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
Graphics Performance
The key part of the name of the processor inside the Huawei MateBook X Pro 2021, the Intel Core i7-1165G7, is that bit at the end. G7 means that it has Intel’s largest deployment of its Xe-LP graphics design. For your hard earned money, this is 96 execution units of what is the foundation of Intel’s graphics portfolio moving forward over the next few years. Each unit has eight threads, providing 768 threads of graphics compute, and this number is more easily comparable to the offerings from AMD.
Huawei has paired the processor with 4x32-bit LPDDR4X-4266 memory, which should offer a theoretical peak bandwidth of 68.3 GB/s, and it’s that number which is usually so crucial for integrated graphics performance. By contrast, a similarly equipped DDR4-3200 system will only achieve 51.2 GB/s, but is also cheaper to produce and more end-user customizable.
That being said, Huawei has enabled this laptop with a 3000x2000 display, which is a 3:2 aspect ratio. For gaming, 3:2 is an uncommon ratio, and so in some cases users may be forced into a more traditional 16:9 orientation, and experience black bars at the top and bottom of the display. Even for the games running at full 3000x2000 resolution, this is three times as many pixels as a standard 1920x1080 display – as we’ll see in the benchmarks below, trying to run at 1080p medium is sometimes a struggle, let alone at full resolution. As a result, be understanding that not all of the screen’s capabilities will be utilized during gaming.
In our synthetic tests, the Intel integrated graphics seem to do a lot better with more complex scenes. With Fire Strike the system is very much ahead of AMD’s best 4000-series offering, but dialing back down to Ice Storm and it now sits behind all the Ryzen 7 systems.
Overall Thoughts
The 1165G7 is definitely in the middle of the pack here. In certain environments it can excel and sits just behind the faster 1185G7, but the 15W extended power limit is certainly a factor when in some titles it struggles to match our Ryzen 4000 series systems. Nonetheless, it is a step up from the previous generation configuration.
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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?