The Huawei MateBook E is an impressive-looking Surface Pro alternative
The Huawei MateBook E is a 2-in-1 hybrid with a 12.6in OLED panel
Two-in-one convertibles have a patchy reputation, despite theoretically offering the best of both tablets and laptops in one handy package. But while some, such as the Microsoft Surface Pro 8, offer something approaching this, the majority somehow end up feeling like less than the sum of their parts.
The 2022 MateBook E is Huawei’s latest attempt at perfecting the formula and, on paper, it all looks very promising. Internally, the MateBook E comes in three flavours, with a choice of either an Intel Core i3-1110G4, i5-1130G7 or i7-1160G7 with 8GB or 16GB of LPDDR4x RAM. There are also three different SSD storage configurations: 128GB, 256GB and 512GB.
We’re also getting the first OLED display in a Huawei computer – a 12.6in number with a Delta E value of less than one, the company claims. It boasts a 90% screen-to-body ratio, covers 100% of the DCI-P3 spectrum and can reach a brightness of 600 nits.
The screen is detachable from the Huawei Smart Magnetic Keyboard (or Huawei Glow Keyboard, if you’re feeling fancy) to become an even more portable tablet. It should be suitably robust, constructed from a magnesium alloy, with a glass fibre back cover. It’s also light, weighing just 709g, and comes in at a mere 7.9mm thick.
Huawei’s second-generation M-Pencil is also supported and not as an afterthought: it magnetically sticks to the device and wirelessly charges when not in use. When you’re using it, it should supply up to ten hours of battery life, and be a valuable extra with 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity and just 2ms of latency.
Other pertinent details: the MateBook E has a fingerprint reader on the power button for added security, boasts a 3D cooling system with graphene heat dissipation and supports 65W charging via a dedicated USB-C port.
All in all, it sounds like a compelling package, assuming the price and unspecified internals are all up to snuff. Whether it’s enough to knock the Surface Pro off its perch is another matter entirely, of course.