Huawei at MWC 2016 Huawei Mate Book hands-on

Huawei Mate Book hands-on

Huawei brought just one thing - a hybrid. The Huawei Mate Book is a sleek Windows 10 tablet with a leather-bound detachable keyboard. It has a stylus too! Read more about it on Page 2.

Huawei Media Book at a glance:

• Form factor: hybrid laptop; 12" tablet and detachable keyboard
• Screen: 12" IPS LCD, 2,160 x 1,440px
• Chipset: Up to Intel Core m7; 4GB or 8GB RAM; 128GB, 256GB or 512GB SSD
• Battery: 33.7Wh, "all-day battery life"
• Misc: Fingerprint reader, stylus, port expander

Tablets didn't kill PCs, they made them stronger. In fact, PCs like the Huawei Mate Book became the best tablets around. This is a hybrid device - the tablet holds all the smarts, the keyboard lends support but can be detached when not needed.

Huawei Mate Book

The Mate Book is a sleek metal tablet, barely 6.9mm thick and made from a slab of metal. At 640g, it's lighter than it looks - not bad for a 12" tablet.

The beautiful screen and sleek metal body of the tablet

It runs Windows 10 Pro on an Intel chip. Users have a choice of processors up to Core m7 (dual-core at 3.1GHz). Memory options include 4GB and 8GB of RAM and 128GB, 256GB and 512GB. The 33.7Wh battery promises an all-day battery life. There's a fingerprint reader on the side of the tablet for added security.

Fingerprint reader on the side

The IPS LCD screen is 12" big and sharp, 2,160 x 1,440px in resolution. It looks brilliant with deep blacks and perfect viewing angles.
The keyboard, meanwhile, looks like a leather-bound folio case. It's faux leather and comes in four colors.

Four color options for the (faux) leather-bound keyboard

Tablet and keyboard lock magnetically together and the screen can be positioned in two angles (the more leaned back angle relies on the magnets to keep things in place).

The keyboard dock • Two angles for the laptop mode

The metal chassis holds the tablet very rigid. The keyboard is less so, but you don't expect it from a leather case either. We found typing quite comfortable, keys are large enough and have plenty of travel.

The keyboard is quite comfortable

Huawei unveiled several accessories for the Mate Book. One is a Pen, which can be used for more creative tasks. The stylus needs to be charged every once in a while (pop the top, plut into USB port) and has a couple of buttons on it.

The active stylus of the Mate Book

Another is a dock about as big as a mid-sized battery pack. It's a port expander - it takes the USB Type-C and splits it into HDMI plus VGA ports, three full-size USB 3.0 and a LAN port.