Huawei released its awesome MateBook X Pro at IFA 2022, and it is the best laptop we've seen from the brand so for.

Looking for a new workhorse to power your productivity? Then look no further than Huawei's latest foldaway, the MateBook X Pro 12th Gen Core edition. With the latest Intel chip, you can handle everyday tasks and then some; a great option for your next laptop.

Huawei’s hardware has never failed to impress me. From its smartphones, through its wearables, to its laptops, hell—even its printers—I have consistently been awestruck by Huawei’s flair for design. I’m pleased to say the latest laptop in the premium Huawei X-series—the Huawei MateBook X Pro 12th Gen Core—continues this trend.

Huawei officially launched the device at IFA 2022, and is available to buy now from the Huawei store. Without further ado, let's look at what makes the X Pro 12th Gen a serious contender for your next laptop investment.

We’ll tell you what is in the box in a moment, but first let's talk about the box itself. Man, is this some presentation…

The box is all-white with a golden Huawei logo in the center of the hinged lid. When you open the lid, it also lifts the X Pro 12th Gen out of the box for you slightly, making it easy to remove your new laptop. Admittedly, I spent about ten minutes repeating this open-close action before I remembered there was a laptop to review.

The rest of the packaging is as you’d expect, but I thought the lovely presentation of the laptop was a pleasant touch worth mentioning. It just gives everything a premium feel.

Anyway, onto the contents it holds! You get:

Now you just need to boot your device up and away you go into a land of improved productivity!

Out of the box, the X Pro 12th Gen is quite the looker. It is a beautifully designed piece of hardware, meaning you may draw comparisons to Apple’s equivalent laptops. Ignoring those, though, this device stands out against many other Windows portables as a thing of wonder.

Our test device came in Space Gray, and you can get two other colors; White and Ink Blue. The Space Gray version comes with an aluminum alloy chassis, which feels smooth to the touch and cool when the laptop is in use.

When the screen is closed, the X Pro 12th Gen boasts the Huawei logo in a high-luster finish, dead center, which is great for catching the eye. On the right edge are the 3.5mm headphone/microphone 2-in-1 TRRS jack, and the two Thunderbolt ports. On the left edge are two USB-C ports.

Open the lid, and you’re treated to a lovely Huawei Free Touch touchpad, which extends out right to the edge of the laptop, so it is flush with the frame. The keyboard above features backlit keys, and above those is the power button, which also doubles as the fingerprint reader for signing in to Windows.

The screen itself is great, as it features a 3:2 aspect ratio to improve the productivity potential of the X Pro 12th Gen.

Above the screen is the on-board camera, nestled in the noticeably thin bezel. The screen-to-body ratio is a whopping 92.5%, thanks to these thin bezels; the same as the previous 11th-Gen-Core-bearing “2022” iteration of the MateBook X Pro, released earlier this year.

In terms of dimensions, you’re looking at a 12.2 x 8.7-inch footprint, and a maximum height of 0.6 inches when closed. It also clocks in at just over three pounds, so it is super light, and feels so in the hand.

In all, the MateBook X Pro 12th Gen is every inch premium in both look and feel.

The X Pro 12th Gen ships with Windows 11 Home edition, so you’re pretty much bang up to date when you unpack and fire up.

Sitting inside the laptop is the 12th Gen Intel Core i7-1260P processor, with graphics provided by the integrated Intel Iris Xe. You get a generous 16 GB of RAM, and for storage, you can choose between 512 GB or 1 TB versions (both NVMe SSD). We tested the former storage option.

The lithium polymer battery has a rated capacity of 60 Wh.

Display-wise, the screen itself is 14.2 inches, and has a 3120 x 2080 resolution with 264 PPI. The screen also has refresh rates of 90/60 Hz, with the advertised maximum brightness hitting 500 nits. Not to forget, the device boasts a touchscreen, too. Again, a little productivity bonus for the X Pro 12th Gen.

For audio, you’ve got six built-in speakers and four microphones. You can connect wired headphones via the aforementioned 3.5mm socket, or pair the X Pro 12th gen with some Bluetooth cans or earbuds. And that completes our little walk around the specifications.

With all the minutiae out of the way, it is time to talk about performance.

The X Pro 12th Gen is an excellent device for both work and play. It has tangible productivity benefits thanks to that 3:2 screen, enabling you to view more of your text document as you work on it, for example.

I used it as a work device in my home office during testing, and I found it exceeded my expectations. Obviously, it does all the things a Windows laptop can do; it just does them rapidly. This is clearly thanks to the updated i7 chip after which Huawei named the X Pro 12th Gen.

Everything starts up super fast, apps launch like lighting (even Photoshop is available in mere seconds, shock horror), and you can work quickly and efficiently knowing that the processor will bulldoze through most tasks you throw at it.

One area that might be a turnoff for some is the Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics. If you’re planning on doing complex design work, such as video game design, the lack of a dedicated graphics processor might make you want to look elsewhere.

Likewise, if you’re into gaming, then you’ll know that an integrated graphics processor will not offer you anywhere near as much oomph as dedicated gaming cards like an RX-series or similar would. You’ll be fine for some casual games, just not absolute GPU chompers.

However, in general terms, the X Pro sailed through everything I could throw at it. Photoshop works like a charm. I can edit documents to my heart’s content, and just about anything else I do in my working day passed with the utmost ease during testing.

One feature worth mentioning from a productivity standpoint, pinpointing the work-from-home population, is the camera. The 720p resolution means your videos don’t look like you’re broadcasting them via a vintage cinema reel. No longer will you need to look like a Luddite every time you fire up Zoom, your former grainy self a distant memory thanks to Huawei’s sparkly new front-facer.

As with other recent Huawei devices, the X Pro 12th Gen works in Harmony with Huawei’s Super Device ecosystem. You can learn more about that in our guide to how Super Device works, so I won’t go into the finer points here.

Needless to say, the laptop integrated seamlessly with my other Huawei devices; a P50 Pro smartphone, MatePad 11, MateView monitor, and PixLab printer, all via the award-winning Super Device platform.

In terms of entertaining oneself, the X Pro 12th Gen offers a real treat for the eyes. The “3.1K” display resolution ensures that any movie or TV media you want to consume is done so with glee.

As this is an LCD screen and not an OLED panel, you’ll possibly notice that blacks aren’t as deep as they could be (due to the backlight an LCD needs to operate). An LCD screen can also drain the battery quickly for this reason, so make sure you optimize your settings to suit your surroundings and requirements, in order to make the juice in that battery last longer.

I got about a working day (around 9 hours) on average, during testing, before the low battery warning sent me searching for the charger cable under the desk. This isn’t an issue for me anyway, personally, as I work from a home office, so I rarely need to rely on finding a charging point for my laptop battery. The battery got me through the journey to IFA from the UK, too, so I’m happy.

To round off, I really think the X Pro 12th Gen is a superb laptop in terms of performance, and definitely deserving of the premium tag Huawei places on it.

I absolutely would recommend the X Pro 12th Gen as a daily portable with plenty of horsepower. If you’re not looking for a hardcore gaming laptop, or one for super-intensive design work, then you’re well onto a winner.

It might carry a premium price tag, but you’re getting a premium home office laptop here, which is ideal for dealing with productivity tasks like child's play.

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Ste Knight has a degree in English and Media from Edge Hil University, UK. Having worked as a content writer for three years, Ste finally decided to concentrate his efforts in a sector for which he has lots of passion; technology. Ste joined MUO in 2019 as a writer, before becoming Gaming Editor, and since then has moved from the editorial side of MUO into Partnerships at Valnet Inc, where he is currently Partnerships Manager for tech and gaming. When Ste isn't sitting in front of his computer, you can find him sat in front of a games console, reading graphic novels, or mixing repetitive beats. Ste is also the primary food provider for four felines.

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