Razer Blade Stealth vs. Huawei MateBook 13: The two fastest 13-inch Ultrabooks available

Though the Huawei MateBook 13 isn't marketed as a gaming laptop, it actually carries the same core components that power the newest Razer Blade Stealth for similar gaming performance. In fact, it's one of the only three subnotebooks (MateBook 13, Blade Stealth, and MSI PS42 Prestige) to use a full-power 25 W GeForce MX150 GPU instead of the slower 10 W MX150 variant.

Is one model objectively better than the other?

Chassis Quality

The Blade Stealth has the upper hand in terms of rigidity. Its base is less prone to flexing all while being thinner and just as light. It's almost 20 mm wider, however, due to the disparity in display aspect ratio (16:9 vs. 3:2).

CPU Performance

The Whiskey Lake-U Core i7-8565U processor performs faster and more stably on the Blade Stealth when subjected to prolonged stress as shown by our graph below. Expect 8 percent more CPU performance on average from the Razer even though both are equipped with identical processors.

GPU Performance

Both laptops have the same 25 W GeForce MX150 GPU. The Razer, however, has double the GDDR5 VRAM (4 GB vs. 2 GB). The extra memory doesn't impact gaming performance very much since the MX150 will more likely be bottlenecked by its narrow interface bandwidth and number of CUDA cores first before being bottlenecked by VRAM.

Fan Noise 

Both laptops remain silent during low loads like browsing or video streaming. When under heavier loads, however, there are pros and cons to each. The MateBook 13 is able to stay quieter for longer before its fans begin revving. Meanwhile, the Blade Stealth is quieter when full-on gaming.

Display

The 16:9 Blade Stealth has two display options (1080p matte or 4K UHD touchscreen) whereas the 3:2 MateBook 13 is fixed at 2160 x 1440 touchscreen. The former is preferable for multimedia and gaming while the latter is better for word processing, presentations, and general office work. The Razer display is also brighter with more accurate colors out of the box as well since each unit is factory-calibrated before before reaching the customer.

Battery Life

Battery capacity is 26 percent larger on the Blade Stealth when compared to the MateBook 13. Perhaps not coincidentally, battery life is 25 percent longer as well.

Ports

The Razer comes out on top by a wide margin in this particular category. Not only does the Blade Stealth have multiple USB Type-A ports, it also has Thunderbolt 3 to top it all off. The MateBook 13 is limited to two USB Type-C ports only and AC adapter recharging is limited to just one port.

Conclusion

Razer's laptop is the stronger model of the two. It's got more port options, slightly faster performance, cooler temperatures when gaming, quieter fans when gaming, longer battery life, a brighter display, and an RGB keyboard all without being any heavier or thicker.

The catch, however, is price. Users will be paying $1600 for the Blade Stealth (256 GB SSD, MX150, 16 GB RAM) versus $1300 for the MateBook 13 (512 GB SSD, MX150, 8 GB RAM). The costlier investment may be worth it especially for power users who want an Ultrabook with longer legs. Here's hoping that Razer solves some of the issues we found on an early unit.

See our full reviews on the Blade Stealth and MateBook 13 for more details and benchmarks.