Huawei Matebook – not a mobile, a laptop convertible

When you travel all the way to the other side of the planet with the number three smartphone company in the world, you’ve got a pretty clear expectation they’re going to announce a new mobile phone.  Nope.  Not Huawei, they’ve really mixed things up this year at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, announcing the 2-in-one laptop – the Huawei MateBook

When you’re as big as Huawei are, you’re able to leverage your research, design and manufacturing teams to create pretty much anything you want.  And with the global laptop market worth several hundred million dollars a year – why not give it a good crack to get a slice of that.

Huawei’s solution is a stylish, ultra-thin portable device that even the company itself describes as a “landmark device”.  The Huawei MateBook.

Featuring a 6th Gen Intel Core M series processor means Huawei are able to create a lightweight fanless design too.

Huawei too are entering the PC space at the right time, Windows 10 has been well received by consumers and a device built to work on the latest tech and software is sure to perform well.

While Huawei will push this as a PC or 2-in-1, this is in real terms a very high powered Windows Tablet.  Perhaps tablets have a bad name, in fact Microsoft’s own Surface is a 2-in-1, but we all know it’s a tablet. What Huawei have achieved is a super thin, powerful 12 inch screened tablet with a fantastic splash-proof keyboard to match.

As a Windows PC it sure does stand out from the crowd.

Key features:

Ultra Slim – At 6.9 mm it’s a very slim profile, and Huawei say it’s high-quality metal finish is also strong and protective to withstand the “riggers of an on-the-go lifestyle”.

Keyboard Case, Keyboard & Touchpad – The case is made from a soft leather, while the short keystroke on the keyboard will take a bit of adjusting to (not unlike the new MacBook does) they keys too are larger to minimise errors.  The whole case has a built-in touchpad eliminating the need for an external mouse.

Colour – Available in “Champagne Gold” and “Space Silver” the device looks great, plus the screen itself is IPS multi-touch offering a great viewing experience.

Battery – It’s a critical element of laptop design, and Huawei are confident they can deliver in this area, with impressive power usage figures – the truth is in the testing which we’ll do down the track.

Stylus – sorry, MatePen – “more than a stylus”, the MatePen offers varying levels of sensitivity to capture the most diverse pen-top actions with zero delay. It can also be used as a laser pointer for presentations.

Connectivity – While the MateBook has a simple click to connect smartphone hotspot connection, perhaps the best feature could be the seamless data transfer capability – according to Huawei this allows drag-and-drop document transfer to and from Android Smartphones.  That’s something I can’t wait to test out.

Unlock – Perhaps I’ve saved the best till last here. The one-touch unlock feature of the MateBook utilises Huawei’s sensational fingerprint recognition technology – which we’ve seen on their smartphones, to support a simple and fast unlock for your laptop.  It might seem simple, but this is a good thing!

We don’t yet have pricing or availability, but we’ll bring you that plus a full review in the weeks ahead.

Trevor Long travelled to Barcelona as a guest of Huawei, details at the EFTM Disclosures & Commercial Interests page