Huawei’s Matebook D 16 is a keenly-priced all-rounder ultraportable
Intel grunt and a productivity-minded display
With more of a mainstream focus than Huawei’s high-end laptops, the MateBook D range has always blended performance and portability – without overdoing it on hardware specs or incredibly thin dimensions. The new, 2022 edition is more of the same, only this time there’s 12th-gen Intel power inside.
The new Huawei MateBook D 16 is an evolution of the AMD-powered version released late last year, largely carrying across the minimalist looks and dark, Space Grey aluminium construction. It weighs in at 1.75kg, which is pretty svelte for a 16in laptop.
You get the same connectivity (two USB ports, two USB-Cs, an HDMI output and 3.5mm headphone port), same handy fingerprint sensor/power button combo for quickly skipping the login screen, and same 16in, 1920×1200 LCD display. It promises a 1200:1 contrast ratio, 100% coverage of the sRGB colour gamut, and a peak 300 nits of brightness.
Speakers have taken a back seat to make room for a keyboard with a numerical keypad, which should make the MateBook D 16 a little more office-friendly.
Underneath, it’s all change. Power comes from either an Intel Core i5-12450H or Core i7-12700H – the latter being an eight-core, 16-thread productivity powerhouse that can boost up to 4.7GHz when temperatures aren’t too toasty. It also gets Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics, which should be a welcome step up from the UHD graphics found in the i5 version. There’s no dedicated GPU option.
You can equip it with either 8GB or 16GB of RAM, but all versions get a 500GB NVMe SSD. Even the base spec should be plenty for the kinds of daily duties most mainstream users will be getting up to, but those looking for a bit more grunt would do well to step up to the i7 edition.
Huawei is also bigging up the 1080p webcam, which uses face detection to auto-centre and follow your movement while on video calls, a la Apple’s Center Stage feature.
The Huawei MateBook X should land in the UK from the 13th of July, from all the usual online retailers and direct from the Huawei store. Prices will start from £750 for the Core i5 version and £999 for the Core i7. Anyone getting their order in before the 12th of July will also get a free MateView GT 27 monitor, while Huawei has stock.
Tom Morgan-Freelander
Deputy Editor 
