Verdict
The Huawei MateBook 16s ( 2023 ) is a capable laptop that does the piece of work , and looks near with its low - key design . It has a good touchscreen , a nice keyboard and the overall soma character impress . It has limited constellation alternative and upgradability , however , and no Adam component to set it apart from the competitors .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
Huawei has been known for some fantabulous hardware over the year . Its MateBook serial of laptops has been consistently gamey - quality , to a spot where they ’ve been serious rival desirable of being believe alongside the bigwigs like Apple ’s MacBooks and Dell ’s XPS range . The MateBook 16s is a more recent addition to the batting order , but it impresses .
The MateBook 16s ( 2023 ) is an reiterative update to thefirst 16s , released in 2022 . The 2023 edition gets an upgrade to 13th Gen Intel Core chips , but only the i7 and i9 . The repositing is also limited to a 1TBSSD , with no 512 GB version . 16GBRAMis standard , with no room for enlargement .
Due to the US ban on Huawei , the MateBook sixteen is not useable in the land . It , however , sell in the UK , Europe , and Asia . It just has one mannikin wide uncommitted , the Core i9 model , which sells for £ 1,499.99 . This is the same model we had for reassessment . Here ’s my full review of the Huawei MateBook 16s ( 2023 ) .
Design and Keyboard
Many laptop computer designs are similar nowadays , especially when it comes to productivity - focused machines . The Huawei MateBook 16s does n’t divert far from the touchstone , but it superintend to tick all the right boxwood in that department .
You get a sturdy aluminium organic structure , and the laptop computer feels rather solid and weighs in at around 1.99 kg ( 4.39 pound ) . The edges are all chase , which have the laptop quite comfortable to use . I ’ve used it on a lap and a desk , and my palms and radiocarpal joint were more comfortable than they ’ve been on many other laptops . The medal ease is prissy and broad , which means there ’s a big trackpad as well . My only proceeds with the trackpad is that it managed to catch permanent stripe from my usage , which is likely to be an issue over sentence . It does n’t affect the functionality , however .
The keyboard is very good , too . The key have adequate locomotion , and do n’t feel mushy , nor does it feel difficult to type on . It has a whitened light-emitting diode backlight , which is adequate , but sometimes sense uneven . It ’s practiced than having no backlight , but Huawei could in spades better the carrying out here . The backlight also time out faster than I would have liked it to , and I could n’t receive a setting option to change that .
The verbalizer are top - firing , sandwiching the keyboard . I care this pattern , but the mesh is susceptible to trapping rubble and shite . However , that is the case with nearly every top - firing speaker system in laptop . The major power push come with an integrated fingerprint reader , which is very quick .
The laptop computer comes in a cardboard box , with a plastic handle , styrofoam packing , and a plastic sleeve over the laptop . Overall , the sustainability component with the packing material is 50/50 . Our unit come without a charger in the boxful , but retail units will number with one .
Display and Sound
The showing on the MateBook 16s is one of the key selling decimal point . At 16 inches , the screen is well - sized , and it come in at a 90 % screen door - to - consistence ratio . The bezel are n’t uniform , but Huawei has put a camera in under the top bezel without make it too heavy . The bottom bezel is the thickest , but it ’s thin enough not to be an eyesore .
You get a 2.5 atomic number 19 glistening showing here , which I prefer because of the clearer gloss . Speaking of which , the colour accuracy figures of this laptop in our display bench mark were n’t too far off . With the factory standardisation , the display returned 97%sRGBcoverage as react to the promised 100 % . It manage to cover 74 % ofAdobeRGBand 73 % of theDCI - P3color space .
It ’s not the most colour - accurate display out there , of course , but it was crisp and pleasant to the eye . The glossy presentation did just ok outdoors as well , where this laptop was able-bodied to hit 465.4 nits of luminousness , and was generally very functional . The panel is only 60Hz , which is n’t idealistic give most of the competitors offer higher refresh rate screen now .
The only issue with the glossy screen , for me , is the fact that this is a touchscreen control board , which means fingerprint smudges for twenty-four hour period . The touch screen is prissy and responsive . There is no stylus bundled , nor does the MateBook XVI have a 360 - degree flip - back design . As such , this one is n’t quite the laptop for note - taking . The touchscreen is fairly groovy , but in terminal figure of practicality , you would be limited to the usual navigational economic consumption .
The sound on the laptop is among some of the respectable experiences I ’ve had on laptops . The top - give the sack speaker unit are crisp , and farm a decent and balanced sound . laptop computer speakers have a tendency to fathom cheap , but these , fortunately , do n’t go in that direction . The auditory sensation is n’t as deep as I would have like , but it ’s plenty good for a laptop computer .
Performance
The example of the MateBook 16s I ’ve been test offers up an Intel Core i9 - 13900H , 16 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD reposition . This twist is a productivity laptop computer first and first , and it packs enough lick in that department . It ’s not the most hefty Raptor Lake laptop out there , of course , but it has decent enough performance to be a solid daily equipment driver for home , office , and pupil use . That ’s not to say it wo n’t be able-bodied to treat heavy labor . It did somewhat well in our synthetic bench mark .
In price of real - world public presentation , the MateBook 16 was able-bodied to handle my workload with ease , but to a certain degree . My usage include a relatively lighter work load with a bunch of Chrome tabs with unlike websites stretch at once . Often during my heavier usage sessions , I found the MateBook XVI struggled to keep up with the number of tabs I had open . Google Chrome can be quite a computer memory hog , and the Matebook was hitting 99 % memory usage in Task Manager quite often .
When compared with rival laptops , it often comfortably pass them in benchmark testing . It ’s expected though , with the Core i9 onboard , and that potato chip is mostly overkill for a laptop computer with a productivity focal point . It ’s a pity there is n’t a cheaper Intel Core i5 or i7 option .
I also found the laptop ’s fans ramp up when the computer memory usage stimulate too high , but there was n’t a dip in the overall organization carrying into action as theCPUusage remain pretty low . I ’m located in a rather hot mood as well , which is possibly why the fan spun up , so it would be unfair to label this as an issue with the thermals on the laptop computer .
come in at 4912.62 read and 3962.82 write in our SSD benchmark score , the MateBook 16s ’ store is n’t anything to spell household about . However , it ’s strong enough that performance will be up to sniff and file transfers will be rapid – just not up there with the best of them .
Software
The MateBook sixteen add up with Windows 11 plate . In terms of pre - installed software program , there was nothing too galling on there . That means no anti - virus trial or any other bloatware . Huawei does clump in a few of its own PC tool – Huawei Control Panel , Huawei PC Manager , and Huawei Mobile Cloud .
Huawei PC Manager handles gadget , include external devices like phones and tablets connected to your microcomputer , as well as manage audio devices and camera . While I did n’t particularly rule this useful , the Camera toggle is not bad and can assist economize you from unexpectedly plow on the photographic camera in a meeting . you’re able to reach the camera toggle and the audio devices from the Huawei Control Panel , which is reasonably standardized to the Windows Action Center .
The Huawei Control Panel is useful , but I do n’t see why none of the extra toggles could just be integrated into the Action Centre . The Huawei Mobile Cloud is a OneDrive / iCloud - similar swarm divine service . Potentially utilitarian if you have other Huawei devices but pretty useless otherwise .
Overall , Huawei ’s bundled software is n’t quite useful , but it ’s not intrusive enough to be a botheration . you could uninstall it if necessary , but I did n’t find any reason to do so .
Battery Life
The battery on the Huawei MateBook 16s is middling solid . With my distinctive employment of about 30 - 40 Chrome yellow journalism running , switching between them while using one Google Docs tab to type , and the screen brightness set to 40 % , the MateBook XVI endure for about six 60 minutes . I was able-bodied to stretch out this to around eight hours by being a bit economical with my web browser utilization . As such , it ’s not unrealistic to get a full day ’s usage from a individual charge .
Huawei bundle a 90W or 135W USB - light speed great power adapter in the box seat , but our review unit did n’t have a charger . I used a spare Nubia 65W battery charger to consign the MateBook 16 , and it take on more or less over 40 moment to go from 1 % to 50 % charge and one time of day and 55 minutes for a full charge from 1 % . A 30 - minute charge took the stamp battery percentage to 36 % . These figures could be unlike with the bundled charger , but I expect them to be unspoiled or the same , not unsound .
Even with the 65W battery charger I used , charging was quick enough to be count as commodious . Overall on the barrage life front , the MateBook 16s did well .
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Should you buy it?
The Huawei MateBook 16s does the work and looks adept while doing it , with solid performance and an all - Clarence Day assault and battery life .
The Huawei MateBook 16s has circumscribe configurations and upgradability . There ’s also not much to set it apart from the competition .
Final Thoughts
The Huawei Matebook 16s is n’t a bad offering and pack in estimable hardware in a material body that feels very solid . However , it lacks in term of constellation options and upgradability , and it does n’t have any quality that would make it a very warm testimonial . That ’s not great since it ’s in a market segment that is glut with not bad options .
A solid example of a good choice is the newMacBook aura 15 , which lands around the same price but boasts higher-ranking hardware . Samsung also has theGalaxy Book3 in multiple size of it , savor , and AMOLED screenland around this price rag . There ’s also theAsus Zenbook Pro 14 Duo , which is minor in size but makes up for it with the extra screen . There are also quite a few gambling laptop computer selection in this price bracket that beat the right boxes .
Many of thebest laptopsaround are more exciting – be it Apple Silicon , AMOLED screens , or the novelty and practicality of a duple display . The MateBook 16s almost seems wearisome in equivalence , but that ’s not a bad affair for everybody . It performs decently and flux in . That itself is a USP for many buyer who desire a able no - frills system .
The Huawei MateBook 16s will attend you well . It ’s a perfectly expert laptop – just not an overwhelmingly great one . If you ’re not sure about whether you should grease one’s palms the 16s , you may check out our best laptop guide for more options .
Trusted Score
How we test
Every laptop we review goes through a serial of uniform confirmation designed to judge key things including physical body quality , performance , screen timber and battery life .
These include formal synthetic benchmark and scripted tests , plus a series of material world checks .
FAQs
The Huawei Matebook 16s does n’t have a consecrate GPU , and as such it ’s not really build for gaming . The Intel Iris Xe is a decent integrated GPU , though , so you ’ll be able to play some older titles at low setting .
Yes , the Huawei Matebook 16s is a touchscreen laptop computer with 10 - point multitouch funding and a glossary screen .
Yes , the Huawei Matebook 16s comes with Windows 11 Home preloaded .
