop. It's a fantastic, powerful, and beautifully lightweight device, which has resulted in me doing even more editing work on the go than I did when I had my heavy Pro edit laptop with me.

Works very fast and nice. Battery life doesn't seem to be great, but only recently in use

The Huawei Matebook X Pro is simply a fantastic ultrabook. Chic, solid, pleasant to work on with a nice keyboard, touchpad and a beautiful, perfectly adjusted screen. Enough battery to get through the days and enough power for most users of these types of devices. Not cheap, but for the extra price you really get some concrete things back, especially as far as the screen is concerned, you will still give up if you look at slightly cheaper options with comparable core specs. With our colorimeter, we see that the screen is simply top adjusted ex factory. We'd like to make it clear that it's not for serious gaming and that the webcam is no more than a funny trick, but I can't remember how often we use the webcam ourselves. All the nicer that it disappears neatly without using ugly stickers.