Huawei MateBook X Pro (2020) review – great build quality and bizarre cooling solution

A laptop from Huawei that bares the popular Pro moniker. It is thin, light, and incredibly good-looking. And like its 13-inc cousin, the MateBook 13 (2020), this notebook is incredibly similar to the MacBook Air (and Pro), both on the inside, and out. Nevertheless, this laptop comes with a 3:2 screen aspect ratio with a 3K resolution (3000x2000p), so if you are a professional, or you just need the vertical real estate, you’re definitely going to love it.

Interestingly, Huawei felt comfortable enough to offer the device with a GeForce MX250 graphics card. Although we are talking about the 10W variant, still, adding more heat sources, results in the need for a better cooling setup.

Before we dig into the performance stats and take the notebook apart, let’s take a quick look at its design, and see if the actual build quality is on par with the visuals.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/huawei-matebook-x-pro-2020/

Contents


Specs Sheet

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2020) - 规格

  • Japan Displays Inc LPM139M422A (JDI422A)
  • 颜色精度  2.1  1.0
  • HDD/SSD
  • 以至于 1000GB SSD
  • 内存
  • up to 16GB
  • 操作系统
  • Windows 10 Pro, Windows 10 Home
  • 蓄电池
  • 56Wh, 56Wh, 3-cell
  • 车身材料
  • Aluminum
  • 外形尺寸
  • 304 x 217 x 14.6 mm (11.97" x 8.54" x 0.57")
  • 重量
  • 1.33 kg (2.9 lbs)
  • 端口和连接性
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 2x USB Type-C
  • DisplayPort, Sleep and Charge
  • 读卡器
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ac
  • 蓝牙
  • 5.0
  • 音频插孔
  • 3.5 mm combo
  • 特点
  • 指纹识别器
  • 网络摄像机
  • 背光键盘
  • 麦克风
  • 4x Microphones
  • 扬声器
  • 4x Speakers
  • 光驱
  • 安全锁槽

What’s in the box?

Inside the package, we found a 65W USB Type-C power brick, some paper manuals, as well as a USB Type-C dongle that outputs an HDMI and VGA signals, as well as a USB Type-C passthrough and a USB Type-A port.


Design and construction

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2020)’s incredibly thin (14.6mm) body was executed thanks to the CNC machined aluminum. This means that all of the tiny clearances are precisely cut, no matter if we’re talking about the first or the 10 000th device produced. It also weighs 1.33 kg, and it has a surprisingly rigid body, given its overall dimensions.

Thankfully, the lid opens easily with a single hand, and when you open it, you’ll see the tall glass-covered touchscreen display. And while we are happy to see the extremely thin bezels all around it, we would have preferred to see a camera hidden inside the top bezel.

Instead, the Chinese manufacturer has done something it did with other MateBook products – they have crammed the entire camera onto a dedicated key, which reveals the Webcam after you press it. Well, the idea is good, but the angle you get from it is absolutely bizarre.

Otherwise, the keyboard is decent, with its clicky feedback and decent size of the keycaps. Although the travel is shallow, we were able to get used to it pretty quickly. By the way, the keyboard is flanked by two speakers, and interestingly – there are two more speakers, firing sideways. As for the touchpad, it has a glass surface, which provides a great gliding experience. Its tracking is on point, and like a MacBook, it will click, no matter where you press on the surface.

When we look at the bottom plate, however, we see no ventilation grills… what might be happening there?

Ports

In terms of I/O, there is an audio jack and two USB Type-C ports on the left. They support DisplayPort signal, data transfers, and both of them can charge the laptop (one at a time). And on the right, you can only find a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port.


Disassembly, upgrade options, and maintenance

Taking this notebook’s bottom panel away is a simple job. Just undo all 8 Torx-head screws, pry it with a plastic tool, starting from the cutouts on the sides and you’re done.

It is inside, where we see really questionable decisions from Huawei. First, we can take a look at the cooling solution. It looks good, with all of the heat pipes, and the massive area it takes. But then, take a look at the tiny fan, and the lack of heat spreaders. Actually, this is why the entire shroud is that big. It only dissipates the heat inside of the chassis, with the fan spinning the air around it.

However, what is even weirder is that the only user-replaceable component – the SSD, is located beneath the cooling system. This means you need to undo all of the screws keeping it attached to the motherboard. Try using a cross pattern for the middle screws, which are applying pressure to the CPU and the GPU.

Only after you’ve removed the shroud, you can unplug the battery connector, and change your M.2 drive. By the way, the battery has a capacity of 56Wh.

In order to reinstall the cooling, remove the old thermal paste from both the chips and the cooler, using cotton knobs and a plastic tool if some of it is too dry. Then, apply the new thermal compound and reassemble the cooling solution again, using a cross pattern, so you get the optimal spread.

Display quality

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2020) is equipped with a Full HD IPS panel, LPM139M422A (JDI422A) made by Japan Display Inc. It uses the LTPS (Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Silicon) technology. Its diagonal is 13.9-inch (35.3 cm), and the resolution – 3000 х 2000p. Additionally, the screen ratio is 3:2, the pixel density – 259 ppi, their pitch – 0.098 х 0.098 mm. The screen can be considered Retina when viewed from at least 33 cm (from this distance, the average human eye can’t see the individual pixels).

Viewing angles are comfortable. We offer images at different angles to evaluate the quality.

The maximum measured brightness is excellent – 530 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen and 522 nits (cd/m2) average across the surface with a maximum deviation of only 4%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 6680K – slightly colder than the 6500K temperature for sRGB.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. The illustration below shows how matters are for operational brightness levels (approximately 140 nits) – in this particular case at 47% Brightness (White level = 142 cd/m2, Black level = 0.08 cd/m2).
Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work (a maximum tolerance of 2.0 ). The contrast ratio is very good – 1750:1.

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people in HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows Huawei MateBook X Pro (2020)’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers 97% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of Huawei MateBook X Pro (2020) with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale, and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 24 ms.


Health impact – PWM / Blue Light

PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2020)’s display doesn’t flicker at any brightness level. This makes it comfortable for long periods of use.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Conclusion

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2020)’s touchscreen display has a very high resolution, and uses an improved IPS-NEO panel, which reduces the light leak effect, when viewing from an angle, thus resulting in deeper blacks. Additionally, this makes the viewing angles even wider and more comfortable than before, the contrast ratio is very good, and it can show almost all of the colors on the Internet (with a 97% of sRGB coverage). Not only that, but the default settings are adequate, its backlight doesn’t flicker, and its color reproduction is on point, especially with the help of our Gaming and Web design profile, which brings the Average dE value to about 1.0. Essentially, designers, artists, content creators, and e-retailers can benefit from accurate colors.

Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for Huawei MateBook X Pro (2020) configurations with 13.9″ LPM139M422A (JDI422A) (3K, 3000 × 2000) IPS panel.

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

除了获得高效和健康友好的配置文件,购买LaptopMedia的产品,您还可以支持我们实验室的发展,我们在实验室测试设备,以产生最客观的评论。

办公室工作

Office Work应该主要由那些花大部分时间看文本、表格或仅仅是浏览的用户使用。该配置文件旨在通过保持平坦的伽玛曲线(2.20)、本机色温和精确的色彩来提供更好的清晰度。

设计与游戏

本资料针对专业处理色彩的设计师,以及游戏和电影。设计与游戏》将显示面板发挥到了极致,使其在白点D65的网页和高清电视的sRGB IEC61966-2-1标准中尽可能准确。

卫生保健

Health-Guard消除了有害的脉宽调制(PWM),并减少了影响我们的眼睛和身体的负蓝光。 由于它是针对每个面板量身定制的,因此可以保持色彩在视觉上的准确性。 Health-Guard模拟纸张,因此大大减轻了眼睛的压力。

以33%的折扣获得所有3份资料


Sound

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2020)’s speakers produce a crisp sound with decent quality. Its low, mid, and high tones are clear of deviations.


Drivers

All of the drivers and utilities for this notebook can be found here: https://consumer.huawei.com/en/support/laptops/matebook-x-pro-2020/

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits, and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. This notebook’s 56Wh battery can last through 9 hours of Web browsing and 8 hours and 34 minutes of video playback.


CPU options

Currently, this notebook can be purchased with either the Core i5-10210U or the Core i7-10510U.


GPU options

And for graphics, you can choose between the integrated Intel UHD Graphics and the 10W version of the GeForce MX250.


Gaming tests

cs-go-benchmarks

CS:GOFull HD, Low (Check settings)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, MAX (Check settings)
GeForce MX25084 fps75 fps66 fps

DOTA 2Full HD, Low (Check settings)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Ultra (Check settings)
GeForce MX25035 fps34 fps– fps– fps

GTA-V-benchmarks

Grand Theft Auto V (GTA 5)Full HD, Normal (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)Full HD, Ultra (Check settings)
GeForce MX25071 fps28 fps


Temperatures and comfort

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

Intel Core i7-10510U (15W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
Huawei MateBook X Pro (2020)3.21 GHz (B+78%) @ 76°C1.92 GHz (B+7%) @ 57°C1.96 GHz (B+9%) @ 57°C
HP EliteBook 850 G73.21 GHz (B+78%) @ 76°C1.92 GHz (B+7%) @ 57°C1.96 GHz (B+9%) @ 57°C
HP Envy x360 15 (15-ed0000)3.24 GHz (B+80%) @ 71°C2.03 GHz (B+13%) @ 59°C2.07 GHz (B+15%) @ 62°C
HP Envy 13 (13-ba0000)3.30 GHz (B+83%) @ 83°C1.87 GHz (B+4%) @ 60°C1.72 GHz @ 65°C
Fujitsu LifeBook U74103.05 GHz (B+69%) @ 86°C2.65 GHz (B+47%) @ 96°C1.94 GHz (B+8%) @ 79°C
ASUS ZenBook Flip 14 UX4633.50 GHz (B+94%) @ 92°C2.97 GHz (B+65%) @ 95°C2.31 GHz (B+28%) @ 73°C
Dell Inspiron 14 54903.62 GHz (B+101%) @ 80°C2.39 GHz (B+37%) @ 74°C1.92 GHz (B+7%) @ 65°C
Dell Inspiron 13 7391 2-in-13.50 GHz (B+94%) @ 98°C2.27 GHz (B+26%) @ 82°C2.09 GHz (B+16%) @ 79°C
Dell XPS 13 73903.62 GHz (B+101%) @ 89°C3.16 GHz (B+76%) @ 99°C2.70 GHz (B+50%) @ 85°C
Dell Vostro 54903.57 GHz (B+98%) @ 90°C2.51 GHz (B+39%) @ 87°C2.10 GHz (B+17%) @ 66°C

First, we’d like to say that we got through these tests before we disassembled the notebook, so that you have the most reliable information, if you are interested in buying this notebook. Here, we see that the MateBook X Pro (2020) is actually doing a pretty good job handling the Core i7-10510U, despite lacking a big fan and heat spreader.

Real-life gaming

NVIDIA GeForce MX250GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 2 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min)
Huawei MateBook X Pro (2020) (10W version)952 MHz @ 78°C951 MHz @ 79°C
HP Envy 13 (13-aq0000) (10W version)1164 MHz @ 66°C1164 MHz @ 67°C
ASUS ZenBook Flip 14 UX463 (10W version)1142 MHz @ 68°C1145 MHz @ 74°C
Acer Swift 5 Pro (SF514-54GT) (10W version)1170 MHz @ 61°C1167 MHz @ 61°C
ASUS ZenBook 14 UX434 (10W version)1132 MHz @ 66°C1129 MHz @ 71°C

Well, this can’t be said about how the dedicated graphics card is cooled. Even though the MX250 is rated at only 10W, the poor conductivity of the thermal pad, plus, the passive nature of the cooling, resulted not only in high temperatures but also in low frequencies.

Comfort during combined load

Sadly, the high temperatures of the internals were transferred to the entire chassis of the notebook. Hence, we got a temperature in the middle of the keyboard of around 51-52C. And on top of that, the little weeny of a fan was begging for forgiveness.


Verdict

Looking at the full picture, the MateBook X Pro (2020) is one potent little machine, that has one of the best displays on the market. Also, its battery can get through a workday on battery, as we got 8 hours and 34 minutes of video playback, and 9 hours flat of Web browsing out of it.

Its touchscreen display has a very high resolution and uses an improved IPS-NEO panel, which reduces the light leak effect, when viewing from an angle, thus resulting in deeper blacks. Additionally, this makes the viewing angles even wider and more comfortable than before, the contrast ratio is very good, and it can show almost all of the colors on the Internet (with a 97% of sRGB coverage). Not only that, but the default settings are adequate, its backlight doesn’t flicker, and its color reproduction is on point, especially with the help of our Gaming and Web design profile, which brings the Average dE value to about 1.0. Essentially, designers, artists, content creators, and e-retailers can benefit from accurate colors.

And the build quality of the machine is simply amazing. All-aluminum build, glass protection for the display, and an ultrafast fingerprint reader embedded into the Power button. Then, it started getting ugly.

First of all, this notebook has all its memory soldered to the motherboard. You can only pick between an 8GB option and a 16GB one during purchase. After that – you’re done. Now, sadly, the more we talk about the insides, the more bizarre this situation becomes. Looking at the cooling solution, we noticed that the teeny tiny fan wasn’t blowing air towards a heat spreader, but instead, it is used to spin the air inside of the chassis, so that it dissipates the heat off the heat pipes. Now, this is not a bad idea, if we are talking about a 5-7W processor. But here, we have the Core i7-10510U, which was working at 45W in the first 10 seconds of our Prime95 run. Not only that, but the graphics card is connected to the heat sink with only a cooling pad, which is far less conductive than conventional thermal paste.

And on top of that, Huawei has decided that it would be a great idea to put both the battery connector and the M.2 NVMe slot beneath the entire cooling assembly, requiring its removal, in order to access the former two. This, ladies and gentlemen, is how you under engineer a laptop, by overengineering it.

If we put these issues aside and refrain from using heavy rendering programs, or playing any games, this notebook can become your best friend. If not, the Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 (13.5) is a pretty good alternative.

Pros

  • Very good build quality paired with thin and light chassis
  • Excellent IPS-NEO panel that covers 97% of sRGB
  • Our Gaming and Web design profile makes the colors on this laptop very accurate
  • Doesn’t use PWM to adjust its brightness levels
  • Decent battery life


Cons

  • Lacks a Thunderbolt connector and an SD card reader
  • No RAM upgradability post-purchase
  • Bizarre cooling solution

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/huawei-matebook-x-pro-2020/

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JohnDoe
JohnDoe
3 年 之前

Both ports on the left side support Thunderbolt 3 even though the logo is missing!

Filip Pintur
Filip Pintur
3 年 之前

Cooling solution is the main advantage if you hold it in your lap, or on your chess while lying, or on soft surface such as bed or sofa.
This has become the main feature I will look for in future as I almost never hold my laptop on hard surface, and cool pads are pain in the ass.