Huawei MateBook D 15 Intel laptop review: Inexpensive quiet runner

Huawei's MateBook D series offers solid and affordable laptops for office and multimedia use. The MateBook D 15 ranks alongside the MateBook D 14 and the twice as expensive MateBook D 16 in the lineup. Although the rugged laptop is from 2021, it is still frequently bought and comes at an attractive price of 549 Euros with Intel Tiger Lake, 8 GB soldered RAM, 256 GB SSD, and a matte FHD IPS display.
We have already tested the AMD version of this model. Competitors are the Lenovo's IdeaPad 5 15, Dell's Inspiron 15, Asus VivoBook 15, Acer's Swift 3, and Aspire 5.
More Huawei reviews:
MateBook D 14
MateBook 14
MateBook D 15 AMD
MateBook D 16
MateBook 16 AMD
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Possible competitors in comparison
Rating | Date | Model | Weight | Height | Size | Resolution | Best Price |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
84.3 % | 02/2023 | Huawei MateBook D 15 2021, i5-1135G7 i5-1135G7, Iris Xe G7 80EUs | 1.5 kg | 16.9 mm | 15.60" | 1920x1080 | |
86.4 % | 10/2021 | Acer Swift 3 SF316-51 i7-11370H, Iris Xe G7 96EUs | 1.7 kg | 15.9 mm | 16.10" | 1920x1080 | |
85.5 % | 08/2021 | Lenovo ThinkPad E15 G3-20YG003UGE R7 5700U, Vega 8 | 1.8 kg | 18.9 mm | 15.60" | 1920x1080 | |
84.7 % | 07/2022 | Dell Inspiron 15 5515-H8P8F R7 5700U, Vega 8 | 1.6 kg | 18 mm | 15.60" | 1920x1080 | |
83.5 % | 08/2021 | Lenovo IdeaPad 5 15ALC05 R5 5500U, Vega 7 | 1.7 kg | 19.1 mm | 15.60" | 1920x1080 | |
82.6 % | 05/2022 | Huawei MateBook D 15 Ryzen 5 5500U R5 5500U, Vega 7 | 1.6 kg | 16.9 mm | 15.60" | 1920x1080 | |
81 % | 02/2022 | Acer Aspire 5 A515-45-R4R1 R7 5700U, Vega 8 | 1.7 kg | 18 mm | 15.60" | 1920x1080 | |
80.7 % | 04/2022 | Asus VivoBook 15 OLED M513UA-L1282W R7 5700U, Vega 8 | 1.8 kg | 18.6 mm | 15.60" | 1920x1080 |
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Case & features: Compact MateBook D 15 without Thunderbolt 4
The chic metal casing of the Huawei MateBook D 15 office notebook comes in matte blue-gray (Space Grey) and has impeccable manufacturing quality. The base unit and the lid offer good stability. At just 1.54 kg, the MateBook is the lightest and also most compact 15.6-inch laptop in our comparison field, which feels very valuable, especially considering the low price. It cannot be opened with one hand (maximum angle is 170 degrees), while the hinges allow the lid to rock slightly.
After loosening ten Torx T5 screws, the device's interior is easily accessible. The screwed battery and the M.2-2280 SSD can be replaced, but the WLAN chip and RAM are soldered, while the AMD model relies on a removable Wi-Fi module. The 2.5-inch bay is redundant due to the lack of connectivity.
Huawei's MateBook D gives the impression of extensive connectivity at first glance, but it is limited to 2x USB-A 2.0, 1x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, HDMI 1.4b, and 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 without DisplayPort when looking closer. Furthermore, since there is no extra charging port, USB-C peripherals cannot be used while the laptop is charging. SD card reader, Ethernet, and Thunderbolt are missing.
The Wi-Fi speeds measured under optimal conditions are good, but clearly lag behind the capabilities of the installed Intel AX201.
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Size comparison
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Huawei MateBook D 15 2021, i5-1135G7 | |
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Asus VivoBook 15 OLED M513UA-L1282W | |
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Input devices: Short stroke for crisp, fast typing
Unlike the Huawei MateBook D 14 the full-size keyboard of the D 15 does not have a backlight. The quite firm and slightly roughened keys with a size of 17 × 17 mm enable fast and quiet typing.
Friends of a short keystroke will feel comfortable here. The keyboard hardly yields under targeted pressure. The function keys "Pos1" and "End" are missing, while a reliably working fingerprint scanner is integrated into the power button.
Display: Matte FHD IPS panel with 281 cd/m² is partially convincing
The MateBook D 15 Intel comes with the same matte 15.6-inch 16:9 display as the AMD model. It gets sufficiently bright for indoor use with 281 cd/m², and the resolution of 1,920 × 1,080 pixels produces a sufficiently sharp image.
The contrast of 691:1 is quite low, as is the color space coverage of 59% sRGB. Thus, demanding image editing is out of the question for Huawei's office laptop. The subjective picture impression is nevertheless surprisingly good, not least because of the clear subpixels.
The Lenovo IdeaPad 5, the ThinkPad E15 G3 AMD, and the Asus VivoBook 15 OLED have brighter screens, while the latter even covers almost 98% of the Adobe RGB color space. PWM, which can cause discomfort for sensitive eyes, is not used.
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Brightness Distribution: 88 %
Center on Battery: 291 cd/m²
Contrast: 691:1 (Black: 0.43 cd/m²)
ΔE Color 4.6 | 0.55-29.43 Ø5.2
ΔE Greyscale 2.24 | 0.57-98 Ø5.4
40.8% AdobeRGB 1998 (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
59.4% sRGB (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
39.5% Display P3 (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
Gamma: 2.39
Huawei MateBook D 15 2021, i5-1135G7 B156HAN02.8, IPS, 1920x1080, 15.60 | Acer Swift 3 SF316-51 Chi Mei CMN160B, IPS, 1920x1080, 16.10 | Lenovo ThinkPad E15 G3-20YG003UGE B156HAN02.1, IPS, 1920x1080, 15.60 | Dell Inspiron 15 5515-H8P8F BOE NV15N4V, IPS, 1920x1080, 15.60 | Lenovo IdeaPad 5 15ALC05 Lenovo LEN156FHD, IPS, 1920x1080, 15.60 | Huawei MateBook D 15 Ryzen 5 5500U B156HAN02.8, IPS, 1920x1080, 15.60 | Acer Aspire 5 A515-45-R4R1 CEC PANDA LM156LF-CL13, IPS, 1920x1080, 15.60 | Asus VivoBook 15 OLED M513UA-L1282W Samsung ATNA56YX03-0, OLED, 1920x1080, 15.60 | |
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Display | 68% | 2% | -7% | -4% | 7% | -4% | 120% | |
Display P3 Coverage | 39.5 | 66.6 69% | 40.3 2% | 36.58 -7% | 42.3 7% | 38.09 -4% | 99.9 153% | |
sRGB Coverage | 59.4 | 99.5 68% | 60.2 1% | 54.37 -8% | 59 -1% | 63.4 7% | 57.3 -4% | 100 68% |
AdobeRGB 1998 Coverage | 40.8 | 68.5 68% | 41.6 2% | 37.79 -7% | 38 -7% | 43.7 7% | 39.35 -4% | 97.6 139% |
Response Times | 24% | -10% | -11% | 31% | -26% | 4% | 94% | |
Response Time Grey 50% / Grey 80% * | 41 ? | 32 ? 22% | 44 ? -7% | 44 ? -7% | 29 ? 29% | 51.2 ? -25% | 38 ? 7% | 2 ? 95% |
Response Time Black / White * | 27 ? | 20 ? 26% | 30.4 ? -13% | 31 ? -15% | 18 ? 33% | 34.4 ? -27% | 27 ? -0% | 2 ? 93% |
PWM Frequency | 2500 ? | 1250 ? | ||||||
Screen | 46% | 25% | 15% | -23% | 8% | 30% | 692% | |
Brightness middle | 297 | 304 2% | 347 17% | 251 -15% | 376 27% | 299 1% | 229 -23% | 366 23% |
Brightness | 281 | 284 1% | 329 17% | 241 -14% | 341 21% | 280 0% | 224 -20% | 371 32% |
Brightness Distribution | 88 | 88 0% | 93 6% | 87 -1% | 78 -11% | 89 1% | 73 -17% | 96 9% |
Black Level * | 0.43 | 0.165 62% | 0.25 42% | 0.23 47% | 0.66 -53% | 0.2 53% | 0.12 72% | 0.01 98% |
Contrast | 691 | 1842 167% | 1388 101% | 1091 58% | 570 -18% | 1495 116% | 1908 176% | 36600 5197% |
Colorchecker dE 2000 * | 4.6 | 1.44 69% | 4.7 -2% | 5.14 -12% | 6.4 -39% | 5.2 -13% | 3.76 18% | 1.9 59% |
Colorchecker dE 2000 max. * | 19.07 | 3.62 81% | 19.4 -2% | 18.41 3% | 20.45 -7% | 20.8 -9% | 5.97 69% | 4.26 78% |
Greyscale dE 2000 * | 2.24 | 2.6 -16% | 1.7 24% | 1.08 52% | 4.59 -105% | 4.1 -83% | 3.01 -34% | 1.27 43% |
Gamma | 2.39 92% | 2.41 91% | 2.2 100% | 2.43 91% | 2.26 97% | 2.2 100% | 2.41 91% | 2.44 90% |
CCT | 6720 97% | 6527 100% | 6475 100% | 6534 99% | 6819 95% | 6548 99% | 6484 100% | 6338 103% |
Color Space (Percent of AdobeRGB 1998) | 68.5 | 37.79 | 38 | |||||
Color Space (Percent of sRGB) | 99.5 | 54.37 | 59 | |||||
Colorchecker dE 2000 calibrated * | 4.4 | 4.2 | 4.44 | 2.3 | ||||
Total Average (Program / Settings) | 46% /
48% | 6% /
14% | -1% /
6% | 1% /
-11% | -4% /
3% | 10% /
18% | 302% /
468% |
* ... smaller is better
Display Response Times
↔ Response Time Black to White | ||
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27 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined | ↗ 14 ms rise | |
↘ 13 ms fall | ||
The screen shows relatively slow response rates in our tests and may be too slow for gamers. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.1 (minimum) to 240 (maximum) ms. » 60 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is worse than the average of all tested devices (22.3 ms). | ||
↔ Response Time 50% Grey to 80% Grey | ||
41 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined | ↗ 18 ms rise | |
↘ 23 ms fall | ||
The screen shows slow response rates in our tests and will be unsatisfactory for gamers. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.25 (minimum) to 636 (maximum) ms. » 57 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is worse than the average of all tested devices (35.2 ms). |
Screen Flickering / PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation)
Screen flickering / PWM not detected | |||
In comparison: 53 % of all tested devices do not use PWM to dim the display. If PWM was detected, an average of 18878 (minimum: 5 - maximum: 3846000) Hz was measured. |
Performance: Huawei MateBook D 15 lags behind AMD
Huawei's affordable MateBook D 15 office laptop is equipped with an Intel Core i5-1135G7, Xe-G7 (80EUs) iGPU, 8 GB soldered LPDDR4X-3733 RAM, and a 256 GB PCIe 3.0 SSD which is more than sufficient for office work and web surfing. Video editing usually already fails due to the small color space, but would be possible with the AMD variant for example with Ryzen 5 5500U and the alternatively available 16 GB RAM, purely in terms of performance.
Test conditions
Huawei offers two performance modes for the MateBook D, which can be switched via the "Fn + P" hotkey. Our benchmarks were run in "Performance" mode, while the smaller MateBook D 14 shows correspondingly less performance despite the same hardware due to testing in "Balanced" mode.
Only the latter is available in battery mode, which was used to determine the runtimes. The CPU performance limits change as follows:
- Balanced (PL2/PL1): 42 W/20 W
- Power (PL2/PL1): 43 W/31 W
Processor
The Intel Core i5-1135G7 is a quad-core processor of the somewhat older Tiger-Lake generation from 2021 and can at most compete against a Ryzen 3 5300U. The AMD variant of the Huawei MateBook D 15 with the six-core Ryzen 5 5500U is about 60 percent faster in our Cinebench R15 loop, while an eight-core Ryzen 7 5700U in the Lenovo ThinkPad E15 G3 and in the VivoBook 15 OLED is even up to twice as fast.
The maximum possible Turbo frequency under a load of all four cores is 3.8 GHz and is roughly maintained in the first 30 seconds, and then settles at 3.3 GHz at quite cool core temperatures of ~70 °C.
Using only the battery as the power source, the Huawei laptop is always in "Balanced" mode, so the multi-core performance is reduced by 20% to the level of the smaller MateBook D 14.
Cinebench R15 Multi Loop
Cinebench R23: Multi Core | Single Core
Cinebench R20: CPU (Multi Core) | CPU (Single Core)
Cinebench R15: CPU Multi 64Bit | CPU Single 64Bit
Blender: v2.79 BMW27 CPU
7-Zip 18.03: 7z b 4 | 7z b 4 -mmt1
Geekbench 5.4: Multi-Core | Single-Core
HWBOT x265 Benchmark v2.2: 4k Preset
LibreOffice : 20 Documents To PDF
R Benchmark 2.5: Overall mean
* ... smaller is better
AIDA64: FP32 Ray-Trace | FPU Julia | CPU SHA3 | CPU Queen | FPU SinJulia | FPU Mandel | CPU AES | CPU ZLib | FP64 Ray-Trace | CPU PhotoWorxx
AIDA64 / CPU PhotoWorxx | |
Huawei MateBook D 14 (2021) | |
Huawei MateBook D 15 2021, i5-1135G7 | |
Average Intel Core i5-1135G7 (9004 - 45366, n=45) | |
Average of class Office (2193 - 48177, n=132, last 2 years) | |
Lenovo IdeaPad 3 15ALC6 | |
Huawei MateBook D 15 Ryzen 5 5500U | |
Lenovo IdeaPad 5 15ALC05 | |
Asus VivoBook 15 OLED M513UA-L1282W | |
Lenovo ThinkPad E15 G3-20YG003UGE | |
Acer Aspire 5 A515-45-R4R1 | |
Dell Inspiron 15 5515-H8P8F |
System performance
The MateBook is responsive and lag-free in everyday tasks. Playing a 4K YouTube video and speedy web surfing with multiple tabs at the same time are no problem for the Intel Tiger Lake system. Thanks to the strong Turbo and the high single-core performance, web surfing is pleasantly fast, which is confirmed by corresponding benchmarks like Mozilla Kraken and Octane V2.
CrossMark: Overall | Productivity | Creativity | Responsiveness
Mozilla Kraken 1.1: Total Score
Speedometer 2.0: Result
Jetstream 2: Total Score
Octane V2: Total Score
WebXPRT 3: ---
WebXPRT 4: Overall Score
CrossMark / Overall | |
Huawei MateBook D 15 2021, i5-1135G7 | |
Huawei MateBook D 14 (2021) | |
Average of class Office (440 - 1773, n=80, last 2 years) | |
Average Intel Core i5-1135G7, Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 80EUs (1058 - 1293, n=11) | |
Asus VivoBook 15 OLED M513UA-L1282W | |
Huawei MateBook D 15 Ryzen 5 5500U | |
Dell Inspiron 15 5515-H8P8F |
CrossMark / Productivity | |
Huawei MateBook D 15 2021, i5-1135G7 | |
Huawei MateBook D 14 (2021) | |
Average of class Office (513 - 1709, n=80, last 2 years) | |
Average Intel Core i5-1135G7, Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 80EUs (1148 - 1332, n=11) | |
Asus VivoBook 15 OLED M513UA-L1282W | |
Huawei MateBook D 15 Ryzen 5 5500U | |
Dell Inspiron 15 5515-H8P8F |
CrossMark / Creativity | |
Huawei MateBook D 14 (2021) | |
Huawei MateBook D 15 2021, i5-1135G7 | |
Average of class Office (424 - 1875, n=80, last 2 years) | |
Average Intel Core i5-1135G7, Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 80EUs (895 - 1263, n=11) | |
Asus VivoBook 15 OLED M513UA-L1282W | |
Huawei MateBook D 15 Ryzen 5 5500U | |
Dell Inspiron 15 5515-H8P8F |
CrossMark / Responsiveness | |
Huawei MateBook D 15 2021, i5-1135G7 | |
Huawei MateBook D 14 (2021) | |
Asus VivoBook 15 OLED M513UA-L1282W | |
Average Intel Core i5-1135G7, Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 80EUs (923 - 1320, n=11) | |
Average of class Office (284 - 1746, n=80, last 2 years) | |
Huawei MateBook D 15 Ryzen 5 5500U | |
Dell Inspiron 15 5515-H8P8F |
Speedometer 2.0 / Result | |
Huawei MateBook D 15 2021, i5-1135G7 | |
Huawei MateBook D 14 (2021) | |
Average of class Office (39.7 - 316, n=39, last 2 years) | |
Average Intel Core i5-1135G7, Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 80EUs (146.5 - 218, n=13) | |
Asus VivoBook 15 OLED M513UA-L1282W | |
Huawei MateBook D 15 Ryzen 5 5500U |
Jetstream 2 / Total Score | |
Average of class Office (62.1 - 309, n=67, last 2 years) | |
Huawei MateBook D 14 (2021) | |
Huawei MateBook D 15 2021, i5-1135G7 | |
Average Intel Core i5-1135G7, Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 80EUs (146.4 - 187.5, n=21) | |
Asus VivoBook 15 OLED M513UA-L1282W | |
Huawei MateBook D 15 Ryzen 5 5500U | |
Lenovo IdeaPad 3 15ALC6 |
Octane V2 / Total Score | |
Huawei MateBook D 15 2021, i5-1135G7 | |
Average of class Office (20009 - 89787, n=48, last 2 years) | |
Huawei MateBook D 14 (2021) | |
Average Intel Core i5-1135G7, Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 80EUs (39503 - 62664, n=21) | |
Asus VivoBook 15 OLED M513UA-L1282W | |
Huawei MateBook D 15 Ryzen 5 5500U |
WebXPRT 4 / Overall Score | |
Average of class Office (80.3 - 285, n=62, last 2 years) | |
Huawei MateBook D 15 2021, i5-1135G7 | |
Huawei MateBook D 14 (2021) | |
Average Intel Core i5-1135G7, Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 80EUs (171.3 - 186.4, n=5) |
* ... smaller is better
PCMark 10 Score | 4831 points | |
Help |
AIDA64 / Memory Copy | |
Huawei MateBook D 14 (2021) | |
Huawei MateBook D 15 2021, i5-1135G7 | |
Average of class Office (11929 - 71202, n=132, last 2 years) | |
Average Intel Core i5-1135G7 (17443 - 63889, n=45) | |
Asus VivoBook 15 OLED M513UA-L1282W | |
Lenovo IdeaPad 5 15ALC05 | |
Lenovo ThinkPad E15 G3-20YG003UGE | |
Huawei MateBook D 15 Ryzen 5 5500U | |
Lenovo IdeaPad 3 15ALC6 | |
Acer Aspire 5 A515-45-R4R1 | |
Dell Inspiron 15 5515-H8P8F |
AIDA64 / Memory Read | |
Huawei MateBook D 15 2021, i5-1135G7 | |
Huawei MateBook D 14 (2021) | |
Asus VivoBook 15 OLED M513UA-L1282W | |
Lenovo IdeaPad 5 15ALC05 | |
Lenovo ThinkPad E15 G3-20YG003UGE | |
Average Intel Core i5-1135G7 (19716 - 63705, n=45) | |
Average of class Office (12298 - 70553, n=132, last 2 years) | |
Huawei MateBook D 15 Ryzen 5 5500U | |
Lenovo IdeaPad 3 15ALC6 | |
Acer Aspire 5 A515-45-R4R1 | |
Dell Inspiron 15 5515-H8P8F |
AIDA64 / Memory Write | |
Huawei MateBook D 15 2021, i5-1135G7 | |
Huawei MateBook D 14 (2021) | |
Average Intel Core i5-1135G7 (18722 - 66778, n=45) | |
Average of class Office (11554 - 88993, n=132, last 2 years) | |
Asus VivoBook 15 OLED M513UA-L1282W | |
Lenovo IdeaPad 3 15ALC6 | |
Lenovo ThinkPad E15 G3-20YG003UGE | |
Huawei MateBook D 15 Ryzen 5 5500U | |
Lenovo IdeaPad 5 15ALC05 | |
Acer Aspire 5 A515-45-R4R1 | |
Dell Inspiron 15 5515-H8P8F |
* ... smaller is better
DPC latencies
DPC Latencies / LatencyMon - interrupt to process latency (max), Web, Youtube, Prime95 | |
Dell Inspiron 15 5515-H8P8F | |
Acer Aspire 5 A515-45-R4R1 | |
Huawei MateBook D 15 Ryzen 5 5500U | |
Lenovo ThinkPad E15 G3-20YG003UGE | |