The Huawei Matebook 16 is a laptop that stands out in particular because of its beautiful screen. All in all, it turned out to be a pleasure to work and play on this laptop, you can read more about this in this Huawei Matebook 16 review.
Huawei Matebook 16
Price From € 1149,-
Processor AMD Ryzen 5 5600H or Ryzen 7 5800H
RAM 16GB
Storage 512GB SSD
Screen 16-inch IPS (2520 x 1680)
OS Windows 11 Home
Connections 2x usb-c, 3.5mm headset jack, HDMI, 2x usb
webcam 720p camera
wireless Wi-Fi 6, bluetooth 5.1
Dimensions 25.5 x 35.1 x 1.8cm
Weight 2 kilos
Battery 84 Wh
Website www.consumer.huawei.com
8 Score 80 
- Pros
- Image quality
- Build quality
- Powerful laptop
- battery life
- Negatives
- No GPU or latest chipset
- Weight
The situation surrounding Huawei remains peculiar. In the smartphone area, the brand had to give up hope in the Netherlands: without Google services, the devices were not worth it. That is why the brand focuses on other product groups for consumers, such as in-ears, monitors (such as the Huawei Mateview, smartwatches (such as the Huawei GT3 Pro) and in this case laptops.
Not that these are new product groups for Huawei. And it remains a strange fact that Huawei is not allowed to supply Android with Google services, but is allowed to market products with Windows. By the way, you don’t have to worry: when you buy a Windows laptop from Huawei, Windows will continue to work and receive updates, as is the case with other laptop makers that are not affected by American trade embargoes.
Moreover, Huawei has an advantage over, for example, Asus, because Huawei laptops do not come with bloatware: no pre-installed McAfee misery, icons such as website shortcuts or other messy programs… Only a practical PC Manager, which also contains a handy diagnostic tool to check that all parts are working properly.
Design: MacBook with secure webcam
Huawei has been making laptops for a while now. The Chinese brand pays extra attention to image quality and design. This Matebook does not deviate from that either, with a metal design that is somewhat copied from the MacBook and is very well finished.
It is striking that Huawei has hidden the webcam in the keyboard, in a button between the F6 and F7 keys. Everyone has their own preference, but personally I think it is a nicely concealed option and a privacy function that gives you a feeling of peace of mind. Whether it’s MacBooks, laptops or other equipment: you only really know for sure that your webcam is safely shielded when this happens physically.
That goes well with the Matebook 16. Especially since both Microsoft and Huawei don’t have the best reputations when it comes to privacy and security, although the fear doesn’t always have to be well-founded, such a camera does make you feel more secure.
The disadvantage of the placement is the viewing angle, which is not double chin-friendly. Personally, I worked at home during the pandemic with (another) Huawei laptop with the same camera, whereby it was not the double chins that provided comment, but the ceiling in the office that had not yet been plastered. It’s a personal thing, but to me such a neatly tucked away camera is worth a lot of ceiling commentary.
A lot (weight) on board
The keyboard itself has a nice touch and there is a lightning-fast fingerprint scanner and a fairly large touchpad. In terms of connections, you will find two USB ports on the right, two USB-c (charging) ports on the left, along with an HDMI and audio port.
The laptop is quite large, because it has a 16-inch screen with a (three by two ratio) screen. Although the screen edges are relatively thin. The fact that there is no webcam above the screen helps. Add the metal housing to the size and you come to the conclusion that it is quite a task to carry the Matebook 16: it weighs two kilograms.
The CPU may not be the newest, but it still scores excellent in the benchmarks.
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There is, however, something strange: our test model appeared with Windows 10. Not with Windows 11. The specifications state that the laptop comes with Windows 11. This could possibly be due to the fact that the laptop was announced last year and also with an AMD Ryzen 7 (5800H or 5600H) processor from last year ships. Although the chipset chosen may also be a bit more available due to the aftermath of the chip shortage.
It is something to consider: if you are willing to pay around 1100 euros for a laptop, which is the current suggested retail price, then you may want the latest processor generation.
That does not mean that the laptop performs poorly, however. On the contrary. Excellent scores were achieved in benchmarks and our practical test, in which we had a great time with GTA V, withstood the laptop with quite high settings. Which is clever, since there is no separate video card in the laptop.
Let me state first: the Huawei Matebook 16 is not a gaming notebook. But has enough muscles to play some games.
battery life
The Huawei Matebook is whisper-quiet during normal use, because the fans only switch on with heavier use. The laptop also seems to do its job economically, which, in combination with the high battery capacity of 84 Wh, results in a long battery life. I was able to work on it for about fourteen hours, which of course depends very much on how you load the Matebook.
When I was doing heavy duty work with the charger plugged in, the cooling did a great job. But it was the power strip that got remarkably hot. The test version of the laptop had an extra 135 watt fast charger, the regular charger gave us a better feeling. Moreover, it is also better for the life of the battery.
To the imagination
It is mainly the screen of this laptop that steals the show. The IPS screen is razor sharp: 2520 by 1680 pixels. In addition, the screen is bright enough to illuminate a dark workroom – so that you are not hindered during your work by sunlight that makes your screen difficult to read. The color reproduction is also excellently calibrated, making the laptop also extremely suitable for photo and video editing and design.
The 3:2 aspect ratio works excellently in practice. Although some other models of Huawei laptops have a touchscreen, that is not the case with this Matebook 16. Although that’s personal, I’ve never missed that in practice. Windows and touchscreen still feels like a forced marriage.
Still, there are a few points about that screen. The glass panel of the screen reflects a little. The 60 hertz refresh rate may not appeal to everyone, although you may be better off with a gaming laptop if that’s important to you. The Macbook mini LED screens are also just a bit more impressive… And more expensive.
Conclusion: buy Huawei Matebook 16?
Regardless of what you use your laptop for: the screen of the Huawei Matebook 16 invites you to look at it all day long. The image quality is truly superb. The battery life, build quality and performance are also very good. However, the laptop is pricey, and for that money you don’t have a separate video card or the latest AMD chipset. The size and weight also make the Matebook not very mobile.
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