The Huawei MateBook X Pro is one of the best Intel Evo laptops, but the lack of maintenance options prevents a better rating

The new Huawei MateBook X Pro confirms its flagship status in our review and it is currently one of the best Intel Evo laptops you can buy. Compared to the previous model there are some changes, including a slightly larger chassis to accommodate the larger 14.2-inch screen. It is also a bit bigger than the majority of 13.3-inch laptops and also slightly bigger than the new Apple MacBook Air M2, but it is still very compact and very comfortable to carry around at little more than 1.2 kg. The magnesium chassis with its soft surfaces feels nice to touch and we also like the dark blue color, which is fortunately not as prone to fingerprints as the new MacBook Air M2 in the color Midnight.

Huawei implements a total of four USB-C ports distributed across both sides, and two of them support Thunderbolt 4 for the first time. It is nice that you can charge the MateBook X Pro on both sides and the box also includes an adapter cable to USB-A. The manufacturer also uses a modern Wi-Fi 6E module from Intel, which supports the latest 6 GHz networks and manages very high transfer rates. 

In addition to the very good chassis, three components really stand out. The most obvious part is the IPS screen with its 3:2 aspect ratio, which is very bright at up to 600 nits, offers excellent subjective picture quality including 90 Hz refresh rate, and it already offers very accurate colors out of the box. Its screen surface is also not as reflective as on previous models, which helps outdoors. The panel covers almost the full P3 gamut and it is very easy to switch to sRGB via software. The second highlight is the new touchpad. Like on Apple's MacBooks, there are no moving parts and you get haptic feedback instead. This works really well and there are additional gestures when you move your finger along the edges, for example. This is a simple way to adjust the brightness and volume or skip forward when you watch a video. The third highlight is the sound system with six speakers, which can even beat the MacBook Air M2 and is just very enjoyable. If it had a bit more bass, it could even compete with the sound system of the MacBook Pro 14.

The performance of the new Intel Alder Lake processor is very good in general, but there is once again the issue with the high power consumption, which also requires a 90W power adapter. The fan activity is not a big issue though and the fans also stay very quiet under load when you use the Balanced performance mode. 

There are also some smaller problems that prevent an even higher score. The SSD performance suffers under sustained load due to temperature problems, even though this should not be a limitation for typical daily workloads. The bigger issue is that Huawei makes it pretty much impossible to open the chassis since there are hidden screws underneath the glued rubber feet. It is therefore not possible to replace the SSD or clean the fans. We cannot understand this unnecessary limitation and it prevents a better rating. The battery runtime of the MateBook X Pro is also not great, which is a result of the high power consumption from the Alder Lake Core i7-1260P and also the 14.2-inch screen, which is just not very efficient.

All things considered, the new Huawei MateBook X Pro is a very good overall package and currently one of the best mobile laptops you can get, even though it is not cheap. The RRP of 2199 Euros is higher than before, but the rivals with similar specs (16 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD) are not much cheaper, either. If you can live with the average battery runtime and don't mind the lack of maintenance options, then you should definitely have a close look at the new 2022 MateBook X Pro. Please see our full review for more information including benchmark scores and measurement results:

• Huawei MateBook X Pro 2022 Review (Intel Core i7-1260P, 16 GB RAM, IPS)