Huawei MateBook D 16 2024 review – A multimedia laptop now with the Intel Core i9-13900H

Huawei is launching a new version of its MateBook D 16 which comes with the powerful Intel Core i9-13900H (Raptor Lake) processor. This is housed in a metal case together with 16 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD. The matte IPS display has complete sRGB coverage but only Full HD resolution and also no special features such as a higher refresh rate.

When you take a closer look at the data sheet, you will also find a 720p webcam or even an old USB 2. 0 port. Huawei has an asking price of £1,199 for its new MateBook D 16 2024 and we have examined whether this is justified.

Optionally, there is also a cheaper variant which comes with a Core i5-13420H, 16 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD for £699. However, we are also dealing with a worse display (only 45 % NTSC instead of 100 % sRGB) and a smaller battery (56 Wh rather than 70 Wh). At first glance, the dark gray case doesn’t differ from its predecessor , but it is a new shell and the internal design has also changed.

Thanks to the slim bezels, the design appears more modern and the surfaces are not especially prone to attracting dirt and fingerprints. One new feature is the display hinge which now has a maximum opening angle of 180 degrees. The hinges sit very tightly and it’s impossible to open the lid with one hand.

Nevertheless, a clear, visible wobble is present when adjusting the opening angle. Quality-wise, the case makes a decent impression. Huawei has opted against using metal and although the plastic construction is mainly solid, the base unit and lid give easily when pressed in the central area.

This doesn’t lead to any drawbacks in everyday use. Twisting the base unit results in rather unattractive creaking noises. The comparison devices don’t take up much space and weighing a little over 1.

7 kg, the MateBook can be considered average. At 204 grams, the 65-watt PSU is very light. When it comes to ports, you only get the bare minimum and the situation is a clear backwards step, even in comparison to the old MateBook D 16 2022 .

Huawei has completely opted against using Thunderbolt or USB 4. Instead, there is only a single USB-C port (3. 2 Gen.

1) which is also used for the PSU. On the right-hand side, the lone USB-A connector only uses the 2. 0 standard.

In this price category, that is an absolute no-go. The HDMI output also only supports the 1. 4 standard which means that rather than being able to operate external 4K monitors at 60 Hz, only 30 Hz is possible.

Even the old 2022 model had an integrated HDMI 2. 0 output, as well as an additional USB port. The only benefit in this section is cross-device operation if you use other Huawei devices (e.

g. smartphones, tablets). Huawei has gone for the familiar Intel AX201 Wi-Fi module which supports Wi-Fi 6 networks but not yet the current Wi-Fi 6E standard.

Nevertheless, connected to our Asus reference router, the performance is very good and, during testing, we were unable to detect Wi-Fi connection problems in any shape or form. The webcam in the top bezel only offers a measly 720p resolution and can therefore definitely no longer be considered up-to-date. Accordingly, images lack detail and are not particularly sharp.

The bottom cover is secured with a total of 10 Torx screws (T5) and can be removed. Internally, you quickly notice the new cooling system which has two fans on the right-hand side of the base unit. In addition, you can also see that there is a lot of unused space that could have easily been used for RAM slots or a second M.

2 2280 slot. But, as it is, you have to make do with an SSD, 16 GB of soldered RAM and a soldered Wi-Fi module. The MateBook D 16 2024 offers a keyboard which comes with a dedicated numerical keypad whose keys come across as somewhat narrower.

Overall, the keyboard makes a good impression. Thanks to the 1. 5 mm key travel and precise inputs, the typing experience is very comfortable making even longer texts straightforward.

However, the keyboard is also one of the louder models. Huawei has integrated a two-level, white backlighting which unfortunately cannot be automatically activated via a sensor. The power button can be found on the right-hand side above the keyboard and it also contains the fingerprint sensor.

At 12 x 7. 3 cm, the clickpad is sufficiently large and works flawlessly. As usual, the bottom part of the pad can be pressed physically but this is met with loud and cheap-sounding clicking noises.

In practice, we would only recommend tapping the pad for inputs. We already know the BOE (NV160WUM-NH0), matte, 16-inch IPS panel from the old 2022 model . This is a very no-frills display with a 1,920 x 1,200 pixel resolution.

The subjective image quality is good, with even bright areas failing to appear grainy. However, at 60 Hz and with no additional features such as HDR, this price segment has strong competition. This can be seen in the comparison devices which use better displays throughout (higher resolutions, occasionally OLED, higher frequencies).

Only the Lenovo Yoga 7 has a similar panel. Huawei specifies a brightness of 300 cd/m² but, at an average of 340 cd/m², our review device outstrips this by some margin. Despite this, at 80 %, the illumination is not good.

We measured a black level of 0. 24 cd/m², leading to a high maximum contrast ratio of almost 1. 500:1.

Our analysis with the professional CalMAN software (X-Rite i1 Pro2) shows that the factory calibration is not particularly good and that, out-of-the-box, there are clear deviations in the areas of both the gray scales and colors. Additionally, you can spot a visible blue tint and this, together with a much too cool color temperature is something from which the maximum brightness benefits. After our calibration (the according profile can be downloaded above, free of charge), the panel reveals its hidden potential because the gray scale and color deviations concerning the sRGB reference color space (which is almost completely covered) are extremely low and all values sit significantly below the important DeltaE 2000 deviation of 3.

That is very good performance and the reason why, after calibration, the MateBook D 16 is also very suitable for processing both images and videos in the sRGB color space. Thanks to the matte IPS panel, the MateBook can even be used outdoors, also on very bright days and only light source reflections should be avoided. Overall, the viewing angle stability is good.

In Huawei’s PC Manager, there are two energy settings – firstly, the preset Balanced mode and, secondly, the Performance mode. The latter doesn’t offer much more in the way of performance with only an additional 5 watts available when under continuous load (40 instead of 35 watts TDP). This is disproportionate to the noisy fans (46.

2 vs. 36. 2 dB(A)).

That means you can safely use the Balanced mode which is the one we used for our forthcoming benchmarks and measurements. The Intel Core i9-13900H is a very fast mobile processor in the Raptor Lake series with 6 fast performance cores and 8 efficiency cores. In total, it can process up to 20 threads simultaneously.

The performance potential is very high, however, the Core i9 in the MateBook D 16 is limited by low power limits of 64/45 watts (and then later 35 watts). The only really impressive aspect is that the single-core performance is really impressive and although this plays an important part in everyday use, at the end of the day, the Core i9 was only really chosen to look good on the data sheet. With the cheaper Core i7-13700H , customers would have gotten almost the same overall performance.

In addition, the multi-core performance drops significantly after a short period and the same processor in the MateBook 16s is more than 20 % faster when it comes to multi-core load. In battery mode, the CPU performance remains almost constant. Additional CPU benchmarks can be found here .

Viewed subjectively, the MateBook’s performance level is very high and every input is implemented swiftly. The synthetic benchmark results did not reveal any abnormalities and we were also unable to detect any during testing. In our standardized latency test, (surfing the internet, 4K YouTube playback, CPU load), using the supplied BIOS version, the review device demonstrated no limitations when using realtime audio applications.

One driver did fail a bit but the important “interruption to process latency” value is negligible. As with the MateBook 16s , an SSD is installed without the manufacturer’s identification. Only the model number can be found on the SSD (321JN1024GB-TX01).

We are dealing with an M. 2 2280 SSD which is connected via PCIe 4. 0 and offers a capacity of 1 TB.

With transfer speeds of more than 4 GB/s, the performance is very acceptable and the values remain constant even over longer periods of load. However, once again, the out-of-the-box partitioning of the SSD is a problem. On the system C drive, only 135 GB are available to the user and the additional 733 GB are located on the D drive.

That is completely unnecessary and can quickly become problematic since, as is normally the case, all applications and downloads land on the C drive. Further SSD benchmarks are available here . The processor’s integrated Iris Xe Graphics G7 is responsible for graphical computations.

It is a fast variant with 96 EUs and a maximum speed of 1. 5 GHz. This is sufficient performance and, as long as you’re not using GPU-intensive applications, playing high-resolution videos is possible.

However, the AMD Radeon 780M and the new Arc iGPU from Intel are considerably faster. Matebook D 16 users shouldn’t have lofty gaming ambitions and there is no possibility of being able to use an external graphics card since both Thunderbolt and USB 4. 0 are absent.

Even when playing older and undemanding titles, you will generally be limited to low-detail settings. At least over lengthier periods of load and in battery mode, the performance remains stable. Additional GPU benchmarks can be found here .

Huawei has overhauled the cooling system and now uses two fans sitting side-by-side on the right-hand side of the case. These are very quiet and are often either deactivated (or you only hear an extremely quiet humming noise) during everyday tasks. Even when gaming, the noise level only reaches 32 dB(A) and only 36.

2 dB(A) under a few minutes of full CPU load. The optional performance mode increases these values to a loud 46. 2 dB(A) and should, therefore, be avoided.

Our review device lacked any other kind of electronic noise. Due to the asymmetrical layout of the fans, particularly the left side of the gets warmer under load. All in all, the temperatures don’t pose too much of a problem under both low and high loads.

In the stress test, the processor’s power consumption quickly settled to 35 watts as long as the Balanced mode was used. In the optional performance mode, after a few minutes, it was a stable 40 watts and this is a level which in no way justifies the considerably louder fans. Both stereo speakers are only average and lack power and spacial depth.

The advantage to this is the clear reproduction of highs and this is positive when it comes to voice playback (e. g. during conference calls).

Running idle, the maximum power consumption sits at 10 watts with maximum screen brightness. However, under load, the 65-watt PSU limits the power consumption. Considering the processor can, at least for a short time, consume 64 watts, it should come as no surprise that the 65-watt PSU is unable to provide the laptop with sufficient power in such situations.

In these cases, the battery has to be tapped for a short while which is certainly not good for its expected lifespan. A maximum of more than 20 watts is drawn from the battery. Under continuous load, these level off in Balanced mode and the PSU is adequate.

But, if you use the performance mode for a longer period (where the CPU settles to 40 watts), the battery capacity drops steadily (2-3 % per hour). Interestingly, there is no way around this problem because even with a more powerful 100-watt PSU, the MateBook doesn’t consume any additional power. The Core i9 model’s battery capacity has increased to 70 Wh (i5 version: 56 Wh) and the result is very long battery runtimes.

In our Wi-Fi test, at 150 cd/m² (with our review device this represents a brightness of 54 %) the runtimes sit a very good 11 hours and 14 minutes and even 8 hours and 21 minutes at full brightness. Our video test at 150 cd/m² even managed to run for almost 14 hours. With the device switched on, a full charge takes a little over two hours and fast charging is not on board.

The new MateBook D 16 2024 took us by surprise since the overall package is quite unbalanced. The 16-inch multimedia laptop offers positive aspects such as its powerful processor. But, although the Core i9 cuts a good figure on paper, the Core i7 would also have delivered the same performance.

As with the predecessor, despite very low power limits, it is sufficient for everyday tasks and generally leaves both fans with little to do. The matte IPS display has many impressive features. Its subjective image quality is good and calibrated to the reference level when it comes to color reproduction.

In addition, full sRGB color coverage means nothing stands in the way of image editing. On top of that, PWM is absent and further positive aspects are the long battery life as well as a comfortable keyboard. The new MateBook D 16 2024 is a very unbalanced multimedia laptop in which a fast processor, a decent IPS display and long battery runtimes are offset by a completely outdated feature set.

At £1,199, things such as USB 2. 0 are simply unacceptable and, all in all, the new Matebook is too expensive. On the other hand, the MateBook D 16 2024 also suffers from some serious missteps.

In particular, the port selection has to come in for criticism. Compared to the preceding device, Huawei has continued to further reduce the number of ports and has only equipped the laptop with a single USB-C port used for supplying power. The manufacturer has opted against using Thunderbolt 4 or USB 4.

0, but, by contrast, an ageing USB 2. 0 port can be found on the right-hand side. Additionally, the webcam is only 720p and modern Wi-Fi 6E networks are not supported.

And, there are also additional problems. The PSU is underpowered and if the processor (even though it’s only for a short time) is allowed to consume a maximum of 64 watts, it’s unsurprising that the 65-watt power adapter doesn’t deliver sufficient power. Also, too much space is wasted inside the case and two SODIMM slots could have been integrated.

We can’t evaluate the smaller $999 model since it is equipped with a less performant processor (with an even weaker iGPU) and a worse display (45 % NTSC) as well as a smaller battery. In the worst case, the positive aspects we described above are lacking. Overall, thanks to its positive points, the more expensive MateBook D 16 2024 variant secures a good rating of 85 % but this isn’t matched by the price-performance ratio.

As a result, we can’t give it our purchase recommendation. The new MateBook D 16 2024 is available from February 1st 2024 but can already be preordered in the UK from Huawei . Anyone ordering the device from January 12th to February 29th will receive the Huawei FreeBuds 5 free of charge.

Additionally, there is a £50 preorder discount until January 31st. .