Huawei MateBook 13 (2020) review - A Ryzen laptop isn't always the better choice

[Redaktion]

Comparatively compact and even cheaper than the Intel version, the MateBook 13 presents itself configured with an AMD chipset. Our review will clarify who would nonetheless be better off investing a bit more money.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Huawei-MateBook-13-2020-review-A-Ryzen-laptop-isn-t-always-the-better-choice.478890.0.html

[Thinkpad Fan]

Obviously it's bad, it's Ryzen 3000, which is arguably worse than the comparable 8th gen processors from Intel released around the same time. This title had be thinking that this was gonna be ryzen 4000.  >:(

[RinzImpulse]

Obviously it's bad, it's Ryzen 3000, which is arguably worse than the comparable 8th gen processors from Intel released around the same time. This title had be thinking that this was gonna be ryzen 4000.  >:(

Nope it's still better at gaming and multicore task where Intel still can't do even with their Iris plus.

But still, I do agree about misleading title. Even the R3-4300U is better than all 3000U series, why even bother to return to them?

[john472020]

Well, reading in the title the phrase "A Ryzen laptop isn't always the better choice", it really makes you wonder how much distance AMD has covered. I mean, only a few years ago that line could be "An AMD laptop isn't always the worst choice"

[dasdasdas]

Generalization is always a bad thing and with zen 2, people started to generalize that all AMD products are amazing, lovely, perfect buy. NO. Only Zen 2 parts are nice. Their GPUs are still plagued with driver issues and instability. They lack features compared to competition and consume more power. Zen+ again is a decent buy, but especially in laptops it was pretty bad, that even the 5 year old Skylake parts were beating them in performance and power consumption.

[Sion Theodorus]

Obviously it's bad, it's Ryzen 3000, which is arguably worse than the comparable 8th gen processors from Intel released around the same time. This title had be thinking that this was gonna be ryzen 4000.  >:(

Nope it's still better at gaming and multicore task where Intel still can't do even with their Iris plus.

But still, I do agree about misleading title. Even the R3-4300U is better than all 3000U series, why even bother to return to them?

Actually Intel still wins on max fps on game. Thanks to faster single core performance. But in multi core task, ryzen just killed intel

[Sion Theodorus]

I think there are some mistakes in the graph, where lower time spent means worse score

[Vlad]

Can't you see in your own CPU-Z screenshot that memory is DDR4, not LPDDR4? Ryzen 3xxx doesn't even support lpddr, which is the reason behind lower battery life expectancy.

[Stephen House]

Hi

Sorry, not being a total techie. I'm confused over the positive reviews for Honor Magicbook AMD vs this Matebook 13 AMD. As far as I can tell they use pretty much the same hardware, but the AMD processor in the Matebook is newer with more memory, etc. The price at the moment is very similar and I'l like to buy my daughter a (Apple) copycat notebook which she can use for school, watch Netflix and that's about it....maybe play Fortnite?

Can someone give me some advice and I would like to by the Matebook.

Cheers

[Leon]

I use this same model- But I have the one with 16GB of RAM - And only issue i faced was My display got a line in the middle  in few days  not sure what happend. And I got it replaced - I guess it could happen to any brand. But - In terms of performance - I do lots of productivity work and lots of typing and day to day office stuff - paperwork etc ( I dont game) ... The laptop fly through all the tasks. For me batter is not a bid deal specially on this Matebook - Because I plug it in whenever I am at my desk and its quite fast to charge. You can get 6-7 hours I don't personally had the need to use a laptop for 10 hours without plug it in – it's a more of a convenient than an actual use (my opinion)
I love the keyboard , Display , Fingerprint ( You need to only press thee power button once and the inbuild fingerprint scanner will remember it and log you right it) extremely light weight and fast boot time – from a completely shutdown to work less than 5-6 sec do able..

The main issue I have with this is USB C only – only the right hand port will charge the laptop – its kind of annoying (Again 1300$ Macbook has the same issue)

But for the price I recommend the laptop.  I got for 800$

[John Hogan]

(Feb 2021) Hey thanks for this review.  I was after an 8 core AMD but I can grab one of these for $475 USD with 2.5 years warranty remaining.  Your review makes me think it's a suitable machine for now, while I wait for prices and availability to settle down... 2022?  Lol.

[Cardio]

I wish you tested the display as well, it's not the same as in the Intel version. Peak brightness is just 300 nits and it's pretty difficult to see outside.