Black Friday – Less than 450€ for this Huawei MateBook D 14 ultrabook on Amazon and Huawei – LaptopSpirit

Our opinion on the Huawei MateBook D 14 2021

Housed in a lightweight (1.4kg) and stylish metal chassis, the Huawei Matebook D 14 2021 looks great. Its sober and refined silhouette packs an advantageous office configuration with an Intel Core i3 at its core supported by 8GB of RAM and a fast 256GB SSD storage. In addition, the webcam is retractable to preserve your privacy, a fingerprint reader is well placed on the power button and the battery life exceeds 9 hours. Note, however, the rather low capacity of the SSD (256GB) and the lack of keyboard backlighting (logical at this price point).

Huawei MateBook D 14 against the competition

The Huawei Matebook D14 2021 it appears as the cheapest of its category in our comparison where it also stands out thanks to its aesthetics, whose sobriety evokes that of a MacBook and its equipment (fingerprint reader, metal body).

Features of the Huawei MateBook D 14 2021

Chassis, connectors, screen of the Huawei Matebook D 14 2021

Let’s start with what makes the main charm and strength of the Huawei Matebook D 14 2021, its chassis. Huawei has been carrying the excellent cross-over frame to its models since 2019, and this is thanks to it. The metal alloy surfaces they are smooth and opaque, carefully assembled and free from sharp edges that could make handling uncomfortable. Sobriety is essential. Some would even give it a somewhat austere side as the gray color returns a more neutral image, without Huawei having tried to revive it. Fans of Apple PCs will be won over, those of flamboyant design a little less. Either way, the Matebook D 14 will be able to slip into any environment without being noticed.

When you open it, you are immediately struck by the borderless screen surrounded by a 4.8mm frame leading to an 84% screen/box occupancy ratio. The immersion is convincing, especially since the from the IPS it guarantees wide viewing angles (Huawei announces 178 degrees) and that the screen can open flat to take advantage of a more flexible approach in all circumstances. The definition oftransparent Full HD (1920 x 1080 px) is suitable for the largest number of people and allows you to view your HD content in the best conditions. Note that it says the maximum brightness isn’t very bright (250 nits), which may hinder outdoor use.

The keyboard is apparently not backlit on this reference. This is really not surprising at this price level.

The connection guarantees a correct level even if some will regret the absence of a card reader. Here, one HDMI output, two full-sized USB ports (USB 2.0 and USB 3.2) and one port USB 3.2 Type-C Gen1 they are part of it. That is to say, this denier is also and above all for the load. Those who want to connect their PC and take advantage of the versatility of the USB-C port will therefore have to equip themselves with a dock. Connectivity is entrusted to the latest wireless modules (Wifi AC and Bluetooth 5.0) ea biometric reader it is hidden behind the power button for fast and secure authentication via Windows Hello.

Last point that shows how much Huawei wants to preserve your privacy, the webcam is “hidden” under a key of keyboard function and deployable under pressure. Available on request, it offers above all a slightly awkward viewing angle.

Performance, autonomy of the Huawei Matebook D 14 2021

The MateBook D 14 is powered by an 11th generation Intel Core processor Core i3-1115G4 (2 hearts). This processor has the advantage of taking advantage of a Turbo mode (3 Ghz / 4.1 Ghz) which allows it to seek a little more power if needed. Attention, we stay on a Dual Core i3 which is mainly intended for common office automation with web browsing, office suite, video playback, light tweaking, etc. It’s hard to imagine running more demanding tasks on this PC, except for a short while. The 8GB RAM paves the way for multitasking.

Good point, the integrated graphics chip Intel UHD Xe Graphics reaches the level of a GeForce MX230, enough to take advantage of some graphic tasks and play some games in low definition.

Another important feature, especially on a light 14-inch intended to move, is the autonomy that should approach that 9 hours of operation in common use. It’s just right for working on the go.

Finally, conservation is entrusted to a 256GB M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD, allowing it to bring its share of fluency to Windows 10 and overall program execution, knowing that it pays off in terms of capacity. If we count the space occupied by the system and the programs, only about 200 GB are left free, enough to host a small part of your toy library. For the rest, you will have to opt for an external or online solution.