Huawei MateBook D

Best known for making phones, Huawei is now starting its process of entering the laptop market with two new products.

There’s the MacBook Air competitor with the MateBook X, with a super slim metal body and sexy 13-inch display, and then there’s the much more dull Huawei MateBook D.

The MateBook D is everything the MateBook X isn’t and won’t get you excited, but some of the spec may be perfect for your needs.

Huawei MateBook D release date and price 

So far we don’t know whether the MateBook D will be coming to the US, UK or Australia and the price is just as unclear. 

We expect to get much more information about this in the coming weeks.

Huawei MateBook D design 

The design of the MateBook D is best described as lacklustre, as this looks much like any other business focused laptop you’ve used over the past few years.

It’s heavy at 1.9kg, but does have an attractive top cover. When you open it up you can see the 15.6-inch Full HD display from there and the keyboard just down below.

The keyboard is easy to type on and the MateBook D will stay sturdy no matter if you're typing on a desk or on your lap. It's a bit of a shame Huawei hasn't made this a backlit keyboard though, which would have been a feature we'd like to have seen.

On the right-hand side next to the keyboard is the power button that also doubles up as a fingerprint scanner. This should give you that added peace of mind that everything on your laptop is secure with your biometrics being the only way in.

The display on the Huawei MateBook D looks good, but won’t impress you as much as the MateBook X with its QHD resolution. 

Here you’re only getting 142 pixels-per-inch, but it should mean improved battery life and it isn’t something everything will want on their laptop anyway.

Color choices are limited to a dark blue, a grey shade or a bright gold version as well. We found the dark blue version - the one pictured at the top of this review - did show off fingerprint marks pretty heavily on the lid.

Huawei MateBook D specs 

One of the benefits of the MateBook D is the amount of connectivity ports on offer. There’s a DC-in jack, 3.5mm headphone jack, two USB 3.0 ports and a USB 2.0 port as well as a HDMI port as well.

In terms of processing power, you’ll have the choice of either the Core i5 or i7 seventh generation processors from Intel. Then there’s a variety of RAM options as well.

It gets a little complicated here, but there are options ranging from 4GB of RAM with 500GB of storage, which we’d expect to be the cheapest, up to 16GB of RAM with 128GB of SSD storage and 1TB of HDD storage. 

One of the highlights on this laptop is the Dolby Atmos Sound System feature, which is also available in the MateBook X.

Huawei has partnered with Dolby to ensure the design of the laptop is optimum for viewing video content, as well as a few software tweaks that should make it more efficient. It means the speakers are in better places for when you're watching movies, as well as having a slightly less reflective screen too.

Be warned however, this isn’t anything like the Dolby experience you may be used to in the cinema.

Early verdict

There isn’t much to get excited about on the MateBook D, but that’s likely not what you’re looking for on a laptop that's designed mainly for simple day-to-day tasks.

As a first attempt at a productivity device it looks like Huawei has succeeded here, but it’ll all come down to the price for us to decide whether it’s worthwhile upgrading to. Be sure to look out for our full review very soon.

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