The Huawei MateBook X Pro 2021 now uses 11th-generation Intel processors. It’s a minor upgrade over the previous model, but it’s still an upgrade. The Huawei MateBook X Pro is better than the MateBook 13 thanks to a better processor, a larger display, an additional USB-A port, higher brightness and longer battery life.
Design
The design of the Huawei MateBook X Pro looks elegant. Build quality is excellent thanks to the all-metal body. This laptop looks and feels premium. The weight is 1.33 kg. The design reminds me of the Macbook Air, but there are some visual differences such as the size of the bezels, and the rounded corners. It even has the same tapered body as the Macbook Air.
The bezels are thin and uniform at the top and sides, and thicker at the bottom. The display is LTPS LCD. The advantage is colour accuracy, high resolution and low energy consumption. Colour
The colours look great out of the box. I measured colour support for 100% sRGB, 71% NTSC, 77% AdobeRGB and 77% P3. This is a reasonably colour-accurate display. I measured a maximum brightness of 326 nits, which is really bright. Viewing angles are great with minimal colour shift or brightness drop when viewed from extreme angles.
Brightness
To turn off automatic brightness, open the Intel Graphics Command Center from the Windows Start menu, go to System-Power-Display Power Savings, and turn off Enhanced Power Savings. This is not the usual auto-brightness setting in Windows display settings. The 3000 x 2000 resolution on the 14-inch display means the image is sharp without noticeable pixelation.
Productivity
The 3:2 aspect ratio is great for productivity. This aspect ratio gives you more vertical space and allows you to see more content. You may see multiple lines when typing, browsing web pages, coding, or creating spreadsheets. You see 10% more lines compared to a 16:10 screen and 20% more lines compared to a 16:9 screen. You can work longer without scrolling as often.
When editing videos, see more of the timeline or a larger viewer. You see more thumbnails when editing photos. The chiclet keyboard has a good layout.
Finger Print Sensor
The fingerprint sensor is built into the power button located at the top right. Fingerprint unlocking is faster and more reliable than face unlocking. The touchpad is large with good click response and unlike most touchpads, you can even go all the way up. The keys have minimal key travel but still offer good feedback when typing. This is a keyboard that lets you type faster.
Webcam
The webcam is hidden under the button between F6 and F7. The location of the webcam means it points up towards your nose during the teleconference.
Speakers
This laptop is said to have 4 speakers. Two are shooting down and placed near the corners. It may look like there are speaker grills next to the keyboard. Anyway, the sound quality is loud and clear without feeling like I’m talking to you but not looking at you.
USB Port
There are two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports on the left and one USB-A on the right. I wish they included an SD card slot.
Performance
Everything on the laptop is fast. Read and write speeds with NVMe SSDs are 3.4GB/s and 3GB/s. Booting Windows and rebooting is fast. Loading and saving large files is fast. 16GB of RAM is great for multitasking and also ensures snappy performance. Switching between applications is fast.
