Huawei MateBook X Pro (2021) Review: A Sleek and Vibrant Notebook
by Dr. Ian Cutress on September 28, 2021 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Notebooks
- Intel
- Huawei
- Laptops
- Matebook X Pro
- Tiger Lake
System Performance: Web, Emulation, 3D Modeling
As we’ve covered a number of times in reviews of this level of laptop – the offering from Intel compared to AMD is quite different. At the same power level, AMD has up to 8 cores with 16 threads, while Intel only offers half that, in exchange for some go faster AVX512 instructions and built-in on-die Thunderbolt. Also, single thread performance is a key factor of Intel’s design, aiming for a super-fast immediate response for most tasks that are simple point and click on a work device. We saw on the previous page that this 15 W processor will offer up to 38 W instantaneously, and this is likely to be important on a number of our system performance tests.
That being said, we did have some issues running PCMark’s video compute workloads on our machine. PCMark10, no matter that the system was fully updated, would not correctly finish the video display and streaming encoding in its test suite. This is somewhat annoying, as that is the first test in PCMark’s run, and also part of the PCMark battery test. We were unable to find the root cause in our time with the device.
The mix of performance in the 1165G7 is interesting because it clearly lacks on some of the more demanding workloads, but ends up ahead on the lighter workloads like Optane and Dolphin. WinRAR is a mix of multi-thread and DRAM speed, so the Intel is in the ballpark there.
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Prestissimo - Thursday, September 30, 2021 - link
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/202...vladx - Thursday, September 30, 2021 - link
Just more FUD, it's common knowledge that Lithuania has a bone to pick with China.DougMcC - Thursday, September 30, 2021 - link
Sure, if you consider government advisories baseless. Be sure to avoid that covid vaccination!vladx - Thursday, September 30, 2021 - link
You bet, still unvaccinated to this day while at the same time managing to not get infected even once. If you are careful enough to sanitize your hands thoroughly like I am you don't need any vaccine.Wereweeb - Thursday, September 30, 2021 - link
"US accuses Huawei of spying" the first was caught dozens of times spying on everyone, including their own citizens. The second is accused every couple of months and I never hear of any evidence popping up. HmmmmmmmDougMcC - Thursday, September 30, 2021 - link
That just establishes the credibility of the US as an expert on spying ...DougMcC - Wednesday, September 29, 2021 - link
My first thought as well 'which generation of spy chips does it include'?ikjadoon - Wednesday, September 29, 2021 - link
Looks decent besides the battery life & lack of Thunderbolt 3. On any $1000 base MSRP Tiger Lake design, TB3 should be standard. Likewise, why does it list LPDDR4X-3733 when TGL-U supports 4266?Alas, if we're comparing it to MacBooks, we should try to bring in macOS devices to the standard AnandTech notebook bench suite. Software, I'll figure it out, but getting a late-model MacBook (preferably Arm / M1) as a comparison would let us, the reader, really see these comparisons.
But, the price: wow. I don't know where the money has gone, but TB3 + higher system efficiency should really be expected at this price point. It's a pricey laptop--besides gaming and workstations, it lives in the highest price bracket for Windows PCs.
I am quite glad, however, to see Huawei maintain their 3:2 displays: 16:9 needs alternatives in every segment.
QueBert - Thursday, September 30, 2021 - link
I DJ and make music, I bought an Asus Zenbook 13, after a few months with it I wish to hell I'd waited for M1 support to be added to the software I used. This thing cost the same as an M1 Air, I'm most annoyed at how the fan will often times spin relentlessly even when I'm doing nothing. And even though it's only 2 months old, apparently it's already lost 30% of it's value so if I wanted to try and sell it I'd lose my ass.Wereweeb - Thursday, September 30, 2021 - link
Upgradeability? Repairability?