Huawei had a big event at MWC 2022 in Barcelona where we saw several devices presented. One of them was the Huawei Matebook E – a brand new 2-in-1 laptop running Windows 11. The company wants to prove itself as a premium brand with its own rich ecosystem and this is the next type of device to which it’s adding that.
The tablet comes with an attachable keyboard and supports the Huawei M Pencil, which we all tested.
The Huawei Matebook E has a 12.6-inch OLED panel with a 16:10 format and a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels. The screen-to-body ratio is 90% with tiny bezels, which isn’t ideal when the tablet is hand-held. It’s also bulky because of the CPU and GPU and cooling – the 710 gram weight quickly makes it difficult to hold the device in one hand.
We like the 400 nits (600 nits peak) brightness and vivid colors on the panel itself and the fact that it looks good from all angles. It is also factory calibrated to a dE
The screen might be 10-point touch, but the operating system isn’t fully touchable, so only parts of it work well in tablet mode. There’s also a slight lag between the M Pencil’s input and screen response, limiting usability in some apps.
In reality, Huawei never claims it’s a graphic designer’s tablet – it’s a device for the kind of home work situation where you might need to quickly sketch something, as a markup presentation or image.
Let’s talk performance. Huawei launched the Matebook E with 11th Gen Intel chipsets – that’s right, the one ahead of the current gen. When asked about this, Huwei revealed that the company intends to bring the device to market immediately and that the introduction of Intel’s 12th generation will be delayed by several months. Maybe we’ll see a refreshed model later when the Matebook E gains enough traction.
Our device is equipped with an Intel Core i5-1130G7 processor. The processor has four cores and eight threads with a maximum frequency of 4.00 GHz, but when they are not being used they run at 1.8 GHz. That’s slightly less impressive than the Core i7 variant, with Geekbench 5 returning 1,113 single-core and 1,868 multi-core scores.
Performance is uninspiring, and a game like Civilization V struggles to run on settings that aren’t low. There is active cooling, with the vents located at the top. The throttling is still quite quick if you insist on the Matebook E.
We also ran Cinebench R23, which scores solid on single-core but a bit mediocre on multi-core.
Performance Cinebench
Huawei offers the Matebook E with two RAM options – 8GB and 16GB, both of which are of the LPDDR4x type. SSD storage is available in 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB. Our 512GB version had an impressive sequential read speed of 3500MB/s and write speeds of 2300MB/s.
The random read speeds were also very solid, while the random write could be better but doesn’t cause any issues for its intended use.
The 42Wh battery charges on the PC and you get a 65W charger in the retail box.
It takes 1.5 hours to charge from 0 to 100%. Draining the battery while streaming Netflix lasted a very respectable 8 hours.
In other test cases, the Huawei Matebook E gave us 2 hours of peak performance and about four hours of video watching and light browsing, sketching presentations, and taking notes.
The Matebook E really lacks I/O. There’s a single USB-C on the right, while the 3.5mm combo audio jack is on the left, and that’s it.
Conversely, four speakers sit in a 2×2 formation on the sides. There’s an 8MP selfie camera for video calls and a 13MP shooter on the back. The latter cannot be used when the magnetic cover is in place unless you flip the top part over.
The cover can be adjusted from 110 to 160 degrees and simply snaps into place with the magnets on the bottom. The accessory itself weighs 440 grams.
Huawei Matebook E
The Huawei Matebook E comes with three magnets on the top for the M Pencil. Once the pen is connected, the UI will notify if the pen is pointing in the right direction so it can charge wirelessly.
Double-tap sideways to take a screenshot or activate voice assistant, or do what you want Windows Ink to do with a double-tap. Huawei offers a transparent tip and another rubbery one for a different feel.
The Huawei Matebook E starts at €649, but that’s for the Intel i3 variant with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage. If you choose the top 16/512GB version, you will also get the magnetic keyboard and M Pencil in the package. This also increases the price to 1,199 euros for the Core i5 version and 1,399 euros for the i7 version.
Obviously, at these prices, it’s definitely not the best-performing laptop in the long run. So if you’re looking for processing power, you might as well keep looking.
However, the hybrid device offers unprecedented flexibility for those who just want to do light office work, surf social media, and watch videos. The OLED screen and decently light body are very hard to find at these prices if you need a device running Windows. The excellent processing quality does not hurt either.