Fans of Huawei who were waiting for the tech giant's announcements at the ongoing 2016 Mobile World Congress were surprised when the company unveiled one of its latest products, the MateBook. It is an unexpected addition to Huawei's lineup, and because of the new product's specs, features, and design, observers can't help but compare it against some competitors.
First impressions of the MateBook have been favorable, as it seems that having their own take on a hybrid tablet launch after flagships have been out in the market worked better for Huawei. Being a new contender in the 2-in-1 tablet industry, Huawei has had time to fine-tune the MateBook, making its specs and features rival and even exceed those of competitors.
According to BBC, one advantage of Huawei's "late" introduction of the MateBook is that the company knew which to work on. This means that the MateBook is a good choice compared to other iterations already out in the market. For example, the industry follower mentioned that compared to the Surface Pro 4, the new Huawei hybrid is at least 20 percent thinner and lighter than Microsoft's premium tablet offering. Meanwhile, BGR said that for the next iPad iterations, Apple should take a page off Huawei's MateBook and use USB Type-C, as the new lineup is sleeker and has a slimmer profile than Apple's current generation of tablets.
However, the industry observer is also quick to note that in terms of internals, Huawei will still need a lot of work for the MateBook to come close to the Surface Pro 4 and iPad Pro's performances. The MateBook is equipped with a decent sixth-gen Intel Core M processor paired with 4GB of RAM. While this places the MateBook as an above-average work-centric tablet hybrid, it still falls behind the Skylake processors of the Surface Pro 4 and the new, upgraded chipsets for the iPad Pro.
The MateBook's entry-level model will go on sale for $699.
