Huawei MateBook X Pro (2019): Still Great, But Not Quite As Good a Deal

What is it?

A premium 14-inch laptop

Price

Starts at 1,600 euros (around $1,800)

Like

Gorgeous buildExcellent screenUpdated specs

Don't Like

Huawei's OneHop sharing is neat, but somewhat limitedMore expensive than last year's modelAnnoying SSD partition

Huawei is back with a refreshed version of its MateBook X Pro, sporting several notable upgrades that make the company's flagship laptop an even better package. However, before you jump on the bandwagon, there are a few things you should know.

The 2019 MateBook X Pro's aluminum chassis is essentially unchanged from last year, aside from the new block letter logo on the lid. The main differences lie under the hood, with the Core i5-8265U CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and the newly released Nvidia MX 250 GPU. The i7 model doubles the memory and storage to 16GB and 1TB, respectively, while still retaining the MX 250 graphics.

While the spec bump is appreciated, Huawei has also increased the MateBook X Pro's starting price quite a bit, making it feel more like a fair to good deal rather than the preposterously sick bargain that was last year's model. The Core i5 model will probably end up costing around $1,600, with the i7 coming in between $2,000 and $2,200.

It's hard to fault Huawei for this change, though. Previously, the company was probably losing money—or at best breaking even—on every MateBook X Pro it sold just to ensure its top-end laptop wouldn't get crowded out by its competition.

Besides faster CPUs, the 2019 X Pro also comes with faster 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0. The new MX 250 GPU makes editing photos and videos just a bit more enjoyable, allowing the X Pro to better handle large files that sometimes bogged down last year's machine.

As expected on a laptop this expensive, the X Pro comes with backlit keys. The front USB-C port now supports Thunderbolt 3. Systems like the MateBook X Pro make me feel like if laptop makers are going to put fingerprint sensors on a notebook, they might as well build the sensor into the power button. The USB-A port on the right means you don't really need to carry a dongle around to connect older peripherals.

Annoyingly, Huawei still partitions the 2019 X Pro's SSD into a small 80GB drive for Windows 10 and assorted software, with the rest of the space going to a larger partition for extra storage. You can still combine those two partitions into one big drive with a little effort, but it's a silly factory setting.

The final big upgrade is Huawei Share 3.0, which lets you transfer pictures, videos, and other files between the laptop and a phone just by tapping the handset on the X Pro's deck. This works quite well, but it requires you to be fully invested in Huawei's ecosystem, which is a non-starter for anyone in the States, where Huawei has pulled back from selling its phones.

The 2019 X Pro also comes with all the great features that made its debut so impressive. Its 13.9-inch 3,000 x 2,000 screen is incredibly bright and vibrant, its battery life is still strong with a time of 10:36 (though that is a 30-minute dip from last year's time), and its keyboard remains miles better than anything available on a current MacBook. The pop-up webcam isn't gone either, though it's not the best for video calls.

Overall, because of the price increase, I'm slightly less enthusiastic about the 2019 MateBook X Pro compared to systems like the new Dell XPS 13. The XPS 13 has its webcam in the right place, it's a practically perfect 13-inch notebook that's even more portable than Huawei's offering, and with configs as low as $900 or $1,200, the XPS 13 has greater flexibility for people trying to save a couple hundred bucks. That pushes the X Pro into a still respectable second place, but for people who want something with a bigger screen, more graphics power, and the convenience of a built-in USB-A port, the 2019 MateBook X Pro holds it down as a solid, if somewhat pricey alternative.

README

Aside from the revamped badge on its lid, the MateBook X Pro's chassis is essentially unchanged.The big upgrades come on the inside ranging from refreshed CPUs, optional MX 250 GPU, more storage, a Thunderbolt 3 port, and faster Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.Huawei Share only works with late-model Huawei phones, and if you want to use it, don't even think of peeling off that NFC sticker.Its 13.9-inch 3000 x 2000 screen still looks ridiculously good.