TL;DR: You probably don't want it.
Hi all,
I've used the 16" Huawei / Honor MagicBook Pro (yes, that's its real name!) for a week now and wanted to give a review.
The reason I bought it:
I liked the idea of the Surface Laptop 3, basically an ultrabook with a larger screen. Not much performance, just a light computer with a big screen.
What I like:
I'm pleasantly surprised with the build quality and the size and weight compared to the screen size.
The laptop is about 1.7 kilos, pretty thin, nice silver aluminium. It's not a perfect unibody like the Macbook, but I can forgive that given the price.
The screen is a middle of the road screen and I kind of like it. The 1080p resolution would probably too little for some, but I don't mind it at all. It's only 300 Nits, but it's got a matte finish so the 300 nits are okay for bright rooms and even outside, as long as there's no direct sunlight. The bezels are so tiny that it looks very premium.
The trackpad is great for Windows laptop, as long as you use gestures. The buttons sound pretty cheap and don't feel great.
The port selection is relatively generous for a 2019 laptop: 3 USB A, 1 USB C, HDMI, headphone jack.
The speakers are well positioned and very clear. Price / performance is pretty good.
What I dislike:
So, they keyboard is pretty much terrible. Not Butterfly terrible, it's worse. It barely has any travel, and at the same time, the keys lack the stability the Butterfly keys have. The backlight is - frankly - a joke. I've never seen anything like it. Even in a pitch black room it's hard to make out the backlit keys.
The speakers, while well positioned and clear, don't get very loud and have zero bass. Listening to music? Enjoy half the song. Want to use headphones? Enjoy permanent buzzing / humming.
Battery life is a joke and a half. The 57 wh battery lasts for four hours, if that.
I'm still struggling to remove the glue from those "Intel Inside" sticker on the base, by the way.
Due to import taxes (the laptop only ships from China at this point), you can basically add 20% of the sticker price, meaning it's not even that cheap.
My configuration (i5-8250u, MX250, 512 GB SSD, 8 GB RAM) cost 900 Euros shipped and delivered.
Lesson learned:
Buy cheap, buy twice. I could live with the minor flaws this computer has, but the keyboard is frankly unusable.
I don't know if there's another laptop in this very narrow category of mine, so I might just get the X1 Extreme 2nd Gen next.
Hi all,
I've used the 16" Huawei / Honor MagicBook Pro (yes, that's its real name!) for a week now and wanted to give a review.
The reason I bought it:
I liked the idea of the Surface Laptop 3, basically an ultrabook with a larger screen. Not much performance, just a light computer with a big screen.
What I like:
I'm pleasantly surprised with the build quality and the size and weight compared to the screen size.
The laptop is about 1.7 kilos, pretty thin, nice silver aluminium. It's not a perfect unibody like the Macbook, but I can forgive that given the price.
The screen is a middle of the road screen and I kind of like it. The 1080p resolution would probably too little for some, but I don't mind it at all. It's only 300 Nits, but it's got a matte finish so the 300 nits are okay for bright rooms and even outside, as long as there's no direct sunlight. The bezels are so tiny that it looks very premium.
The trackpad is great for Windows laptop, as long as you use gestures. The buttons sound pretty cheap and don't feel great.
The port selection is relatively generous for a 2019 laptop: 3 USB A, 1 USB C, HDMI, headphone jack.
The speakers are well positioned and very clear. Price / performance is pretty good.
What I dislike:
So, they keyboard is pretty much terrible. Not Butterfly terrible, it's worse. It barely has any travel, and at the same time, the keys lack the stability the Butterfly keys have. The backlight is - frankly - a joke. I've never seen anything like it. Even in a pitch black room it's hard to make out the backlit keys.
The speakers, while well positioned and clear, don't get very loud and have zero bass. Listening to music? Enjoy half the song. Want to use headphones? Enjoy permanent buzzing / humming.
Battery life is a joke and a half. The 57 wh battery lasts for four hours, if that.
I'm still struggling to remove the glue from those "Intel Inside" sticker on the base, by the way.
Due to import taxes (the laptop only ships from China at this point), you can basically add 20% of the sticker price, meaning it's not even that cheap.
My configuration (i5-8250u, MX250, 512 GB SSD, 8 GB RAM) cost 900 Euros shipped and delivered.
Lesson learned:
Buy cheap, buy twice. I could live with the minor flaws this computer has, but the keyboard is frankly unusable.
I don't know if there's another laptop in this very narrow category of mine, so I might just get the X1 Extreme 2nd Gen next.
