Huawei MateBook X Pro - Ultra thin borders all arround display. Where the webcam? It's a Keyboard key!

[kuddlesworth9419]

That's fucking clever. 

[GoldenLag]

Time to empty the wallet. Hopefully there will be an non-pro variant so i can get myself without paying full price. But Norwegian prices say k wont be eating for a while

[Trixanity]

7 hours ago, Misanthrope said:

Legit question: Why is having a webcam on a laptop such a staple? I mean I get that it might be useful to have than to not have and such, but I've never found myself in a situation, work or otherwise, In which I said "damn I better use a shit quality video feed @480p that's going to lag like all fucking shit and make communication terrible instead of sticking to voice calling!"

I agree. I mean if they actually put a good camera in there I could understand it but 99% of all the cameras they install suck making it either useless or just dialing back the awfulness enough for it to be usable in a pinch. It's an afterthought; a box they can check. I've yet to see someone advertise "hey, we actually gave you a good camera experience this time!". I'd actually like to see someone either remove it or try to innovate on the webcam instead of being stuck in 2010. I think the rear camera on a tablet might actually be more useful than the webcam on a laptop. That says a lot. And I hate to even say something positive about having rear cameras on a tablet.

[GoldenLag]

43 minutes ago, Trixanity said:

I agree. I mean if they actually put a good camera in there I could understand it but 99% of all the cameras they install suck making it either useless or just dialing back the awfulness enough for it to be usable in a pinch. It's an afterthought; a box they can check. I've yet to see someone advertise "hey, we actually gave you a good camera experience this time!". I'd actually like to see someone either remove it or try to innovate on the webcam instead of being stuck in 2010. I think the rear camera on a tablet might actually be more useful than the webcam on a laptop. That says a lot. And I hate to even say something positive about having rear cameras on a tablet.

i believe the main reason they add them is because of the business applications. not having one would be a point of critisism and the moment you need one you are gonna curse the pc if you dont have one. it is one of those "nice to have" feutures that you wont  allways need but is nice that it is there regardless over how crap it is. from a business side of view, a camera is must when you are on the go and need to make a call to the boss or others.

you might argue they then need to have one with and one without, but that just increases the size of their skew and probably wont benefit them in any way.

[Trixanity]

3 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

i believe the main reason they add them is because of the business applications. not having one would be a point of critisism and the moment you need one you are gonna curse the pc if you dont have one. it is one of those "nice to have" feutures that you wont  allways need but is nice that it is there regardless over how crap it is. from a business side of view, a camera is must when you are on the go and need to make a call to the boss or others.

you might argue they then need to have one with and one without, but that just increases the size of their skew and probably wont benefit them in any way.

I just want them to do something with it. The BoM cost won't be that significant - however the jump in quality would.

[GoldenLag]

Just now, Trixanity said:

I just want them to do something with it. The BoM cost won't be that significant - however the jump in quality would.

so you say they should add a phone cam to it. maybe not the back cam, but the front cam. i guess they can add windows hello and configure for facerig or similar. however a hidden solution with it hidden in the keyboard would make this diffcult. we have to see how the webcam actually works. it doesnt seem to have a til which forces you in placing it really far away during a call. 

[GoodBytes]

25 minutes ago, Trixanity said:

I just want them to do something with it. The BoM cost won't be that significant - however the jump in quality would.

True. But then, for the same specs (beside the better camera), your system will cost more, and therefore not picked.

Sure you, as a manufacture of laptops, can take the hit, but in the end, you'll lose 1-2 millions of dollars if not more, depending on the device number being sold.

 

The only ones that can put a good camera is Apple and Microsoft. Maybe Razer.. and even then, I am not convinced, as it is a pretty competitive field, and gamers tend to look for "lowest price for specs", over anything else (quality, cooling, portability, battery life). Apple has no competitor. As for Microsoft Surface brand is all about "premium"/"Halo Product", and not value for your money, and they pushed that. MS doesn't want to be a director competitor to its OEMs, but wants to push the industry forward, and not keep it stale as it was for ages before.

[Trixanity]

1 hour ago, GoodBytes said:

True. But then, for the same specs (beside the better camera), your system will cost more, and therefore not picked.

Sure you, as a manufacture of laptops, can take the hit, but in the end, you'll lose 1-2 millions of dollars if not more, depending on the device number being sold.

 

The only ones that can put a good camera is Apple and Microsoft. Maybe Razer.. and even then, I am not convinced, as it is a pretty competitive field, and gamers tend to look for "lowest price for specs", over anything else (quality, cooling, portability, battery life). Apple has no competitor. As for Microsoft Surface brand is all about "premium"/"Halo Product", and not value for your money, and they pushed that. MS doesn't want to be a director competitor to its OEMs, but wants to push the industry forward, and not keep it stale as it was for ages before.

Even premium laptops often have bad to mediocre cameras. 

 

No one needs to take a hit. Just let the customer pay for it. $20 isn't a deal breaker for most if that's what it takes. Put it in the advertisement. People love to get more stuff for a little extra. If one does it successfully, others will follow suit. 

 

There simply is a lack of attention to detail. The overall impression would be so much better if OEMs put some effort into the last 10%.

[Misanthrope]

1 hour ago, GoldenLag said:

i believe the main reason they add them is because of the business applications. not having one would be a point of critisism and the moment you need one you are gonna curse the pc if you dont have one. it is one of those "nice to have" feutures that you wont  allways need but is nice that it is there regardless over how crap it is. from a business side of view, a camera is must when you are on the go and need to make a call to the boss or others.

you might argue they then need to have one with and one without, but that just increases the size of their skew and probably wont benefit them in any way.

Again I have not yet seen a business user who says 'Boy we are screwed, if only we had webcams in our laptops handy' since well, you can always call with voice only.

 

I'm not trying to knock anyone here, I am just legit trying to think a situation in which a low quality video feed that is almost guaranteed to be extremely constrained by bandwidth limitations is going to help anyone do business since voice calling and screen sharing are things we can do with PCs already.

[Misanthrope]

7 hours ago, Technous285 said:

Dunno 'bout you but I got a friend who does a weekly WWE podcast over Hangouts/YT with video feed of himself and the others in the podcast, and the only sort of system he can reliably use in his cramped room is a laptop whilst sitting on his bed due to not really having the room space to have a dedicated gaming/streaming PC setup (typically he only plays STO on PC anyway).

I understand that's a good use case actually. Not perfect since I still think 90% of webcast where a webcam is used can easily be done as voice only but it's a legit case.

 

What I was getting at is how this is also a very important requirement (apparently) for business applications in which, honestly, voice will do 99.99999% of the time.

[GoodBytes]

20 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

Again I have not yet seen a business user who says 'Boy we are screwed, if only we had webcams in our laptops handy' since well, you can always call with voice only.

 

I'm not trying to knock anyone here, I am just legit trying to think a situation in which a low quality video feed that is almost guaranteed to be extremely constrained by bandwidth limitations is going to help anyone do business since voice calling and screen sharing are things we can do with PCs already.

Webcam are used. People do use Skype and video chat is often used.  Now, as for low-end webcam, I agree, its time to upgrade it. The Surface Pro 4 and newer has a 1080p 5MP (2560x1960) front camera, and a 8MP rear camera. Both cameras have the drivers and hardware to back it up to handle 1080p video (not sure if it is 30fps or 60fps max. But I think Skype is limited to 30fps, so the camera is probably 30fps as well)

[Misanthrope]

1 minute ago, GoodBytes said:

Webcam are used. People do use Skype and video chat is often used.  Now, as for low-end webcam, I agree, its time to upgrade it. The Surface Pro 4 and newer has a 1080p 5MP (2560x1960) front camera, and a 8MP rear camera.

Trying to specifically talk about business users. I only had one person in the last 15 years or so that went out of his way to request that I jumped into a webcam conversation. Camilo was his name (He worked for Microsoft) and said he wanted to be familiar and more personal with his remote associates and such.

 

So is he the exception that proves the rule or is this far more prevalent with people that are not in kind of nerdy positions about numbers and databases like I am?

[RotoCoreOne]

Finally a tall display laptop other than the surface

[Guest The Viking]

Somebody made a vid about it (french but you get the way it works+viewing angles)

 

 

the camera doesn't seem to be that badly placed, just looks like an average model. Reviewer does point out though that if you're tall, you're screwed.

[mynameisjuan]

On 2/26/2018 at 10:19 AM, Misanthrope said:

Trying to specifically talk about business users. I only had one person in the last 15 years or so that went out of his way to request that I jumped into a webcam conversation. Camilo was his name (He worked for Microsoft) and said he wanted to be familiar and more personal with his remote associates and such.

 

So is he the exception that proves the rule or is this far more prevalent with people that are not in kind of nerdy positions about numbers and databases like I am?

I can back up that business users never use webcams, main reason is its a waste of time. Voice calls are just quicker and easier and most meetings have the info on your screen which cant be wasted by someones face. The only video chats we've had are in conference rooms. 

 

Ive never had a meeting where anyone requested we use a webcam. Even on the personal side, I have not seen anyone use their webcam over their phone and I am pretty sure all the laptops with the webcam taped up can back that up. 

[maartendc]

On 2/25/2018 at 12:46 PM, WereCat said:

3:2 (3000x2000) with touch screen and possibly pen?

YES!

Big deal. Macbook pro's have had 2880x1800 screens, 16:10 (almost 3:2) Since 2012.

 

 

[Guest The Viking]

10 minutes ago, maartendc said:

Big deal. Macbook pro's have had 2880x1800 screens, 16:10 (almost 3:2) Since 2012.

 

 

yes that makes it even worse, this is technically the second attempt from huawei to make a laptop and they are already further than apple. time to innovate.

[maartendc]

2 minutes ago, The Viking said:

yes that makes it even worse, this is technically the second attempt from huawei to make a laptop and they are already further than apple. time to innovate.

Depends how you define "further".

 

Although I do agree Apple development in its Macbook pro line is stagnant of late. (I don't count the "touch bar" as a particularly useful innovation")

[Guest The Viking]

2 hours ago, maartendc said:

Depends how you define "further".

 

Although I do agree Apple development in its Macbook pro line is stagnant of late. (I don't count the "touch bar" as a particularly useful innovation")

from my point of view, the matebook x pro is the third try from huawei in the laptop world, with the matebook 2016 (it was a tablet with m3 and windows 10, so can you even count it as laptop?), matebook x in 2017 and now this matebook x pro. So in 3 years they managed to catch up to Apple and make a device that, at least esthetically, is much more pleasing to see and with a more "premium" feel, between being thinner and the screen, which is probably the main selling point. So yes, i know, Apple doesn't really need to prove much anymore, they'll sell regardless of what they make and therefore their laptop line-up has become relatively stagnant, and will probably remain this way, as, as I already said, they don't have anything to prove.

 

So if you compare this matebook x pro to a current macbook, yes, design-wise and premium-feeling wise, it is superior. Performance-wise? Apple is well known for actually optimizing their OS for their devices so it'll be hard to beat them there. But yes, I see this as a random newcomer innovating in the laptop market, and laptop manufacturers should be ashamed of themselves for not having anything similar on the market - yet.

[WereCat]

8 hours ago, maartendc said:

Big deal. Macbook pro's have had 2880x1800 screens, 16:10 (almost 3:2) Since 2012.

 

 

Yes, it is a big deal because there is a huge lack of Windows/Linux laptops with a usefull screen aspect ratio for workflow.

16:10 screens used to be a lot more common even before 2012 but 16:9 became a trend which is a shame.

[maartendc]

13 hours ago, The Viking said:

from my point of view, the matebook x pro is the third try from huawei in the laptop world, with the matebook 2016 (it was a tablet with m3 and windows 10, so can you even count it as laptop?), matebook x in 2017 and now this matebook x pro. So in 3 years they managed to catch up to Apple and make a device that, at least esthetically, is much more pleasing to see and with a more "premium" feel, between being thinner and the screen, which is probably the main selling point. So yes, i know, Apple doesn't really need to prove much anymore, they'll sell regardless of what they make and therefore their laptop line-up has become relatively stagnant, and will probably remain this way, as, as I already said, they don't have anything to prove.

 

So if you compare this matebook x pro to a current macbook, yes, design-wise and premium-feeling wise, it is superior. Performance-wise? Apple is well known for actually optimizing their OS for their devices so it'll be hard to beat them there. But yes, I see this as a random newcomer innovating in the laptop market, and laptop manufacturers should be ashamed of themselves for not having anything similar on the market - yet.

Well, in my opinion, everyone has something to prove when I am shopping for a new laptop. I'm just looking for the best product. However, it is true that Apple just has a reputation for good products and good service, and that might be more important than "innovation" or "the thinnest".

 

I wouldnt buy a laptop from Huawei unless I know their track record in quality, durability and customer service if something does go wrong.

 

Also I personally would not buy any Huawei product for different reasons, good thing that you can collapse that webcam key, otherwise the Chinese government would be watching all the time. *tinfoil hat*.

[Mysticode]

Has Xiaomi come out with one yet? I can't support Huawei anymore after the Nexus 6P fiasco

[suicidalfranco]

13 hours ago, Mysticode said:

Has Xiaomi come out with one yet? I can't support Huawei anymore after the Nexus 6P fiasco

mi notebook air and mi notebook pro?

 

[Qub3d]

If not bigger trackpads, I like to see laptops with a touchscreen. I just bought an XPS 9370 (the 2018 one) and the touchscreen is nice for big sweeping gestures (i.e. scrolling) while the admittedly small trackpad is better for precision work.

 

The worst is when you get a cheap laptop with a tiny plastic trackpad and no touchscreen. You can miss me with that shit, I'll tape a trackball to the damn thing at that point.

[Trixanity]

52 minutes ago, Qub3d said:

If not bigger trackpads, I like to see laptops with a touchscreen. I just bought an XPS 9370 (the 2018 one) and the touchscreen is nice for big sweeping gestures (i.e. scrolling) while the admittedly small trackpad is better for precision work.

 

The worst is when you get a cheap laptop with a tiny plastic trackpad and no touchscreen. You can miss me with that shit, I'll tape a trackball to the damn thing at that point.

Well, good news then: lots of laptops have touch screens. This one does too. 10-point touch with Gorilla glass and an oleophobic coating.