Huawei MateBook 14 2020 review - Android

This is our review of the Huawei MateBook 14 2020.

The post Huawei MateBook 14 2020 review appeared first on Technobaboy.com.

This is our review of the Huawei MateBook 14 2020.

Huawei has expanded its product line in the last couple of years, carving a good name for itself with growing list of notebooks ranging from 13-inches to 16-inches. The Huawei MateBook 14 2020 is one such device.

The laptop launched in the Philippines last October with an AMD Ryzen 5 4600H, a 14-inch 2K display, and a premium aluminum body. With a price of Php 54,999, the question that will always be asked is “Is it worth it?”.

That’s what we’re here to find out.

Design and Display

The MateBook 14 follows the design aesthetics of the other MateBooks in Huawei’s lineup with a clean layout, curved edges, a thin body, and a sturdy aluminum body.

Space Grey is the only color available which gives it an elegant, professional, corporate-type vibe. The coat of paint is smooth to the touch and feels good in the hand. While the strong, solid build is capable of withstanding abuse, making it an ideal daily driver.

The laptop has a good-sized chicklet keyboard. It is backlit, allowing for typing in the dark. The keys are large with a shallow travel that feels soft.

The power button is sits on the top right of the keyboard with an embedded fingerprint scanner. It works with Windows Hello, allowing for a fast and convenient way to logon the laptop.

Just below the keyboard is a large touchpad. It appears to be made of plastic, but it is smooth and responsive. There’s a Huawei Share tag underneath the pad, allowing Huawei smartphones to easily connect to the laptop.

The keyboard also hides the front facing camera. It is tucked between the F6 and F7 keys, that pop-up with a keypress. Since it sits below the display, it presents an awkward angle that looks upward when in use.

Up front, you have a 14-inch 2K IPS display with a 2160 x 1440 resolution, 185 PPI, 1500:1 contrast ratio, 100% sRGB color gamut, and TÜV Rheinland Low Blue Light Certification. Unlike other 14-inch screens, this one is more spacious and appears to look larger in fact, thanks to the 3:2 aspect ratio. The display looks bright with good punchy colors and and good viewing angles.

The screen has thin side and top bezels that contribute in keeping the laptop maintain a compact size. It measures 307.5 x 223.8 x 15.9 mm and weighs just 1.53 kg or around 3.37 lbs.

As for the I/O ports, it has a USB-C that supports data, DisplayPort and charging on the left with a 3.5 mm combo jack for headphones and mics, and an HDMI. On the right you have a USB-A 3.0 port and a USB-A 2.0 port. Unfortunately, you can’t tell which one is which.

The stereo speakers are downward firing, right underneath the laptop on each side. They actually sound pretty good and can get really loud.

Performance and Battery Life

The Huawei MateBook 14 2020 is a powered by an AMD Ryzen 5 4600H with 6 cores and 12 threads, 16GB DDR4 RAM and 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD. That’s pretty generous, considering most laptops within this price range normally have half the RAM and even less storage amount. It runs on Windows 10 Home.

Like most laptops, this one comes with a proprietary software called PC Manager. It helps keep track of, manage, and update hardware drivers, monitor laptop health through system checks, and helps manage the fingerprint sensor.

It also comes with Huawei Share. Through this, you can connect your EMUI 10 or above Huawei smartphone via NFC found on the touchpad. The app lets you wirelessly transfer files to and from the the notebook, as well as answer regular and video calls, and send text messages.

Performance-wise, the MateBook 14 2020 is built for productivity. It can easily handle Office applications, photo editing via Adobe Photoshop, and heavy browser usage. For those thinking of gaming, well, you can run casual games like Fall Guys. But triple-A may be a reach, even with modest settings.

Here are the benchmark results:

• Geekbench 5 – 679 (Single-Core), 3,821 (Multi-Core)
• 3DMark Fire Strike – 2,746 (Graphics Score), 16,761 (Physics Score), 862 (Combined Score)
• 3DMark Time Spy Score – 839 (Graphics Score), 4,910 (CPU Score)
• Cinebench R23 – 1,101 (Single-Core), 7,250 (Multi-Core)
• PCMark 10 – 4,989 (Overall), 8,779 (Essentials), 7,538 (Productivity), 5,094 (Digital Content Creation)

The laptop comes with a 56Wh battery and a 65W USB-C Switching Power charger included in the package. As a productivity tool working mostly Word, photo editing via Adobe Photoshop, and heavy browsing with the Edge browser, we got 6 to 7 hours of battery life which isn’t bad at all. You can conceivably squeeze out more if you tone down you usage or if you switch on Airplane Mode.

The charger, by the way, can also charge compatible smartphones up to 65-watts with fast charging support.

Verdict

For Php 54,999, you’re getting premium laptop with an aluminum build, a great keyboard, a large touch pad, and a spacious 14-inch IPS display with 3:2 aspect ratio. The AMD Ryzen 5 4600H offers good performance for most tasks and battery life is actually not bad. And despite the size, it weighs under 4 lbs.

As for the question of “Is it worth it?”. The answer is a resounding yes.

Price and Availability

The Huawei MateBook 14 2020 has a price of Php 54,999 in the Philippines. The premium laptop is available on Huawei online and offline stores.

Huawei MateBook 14 2020 specs

• Display: 14-inch 2K FullView IPS Display, 1500:1 Contrast Ratio, 100% sRGB Color Gamut
• Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 4600H
• GPU: AMD Radeon Graphics
• RAM: 16GB DDR4 RAM
• Storage: 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD
• Camera: 720p HD Recessed Camera
• Connectivity:
• Others: Backlit Chiclet Keyboard, Fingerprint Power Button, 2W Stereo Speakers, 4 x Mic, 65W USB-C Charger
• Ports: USB-C, 2 x USB 3.2, HDMI, 3.5mm Headphone/Mic Jack
• OS: Windows 10 Home
• Dimensions: 307.5 x 223.8 x 15.9 mm, 1.49kg
• Battery: 56Wh Lithium Polymer

The post Huawei MateBook 14 2020 review appeared first on Technobaboy.com.