The Huawei MateBook X Pro (starts at $1,199; $1,499 as tested) is a blatant Apple MacBook Pro clone.
From the name to the color to the keyboard switches, nearly everything about this sleek ultraportable laptop looks like it was dreamed up by designers who were handed a MacBook Pro and told to replicate it.
But in a surprise twist, Huawei's replica is superb, and even improves upon Apple's design in a few key ways.
It's hardly just a knockoff.
A Stunning Display
The most striking feature of the MateBook X Pro ($1,700.00 at Amazon) by far is its display.
The screen's borders (known as bezels) are extremely thin, with the screen occupying 91 percent of the laptop's total surface area, according to Huawei.
The aspect ratio is a rather retro-looking 3:2 instead of the 16:9 widescreen format that most current laptops and TVs use.
It matches the aspect ratio of the Microsoft Surface Book 2, and is ideal for web browsing or word processing since it lets you see more of the page without scrolling down.
The panel is touch-enabled and coated with Corning Gorilla Glass, which serves both to strengthen it and repel fingerprints.
After several days of testing, fingerprints did appear on the screen, but they were more like vague shadows instead of the distracting smudges that frequently mar glossy touch panels.
A few wipes with a microfiber cloth returns the screen to its pristine condition.
The best parts of the display are its resolution, brightness, and vivacity.
Its 3,000-by-2,000 resolution isn't quite 4K, which would need to be 3,240 by 2,160 at this aspect ratio.
But I think the MateBook X Pro's resolution is a sweet spot, since you'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference, and slightly fewer pixels means better energy efficiency and thus longer battery life.
The MateBook X Pro's display is also incredibly bright thanks to its 450-nit backlight.
It's nearly the same brightness level as the 15-inch MacBook Pro ( at Amazon) , and brighter than the 13-inch MacBook Pro with which it is designed to compete.
When using it at home, I found any brightness setting above 50 percent to be too bright, which means there's tons of headroom to work with when you bring the laptop outside or to a fluorescent-lit office.
Moreover, colors are brilliant at nearly any brightness setting or viewing angle, thanks to the glossy finish and the In-Plane Switching (IPS) technology.
A digital stylus isn't available, which means the MateBook X Pro isn't a great choice for digital artists.
If you're interested in writing on your laptop's display, you'll want to check out a 2-in-1 convertible laptop or a detachable Windows tablet like the Surface Book 2 instead.
The rest of the laptop is nearly as gorgeous as the screen.
The configuration I tested has a Space Gray color, which is what you'll want to choose if you're going all-in on the MacBook clone idea.
The MateBook X Pro is also available in a lighter shade called Mystic Silver.
Whichever color you choose will be applied to a sleek aerospace-grade aluminium body that slopes ever so slightly from back to front.
I prefer constant thickness, but I appreciate the fact that the slope allows Huawei enough room to add both a USB Type A port and two USB-C ports (one of which has Thunderbolt support), compared with the USB-C-only design of the MacBook Pro.
Even at its thickest, the MateBook X Pro is still just 0.57 inches tall, which compares favorably with many of its competitors.
The MacBook Pro is 0.59 inches and the Surface Book 2 measures 0.9 inches, while the the Dell XPS 13 ($784.78 at Dell) is slightly thinner at 0.46 inches.
So is the 0.41-inch HP Spectre 13.
Thanks to its aspect ratio, the MateBook X Pro also feels smaller than a comparable 13-inch ultraportable, measuring 11.96 inches wide and 8.5 inches deep.
It weighs 2.93 pounds, similar to the MacBook Pro (3.02 pounds) but a bit on the heavy side compared with the Dell (2.68 pounds) and the HP (2.45 pounds).
Unfortunately, the aluminum finish attracts fingerprints, which are even more noticeable since there's next to nothing to interrupt the MateBook X Pro's sleekness other than a Huawei logo on the display lid.
Even the Nvidia and Windows logos are located on the bottom of the laptop and thoughtfully placed on a plastic adhesive that can easily be removed.
Tap the Excellence
The MateBook X Pro's touchpad is the best I've ever used on a Windows laptop.
That's not surprising when you consider that it's inspired by the Apple Force Touch pad, which itself is far better than even the most precise of Windows Precision Touchpads.
The MateBook X Pro's pad isn't quite as good as Apple's, but it's still huge, sturdy, and extremely responsive.
In fact, the only discernible difference between it and the touchpad on the MacBook Pro is a physical switch mechanism, which means that it's harder to click at the top than at the bottom.
Apple gets around this problem by using haptic feedback to provide uniform virtual click sensations no matter where your finger is located.
Huawei's attempts to copy Apple don't stop with the excellent touchpad.
The company's designers have also recreated the MacBook Pro's keyboard, complete with the extremely shallow key travel that has polarized MacBook users.
The keys are very sturdy, but they hardly move at all when you press them.
You'll either love or hate this typing sensation, but in either case you'll quickly get used to it.
Over several weeks of using the MateBook X Pro's keyboard for Google searches and crafting emails, my fingertips grew to expect the shallow travel.
In the upper right corner above the keyboard, you'll find a power button that doubles as a nifty and extremely accurate fingerprint reader.
It never failed to read my print, which is more than I can say about many fingerprint readers, meaning that a single press is all it takes to start up the PC and log into your Windows 10 account.
This is even more useful since the MateBook X Pro's webcam lacks the infrared sensors required for face recognition logins.
In fact, this laptop's webcam is borderline unusable, and it's perhaps the only serious flaw.
The lens is creatively located beneath a pop-up housing in the middle of the keyboard's top row, since there's no room for it on the incredibly thin bezel.
You press it once to pop it up, and press it again to stuff it into the keyboard.
The location means you really can't use the keyboard when you're on a video call, since your fingers will block the lens.
How much of a concern this is for you depends on how often you make video calls.
For people who rarely do, the fact that the webcam is hidden in the keyboard is actually a good thing, since it means you won't have to tape over it if you're worried about hackers spying on you.
In addition to the three USB ports (one of which serves as a receptacle for the USB-C power adapter), there's also a headphone jack.
You don't get any dedicated video outputs, which means you'll likely need an adapter to connect to an external monitor.
You'll also need an adapter if you'd like to use an Ethernet connection instead of the MateBook's built-in 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
Superb Audio Quality
The sound quality and volume of the audio that emanates from the MateBook X Pro's four speakers is astonishing.
Two small speakers flank the keyboard, fitting into almost impossibly thin grilles, while two larger ones push sound through long, thin louvers along the left and right edges on the bottom of the laptop.
The result is zero distortion at any volume, even at the incredibly loud 100 percent setting.
What's more, both music and dialogue sounds rich, clear, and immersive, something that rarely happens on ultraportables or even larger desktop-replacement laptops.
The sound quality is better than what you can expect from the 13-inch MacBook Pro's speakers, which are upward-facing only, and leagues better than downward-facing speakers like those on the Lenovo Yoga 730 ($978.00 at Amazon) .
Huawei offers a one-year warranty for the MateBook X Pro.
Enough Power, Even for Light Gaming
With an Intel Core i7-8550U processor running at a clock speed of 1.8GHz, 16GB of memory, 512GB solid-state drive and an Nvidia GeForce MX150 graphics card, the specs of our $1,499 MateBook X Pro configuration set it up well for the types of everyday activities you're likely to perform on a conventional ultraportable laptop.
There's also enough headroom for video or photo editing in a pinch, or some casual gaming at medium quality settings and lower resolutions.
If your computing needs are less demanding—perhaps you just need a sleek machine to watch videos and check email—you'll be fine with the $1,199 entry-level model, which comes with an Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of memory, a 256GB solid state drive and Intel UHD Graphics 620.
This is the configuration that more closely matches the entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro.
To get a sense of how good a deal the high-end MateBook X Pro configuration is relative to its Apple competition, consider that a 13-inch MacBook Pro with a Core i7, 16GB of memory, and a 512GB SSD costs a cool $2,199.
On our performance benchmarks, the MateBook X Pro recorded comparable results with its similarly configured competitors, since many of them have the same Core i7-8550U CPU and displays with resolutions greater than 1080p.
Its PCMark 8 score (2,961), Handbrake time (1 minute, 25 seconds), and Photoshop time (2 minutes, 53 seconds) are all within a few points or seconds of the Razer Blade Stealth ($1,999.11 at Amazon) and the Dell XPS 13.
The MacBook Pro is considerably slower on these tests because of its less powerful Core i5 processor.
Meanwhile, the HP Spectre 13's lower full HD screen resolution helps it perform better on the PCMark 8 test, which is highly dependent on pixel density.
In real world use, however, you likely won't notice any sluggishness on the MateBook X Pro while surfing the web or editing documents.
I certainly didn't.
The MateBook X Pro gains a clear advantage on the graphics and gaming benchmarks thanks to its GeForce MX150 graphics card.
While its result on each of these tests is best in class, you should be aware that there is still not enough power to play graphics-intensive games unless you are willing to play them at medium quality settings and lower resolutions.
If you do this, you'll likely experience frame rates close to the 40 frames per second (fps) level the MateBook X Pro achieved on our medium-quality Heaven and Valley benchmarks.
See How We Test Laptops
At more than 11 hours, battery life is excellent for such a thin and light machine with a high-resolution display.
The MacBook Pro fared significantly better at 16 hours and 26 minutes, but the fact remains that you'll have enough juice to get you through a full work day and then some without visiting a power outlet.
When you do need to recharge, it shouldn't take you very long.
During testing, I typically spent less than an hour going from about 15 percent to a full charge.
A Top-Notch Clone
It's true that the Huawei MateBook X Pro is an unapologetic clone of the Apple MacBook Pro.
But it's an excellent one, offering an intriguing screen ratio, superb sound quality, and a much better blend of price and performance than the machine that inspired it.
It's not a useful machine for videoconferencing, but the oddly placed webcam will only be a deal-breaker for someone who spends a lot of time on video calls.
For everyone else, the MateBook X Pro is excellent as an alternative to both mainstream Windows ultraportables like the Dell XPS 13, as well as macOS laptops.
If you're prepared to spend about $1,500 on a conventional laptop, it should be at the top of your list.
Pros
View MoreThe Bottom Line
With a sleek aluminum body, ample computing power, and superb audio quality, in some ways, the Huawei MateBook X Pro is a better ultraportable than the Apple MacBook Pro that inspired it.
