The New Huawei Matebooks

Today seems like a good day for laptop announcements apparently. Alongside Microsoft announcing their new Surface Pro in Shanghai, Huawei just announced their new Huawei Matebook in Berlin.

Now, you might remember the name Matebook from last year when Huawei launched a 2-in-1 convertible tablet, and while one of the models they launched today is a successor to that device, two of the others are Huawei showing they want to make legit, serious laptops.

The first in the lineup, the aforementioned convertible, is the Matebook E is the successor to the original Matebook and comes with the same leather folio keyboard and form factor but upgrades the screen to a 2K resolution, has better magnets for the tablet to connect to the keyboard, and a much asked for jump in battery life (up to 9 hours Huawei now claims).

The Matebook E also has a USB-C port, headphone jack, option of 128-512GB SSD, 4 or 8GBs of RAM, and the option of the 7th gen Core M3 or i5-Y.

The next two devices are the foray into a new genre for Huawei: honest to goodness, real laptops.

The first of which is the Matebook D, which is their seemingly wide-reaching, mid-level option. It has a 15″ screen with a 1080P resolution; 7th gen i5 or i7 processor options; 4, 8, or 16GBs of RAM; and the choice of a 1TB HDD or a 1TB HDD plus an SSD. It’ll also feature Dolby Atmos sound enhancements and there are also some models available with an optional Nvidia Geforce 940MX GPU. Huawei claims it’ll also have a 9 hour battery life just like the E model.

And lastly we have the Matebook X, their higher end option (and one that seems pretty much aimed at the 12″ Macbook user). This little guy has an edge to edge keyboard (albeit with real clicky keys unlike the Macbook, which I appreciate); a 13″ 2K screen; choice of i7 or i5 7th gen processors;  256 or 512GB SSD, 4 or 8GBs of RAM; a 3.5mm headphone jack; two USB-C ports (one that supports data and charging and one that just does data); the Dolby Atmos sound enhancements like the D model; a power button that is also a Windows Hello fingerprint sensor; Intel HD 620 GPU; and, in some markets, will come with a USB-C MateDock to allow you to attach USB-A, DVI, HDMI, and another USB-C port with pass through charging.

And I have to say, all three models, look and feel solid. As is Huawei’s usual deal, they’re making some seriously quality devices that can compete with some of the bigger brands, but at a lesser price point. Which brings us to the big factor that’s missing from this announcement today: pricing.

Depending on the pricing of these guys, these could be some solid options for those looking for ultra-portable laptops in a number of form factors that still have that attention to detail that the market is coming to demand expect.

For the full specs check them out below.

These should all be available in this summer, and I’ll be waiting anxiously for the pricing beforehand. What do you guys think of these? And would you want a video review of any of them from me? Let me know in the comments below and, as always, thanks for reading.