Huawei unveils the $699 MateBook 2-in-1 Windows tablet

BARCELONA, Spain-Huawei, not content with being the third-largest smartphone maker in the world behind Apple and Samsung, is now entering the PC market-and it’s going after Microsoft’s Surface.

Huawei’s new tablet – which will be available in the colours grey and golden – has a full-metal unibody design with rounded edges.

Hybrid devices that can be used as both a laptop and a tablet have hugely grown in popularity in the past year, driven by Microsoft’s successful Surface line, and the introduction of Apple’s iPad Pro in October. At just 6.9mm thin and 640g, it’s built to squeeze into a satchel without weighing you down. Well Huawei is offering six models with various 6th Gen Intel Core M processors inside, along with different RAM and SSD options.

The base model offers 4GB of RAM, core m3, and 128GB storage.

Storage comes in three flavours; 128GB, 256GNB, and 512GB, giving the MateBook a similar solid state drive setup to rival hybrids.

The tablet has built-in dual speakers with Dolby audio, and a noise cancelling headset that charges through the MateBook. It has a 5-megapixel camera on the front.

MateBook features a 33.7Wh high-density Lithium battery which supports nine hours of work, nine consecutive hours of Internet use and 29 hours of music playback. He said the charger is as small as a smartphone charger (instead of bulky and bigger one ), which can be carried easily.

The detachable keyboard and touchpad comes as part of a soft PU leather folio case and even this manages to keep with the premium appeal of the MateBook. But it offers two angles of position, presumably to stop keyboard warriors from getting serious neck cricks. And it’s spill resistant to stop butter-fingered users from wrecking it. Unfortunately, Huawei is not bundling the keyboard for free, so fans of traditional typing will need to fork out an extra $129. You can also purchase a MatePen for $59 and a MateDock for $89. But it’s the screen that Huawei is particularly proud of. This is certainly a device we are looking forward to reviewing, along with its laser pointer and projection clicker, because you know, why not. The keyboard draws power from the MateBook itself, so there’s no additional battery to charge up.

There are also other several useful features Huawei has introduced to the MateBook including the quick launch of a Wi-Fi hotspot, along with data transfer capabilities that allows for drag-and-drop document transfer to and from Android smartphones.