Huawei MateBook 13

Published on 10 Apr 2019 3 mins reading time Categories: Laptops

Huawei’s MateBook X and MateBook X Pro are some of the best looking laptops on the market, but they each came with a few compromises - and hefty price tags. That’s all the more reason to to be excited about the MateBook 13, which brings the same style at a friendlier price.

Announced at CES 2019, the MateBook 13 looks an awful lot like the X and X Pro - with a few compromises, to be fair - but shaves a few hundred off the price, turning it into a competitive rival to the likes of the MacBook Air or the new Dell XPS 13 and potentially one of the best laptops of 2019. Price and availability

The MateBook 13 is out now, and comes in two models - with specs varying slightly between regions. In the UK, the base model is £899 (available from Amazon or Currys) and comes with a Core i5 processor and 256GB of storage. The higher end model - the one we were given to review - costs £1099 (from Amazon, Currys, Very, Argos, or AO) and includes a faster i7 processor and double the storage, 512GB. Both models have the same 8GB RAM and integrated Intel graphics.

Specs in the US are almost the same. The base model is the same - a Core i5 processor and 256GB storage, though it comes in a silver finish - and will cost you $999 (from Amazon, B&H, or Newegg), but the pricier version is a little different. In addition to the i7 processor and 512GB storage, the US model includes an Nvidia MX150 graphics card for $1299 (from Amazon, B&H, or Newegg).

Considering that the MacBook Air starts from £1,199/$1,199 for a model with less storage than Huawei’s, while the XPS 13 starts from £999/$899 for an i3 processor, that pricing is already seriously competitive, and anyone looking for a compact, portable laptop around that price point should at least be considering the MateBook 13.

Apple-ish aesthetics

If you’ve seen any of Huawei’s recent laptops then the MateBook 13 will appear immediately familiar. There’s the same grey finish (with silver on the cheaper American model), with minimal bezels, an expansive touchpad, and all-metal construction.

It will probably also appear familiar if you’ve seen Apple’s latest MacBook and MacBook Air, and it’d be hard not to admit that Huawei’s designers owe a debt to Apple’s. That’s partly what will fuel the inevitable comparisons to the new Air, and the MateBook comes out surprisingly well.

The 13in, 2160 x 1440 touchscreen display is in the same 3:2 aspect ratio Huawei’s favoured for a few years. It’s a squarer, boxier format than you might be used to, which results in a lot of letter-boxing when you watch movies or TV, but leaves you with plenty of vertical screen real estate when you’re working or browsing the web. That makes it ideal as a work device, if less optimal for curling up in bed with Netflix.

The keyboard is pretty lovely, with comfortable key spacing and a really responsive, short action. These are very low-profile keys, which might take a little getting used to for some, but undeniably easy to type on. The trackpad is a bit less appealing - the size is great, but there’s a very slight stickiness to it, with just a bit too much drag for my liking. It feels slightly wrong to me, in a way that’s hard to pin down, and I’d recommend trying to check the laptop out in person if you can to make sure it won’t bother you.