Huawei Matebook D review - Affordable Windows laptop for students and mobile professionals

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So you're looking for a laptop, but you want a lightweight one, also for work, and perhaps a little gaming, with a good resolution for binge-watching Netflix, and a reasonable price. Boy, that's a lot to ask for but we might have something that fits your description and that's the Huawei Matebook D.

The Matebook D is the lesser variant of the Matebook X Pro and it costs from RM2999. Not bad, huh? But does it perform? Well, I've been hanging out with the laptop for quite some time now and for what its worth, I have to say it's a pretty good laptop, but it has some limitations (you can't have everything, right?). So read on below to find out if this is the one for you.

 

Design - Simple and clean

At first glance, most people (including me) would say that it looks very similar to the Apple Macbook. But is that a bad thing, though? I guess it depends on your perspective. Huawei could have gone for another design but whatever the reason may be, the Matebook D looks neat and tidy. The keyboard is fairly straight forward and doesn't have a hidden webcam like the Matebook X Pro, there's the large touchpad below and there are speaker grills on both sides (and bottom), along with a power button with a built-in fingerprint sensor on the top right.

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Yup, it can lay flat on the surface like that

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Here's the back with the two back speaker grills

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It uses a USB Type-C to charge up, beside it is the HDMI and USB 2.0 Type A port

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On the other side, it's where the 3.5mm headphone jack and the second USB 2.0 Type A port is

Besides the clean look, perhaps the best part of the design is that this is a really lightweight device to bring around and it's perfect for those who are always on-the-go. As a tech journalist, I really like carrying this around since it's only 1.47kg and it can fit into my backpack without much trouble. The screen panel is only 14-inches but it's more than enough to get some work done, so I don't really have many complaints there.

If you're thinking of upgrading the memory or RAM by yourself, you won't be able to do so because the whole laptop body is sealed tightly, so don't even think about opening the body and accept it as it is.

 

Tech specs and features - Huawei Share bonus

Here are the tech specs of the Huawei Matebook D:

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  • 8th Generation Intel Core i5-8250U processor
  • Intel UHD Graphics 620
  • 8 GB LPDDR3 2,133 MHz
  • 256 GB SSD
  • 14-inches IPS Display (1920 x 1080 resolution)
  • Features One Touch power button, USB-C x 1, USB3.0 (Type A) x 1, USB2.0 (Type A) x 1, HDMI x 1, 3.5-mm stereo headset jack, 1MP webcam, speakers x 4
  • Supports IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, 2.4 / 5 GHz 2 x 2 MIMO, Bluetooth 4.1
  • Lithium polymer battery with 57.4 Wh capacity (local video playback: approximately 12 hours)
  • Windows 10 Home OS

Using the latest Windows 10 Home OS, there isn't actually much to talk about in terms of features. Like all laptops with the exception of Apple Macbooks, the Matebook D uses the standard procedure of having everything Windows-related. However, there are two things that are worth mentioning - the One-Touch power button and Huawei's own PC Manager feature.

Let's start with the One-Touch button first, it's not a new feature that Huawei introduced as it has already appeared on other laptops before. The "One-Touch" does not mean pressing the power button just once to turn on the laptop, but rather it functions as a fingerprint scanner as well. In case you have never used it before, it basically helps you to log into your account faster than typing out the password on the keyboard. In case of an emergency, this is a convenient tool for sure to log in. It may not be as fast as opening the laptop without a password, but then again, why would you leave your laptop unprotected in the first place?

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The One-Touch power button can be easily spotted nearby the backlit keyboard and speaker grill on the right

Onto the PC Manager, this is Huawei's exclusive own app that monitors My PC, Hardware Check, Manage Drivers, My Services and My Phone. With this program, you can actually scan if your laptop is "healthy" and update your drivers as well which is pretty neat, but the most important one is My Phone because it lets you sync with your Huawei smartphone with Huawei Share.

Huawei Share is the equivalent of Apple Airdrop and this is a great addition for Huawei smartphone users, but you will have to connect your Huawei smartphone with PC Manager first before you can use Huawei Share seamlessly. When you open up PC Manager, just click at My Phone and connect it with your Huawei smartphone, then follow the instructions. After connecting the two, you can share your photos, videos and music files effortlessly without having to rely on your USB Type-C cable.

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Connect your Huawei smartphone to the PC Manager first for Huawei Share

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Here's how the transferring looks like, ironically the music gallery don't have the import button for some reason

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Despite that, you don't really need PC Manager to do the importing, just select, right-click the file(s) and "send to" will do the trick

It may take a while to learn how to use the PC Manager to import the files you want, but if you want an even more efficient way of transferring, you can even do so without PC Manager by just selecting the files then click on "Send to Huawei (device name)". This makes your life easier and the transfer speed is swift.

 

Performance - Not made for gaming

Performance-wise, there is nothing too extraordinary about the Matebook D. It works as well as it should and thanks to the big chunk of 8GB RAM on board, you can open up multiple Window tabs without much lag. However, if you're the type that relies on a lot of software programs to run, you should install them on the D: Drive as there's more storage space.

If you're hoping to play some games on it, well... you can, but only at the lowest setting because with that Intel UHD Graphics 620 and Intel Core i5-8250U processor, the laptop isn't going to do much and the laptop will heat up within minutes. On the other hand, streaming videos and watching movies on the laptop while accompanied by the quadruple speaker is nice and entertaining enough. At max volume, the treble and bass are well balanced and it doesn't feel like the speakers were about to blow up.

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The PCMark score on Home usage

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PCMark on office usage

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This is DotA 2 on the lowest setting, playable

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Then this is the highest setting, my hero Shadow Fiend isn't so shadowy after that

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Video quality on the Matebook D is satisfactory

It's also worth mentioning that you can work on the laptop for more than a day or two easily without charging, but a full recharge takes about two hours or so. Then in the connectivity side, so far I have not experienced the Internet lagging, but there is an occasional "jerk" while watching YouTube videos, which is possibly due to multiple tabs and programs I had on.

 

Conclusion – Good quality and price for what it does

At the price of RM2999, this is actually quite a decent laptop to have and it's perfect for students and working people who travel a lot. It's lightweight, clean looking, tech specs that are good enough to get the job done, good entertainment value for video playback and the Huawei Share is a bonus for every Huawei smartphone user. The only drawbacks I can think of is that it doesn't have any SSD ports and while it can play some light games, games like Dota 2 are just not recommended even on low settings.

For other contenders, perhaps the closest one would be the ASUS ZenBook 14 laptop which has similar tech specs. It's also slim and light, uses an Intel Core i5 / MX150 GDDR5 2GB processor, runs on 8GB of RAM but has a bigger storage of 512GB PCIE SSD, has a special smart hinge design and a pretty cool Num Pad embedded to the touchpad. However, the significantly higher price of RM4399 might shun away potential buyers.

So that's all I think about the Huawei Matebook D. You can actually check it out at your nearest Huawei experience stores or authorized dealers, as well as the official online store here. Have a blessed Chinese New Year and stay tuned for more tech reviews at TechNave.com.