Introduction and unboxing
If you reside exterior of China, then Huawei smartphones have change into considerably of an afterthought for you in these previous few years. We will not go over the explanations for this right here however we’ll add that it is a disgrace for many of us at GSMArena, as a result of Huawei makes a number of the best {hardware} (and significantly cameras) on the planet and we rightfully really feel like we’re lacking out because of the software program’s limitations.
But none of that impacts the corporate’s PC enterprise and Huawei has stored on making glorious laptops for nearly each price range. Today, we’re in all probability the perfect all-rounder – the Huawei MateBook D16 2024.
It’s a 16-inch laptop computer with two USB-A, one USB-C, and an HDMI port. There’s additionally a full-sized keyboard, a quantity pad, and Intel’s thirteenth Gen processors, all of which match into simply 1.72kg with the larger 70Wh battery.
The laptop computer ships with a 65W Huawei Super Charge brick with a completely connected cable.
Ours is the totally loaded mannequin with 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD drive, the Intel i9-13900H processor, and the larger 70Wh battery. It prices €1,399/£1,199 however there are a number of different choices – a number of Core i5 processors and both 8/512GB or 16/512GB with a beginning worth of €649/£549 – lower than half of our review unit.
Design and construct high quality
The MateBook D16 2024 appears like just about each different Huawei laptop computer from a distance. It is available in both (Mystic) silver or (Space) gray (our unit, which is trending towards purple at occasions) and also you get a cool steel physique and a HUAWEI emblem on the lid.
Before we transfer on, it is vital to notice the distinction between the Huawei MateBook D16 2024 and the Huawei MateBook D16 2023. They appears almost an identical and have the identical vary of processors and seemingly the identical show. But the 2023 mannequin has a distinct and arguably higher port choice – two USB-A’s on one facet, two USB-C’s, HDMI, and a 3.5mm audio jack on the opposite facet. The 2023 model is not bought by Huawei however sure retailers have it and it may be value a extra detailed look to ensure that you’re getting the right model.
The hinge may be very agency and opening the lid requires two palms. We’ll deduct factors from Huawei for this as a result of each different laptop computer from the corporate can simply be opened with one finger – completely balanced as all issues needs to be.
Opening the laptops reveals the 16-inch 16:10 1200p show with comparatively skinny bodily bezels that rise above the show glass. The show is matte, has a webcam on prime, and a model emblem beneath.
The keyboard leaves loads of house on your palm on the underside case and there are three stickers for Huawei Share, Intel’s processor, and the graphics.
The MateBook D16 2024 may be very sturdy. There’s no flex while you push down wherever on the chassis and the display screen lid does not budge while you press the corners.
Trackpad, keyboard, show, audio
The trackpad of the MateBook D16 2024 is regular-sized. Some would possibly name it small for the category, particularly in comparison with the same-sized MateBook 16S’.
The floor of the trackpad is easy and feels pure to carry out two and even three-finger gestures and faucets on. If you insist on bodily pushing down the trackpad to faucet, you will discover the perimeters tougher than the middle. The backside of the trackpad is the simplest to press and it is divided into single and double presses – a press on the fitting facet is acknowledged with no consideration mouse click on.
The trackpad, in comparison with the MateBook 16S
The trackpad is barely off-center as a result of the keyboard is offset to the left to accommodate the Numpad. It takes some getting used to however we anticipate Numpad diehards to really feel completely at dwelling right here. The keyboard is totally backlit with a white backlight and two energy settings – half and full.
The keyboard has ample 1.5mm key journey and the keys are properly damped. You have a two-row Enter key and an extended Space key – one thing many will recognize.
The operate row has Huawei’s now-standard set of keys and you’ll lock the Fn button to both have operate keys or the F1-F12 keys practical.
The Numpad has a basic format with a further 4 shortcuts up prime for the Calculator, Search, a button to reduce the at present displayed window, and a key to disable the digicam.
The energy button is within the higher proper nook and encompasses a capacitive fingerprint reader on prime. It’s as much as Huawei’s normal nice normal and has caching, that means when the laptop computer’s turned off, you press it and it’ll energy on and log you in with out the necessity of a second contact.
The 720p digicam is on the highest of the show. It’s within the good spot for video calls – we do not like “up-the-nose cameras” hidden within the keyboard – however that is about as a lot reward as we’re prepared to offer this unit. It’s low decision and the picture from it’s downright unhealthy.
Huawei’s AI Camera software program can put a digital background behind you and apply a magnificence filter in your face (with choices to melt and brighten), but it surely appears unhealthy and the poor 720p feed appears slapped over the uninspired pretend background.
The show is a 16-inch IPS LCD with a taller-than-standard 16:10 side ratio and a decision of 1920x1200px, which rounds off at 142ppi. Huawei says the panel covers 100% of the sRGB gamut and 45% of the NTSC one – and that it has a 1200:1 distinction ratio. There isn’t any touchscreen possibility on the MateBook D16 2024, and the panel is restricted to the usual 60Hz.
The show is rated at as much as 300 nits. We measured 311 nits within the heart as excessive as 330 on the prime left edge, however solely 280 nits on the backside proper one. That’s a uniformity of round 84%, which is not unhealthy, however not superb both.
Colors are fairly saturated and there is a good quantity of distinction right here. Huawei’s Display Manager app is right here but it surely lacks any form of significant show controls apart from adjusting the colour temperature.
The show is matte, which we recognize, particularly in comparison with the shiny MateBook 16S. Huawei’s shiny panels are very reflective and they should compensate with a lot larger brightness, which in flip requires larger battery use. A matte panel is solely extra sensible and it really works within the MateBook D16 2024.
The MateBook D16 2024 subsequent to the MateBook 16S (matte beats shiny, combat me)
There are two microphones on the entrance of the MateBook D16 2024 that produce good sound high quality. Huawei’s PC Manager suite provides a strong quantity of choices. You can select between Noise Cancelling, which tries to eradicate exterior noise, and Sound TrueHD, which does the other, making an attempt to convey your atmosphere to callers in a pure means. It sounds digital and a bit harsh, we left the Noise Cancelling on.
There are two audio system on the underside proper and left of the MateBook D16 2024. They are louder than your common laptop computer audio system and a nice, midrange sound. However, there is not any bass to talk of. Huawei’s PC Manager offers you three choices to amplify the speaker’s output – Smart Optimization is on by default and makes the tiny audio system sound somewhat bit higher. We’d keep away from Ultra-Bass and Sound Turbo as they make little to no significant distinction and none in a constructive course.
Finally, a phrase on upgradeability. To open the MateBook D16 2024, it is advisable unscrew ten Torx T4s after which use a pry device to unsnap the underside panel from the highest one – begin from across the heating vents on the again and gently work your means round, unclasping the panel. You can swap the Wi-Fi card, the battery, and the NVME SSD on this laptop computer. The RAM is soldered onto the motherboard and isn’t upgradeable.
Software, efficiency and battery life
Being a Huawei laptop computer, it comes with smartphone connectivity out of the field. You can hyperlink your Android cellphone (not simply Huawei) and management its show from the laptop computer, again up its images and movies to the laptop computer and have the cellphone’s knowledge connection accessible by Instant Hotspot.
Huawei’s SuperHub lives on the prime of the display screen. Just drag a file up and somewhat digital drawer pops up and you’ll deposit it there. It’s a handy solution to share information, images, movies, in addition to textual content and share it throughout apps and home windows.
Huawei SuperHub
You also can entry the cellphone’s information and share information throughout your laptop computer and cellphone.
Huawei’s PC Manager app is great. It offers tips about the laptop computer and options its management panel with fast toggles to leap to Notes rapidly, Huawei Share, AI Search, allow the hotspot, or the show’s eye consolation mode.
It’s additionally a one-stop store for the entire laptop computer’s drivers, and it is the place you select the efficiency mode. You get a alternative of Balanced and Performance.
We have the MateBook D16 2024 with the thirteenth Gen Intel i9-13900H and 16GB of 3733MHz DDR4 RAM, that is not upgradeable so you may’t add extra or get speedier RAM.
The processor is Intel’s thirteenth Gen i9 (Raptor Lake) and it is essentially the most highly effective you could possibly’ve gotten in a laptop computer final yr. We’re now at Intel’s 14th Gen and its new line of Core processors, so whereas the crown has been misplaced it is nonetheless a beast of a CPU.
The Core i9-13900H is a 45W processor with 14 complete cores, divided between 6 efficiency cores and eight environment friendly cores. The complete variety of threads is 20.
The processor posted a stellar single-core rating in Geekbench 6 and a formidable multi-core rating, beating laptops with the identical chipset however extra spectacular cooling. The Geekbench 6 OpenCL rating is about what you’d anticipate for built-in Intel graphics – a lot decrease than simply about any modern discrete GPU on the market.
Geekbench 6
Diving somewhat deeper into the graphics efficiency of the Intel Iris Xe built-in graphics, we ran GFXBench’s suite of exams. In the high-level exams, the MateBook D16 2024 aced the 1080p Aztec Ruins primarily based on the Vulkan API with round 160fps. The GPU stored round 60fps within the 1440p check and round 25fps within the 4K check.
GFXBench graphic exams
The 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVME SSD contained in the MateBook D16 2024 is a 321JN1024GB-TX01 mannequin quantity and that is about all we find out about it. No phrase on the producer but it surely’s a quick unit with glorious speeds throughout the board.
We did a 1-hour stress check on the CPU to see how the MateBook D16 2024 would deal with its potent processor and had been pleasantly stunned. The laptop computer stored the processor at its peak 3.4GHz for round 10 seconds after which rapidly throttled all the way down to 2.7GHz. It went again as much as 2.8GHz in about quarter-hour after which settled at 2.6GHz for the rest of the check.
Impressively, the ‘Shark fin’ followers, whereas consistently working, weren’t audible throughout our check. Huawei claims the twin fan answer is designed to spice up airflow by 55% and generate as little as 22 dB of noise, and now we have to say it really works nice. For comparability’s sake, the MateBook 16S and its Core i7-12700H throttled to 1.3GHz and stayed there throughout the stress check – an enormous distinction in similarly-sized and cooled laptops.
Battery life
Keeping up with the spectacular streak, the MateBook D16 2024 managed strong numbers in our battery life check. It includes working an 11-hour YouTube video at most brightness and most quantity till the laptop computer dies.
The MateBook D16 2024 managed an outrageous 7 hours and 34 minutes. That’s in comparison with the MateBook 16S’ little over 6-hour outcome. Bear in thoughts that that laptop computer has an 84Wh battery to this one’s 70Wh, although it has a barely larger, higher-resolution show.
Conclusion
The Huawei MateBook D16 2024 prices €1,399/£1,199 on the time of writing and that nets you the best potential configuration of a Core i9-13900H processor, 16GB of RAM, 1TB of storage and a 70Wh battery. You might save €100 and go for the Core i7-13700H mannequin however we would not. It’s a downgrade we would worth at round €200.
At €1,399, the MateBook D16 2024 is not low cost however a fast take a look at the present market yields way more costly choices or very barely cheaper ones with two-year-old processors. We’d say this laptop computer is a superb choice to have at the moment but it surely by no means hurts to attend a number of months for a reduction. Huawei runs promos on a regular basis on its web site and generally the offers are arduous to withstand.
We preferred the MateBook D16 2024. it is a kind of working-class-hero sort units – it does not look fancy or flashy, however it might do all of it, and it is completely fitted to all the things. The show is superb, the efficiency is spectacular, and the battery life does not go away you wanting. What extra is there to say – that is nearly as good as a 16-inch laptop computer may be.
If you need higher, chances are you’ll search for a extra premium construct, a brighter show that is additionally touch-enabled, and maybe for a discrete GPU – however all of that can value you further, fairly a bit, and that proper there’s a complete different sort of laptop computer.
Pros
- Good, matte show with a taller 16:10 side ratio
- Great backlit keyboard, has a Numpad
- Sturdy construct, good port choice
- Very loud audio system
- Long battery life
- Powerful processor that is properly dealt with
- Thoughtful Huawei software program enhances the laptop computer
Cons
- The show is barely 300 nits, is not a touchscreen
- Trackpad might be a bit larger, is off-center
- No bass to talk off
- No possibility for a discrete GPU
- While fairly priced, it is not low cost