Huawei has taken the a path opposite to Apple's when it comes to consumer gear. Rather than being a personal computer company that began selling phones, Huawei is a telecoms company that also sells laptops—pretty fancy ones, too. Huawei is showing off its latest creation, the MateBook X Pro, at Mobile World Congress 2018 (which starts today in actually-sort-of-rainy Barcelona). This 14" ultrabook sports a 91% display-to-chassis ratio and discrete graphics in a body just 0.57" (15 mm) thick.
That 91% number would be impressive even in a smartphone, but it's a first in a laptop as far as we can tell. The 13.9" display uses LTPS panel technology and has a 3000×2000 display resolution. Huawei says the MateBook X Pro's monitor is capable of reproducing the full sRGB color space at a maximum brightness of 450 cd/m² and a contrast ratio of 1500:1. Its Gorilla Glass surface supports 10-point multi-touch. To our knowledge, this is the first implementation of LTPS display tech on a laptop, and we're interested to see how it holds up to the competition.
Powering that shiny screen is your choice of a Kaby Lake-R Intel Core i5 or Core i7 CPU, optionally mated to Nvidia's GeForce MX150 graphics chip. We've seen that combination of KBL-R processors and the MX150 many times before, and it's quite capable for a machine this size. Depending on the model, you'll get either 8 or 16 GB of LPDDR3 memory. NVMe-connected SSDs are standard for storage, with either 256 GB or 512 GB of capacity. All the hardware is powered by a beefy 57-WHr battery that Huawei says can run the machine for 12 solid hours of video playback.
For external connectivity on the MateBook X Pro, there's a pair of USB Type-C ports—one of which supports Thunderbolt 3 connections. There's also a USB 3.0 Type-A port, a welcome addition to a machine this size. A headset jack rounds out the peripheral ports. The front of the machine has a pop-up 1-MP webcam hidden under a function key, and there's a fingerprint sensor on the power button. Huawei says the keyboard is spill-proof, too.
Huawei says there will be three configurations on offer. The model with a Core i5 CPU, 8 GB of RAM, and a 256 GB SSD will run you €1499 ($1537 without VAT). That same machine with a 512 GB SSD will cost you €1699 ($1743), and the top-tier machine with a Core i7, 16 GB of RAM, and the big SSD will be €1899 ($1947). If this looks like the laptop you're after, you will apparently be able to pick one up this spring.