Huawei has been making laptops for just 6 years but has already made significant inroads into a crowded market. And there are no signs of the company slowing down in the immediate future. A month after being revealed in China, two new 16-inch laptops have been officially launched in Europe. The updated MateBook D 16 replaces AMD with Intel, but it’s the all-new MateBook 16s that’s getting the excitement.
This is Huawei’s most powerful laptop to date, equipped with performance-focused processors from Intel’s latest 12th generation range. You can choose between the Core i5-12500H, the Core i7-12700H, and, at the high-end, the Core i9-12900H. You also get 16GB of DDR5 RAM and 512GB or 1TB of SSD storage.
So the day-to-day performance will be great, but that doesn’t make it an ideal option for everyone. The MateBook 16s uses Iris Xe integrated graphics rather than a discrete GPU, so if gaming is your top priority, it’s worth looking at a laptop dedicated to gaming.
Huawei is ditching its unflattering webcams, which were previously hidden under the keyboard, and the MateBook 16s puts the camera where in its natural position above the screen. It’s a 2-megapixel camera offering 1080p recording with an 88° field of view, and there are also dual microphones. Most importantly, the so-called Smart Conference camera comes with a feature called Eye Contact that makes other participants in a video call feel like you’re watching them rather than looking at the screen under the camera. And with Sound TrueVoice, the background noise is reduced and your voice is clearer.
The 16-inch display is an LCD display rather than an OLED display, but it has a high resolution of 2,520 × 1,680 pixels. A thin bezel gives the device a 90% screen-to-chassis ratio, but Huawei only announces 300 nits of maximum brightness. This isn’t going to be very useful if you want to use the MateBook 16s outdoors.
A generous 84 Wh battery means the battery life should be long, and there’s a 90W adapter in the box for what Huawei calls fast charging. This uses one of two USB-C ports (one supports Thunderbolt 4), but there are also two USB-A ports, a full-size HDMI, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. A fingerprint sensor is built into the power button, but there is no IR sensor for Windows Hello face unlocking.
The Huawei MateBook D 16 has an aluminum chassis that measures 18.4mm thick and weighs 1.7kg, which isn’t much for a 16-inch laptop. It features a 16:10 IPS LCD display with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,200 pixels and a pixel density of 142 PPI and promises impressive image quality with 100% sRGB coverage, a contrast ratio of 1,200:1, and a brightness of 300 nits.
There are two choices for the processor — the Intel Core i5-12450H or the Core i7-12700H. The first is equipped with the UHD graphics card (48 EU, 1.2 GHz), the second with the iris Xe graphics card, more powerful (96 EU, 1.4 GHz). There is no option for dedicated graphics.
You can configure the laptop with 8 or 16 GB of RAM, the storage is set to 512 GB (NVMe SSD). The laptop has a 60Wh battery and two USB-C ports that can be used for charging (one of them also makes DisplayPort). In addition, there is a USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 port, a USB 2.0 port, an HDMI port, and a 3.5mm combo jack for headphones and microphones. The MateBook D 16 comes with the necessary 65W power adapter and USB cable.
Price and release date
The MateBook 16s is available on Huawei’s website. This is the Core i7 model, and it costs 1,699.99 euros. If you pre-order a MateBook 16s until July 12, you’ll receive a 27-inch Huawei MateView GT display for free. If you want the MateBook 16s with the Core i9 MateBook 16s, it costs 1899.99 euros and will go on sale in September.
The MateBook D 16 is available in the i5 version 16 GB / 512 GB at 999.99 euros, and the i7 version 16 GB / 512 GB at 1299.99 euros. It is currently on pre-order with the 23.8-inch Huawei Display AD80 offered until July 12.
