Pros | Cons |
+ Great Display | - Plastic-y keyboard and touchpad |
+ Performs Well | - Mediocre Audio |
+ Aesthetically Pleasing | |
HUAWEI Matebook D16
RM3,999
If you are a frequent visitor of Salty, you may have seen my first impression and unboxing of the HUAWEI Matebook D16. Today is when I, will get deep down and detailed with regards to HUAWEI’s latest product and what the HUAWEI Matebook D16 has to offer.
Design
As mentioned in my previous article, the HUAWEI Matebook D16 only weighs 1.71KG and is undoubtedly light to bring around. After bringing the laptop around for a few days, I am enjoying the metallic chassis even more as it has no issues matching my outfits.
The lid and the body come in the color Mystic Silver and has a HUAWEI logo on the middle allowing a very minimalistic approach despite still remaining fashionable.
Display
The HUAWEI Matebook D16 comes with a 16” IPS display coupled with a 16:10 aspect ratio and a 100% sRGB color gamut making the color accuracy as accurate as possible.
In terms of viewing angle, one is able to achieve a 178° of viewing angle allowing presentation amongst peers to be done as effortlessly as possible.
Personally, I enjoyed the display that this laptop can provide as it came out smooth and the color remained crisp. The IPS panel definitely helped when it came to making the colors pretty.
On top of the display, a 1080P AI camera can be located for all our e-meetings. The 1080p camera is definitely a step up compared to the 420p or even 720p resolutions most laptops in the market carry.
There are two speakers that can be located on the bottom of the laptop which didn’t blow me away as the audio was definitely more muffled. The audio output also lacked bass and clarity which was honestly disappointing.
Keyboard & Touchpad
The HUAWEI Matebook D16 comes with a keyboard and a Numpad. Personally, I am not a big fan of the Numpad it comes with as it disrupts my typing and I am not used to having one on a laptop. The keyboard also feels flimsy and plastic-y to touch instead of firm and premium.
However, being tuned with a 1.5mm key travel, the words are registered quickly and the need to slam the keyboard is barely there.
The touchpad on the other hand is smooth and did not show signs of lagging, however, it is also not firm to touch and is wobbly. The positioning of the touchpad also throws me off because it is located in the middle of the keyboard and not the middle of the laptop itself.
Ports
In terms of connectivity, the ports that are offered are a tad bit insufficient for content creators as there is only 2x USB Type C port (which supports data, and charging while the other also supports DisplayPort), 1x HDMI 2.0, and 1x 3.5mm audio jack on the left. While it has a 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 port on the right.
I wished it had more ports and even an SD card reader and an ethernet port to fully give us content creators an amazing experience.
Performance
The unit I have comes with a 12th Gen Intel Core i5-12450H processor, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage making it more than enough for all my needs and usage.
However, there is a more atas version which comes with a 12th Gen Intel Core i7, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage while the lower end is available with a 12th Gen Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, and 512GB of storage.
Personally, I had no issues in terms of performance especially thanks to the 16GB of RAM that it comes onboard with, I did not lag nor slowed down even with 20 tabs opened simultaneously. The SSD benchmark for this laptop is as follows:
Battery-wise, it comes with a 65W Pocket Charger and a 60Wh battery. The battery did not disappoint as I could do work on this laptop for an entire day without the need to plug it in while the charger could juice me up to a 100% battery in just under an hour.
Buy or no buy?
The moment of truth, do I think that the HUAWEI Matebook D16 is worth the buck? I would say yes if you are looking for a laptop that is powerful enough to sustain you through creative content creations and it even looks great.
However, if you are looking for a laptop to blast music with, play occasional games on, or need more ports on the go, there should be other laptops available from HUAWEI. At the end of the day, it is your bucks you are spending, hence, decide away!
