How much?
Huawei MateBook Pro X: PC makers look out, the phone guys are here
I have one very important thing to tell you about Huawei's laptop – and it's so important, everything else about it seems like a bonus. About a decade ago, the 4:3 ratio display rapidly began to disappear from laptops, as manufacturers became obsessed about making our PCs fit for TVs and movies. "You like widescreen movies, so …
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Wednesday 28th November 2018 10:42 GMT djstardust
The price goes up and down but approx. £1200 for the i5 and £1500 for the i7 with dedicated graphics.
Almost bought one last week but had second thoughts due to budget and being so close to xmas etc.
Lenovo are the direct competition with the Yoga 930 but their screens are utterly terrible and dull. This ticks all the boxes perfectly.
Also shows just how much our fruity friends are ripping people off though.
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Thursday 29th November 2018 13:10 GMT password1234567890
Funny how wanting support for linux is viewed so negatively. My Dell XPS 13 is verynice, but now I see this I'd buy it in a minute if I could install ubuntu/fedora/whatever on it. One fecking USB A port, that's all I miss on the Dell. Although I'd be just as happy if logitech would sell a fecking USB-C wireless dongle.
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Wednesday 28th November 2018 10:52 GMT PhilipN
Not surprised
Good article. FWIW since it is tangential I took delivery of the Mate 20 Pro phone a week ago and I am mightily impressed, not just with the phone but in the sense that Huawei are making some very smart, coherent and thoughtful decisions to push themselves up the sales charts in both phones and PC’s.
Bound to be in fact already is political pushback against Huawei but if this gives the PC industry a much-needed boot up the arse it is a Good Thing.
P.S. 32.5 cm tall? You mean y.... Oh the bag is 32.5 cm. Phew!
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Thursday 29th November 2018 11:26 GMT The Original Steve
Re: Not surprised
Same here - brought the Mate20 Pro at the weekend and my word it's impressive. Other than the hefty price tag it's hands down the best phone I've ever used. Now I've ditched the stock launcher (using Microsoft Launcher - it's actually really rather good) the rest of their flavour of Android seems more than acceptable to me.
If the PC's are the same quality, I'm very much interested.
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Wednesday 28th November 2018 10:56 GMT Pascal Monett
I rather like it, but for one detail
It's a niggle, but for me it is important : the keyboard lacks a dedicated numeric keypad. I am very used to that, and not having one is a miss for me.
Still, I'm sure I've seen USB numpads, so all is not lost. I might look into that more closely when the time comes to replace my current workhorse.
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Wednesday 28th November 2018 22:49 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: I rather like it, but for one detail
Can you point me in the direction of where I would be able to find such a device?
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Thursday 29th November 2018 08:21 GMT ArrZarr
Re: I rather like it, but for one detail
Any device in the 17" Screen range will definitely have a numeric keypad due to the extra real estate necessitated by matching the larger screen.
What you've got to watch out for more is the keyboard layout (ANSI vs ISO). The different enter key will drive you wild if you make a mistake.
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Thursday 29th November 2018 10:43 GMT AndrueC
Re: I rather like it, but for one detail
The HP Probook I bought a couple of months ago has one. It also has a 'clicky' mouse pad instead of touch only and a 17.3" screen. Nice bit of kit in fact.
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Thursday 29th November 2018 13:11 GMT TG2.2
Re: I rather like it, but for one detail
The IPv6 Buddy is not a proper number pad either ... no + - or x keys .. for math functions.
And like several others.. the lack of a dedicated number pad on laptop keyboard means this is a no for me.. I deal with IP addresses all day ... I have never been as fast on the top row numbers, as I have been with number pad.
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Thursday 29th November 2018 09:30 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: This thing looks slick.. give me, give me, give me
I'm more thinking of this one as an extra to my MBP which I use for the really secure stuff. The problem is that some customers continue to use Windows, and that means I need a separate machine to stay up to date - this may just fit the bill.
What would turn this from a "maybe" in "ok, f*ck the budget and get it now" proposition would be the news that Huawei was intelligent enough to also actively support Linux on these machines. Heck, I'd probably get a few - customers like us to pre-configure stuff and if I wander in with such a machine in a Windows place they'll probably order one on the spot.
As a matter of fact, I may already know one customer who'd buy two as they're having problems with their Fujitsu machines (one is a tablet/keyboard thing whose hardware never quite worked properly)..
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Wednesday 28th November 2018 11:00 GMT Michael H.F. Wilkinson
I must say I like that display and spec. I frequently process BIG images of astronomical objects, many of which have a more-or-less 1:1 aspect ratio. 3:2 is fine, an 3000x2000 rather better than my current FHD screen. Sorely tempted, I must say.
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Wednesday 28th November 2018 11:06 GMT Tom7
Cons
It tops out at 8GB RAM. Yes, you can fit more - because when I buy a new laptop, the first thing I like to do is throw away the RAM it came with (because the chance of there being a free slot is PRECISELY zero) and spluring another £150 on it.
13.9" is a little on the small side for my not-as-sharp-as-they-were eyes.
But oh my, it's pretty.
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Wednesday 28th November 2018 11:47 GMT oiseau
Re: Cons
Hello:
But oh my, it's pretty.
Indeed it is, kudos for the 4:3 ratio.
But that's not why I'd purchase one. (and why the constant comparison to Apple stuff?)
What about the battery, not much mention of it in the article save that it lasts roughly 10 hours.
Is it user replaceable? Or do I have to throw the thing away when it goes south or fails out of warranty?
Cheers,
O.
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Wednesday 28th November 2018 14:18 GMT Dave 126
Re: Cons
> (and why the constant comparison to Apple stuff?)
- individual models of MacBook are commonly seen in the wild, so most readers will find a comparison to a MacBook more useful than to an Alienware XYZ 3000.
- MacBooks have never had 16:9 screens, unlike the majority of laptops until recently (MS's Surface range is 3:2, and some Lenovos iirc)
- the industrial design of the Huawei is similar to a MacBook
- a fellow commentard here has expressed interest in this machine, his current machine us a MacBook
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Thursday 29th November 2018 10:48 GMT AndrueC
Re: Cons
I'd buy for a genuine 4:3 ratio because my ageing eyes require me to run with desktops zoomed in (currently 125% at work, 150% at home). At work that means sometimes having to scroll web sites to use them at home on the 17.3" laptop I'm forever having to scroll web pages. What makes it seem worse is that so many web sites today love to waste horizontal space with stupidly wide margins.
I can only hope that as today's web designers age and presbyopia hits them that they will push harder for design to take zooming into consideration. I'm also hoping someone will address the problem with mobile phones but I fear the only solution there is direct visual cortical stimulation :-/
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Wednesday 28th November 2018 12:06 GMT soulrideruk
Re: I don't like the aspect ration
If your primary use for a laptop is watching videos, may I suggest a TV and DVD player/Streaming box combo? Much cheaper than the laptop, and is actually designed for watching movies.
Then you can use the laptop for the real computing tasks it is desinged for.
