Finally, we’ll publish a review on a Huawei gadget. We’ve had many inquiries, but we’ve never been able to get our hands on a MateBook. With that in mind, our first Huawei laptop is the MateBook D 14 a 14-inch machine with a 1080p IPS panel and an exciting function called Huawei Share, which allows you to link your Huawei smartphone to your notebook via NFC (in a similar fashion like the Apple devices).
In addition, the notebook is reasonably priced, especially considering the hardware it has. Ours arrived with a Ryzen 7 3700U processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 512GB NVMe SSD (but there are Ryzen 4000U and Intel variations). This configuration is quite suitable for office work, school, and even light programming.
Construction and Design
We have a laptop here that is slim, light, and easy to handle. It weighs 1.38 kg and has a 15.9mm profile. It has a plastic and metal body that comes in two colours: Mystic Silver and Space Gray. We can tell you that because our unit is silver, fingerprints rarely stay on it, and it’s also relatively easy to clean. On the negative side, you can see where the build quality was slashed. When we spin the tablet, an odd gap forms on one of the touchpad’s sides.
It also has a lid that cannot be opened with a single hand, but its structural integrity is significantly superior to the body. By the way, the top and side bezels are exceedingly thin, and there is no Webcam, much to the dismay of all students who study from home.
Ports
A USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 1) port (for charging and data transfer), a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, and an HDMI connector are located on the left side. The USB Type-A 2.0 connector and an audio jack are the only things on the right side.It’s as simple as undoing ten Torx-head screws to get into this device. After that, pull the panel away from the gadget using a plastic tool, starting from the back and working your way around it.
We can see that Huawei has taken care of the thermals on the inside. One heat pipe is quite long and thick, and it leads to an intense heat spreader. The fan then disperses the heat. By the way, the pop-up camera is hidden right where the heat pipe takes its first 90-degree turn, as you can see.
Display Quality
The Huawei MateBook D 14 (2020), model number Chi Mei N140HAC-EAD, sports a Full HD IPS display (CNM1404). It has a 14-inch (35.56-centimetre) diagonal and a 1920 x 1080 resolution. In addition, the screen has a 16:9 aspect ratio, a pixel density of 157 pixels per inch, and a pitch of 0.161 x 0.161 mm. When seen from a distance of at least 56 cm, the screen is deemed Retina (the typical human eye cannot detect individual pixels from this distance).
PWM (Screen flickering)
PWM (pulse-width modulation) is a simple method of controlling monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the backlight’s light intensity is not reduced; instead, the electronics switch off and on at a frequency inaudible to the human eye.
The light/no-light time ratio varies in these light impulses, while brightness remains constant, which is detrimental to your eyes.PWM is used to change the brightness of the Huawei MateBook D 14 (2020) display up to 77 nits. After that, there will be no more flickering. In addition, the PWM it employs has a very high frequency.In this regard, the display should be comfortable for long periods and safe for your eyes.
Emissions of blue light
Installing our Health-Guard profile removes PWM while lowering dangerous Blue Light emissions and maintaining perceptually accurate screen colours. If you’re not familiar with the term “blue light,” it refers to emissions that hurt your eyes, skin, and entire body. More information on this topic can be found in our Blue Light article.
Ending Note
The IPS screen of the Huawei MateBook D 14 (2020) boasts exceptional viewing angles, a strong contrast ratio, and Full HD resolution. It only employs PWM in low-light conditions (up to 77 nits) at a very high frequency, making it relatively easy to use. Unfortunately, it only covers 53% of the sRGB colour range.
