By Jaime Misalucha
Working remotely has, sadly, become the norm these days. And because of the shift of norms, tech gadgets have taken front and center in terms of productivity and connectivity even more.
One such gadget has risen to the challenge and just in time when everybody is looking for an affordable yet powerful laptop.
The Huawei Matebook 14 2020 is a thin and lightweight device that people can surely carry around as they look for their next best, and IG worthy if I may add, work station.
Despite its 15.9mm thinness, it generously gives you a 14-inch screen size with a very little bezel all around it. To some, a 14-inch screen might be a tad too small, but the Huawei Matebook 14 2020’s screen felt bigger because of the barely-there bezels. With a resolution of 1920 X 1080 and a 16:9 aspect ratio, images on the screen are crystal clear and in high definition.
Just like our social distancing policy, the keyboard keys are adequately spaced for more comfortable typing, especially for speed typing your next best social media caption. It is also generously sized which means you will have lesser mistypes in your email response to your boss or your quick reply to your crush.
The keys are also backlit which automatically turns on when you press a key. You can also adjust the brightness by pressing the F3 button.
It packs under the hood an AMD Ryzen 5 35000U, or AMD Ryzen 7 3700U. To a non-technical person, that means FAST. Very Fast! It can handle all the photoshop and video editing tasks so that you can start and maintain your vlog and live streams without lagging. And yes, even your multiple tabs of all of your favorite videos on youtube won’t lag.
Personally, I tried opening multiple Google Chrome tabs while active on a voice conversation via the Discord app and it didn’t lag even for just a millisecond. Transitioning from one google chrome tab to the other, and one app to another was smooth and there were no milliseconds wasted.
It has two built-in microphones which are advantageous for recording your voice overs. With the use of the Audacity software, I was able to record my voice over which our editor said was way clearer and crisper sounding compared to previous voice overs I have submitted.
For additional connectivity and storage expansion, the Huawei MateBook 14 2020 has two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports on its right side, while located on the left side are the HDMI port, 3.5mm headphone socket, and a USB Type-C port. This means you can use the Type-C cable of your phone to charge your laptop, which also means that’s one less cable to carry around.
Its built-in 720 HD camera is located in a peculiar location, between the F6 and F7 keys. The pop-up camera feels like it'll give you a somewhat unflattering angle, but with a few books and magazines stacked on top of each other or a laptop stand, you can improve the camera's angle. This may be a turn off for some, but really, it gets the job done. After all, in video conferences, what you say matters more than how you look. And knowing the Filipino creativity, I'm pretty sure many will be able to find a creative use for the camera. Who knows you might even start a new trend!
The Huawei MateBook 14 2020 packs a 56 Wh battery which lasted me a whole day of use with enough juice the next morning. A fifteen-minute charge gave me around two and a half hours of battery life with moderate use.
While at work, one of the things I am looking for is being able to connect my smartphone to my laptop so that I can check notifications and directly respond to text messages through my laptop.
Although Windows 10 has the ‘Your Phone’ app and Google has the ‘Google Messages’ app to synchronize your text messages between your laptop and smartphone, Huawei took it up a notch with its very own, Huawei Share. With your NFC-enabled Huawei smartphone, you can mirror your phone to your laptop and control the smartphone directly on your laptop’s screen. There is no need to spend time learning how to connect your smartphone and familiarizing yourself with the app’s interface because you just have to tap your phone at the trackpad and your smartphone’s screen is already mirrored.
What also surprises me with the Huawei MateBook 14 2020 is that it automatically detected our office’s internet printer and asked me if I want to install its drivers. Usually, we ask our IT department to do this, but with the Huawei MateBook 14 2020, it's “easy, peasy,” as youngsters say these days.
Huawei continues to lead the Asian tech market with its array of tech solutions that are expanding and innovating almost on a daily basis. With the addition of the Huawei MateBook 14 2020 in its ecosystem, consumers surely have another reason to pick up a Huawei device for all their tech needs.
The Huawei MateBook 14 2020 suits different types of people and their lifestyles. Professionals will surely love this gadget as it looks very professional due to its aluminum alloy chassis and sandblasted finish. Graphic artists and video editors will thank the AMD Ryzen processor of the Huawei MateBook 14 2020 for making their lives easier and faster while creating their visual and or audio projects. Students and Vloggers can also benefit from its ability to perform well while multitasking making it the ultimate central workstation for beating your deadlines and all of your creative exploits.