MWC2019: Huawei launches new MateBook X Pro

MWC2019

​At the 2019 Mobile World Congress, Huawei announced an updated version of their MateBook X Pro.

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Just as last year, Huawei has announced a new version of their high-end notebook, the MateBook X Pro. This year’s version is named “MateBook X Pro New”, which can easily lead to confusion, due to having the same name as the 2018 version and sharing an extremely similar design.

Other than that, this new version of the MateBook X Pro is, as previously mentioned, an updated version of the existing one, with a new CPU, a new GPU, and some interesting software tricks.

From the outside, not much has changed. The 2019 version now only has “Huawei” written on it, while the 2018 version had Huawei’s logo. This brings back the design to something similar to the 2017 MateBook X. 

All the rest remains the same, with the same ports, same 91% screen to body ratio, the weight, the 1MP webcam still hidden under its own key and a fingerprint reader on the “On” button. Here’s a look at the specs of the higher-end model:

  • Weight of ~1.33 Kg
  • 14.9mm thick at its thickest point, 7.9 at its thinnest
  • 13.9” in a 13” size, 91% screen to body ratio, 3:2 display ratio with a 3000*2000 pixels resolution, 260 PPI, LTPS tactile panel
    • Covers 100% of sRGB colour gamut
    • 450 nits of brightness
    • 1500:1 contrast ratio
  • Wi-Fi speed of up to 1733 Mbps, compared to 867 Mbps on 2018’s MateBook X Pro (IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, 2.4 GHz 300 Mbps, 5 GHz 1733 Mbps, 2 x 2 MIMO)
  • Thunderbolt 3 port at full speed, twice faster than 2018’s model
    • Up to 40 Gb/s speed
    • Supports external 4K display and graphic cards
  • 8th Generation Intel i7-8565U processor, up to 40% faster than the 7th Generation
  • Nvidia GeForce MX250 2GB GDDR5, instead of MX150 2GB GDDR5, Intel UHD Graphics 620
  • Fingerprint power button 2.0, updated, more secure
  • Quad-speaker design, Dolby Atmos

On the software side, the new MateBooks come with Huawei’s Share 3.0, allowing for a faster transfer of files with a combination of WiFi and Bluetooth.

  • Huawei Share OneHop:

By placing the Huawei phone close to the Huawei Share sticker, it is possible to transfer photos, videos and documents at speeds of up to 30 MB/s

  • By shaking the phone then taping it on the Huawei Share sticker, it is possible to automatically record the screen of the notebook for up to 60 seconds 
  • It is possible to share the clipboard between the PC and the phone, and vice-versa 

Another option lets the user use finger gestures, similar to how it is already done on Huawei’s smartphones with knuckle gestures, to take screenshots of the screen.

As last year, two versions of the MateBook X Pro will be released, one with an i5-8265U and a higher-end one with an i7-8565U:

  • 3K display, tactile
  • i5-8265U/i7-8565U
  • 8GB/16GB RAM DDR4 LPDDR3 at 2133 MHz
  • Nvidia GeForce MX250 2GB GDDR5
  • SSD M.2 NVMe PCIe 512GB/1TB
  • 57.4 Wh battery, for up
    • 12 hours of web browsing
    • 13 hours of video playback
    • 14 hours of regular work
  • 1599€ for i5/1999€ for i7
  • Space Grey/Mystic Silver

The only downside is that it is still a shame to find notebooks with 8GB of RAM in 2019, especially for the price at which they are sold at, but at least internal storage is getting bumped up, from 256GB for the i5 version to 512GB, and from 512GB for the i7 version to an impressive 1TB in an NVMe format.

There are currently no details about when the new notebooks will be launched, although last year we had to wait until summer to get them in most big European countries. Here are some more pictures of the new MateBook X Pro:

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