Huawei MateBook 16 arrives in Europe, and does so with a respectable technical prospect, and a great attention to design and build quality
Huawei brings MateBook 16 to Europe and is ready to challenge Apple. The laptop puts the MacBook Pro in the crosshairs thanks to a high-profile technical equipment and prices that, although higher than those provided for the Chinese market converted into euros, are still very competitive and just as interesting.
As the time when all eyes are on Windows 11, it is good to clarify immediately that Huawei MateBook 16 does not come with the new Microsoft system. It is delivered with Windows 10, but it is Huawei itself to assure that the update will arrive between late 2021 and early 2022. Huawei MateBook 16 comes with a very nice design and a display that occupies almost all the surface available to it due to the great work of the technicians in reducing the bezels. Huawei MateBook 16 has a very smart design, thanks to the integration with other Huawei products, in particular with MatePad Pro that can act as a second display to work comfortably with many open windows.
Huawei MateBook 16, what it looks like
Huawei MateBook 16 has a Full View screen, that is, with a high ratio between the surface and the screen (as much as 90%), 16 inches with superior resolution 2.5K (2,520 x 1,680 pixels). By the standards of IPS displays, the contrast is very high (1500:1) as well as color accuracy, which ensures great precision to professionals who would use MateBook 16 for work.
The "heart" of Huawei MateBook 16 is represented by AMD chips: there are Ryzen 5 5600H or Ryzen 7 5800H, both flanked by an AMD Radeon GPU. In terms of memories, the Chinese laptop offers 16 GB of DDR4 RAM and 512 GB of storage space with NVMe SSDs, a very fast support "necessary to best go along with operations such as design, programming and other office tasks," says the company.
Huawei has equipped the MateBook 16 with a well-designed cooling system, with two "powerful but quiet" fans of over 75 mm thanks also to an air inlet channel designed so as to reduce noise. There's also a dual heat pipe that helps dissipate excess heat. There's also a dual front-facing speaker while the keyboard is backlit.
There's a fingerprint reader for quick but secure power-up, dual-antenna Wi-Fi 6, a 720p camera flanked by an artificial intelligence-based noise reduction system for video calls, and even two USB 3.2, as many USB-C, an HDMI input and a 3.5 mm audio jack.
Huawei MateBook 16 has an 84-watt-hour battery and a charging power supply of an impressive 135 watts, which with 15 minutes of charging provides up to 3.5 hours of use. The laptop measures 351 x 254.9 x 17.8 mm and weighs 1.99 kg.
Huawei MateBook 16, how much does it cost
Huawei MateBook 16 arrives in Europe at 1,099 euros for the version with AMD Ryzen 5 5600H chip while the one with Ryzen 7 5800H costs 1,199 euros.
Relatively inexpensive prices in light of the valuable technical features, which could be confirmed when Huawei announces its availability in Italy: for the moment in fact MateBook 16 is not yet on sale in our country.