This is clearly the Porsche of non-mac notebooks. I needed a notebook that I could (easily) run Linux on. I am a big fan of the Macbook pro, but Apple is a bit of a closed shop, and I wanted it to be straight-forward, no VMs or strange hardware adaptions. And besides, Linux is my main environment (although I run all three, Windows, Mac and Linux).
I got the I7/512g version, and immediately installed Ubuntu 18.04 on the machine. Unlike what some others have reported, I have had no issue running Linux on the machine. I have seen several laptops that have sleeping issues with Linux, but either they got fixed or they don't exist on this machine. I gave the machine a 50/50 Windows/Linux split, although I don't really anticipate running it with Windows much, and may shrink the windows partition at some point.
The good, the bad, the ugly
As some have mentioned, the "all usb-c" thing can be a bit annoying. Not sure how it makes this notebook a "clean" notebook if you have to carry a bunch of adapters in tow. The stock "dock" they provided with the machine does most things I needed with the addition of a pretty simple USB hub. I'd be tempted on this machine to "go all bluetooth", and in fact did get a headset and a mouse using straight bluetooth for the machine. However, this was mainly for travel convenience and the ability to work with the machine on my lap from bed. At work I needed to get hardware ethernet, but that was a simple adapter to go from usb-c to ethernet.
I got the matedock to go with the machine. This does pretty much what the "stock dock" did but didn't need an extra ethernet adapter. My only issues with this arrangement is the matedock is pretty low on I/O expansion, and *I really don't get* the power feedthrough thing. In short, the matedock is very clever, very portable, and I am looking to find a good and heavy dock that includes power and lots of I/Os for my home desk.
For the notebook itself, its hard to find any issues. I don't understand why it has a "dead band" for mouse clicks at the top of the track pad, but other than this, it does the expected thing, with tracking, single finger clicks = button one, two finger clicks = button two, and two finger scrolling. As with all such laptop compressed keyboards, I miss the page up/down and home and end keys. Page up/down is easy to emulate, but home/end is not. I miss those keys, and also the middle mouse button, but I am working on restoring that capability via software cord keys.
The notebook is light, I have not got anywhere near running it out of power despite running lots of full kernel builds. It gets quite warm in the rear end, but other that this no big deal. The fan runs, but I have no issue with fan noise. It is quite low even when it is clearly pushing power.
It has a touch screen, but the way I like it. There is no attempt to make the machine convert to a tablet or anything like it. I personally find touch screen laptops useless, since a mouse is much more accurate than a finger, and I mostly edit things. You make me do that kind of work with a touch screen, and I am not your friend.
The display is amazing at 3000x2000 (not quite 4k resolution). Matching a second monitor to the machine in dual display mode is a problem, but only in Linux/Ubuntu because the scaling there is completely braindead, and there is a large discussion about how to fix it. The issue is that there is such a huge mismatch between the laptop resolution and the external monitor resolution that you need two different sets of scaling for each monitor. And Linux is apparently not good at doing this, not without lots of fiddlery. Running windows is no issue. Apparently Windows programmers stayed awake during that class.
In sum, what can I say? Not cheap, but great if you need Windows or Windows/linux. If not I would say get a Macbook Pro. With Windows or Linux, this is about as close to the famous Mac pro as you are going to get, and if you have used a Mac pro for any length of time you will understand what I mean. The pro was a highpoint in laptop design, and even apple seems to have trouble producing good follow-ons to that product.
If I had any suggestions for Huawei, it would be to embrace Linux and make a nice all-in-one dock with fixed power for desktop use.
Post script 9/28/2020
I have had this notebook for about 2 years now. I still like it. I changed out the SSD for a 2tb one from Samsung.
The BAD: about a year ago I spilled soda on the keyboard, only a couple teaspoons worth. It killed the keyboard. Leaving it to dry, washing it with alcohol, I even removed all the keycaps and washed it out with alcohol and dried it for days. The keyboard had about a dozen keys that would produce 2-3 odd characters when hit. It was completely unusable. I ran it for 6 months on external keyboard only.
Huawei wanted $160 to fix it. That is a reasonable price, but I would have had to send it to a central service location, I believe in Texas. I literally could not afford to be without the machine that long, since it is my work computer. Huawei would not help me with sending me a replacement keyboard. However, after disassembling it once, I was able to copy the part number off the keyboard and order a replacement off the Alibaba network (they have everything... its scary). It was $60.
I tore down the computer again, this time removing the keyboard. There were about 100 small screws holding it in. Not an exaggeration. Each key had a screw next to it. I reassembled it, crossed y fingers and... it came up. Its been fine ever since.
The moral of this story is: treat it like a fine watch and never drink anything near it. As I have heard of Macbooks, the keyboard is very thin and delicate, and won't survive liquids.
| Standing screen display size | 13.9 Inches |
|---|---|
| Screen Resolution | 3840 x 2160 pixels |
| Max Screen Resolution | 3000X2000 |
| Processor | 1.8 GHz core_i7_8550u |
| RAM | 16 GB LPDDR3 |
| Hard Drive | 512 GB 512 GB NVMePCIeSSD |
| Graphics Coprocessor | NVIDIA GeForce MX150 |
| Chipset Brand | NVIDIA |
| Card Description | Dedicated |
| Graphics Card Ram Size | 2 GB |
| Wireless Type | 802.11ac |
| Number of USB 3.0 Ports | 1 |
| Average Battery Life (in hours) | 15 Hours |
