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00:00In front of me are arguably the best 13-inch Windows laptops on the market right now.
00:08This is the Huawei MateBook 13, this is the MateBook X Pro, both kind of refreshed and brand new for 2019.
00:15Now, it's easy to kind of dismiss this brand because some people said in the comments,
00:20you look at these devices and they look like MacBook clones.
00:23They clearly look like they've been inspired by Apple's design.
00:26And Huawei is a company that has a bit of a controversial past.
00:30They've been caught for IP theft and patent infringement.
00:33They don't have the cleanest record out there.
00:35However, the fact remains, these devices are very good.
00:39And if you're in the market for something that's thin and light with great performance,
00:42this should be on the short list.
00:44So, I'm just going to jump to performance real quick.
00:46These are running Whiskey Lake CPUs.
00:49They're quad-core, they're fast, and for anyone considering an ultrabook, they'll get the job done.
00:54But they're also running NVIDIA GPUs, and that's what makes these things special.
00:57Because most ultrabooks that are thin and light like this are usually running integrated graphics.
01:02These are running dedicated NVIDIA GPUs.
01:05They're very similar in performance, despite having very different names.
01:08They're not gaming GPUs, but if you do want to play some light games, they will work.
01:12I'm still on the fence as to the value of these cards.
01:14Like, on one hand, they're not super powerful, so you can't do a lot of graphically intensive stuff with it.
01:19But if you're looking for something that's thin and light that does have graphical capabilities,
01:23these are a perfect fit.
01:25Now, I want to talk about fans and thermals for a second.
01:27These have upgraded fans.
01:29The 2018 models for both of these devices had kind of weak thermal performance.
01:34They had loud fans, they had inappropriately sized fans.
01:37These are better, but they're still not perfect.
01:39The MateBook 13 is now running two fans instead of one,
01:42but the MateBook X Pro is still running one fan.
01:44It's an improved fan, it's better, but both of these devices still run pretty loud on load.
01:49And even when they're idling, I feel like the fans come on more often than I'd like them to.
01:53Maybe that's something they can fix with software,
01:55and Huawei does put out software updates pretty frequently for the devices,
01:59but I just feel like these things should be quieter than they are in their current state.
02:03Now, the main difference between these two devices is their displays.
02:06This is running a 13-inch 1440p panel,
02:09the X Pro is higher res, it's 3K by 2K,
02:13and it's a larger 14-inch panel,
02:15but the display on the MateBook X Pro is significantly brighter.
02:18I think for most people, they're going to be really drawn to this screen's brightness and colors.
02:22The MateBook 13 screen is already great,
02:24it's just that the MateBook X Pro is that much better.
02:27In fact, if you're deciding between the two,
02:29I really feel like you should just figure out what type of screen you want or need,
02:33and then make your decision based on that,
02:35because that really is the fundamental difference between the two.
02:37The MateBook 13 has a standard webcam up top,
02:40but the X Pro has the pop-up webcam.
02:42If you haven't seen this in the past,
02:44they have a key that you can press and the webcam pops up.
02:47It's pretty cool.
02:48I don't think it's a particularly great location,
02:51like, when you're using it, you can see your hands as you're typing,
02:54but I think for most people who don't use their webcam frequently,
02:56this is a great little addition.
02:58It's like a kind of hidden webcam that doesn't get in your way,
03:01and the screen has a very thin bezel because of it.
03:04The port selection is relatively light on both of these devices.
03:08The MateBook 13 has two USB-C,
03:11neither side supports Thunderbolt 3,
03:13and only the left side can be used for charging,
03:15so it's a port-light device for sure.
03:18The X Pro has an extra USB-A,
03:21and the two USB-C ports support four-lane Thunderbolt 3.
03:24The speakers on both of these laptops are very good.
03:27The MateBook 13 has them located on the bottom,
03:29but despite their not-great location, they sound really clean.
03:33The speakers on the X Pro are definitely better.
03:36There's two on the bottom, and there's two on the top,
03:38and they sound excellent.
03:39They're seriously some of the best speakers on the Ultrabook market.
03:42I would say that they're comparable to MacBook's speakers,
03:45which are, I would say, class-leading.
03:47These are on par with that.
03:49Okay, keyboards.
03:51These keyboards have obviously been inspired by MacBook keyboards from the past,
03:55and that's honestly a good thing.
03:57These are easy to get used to.
03:58It's got a good layout, easy to type on.
04:00I think most people will use these keyboards
04:02and find them comfortable to use right away.
04:04At the top of the keyboard is a fingerprint sensor on both of these devices,
04:08and that lets you log into the device with Windows Hello.
04:11Oh, on the MateBook X Pro, there is something called Huawei Connect.
04:16I don't have the ability to use it because I don't have a Huawei phone that supports it,
04:19but if you have one, you can place that phone on the NFC sticker,
04:22and it'll transfer data between the phone and your device, which is pretty cool.
04:25Truthfully, I think it's actually really cool and quite innovative.
04:29If this was an Apple feature, people would go crazy for it.
04:33It's just that Huawei phones that support that feature aren't widespread enough
04:36to make this thing super cool, but I do think it's a cool idea.
04:40Oh, trackpad. They're running Windows Precision Drivers.
04:43You have good tracking, good gesture detection,
04:45and the button mechanics on both of them are nice, clean click.
04:49There does seem to be a little bit of a quality control issue.
04:51I think both of these devices have a little bit of play on the trackpad,
04:54which I wish wasn't there, but they exist.
04:57Also, other things that I'm not super fond of.
05:01The MateBook 13 only supports 8 gigs of RAM,
05:04and it probably wouldn't affect most people.
05:06I think that 8 gigs is sufficient for a lot of workflows,
05:09but you can't upgrade it to 16.
05:11The MateBook X Pro and also the 14-inch version of this supports 16,
05:16but this only supports 8.
05:18The hardware on these MateBooks is excellent.
05:20There's no denying that, but the pricing is a little bit more than I thought it would be.
05:24This comes in at $1,300. This comes in at $1,900,
05:27and that's both for the dedicated graphics versions.
05:30That's on par with any of the premium Windows laptops on the market right now,
05:35and there's nothing wrong with that.
05:36Like, these are clearly premium devices,
05:38but last year, this one in particular, the MateBook X Pro,
05:42it was like 20% cheaper than it is now,
05:45and I think it's gotten to the point where Huawei knows that they're making good hardware.
05:49They know that they have one of the best laptops on the market,
05:51so they've bumped up the price because they can.
05:54The X Pro costs more than the Razer Blade Stealth,
05:56and that was already a very expensive device.
05:59The MateBook lineup has great build quality.
06:01The X Pro does have slightly better build quality.
06:04It's a unibody design, so the panels are just a little bit tighter,
06:07but they're both well-built.
06:08In regards to people calling these clones of Apple's MacBooks,
06:11I can kind of understand where they're coming from.
06:13Like, they've obviously inspired this design from Apple's MacBook lineup,
06:18and even the color of the devices, like the gray unit, they call it Space Gray.
06:22They could've called it anything.
06:23They could've called it Meteor Gray, Rock Gray, Storm Gray,
06:27but they went with Space Gray because that's what Apple did,
06:29and that's just how Huawei rolls,
06:31but these devices are excellent.
06:33Like, they're just such good hardware that, you know,
06:37I didn't make this video to be like, hey, everyone should buy these devices.
06:40I'm certainly not saying that,
06:41but if you're in the market for a thin and light ultrabook
06:44that has performance like this,
06:46you should definitely look at them because they're that good.