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Huawei MateBook X Pro brings borderless display to laptops

March 01, 2018 12:10 IST

The ultrabook is a successor to the MateBook X.

Rediff.com's Ashish Narsale flips it open for a closer look.

Richard Yu, CEO, Huawei Consumer Business Group, presents the new MateBook X Pro laptop at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
Photograph: Albert Gea/Reuters.

 

At first glance Huwaei's the design of the MateBook X Pro -- launched at the Mobile World Congress -- looks familiar, but when you flip it open the ultrabook reveals a different story.

Since last year, we have been witnessing the technological marvel of full view display or almost bezel less display in mobile phones and televisions; now the bug has bitten the laptop world too and Huawei is the first off the block.

The Huawei MateBook X Pro flaunts an almost borderless display, at a gorgeous 91 per cent screen-to-body ratio.

MateBook X Pro is a 13.9-inch ultrabook with a display resolution of 3000 x 2000 and 260 PPI (Pixels per inch).

The display supports contrast ratio of 1500:1 and maximum brightness up to 450 nits -- rated good -- according to industry standards. The display also supports touch and is protected with Corning Gorilla Glass coated anti-fingerprint.

USPs
  • Almost bezel less display
  • Touch screen
  • Spill proof and backlit keyboard
  • Weight 1.33 Kg
  • 14.6 mm in thickness
  • Audio output with Dolby Atmos
  • Long battery life

The ultrabook runs on 8th Generation Intel Core processor and you can choose between i7-8550U or the i5-8250U.

You can choose between LDDDR3 RAM of 8GB or 16 GB and for storage 256GB or 512GB SSD can be chosen.

One can opt for the onboard Intel UHD Graphics 620 or discrete NVIDIA GeForce MX150 with 2 GB GDDR5 RAM graphics card.

Huawei packs in a Lithium polymer 57.4 Wh battery that should last for a day on moderate usage.

All of these are packed into a 14.6 mm thick device that weights about 1.33 kg.

 

Photograph: Courtesy huawei.com

The audio output is backed by four speakers embedded tactically in the base panel to produce surround sound, supported by Dolby ATMOS sound system.

The ultrabook also has four inbuilt microphones to support Microsoft's multi voice translator.

Huawei has made an innovation to place its 1MP webcam, as there is no place on the bezel less display.

The webcam is placed between the keys on the keyboard panel, which resembles a key and pops open when clicked, a nice tweak for someone who wants to hide the camera.

The keyboard is spill proof to protect the innards from accidental liquid splashes and backlit to type in dark conditions.

The power button combines fingerprint sensor for biometric login.

For connectivity the ultrabook includes ports like one USB 3.0, two USB C-type, of which one supports Thunderbolt 3.

All the hardware interacts using Windows 10 Home edition which comes preinstalled.

The ultrabook then -- with its immersive screen, metallic body, great audio and hardware specs -- is a good package at a great price.

Price

All the models listed below come with discrete NVIDIA GeForce MX150 graphics card

  • i5 with 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD: € 1,499 (approximately Rs 1,19,542)
  • i5 with 8GB RAM and 512GB SSD: € 1,699 (approximately Rs 1,35,491)
  • i7 16Gb RAM and 512GB SSD: € 1,899 (approximately Rs 1,51,441)
Ashish Narsale