Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsHuawei ruined a serious Surface Pro 4 contender with their greed to sell add-ons (infamous MatePen). I've lost all confidence in
Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2018
At the current price point of the base model as of April 2018 (~$500 for the base model with 7th gen CoreM3-7Y30, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD), it's an excellent more budget friendly alternative to the Surface Pro 4 or the newer Surface Pro (2017 "updated" version). It lacks a bit in connectivity (single USB C port & headphone/mic 3.5 mm jack) but it makes up for it in thinness, portability, sleek design, good screen-to-body ratio, and a much improved keyboard over the last model. And all of that for almost $300 cheaper than comparably spec'd Surface Pros line up and others like the HP Spectre X2, etc..
Now you're probably wondering, where did Huawei messed up? Well, instead of using either Wacom AES or Ntrig (now known as Microsoft AES pen protocol since Microsoft acquired Ntrig recently) digitizer technology for their active digitizer pen, they decided to use their own proprietary drivers for their digitizer sensor, which is made by Wacom. Why would a company do that when they can just provide Wacom AES drivers which offers superior pen configurability (change what each pen button does, change initial activation pressures, etc.)?
Simple answer: to FORCE sales of their own pen, the MatePen, which is, wait for it... a Wacom AES pen proven to work in a multitude of Wacom AES enabled tablets (read the reviews in Surface Pro Artist web blog if you don't believe me). So Huawei sabotaged their own product to FORCE people to buy their Mate Pen, which by the way, IT'S NO LONGER AVAILABLE in ANY retailer in the American continent. I spent an entire day scouring the internet looking for a Mate Pen sold literally anywhere in the American CONTINET and couldn't find a single one (only available ones have huge price markups and are sold in Ebay, from Shenzhen in China and in Hong Kong).
With the last generation of the Matebook, you could actually install Wacom Feel Drivers and get support for almost any Wacom AES Pen; but it seems that Huawei caught wind of that and saw that people were not buying their Mate Pen and instead using cheaper Wacom AES pens so they decided to make the new MateBook E digitizer sensor incompatible with Wacom Feel drivers to force people to buy their pen, which now they can't even provide.
I had a lot of respect and admiration for Huawei, as I've watched them grow and produce some of my favorite android flagship phones, like the incredible Nexus 6P or the Huawei P20 pro, or even the Mate 10 Pro. But with this incredibly deceptive and callous maneuver they've pulled off, I will no longer buy another single Huawei product until they once again show integrity and respect towards their customers.
I will be returning this tablet and highly recommend staying away from it, if you're primary use is for pen-enabled note taking in a budget friendly device. I'd recommend either getting a refurbished surface pro (there are some Microsoft certified refurbished surface pros at the same price as this product) or some other refurb windows 10 tablet with the lowest specs (CoreM, 4GB ram, 128 GB SSD)