


Huawei MateBook X Pro (2020)

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2020)

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2020) - Huawei MateBook X Pro (2020)

Bottom Line

While it's far from cheap, the upgrades made to Huawei's MateBook X Pro make it a potent Windows 10 ultraportable.

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  • Pros

    • Large screen for an under-3-pound laptop
    • Sleek design
    • Satisfying keyboard
    • Surprisingly powerful
  • Cons

    • Controversial camera placement
    • Steep price tag

The 2020 version of Huawei's MateBook X Pro still looks and feels like the original. Apart from a minor upgrade to its internals, and the option for a new green finish, you'd be hard pressed to find many other differences in this new ultraportable. But when a laptop is this good—its first iteration received our coveted Editors' Choice—why would you want much to change? Our only concern about this solid entry, at least in the U.S. market: Whether it will achieve any kind of widespread availability outside of circuitous side channels remains unclear.

Huawei MateBook X Pro lid



It retains its unconventional 13.9-inch, 3,000-by-2,000-pixel display, but Huawei has shrunk the bezels around the screen to give it more space. Though the aspect ratio means it's short of 4K resolution, having the extra space is handy and simply makes this laptop look better than most others on the market.

Smartphone vendors have continually battled for a high screen-to-body ratio, and it's nice to see that competition come to laptops. The screen is bright and punchy, and although we have not put it through the PCMag Labs for a proper comparison, anecdotally there's little we could find qualms with. It also has touch functionality, which is a neat addition for those who want it.

One of the ways Huawei has managed to keep its screen bezels small is the removal of the webcam, pulling it from the top of the screen to a hidden pop-up button in the keyboard—to much controversy. There are benefits and drawbacks. It's a boom for privacy advocates, as even if your PC picks up some malware that tries to access the camera, all it's going to be able to see is black when the camera is retracted. However, its placement means that you can't use the keyboard easily while the 1-megapixel webcam is on (your fingers get in the way), and the viewing angle remains poor. At a time when everyone is taking Zoom, Skype, or Hangout calls during quarantine, that can be a real hindrance.


The keyboard and trackpad are ergonomic and easy to use—for the most part. The keyboard is well-spaced and well-balanced, and the trackpad underneath it is surprisingly large for such a small laptop. However, its physical switch design means that it's easier to click from the bottom than from the top, in contrast to Apple's MacBook range (and, now, other Windows laptops) that use haptic feedback for a more universal response across the whole pad. This is far from a deal-breaker, though. It's just a matter of which feels more satisfying. 

Huawei MateBook X Pro USB-C ports and headphone jack

One trait that the MateBook X Pro does have over the MacBook Pro, while we're comparing, is its ports. It comes with two USB Type-C ports that can also charge the laptop, as well as a standard USB 3.0 Type-A port and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Apple's most recent laptops unfortunately lack the Type-A connection, making it more difficult to use legacy peripherals without shelling out for dongles.

Huawei MateBook X Pro USB 3.0 port


Specs and Performance

The MateBook X Pro comes in a few varieties. Given that the primary Western market for the MateBook X Pro is Europe and Great Britain, we'll talk about pricing in Euros, pounds, and dollars.




We would like battery life to be a little better, though. While the MateBook X Pro will get eight hours of conventional use and approximately six hours of its best performance, laptop battery life is approaching an entire day's use, although it will take some time before that's the new normal. Huawei as a company has always been a pioneer of battery technology in its smartphones and tablets and popularized wireless charging in that space. While it is not expected, it would be pleasing to see the company take up the challenge in the laptop market too.

On the software side, Windows is as Windows does. It was touch-and-go for a moment, but Huawei's laptops have not seemingly suffered from the U.S.-China trade war and all the expected assets of Microsoft's operating system are here with minimal bloatware. The MateBook X Pro does come with Huawei's "PC Manager" app, which can be used to update drivers, run diagnostics, and keep a log of what has been in your Clipboard or what files you've recently opened. On the whole, it's a nice feature to have in the Windows taskbar, but it's barely noticeable if you decide never to open it.

There is also a particular boon if you're tied into Huawei's ecosystem: Huawei Share. By tapping a compatible smartphone on the right side of the palm rest, next to the trackpad, you can have your phone as a second, windowed screen so you can send text messages, take calls, and drag and drop files from one device to another. While people in Europe (and certainly in the U.S.) are less likely to be buying Huawei smartphones than in China, it's a good feature at its core.



The only real drawback to the MateBook X Pro, apart from its contentious webcam, is its price. When Huawei first launched the laptop, its $1,499 price tag was particularly compelling. Two years later, with minimal upgrades, it's difficult to see where the extra money is going compared to other Windows 10 ultraportables.

Nevertheless, if you can stomach paying a little more, and especially if you are already in the Huawei device world via a smartphone, the Huawei MateBook X Pro is a solid performer. It will be a while until it launches in the U.S. so we can benchmark it properly, but if you're willing to step outside the mainstream it should keep you satisfied.

About Adam Smith