Huawei Matebook D14- The best budget friendly alternative for the Matebook 14?
If you have heard of the Matebook 14, you have heard how well it performed at its price range, effectively becoming market competition for the Macbook Air. Unlike the Matebook 14, which is 3:2, the d14 comes in a 16:9 screen resolution and does not come with a touchscreen. With a few downgrades here and there, the Matebook d14 was marketed to students and office-workers alike. So, how does the d14 do in the long term? Do the downgrades render it a loss or does it still hold up strong?
Huawei Matebook D14- Key Features
- 214.8 mm x 322.5 mm x 15.9 mm
- 14 Inch Screen size
- Weighs approx. 1.38 kg
- Matte IPS display (16:9 aspect ratio)
- 2160 x 1440 resolution, 185 PPI
- 178 degrees viewing angle
- 512 GB NVMe PCIe SSD
- 56 Wh Lithium Polymer battery
- 1 USB C ports, 2 USB 3.2 port, 3.5 mm headphone jack
- Backlit Chiclet keyboard (full sized)
- 1 MP Recessed camera (720p HD)
- 4 speakers and 2 microphones
How does it fare against the Matebook 14?
The first thing you notice when you put the two notebooks together is that the speaker grills are positioned differently. The D14’s speakers are placed along the edges of the keyboard, unlike the Matebook 14, which has its speakers on the bottom base. The processor on the D14 is a bit of an older version of the Matebook 14’s processor. However, the Kaby Lake- R Core i5 processor still stands pretty strong- doing well in almost all of our stress tests. There’s a considerable difference between the displays. Even though they seem similar on paper, the D14’s brightness, gamut and response times are all slightly underperforming when compared to the Matebook 14.
To our surprise, we did find a few small upgrades in the Matebook D14. Under full power, the Matebook 14’s fans can reach noises of up to 45 dB, while the D14 only gets up to 33.6 dB. The D14 also consumes over 20W of energy less when under high loads. Webcom placement is also better on the D14 along with battery life.
So is the Matebook D14 worth buying?- A long term review
Even though a lot of the power consumption upgrades can be attributed to a lower resolution display and lack of a discrete GPU, it is hard to find a budget version of a flagship that often outperforms its predecessor. Even after almost a year of use, the sleek design of the D14 and high-performing interface places it above competitors at the Huawei Matebook D14 price. Initially, the Matte display panel seemed like a downgrade. However- it does a wonderful job at diffusing reflected light. The AMD Ryzen 7 M700U chipset maintains its snappy performance through time without any significant lags.
Overall, the Matebook D14 takes a lot of the good things from the Matebook 14 and it shows in the laptop’s performance. This one is definitely a worthwhile investment!
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