This post is brought to you by Huawei Malaysia.
Being a student is hard. You’ve got no money, a tonne of pressure to not fail your classes, and a crazy workload filled with assignments, exam preparations and that swim club you wished you didn’t sign up for. Plus, whenever you need something new, you’re always forced into this negotiation war between you and your parents, even if it’s about something essential like a laptop.
Yes, your parents only want what’s best for you, but sometimes it can be pretty hard to part them from their money, especially if your cousin’s 8-year-old laptop “will do just fine”. But everyone knows that there’s no way that thing will run Photoshop.
However, laptops that are capable enough — or have the right features — often tuck that away behind a price tag that no student is going to be able to afford. Much less convince their parents to afford. Does that mean you’re at an impasse? Are you doomed to use cousin Brian’s decade-old piece of junk for the entirety of your college life? Well, not necessarily, because Huawei may just have the device for you.
It’s the Huawei Matebook D, and Huawei promises that they’ve designed this specifically for students. Is this true? Well, let’s take a look at some of the thing students absolutely need in a laptop, and see how the Matebook D stacks up.
A student needs a laptop with a good screen and great speakers
This, is pretty self-explanatory. When you’re a college student — especially if you’re living on campus — your laptop is probably the only device you have a with a screen bigger than your smartphone. That means, it’ll be the only device you turn to for presentations, screenings, editing, writing and the occasional Neflix binge. Therefore, it needs to have a solid screen and a solid set of speakers, or you’ll be stuck doing the two-handed speaker cup whenever you want to watch anything. And you best believe that that’s not going to earn you any street cred.
The good news is that the Matebook D won’t force you into this situation. For starters, this thing has a set of quad speakers tuned by the folks over at Dolby Atmos. Yup, the same people that work on the epic sounds you hear in the cinema had a hand in these speakers. If that’s not a stamp of assurance, well, what is?
Besides that, the laptop also packs a good-looking Full HD (that’s 1920×1080 pixels) IPS display that measures 14 inches diagonally. A 14” laptop is really in that sweet spot where it’s not too big that the laptop becomes bulky, but it’s also not a tiny 13.3-inch panel. What’s more, this laptop packs a set of really slim bezels that not only gives you that immersive factor with its 81% screen-to-body ratio, but also contributes to next need a student has.
Portability is king
Living on campus means that you’ll be walking pretty much everywhere. If you’re one of those who live on a really large campus, that means you’ll be walking A LOT. And when you’re doing that, the last thing you want in your backpack is a laptop that isn’t portable.
That’s why Huawei’s designed the Matebook D to be as portable as possible. Remember those really slim bezels? What that means is, even if you’ve got a laptop that has a large 14-inch screen, it’s not going to feel like most large 14-inch laptops. That’s because the Matebook D features a much smaller footprint than most 14” devices.
Also, you won’t be lugging around a lot of weight either because the laptop itself weighs just 1.45kg. Oh, and if you’re concerned about the Pocket Charger that you need to keep this thing running, that brick is also really light, weighing just 155g. Plus, this Pocket Charger supports charging for smartphones so you can leave your phone charger at home and save even more weight off your back.
But a portable laptop means nothing if it can’t keep up
The last thing you need when you’re busy rushing an assignment, is to have your laptop slow down. There’s honestly nothing more frustrating than to sit there and wait for ages just to launch a simple application. With the Matebook D, this won’t be an issue because the laptop comes packing Intel’s latest 8th-gen Core processor, so you’ll be whizzing through tasks with ease.
Need to share documents from your Huawei smartphone in a jiffy? Huawei’s Matebook D features the company’s speedy wireless transfer solution, Huawei Share. With this you can share 1G data transmission in just 1 min.
To sweeten the deal, Huawei’s also including large 57.4Wh battery that will last you up to 12 hours on a single charge. This means you can make it through even the busiest days of classes, and not need to plug in halfway.
Besides that, Huawei even included a one touch fingerprint scanner on their power button to let you instantly log into the laptop without needing to faff about with a password or pin.
A student’s laptop also needs to be tough
Build quality is of utmost importance. Not only will a well-built laptop look better than most, it will also last longer through the inescapable abuses it will suffer at the hands of a college student. With that in mind, you really don’t want a frail device that’s covered in plastic.
What you will want is something that’s got a solid metal unibody like the Huawei Matebook D. This is one of the few laptops in this price range that actually feature a metal unibody like this. Especially one that’s just 15.8mm thick.
However, the most important thing is that a student’s laptop needs to be affordable
RM6,000? Absolutely no way. RM5,000? Nope. RM4,000? Try again. If a laptop is too expensive, it won’t matter if it has all the features in the world, because a college student is never going to be able to afford it. In the past, this meant you’d have to settle for something sub-par, but with the Huawei Matebook D, you can get all of those features for a price tag that you might actually be able to afford.
The Huawei Matebook D is priced at RM2,999! That’s practically a steal for the kind of specs, features and versatility that this laptop offers. So, if you’re a college student looking for a new laptop (or if you’re looking for a new laptop for your college student) Huawei’s Matebook D checks all the right boxes. Pick one up for yourself at any authorised Huawei retailer and online at Huawei’s online store or senQ.
If you want to up the ante and get a combo, the Huawei Matebook D and Huawei Nova 4 will be a great package for the students as the smartphone caters to the younger generation due to its AI capabilities (AI video, AI beautification, availability of 3D Qmojis, GPU Turbo that enhances gaming experiences, video ringtones and gradient colours that help them stand out from the crowd). With all these AI functions, the phone becomes fun to use and can enhance the students’ lives. So, when they take lots of pics/vids on the Huawei Nova 4, it will be easier for them to transfer to the Huawei MateBook D using Huawei Share. This seamless ecosystem will make it more convenient for students, anytime and regardless of location.
