There are devices that are successful, to which we attach and which are logically renewed at regular intervals by the manufacturers. There are necessarily in all brands, and this is particularly the case with laptop manufacturers. The evolutions are sometimes successes, from time to time very innovative or on the contrary a little too timid.
When Huawei announced the arrival of its Matebook X Pro version 2022, we were therefore not surprised since the brand follows this model which it updates every year. Today it is the 2022 version that we will discover with its evolutions, but also some new features.
The first is visible right out of the box with a rather successful matt navy blue color and a very pleasant texture to the touch. A 90w USB-C charger and its cable are also part of the set, with a USB-A / USB-C adapter.
The bottom of the device does not have any ventilation holes as can usually be seen on other models. They are placed on the sides, which will allow you to put the notebook on your lap or a not quite smooth surface without interfering with the cooling process provided by two internal fans.
On the left, two Thunderbolt 4 ports are placed just after the headphone and microphone jack. They can be used to power an external 8K screen or two 4K monitors, it is also where it is possible to connect the supplied 90W charger.
On the right side two other USB-C ports are also available, but no USB-A port, which explains the presence of the supplied adapter. Even if the presence of the latter is a good point, it would have been appropriate to leave a USB-A port to directly connect USB keys or other USB-A peripherals which are still very widespread.
On the keyboard side, we find the same texture which is very pleasant to the touch with well-arranged keys which allow efficient typing. The touchpad is quite large and comfortable. In this edition, special gestures have been integrated, it is thus possible to close a window by pressing on the top right of the keypad, adjust the brightness by browsing the left edge in the vertical direction or even start a recording of the screen by tapping two fingers. Other options are possible to control elements of the Windows 11 system.
Still on the keyboard, we notice the disappearance of the key that hid a webcam in previous editions. If we liked the principle, the low-angle view did not highlight the subject. Huawei has therefore adopted a more classic solution.
The webcam is now positioned at the top of the screen, but the manufacturer has managed to keep a fairly thin frame for this edition of the Matebook X Pro. Too bad Huawei didn’t integrate a physical webcam cover. We will come back to the capabilities of this webcam a little later.
The 3.1K screen (3120×2080 pixels, 264 PPI) also benefits from a special treatment to reduce reflections thanks to a nano-optical layer. On the other hand, it is possible to let the system manage the brightness of the screen (500 nits max) according to the ambient brightness.
For this 2022 edition, this Matebook X Pro is already making a good impression after a simple grip, its capabilities remain to be explored. Getting started involves following the Windows 11 Home operating system wizard. Above all, we updated the OS to its latest version 22H2 without difficulty.
Unlike other manufacturers, Huawei has not entered into any partnership with software publishers and there is an almost original Windows. However, Huawei integrates its own software, including the PC Manager, which is always very useful. It offers several handy features, including driver recovery, hardware info and optimization, and troubleshooting help.
In this version we also find a novelty: the control panel. Placed at the bottom right of the taskbar, it offers various shortcuts for certain actions and gives access to other Huawei-specific feature windows.
For example, we find the possible actions to be carried out with the touchpad that we mentioned above. However, you cannot create new ones, but it allows you to practice using them.
Audio improvements with demo can also be activated. For a laptop, the sound is pretty good and at a very decent volume, enough to listen to music or a movie even when you don’t have a Bluetooth speaker on hand.
If Huawei has skipped a higher definition webcam, the 720p quality is suitable for video exchanges, especially since microphone improvements are also available in the audio part. It is possible to choose predefined funds or to import any photo so as not to reveal its environment.
The other advantage of this webcam is that it is Windows Hello compatible. With the presence of the fingerprint sensor, there are therefore two simultaneous means of unlocking. If ever pressing the button didn’t recognize your fingerprint on startup or waking up, the camera and face ID would take over.
The software part is therefore satisfactory and Windows 11 runs very smoothly. The opposite would be surprising since the configuration is attractive.
- Processor: 12th Generation Intel Core i7-1260P
- Memory: 16GB LPDDR5
- Storage: 1TB NVMe PCIe SSD
- Graphics: Intel Iris Xe
The benchmarks confirm that the Matebook X Pro 2022 has some under the hood. With Novabench the machine obtains 2900 points, which ranks it in the high category of laptops tested, which Geekbench confirms with 1712 points in monocore, 7900 points in multicore and 19318 for the graphics part.
This is probably what has an impact on the autonomy which has proven to be a little too below other competitors. Our usual streaming series reading test, with the brightness at 50% and the volume at 40%, did not last longer than 7:15.
The battery life champion, if your priority is mobility, is the Acer Swift 5, with almost 15h, but you won’t find as much power there. For better autonomy, while keeping something to do under the hood and with a larger size, Huawei also offers the Matebook 16, which lasted 12 hours and even higher benchmark results.
This lack of autonomy will not be a handicap if you have a socket nearby regularly, because the X Pro recharges rather quickly. We also regret that there is not a webcam cover for physical security which would be reassuring or the presence of a USB-A socket instead of one of the four USB-Cs.
However, these few points will not spoil the pleasure of those who opt for this choice. The texture of the Matebook X Pro, the general quality of the components, the screen and the audio, the power that supports heavy tasks without complaining, all in an impeccable design with finesse and lightness make it a very portable PC. pleasant to use every day
