Chinese electronics company Huawei is making some of the most impressive smartphones around these days, and while Huawei is a relative newcomer to the PC space, the company’s Matebook X Pro laptops are considered by many to be some of the best Windows notebooks available.
So what’s next? Apparently a Windows on ARM PC.
The folks at Notebook Italia got an opportunity to check out the new Huawei Matebook E 2019 recently, and report that it’s a 2-in-1 tablet with a built-in kickstand, a detachable keyboard, and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 processor.
The Matebook E 2019 should be available in China in May. There’s no word on if or when it will hit international markets.
The computer features a 12 inch, 2160 x 1440 pixel display with a 3:2 aspect ratio and 400 nits or brightness.
Other features include support for 4GB to 8GB of RAM, 128GB or 256GB of UFS storage, and support for a digital pen that features 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity.
The tablet itself weighs about 1.5 pounds and measures about a third of an inch thick. Add the keyboard cover and the weigh is closer to 2.2 pounds.
The computer is fanless, supports 4G LTE as well as 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.1, and NFC. It features a 13MP rear camera, a 5MP front-facing camera, a USB Type-C port, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a fingerprint sensor. There are stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos sound.
The Matebook E 2019 also features a 36.3 Wh battery that the company says should be good for up to 20 hours of usage, although that obviously depends on what you’re using the tablet to do.
Overall, the computer seems like an interesting new addition to the Windows on ARM space, but there are a few features it lacks. There’s no backlit keyboard or microSD card reader. Not all Win32 applications can run on computers with ARM chips. And while the Snapdragon 850 processor offers a significant performance boost over the Snapdragon 835 chip that powered first-gen Windows on ARM hardware, it still lags behind recent low-power Intel chips in benchmarks.
You can check out Notebook Italia’s hands-on video with the Matebook E 2019 below if you want to get a better idea of what the new 2-in-1 tablet looks like. The video’s in Italian, but hands-on videos have a sort of universal language all their own.
Waste of time. Will not run x64 software. Runs only x86 software under emulation. Number of native ARM software is still very small when compared to x86 or x64. Will not be compatible with many games. These smartphone mobility iGPUs are not suited for Windows games.
Anybody daft enough to use this manufacturer’s gear needs to have their tech cards taken away from them. The amount of security risk to ANYTHING done on their gear is of serious concern unless you live under a rock.
Also make them wear scarlet “H” letters once you’re at it.
That’s for their own good and security, yaknow?
That said, Huawei is Huawei.
If your threat model includes Chinese state, yep, it’s unwise to use it.
Nice to see Windows PCs with more than 32gb of storage for a change.
I want one of these as a secondary devices to my home desktop. 2 things are holding me back, price and the lack of an ARM native Adobe Lightroom.
I have the x86 version of this released last year & it is a fantastic device. The only downside is the 6-7hr battery life. The ARM version should solve that problem. From my experience with Windows on ARM, Windows itself runs great, so do ARM native apps. The only slowdown is the x86 emulation. Now that the major browser makers are porting over to ARM there is really no reason not to buy 1 anymore. Desktop browsing & file management are critical for me. Really hope ChromeOS goes starts using ARM soon as well.
The only reason I still even use my iPad is because of the 15hr battery life. Looking forward to dumping it.
Price might be a reason. If it’s $800 but offers comparable performance to a $400 Chromebook -one might opt for a $600 x86 device instead
We’re getting close to something worthwhile here.
SD850 is nice but SD8cx would be even better. Hopefully Huawei will launch a Matebook X with the SD8cx. This would be the perfect device. My wallet is ready if they do.