Huawei MateBook 16 review: A high-performance laptop powered by the Ryzen 7 5800H

We’re on familiar ground here because Huawei’s design has changed quite a bit recently. It’s still similar to Apple’s MacBooks and the build quality is there. Aesthetics are improved anyway, with aluminum frame bezels accented by a metal bezel and an ultra-thin bezel screen.

The keyboard is really fun to use and the very large touchpad is very streamlined, although it does sink a lot under pressure, especially at the front. The keyboard backlight is adjustable in 3 levels and there is a fingerprint reader on the on/off button at the top right of the computer, but unfortunately there is no Windows Hello webcam to quickly unlock the screen.

The explanation for this absence is very simple: if Huawei abandoned the annoying webcam on the keyboard in its latest versions, it is here … so you have to press the appropriate button to take it out and use it; Too bad for video calls with a view of the nostrils and chin. It shoots a 720p pixelated movie and the result is not very convincing, even worse in low light.

Connectivity anyway is well supplied on the edges, with two USB-C 3.2 ports, an HDMI 2.0 port, a mini-jack on the left, and two USB-A 3.2 ports on the right; Enough to meet most uses, although an SD card reader would be welcome. On the other hand, there is only wifi 5, slower than the last 6 standard, it’s a shame.

To access the components, simply remove the 10 Torx screws located under the chassis. We discover the RAM unfortunately soldered, but also protected by a metal casing, and the M.2 SSD is removable, and therefore replaceable. The battery can also be easily replaced by removing the Phillips screws that hold it in place.

In terms of ventilation, the computer remained silent in many situations, even if greedy programs like Blender increased the noise to 37.8 dB, which remains audible, but is far from the models the games that easily exceeds 40 decibels. On the other hand, heating is still contained. We noticed a maximum of 43°C at the air outlet and only 36.5°C in the center of the keyboard, which is very low.

Like we said above, our test model sports an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H processor paired with a 512GB SSD and 16GB of RAM. Unfortunately Huawei’s schedule is too early to take advantage of the Ryzen 6000s, but the 5800H is one of the best models available to consumers, so its performance is there.

It scored 124 on our performance test; It scores higher than 11th-generation Intel processors, but lower than the massive Core i9-12900H found only on larger configurations. the games. Huawei is also promoting a “performance” mode that is activated by pressing “Fn + P” at the same time. We’ve already tested it on other models without noticing any special attention, and again, we didn’t notice any difference during video processing and 3D rendering tests.

In the game, the integrated GPU part of the processor (Vega generation – 512 compute units at 2 GHz) works well because we were able to play Note and watch 64 fps with graphics set to Low and Diablo III at 30 fps in “high”; It is enough to enjoy some old or permissive nicknames.

The MateBook 16 fits easily in a standard backpack (35 x 25.5 x 1.8 cm), but is much heavier (2 kg) than ultraportable laptops. A 135W fast charger is also necessary for sure, but it weighs 480g. Oddly enough, Huawei does not offer its usual block charger format that plugs directly into the mains, but rather offers a “classic” block, located halfway between the USB-C cable and the power cable. Note that the latter can be detached from the block to be replaced with an external mains cable (US or UK in particular) if necessary, although these are not included with the computer. Modeled on the Apple MacBooks, this system allows you to plug in a mains plug instead of the mains cable. However, this accessory does not appear to be part of the Huawei catalog.

Zoom