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Huawei has taken the wraps off its latest products at IFA 2022. Heading up the list is the firm’s latest flagship laptop – the Huawei Matebook X Pro – but there are also two new MatePad Pro tablets and a smart health watch that can measure blood pressure.
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The MateBook X Pro is a subtle redesign of the 2021 and early 2022 models. It has a slightly larger 14.2in display with tougher, 9H-rated screen cover glass. Huawei has managed to shave a few grams off the weight (down to 1.26kg) thanks to a new magnesium chassis. And there’s both a new matte finish and Ink Blue colourway to top things off, which looks absolutely lovely.
In addition to being tougher than before, the MateBook X Pro’s 3,120 x 2,080 display will come with two colour calibrations to match both the P3 and sRGB colour gamuts (both stored in hardware so you don’t lose them on a reset).
Only one variant of the laptop will be available initially. This will house Intel’s 12th Gen Core i7-1260P, a 1TB SSD and 16GB of RAM, but has to make do with Intel’s Xe integrated graphics. Disappointingly, there’s no sign here of Intel’s powerful new Arc GPUs.
The two tablets are equally interesting. Both are iPad Pro-alikes and come with the option of a folding folio keyboard cover and Huawei M-Pen stylus so you can turn them into laptop and note-taking devices. Both have OLED displays – either 11in or 12.5in depending on your preference – and both are powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 chipset.
I had the chance to go hands on with both and they’re lovely devices. They’re slim, light and feel well made, and they look gorgeous, too. The circular camera bump on the rear (housing 13MP and 8MP cameras) mimics the design of the latest Huawei P50 Pro smartphone, and I particularly like the matte rear panel, which is designed specifically to resist picking up fingerprints, and the keyboard, whose keys have plenty of travel and a firm, responsive action.
There are some problems. First, both new Huawei MatePad Pro tablets run Harmony OS and not Android, so you may find that you’re unable to run some of your favourite apps. Second, Huawei hasn’t made any plans to launch the tablets in the UK yet so we have no UK pricing either. Let’s hope it changes its mind because the hardware looks promising.
Last on the list is the Huawei Watch D, a wearable that not only tracks your heart rate, steps, pace and distance, just like other Huawei fitness wearables, but also has a built-in blood-pressure monitor. It’s not the first time we’ve seen the Watch D – it was first announced back at MWC – but Huawei has now confirmed the device will appear in the UK.
The watch is on the chunky side for a smartwatch but it looks handsome enough, carved as it is from a solid chunk of “aircraft grade” aluminium. And it houses some truly unique health smarts. A mini blood-pressure monitor lies at the heart of the product and works just like a standard blood-pressure cuff your doctor might use to take a reading at the GP surgery, pumping up to apply pressure to your wrist and then releasing the pressure slowly to take a reading.
The wearable is able to take readings between 40mmHg and 230mmHg and, according to Huawei, is accurate to +-3mmHg of a medical-grade blood-pressure monitor. The Huawei Watch D will be available in the UK from October from Huawei’s website and will cost £400.
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