Huawei MateBook D Review: Sleek, Attractive AMD Ryzen Powered Ultrabook

Although they are well known overseas, those of you that live in the United States are probably not as familiar with a little company called Huawei. The thing is, it isn't little, and it has been around for quite a while. In fact, Huawei has been around since 1986 and is actually the largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer in the world. As of 2018 they are also the second largest smartphone manufacturer in the world, second only to Samsung. Huawei pushed Apple into third place earlier this year by taking a 15.8% stake in the worldwide market. That's impressive seeing as just three years ago Huawei's market share was only 8.7%.

Not everything has come easy for the company, though. Breaking into the western market has been challenging, to say the least. Not only are they facing backlash from the U.S. Government over privacy concerns, but the United Kingdom recently found technical and supply chain “shortcomings” as well. As far as security concerns go we can't make any definitive statements either way, and many are speculating it's just a red herring that ensures U.S. companies stay at the top of the food chain. Or not. What we can definitively say is Huawei is trying to make inroads and the company is quite persistent, as evidenced by the AMD Ryzen-powered MateBook D that was recently released.

If you've followed Apple products over the years, you might be do a bit of a double-take. This is because the design between the Huawei MateBook and Apple MacBook are very similar. Many of the features are the same and even the color of the model we'll be showing you here (Mystic Silver) is reminiscent of an Apple MacBook. You don't need to take our word for it though. Just look at the names side-by-side: MacBook vs. MateBook. What's better is that Huawei isn't hiding from it. Instead they seem to be embracing it, and positioning themselves as an affordable Apple alternative.

Here's where things get interesting. If you are strickily looking at Huawei's products as an Apple alternative, they are very appealing. The MateBook D we are looking at in this review is an entry level laptop, so it's comparable to the MacBook Air. However, when comparing them side-by-side you can see the MateBook is more affordable, more powerful, has better graphics performance, and even slimmer bezels. It's as if Huawei out did Apple's design in nearly every way and then body slammed them with a lower price. When we say lower price, we aren't even talking in the same ballpark. The cheapest Apple MacBook Air is going to cost you nearly $900 USD, whereas the Huawei MateBook D can be found for as low as $629.99 USD. The only thing MacBook fans will be missing is the macOS...