
The best laptop right now: Huawei Matebook X Pro - Apocryphon
https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/4/15961740/best-laptop-microsoft-windows-apple-macbook-hp-dell-lenovo
======
scblock
Are they kidding? I know the Verge is run by strange people, but their top
recommendation is a Chinese laptop with a design ripped-off of the MacBook
Pro, made by a company that we are recommended to avoid right now because of
questionable connections to Chinese government?

Edit: My perspective with this comment is American.

~~~
old-gregg
Meh... as a portable device optimized for scrolling endless social media
streams with baby/cat pics - maybe... This or MBP, there's little difference,
but phones and tables are way better for that anyway.

In the world of "best laptops" as in "devices we use to make stuff" it's
awlays been Thinkpads competing against each other for the top spot. You can't
be called even a GOOD laptop without [1] and [2]

[1] [https://i.stack.imgur.com/zS1SJ.png](https://i.stack.imgur.com/zS1SJ.png)

[2]
[https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TTh3Xi4N6cw/WUGdgdnYjzI/AAAAAAABd...](https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TTh3Xi4N6cw/WUGdgdnYjzI/AAAAAAABdY4/c0ol2F2iF3cpX1uga4SPakCZR
--ef5KNQCLcBGAs/s1600/_460_0_73P2698_V7.jpg)

~~~
rayiner
Macbook trackpad >>> track point and physical buttons.

~~~
dijit
Oh how I disagree.

But I suppose that's the crux, it's subjective.

RE: Thinkpads though, the quality has been declining rather rapidly since
2011. For this specific feature (trackpoint) the Dell Business line (Latitude)
has that:
[https://img.purch.com/o/aHR0cDovL2Nkbi5sYXB0b3BtYWcuY29tL2lt...](https://img.purch.com/o/aHR0cDovL2Nkbi5sYXB0b3BtYWcuY29tL2ltYWdlcy91cGxvYWRzL3BwcmVzcy80NTU4Mi9sYXRpdHVkZS01NDkwLTAwOC5qcGc=)

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mbell
I don't understand why people continue to compare laptops with 15W cpus like
the Huawei Matebook X Pro or Microsoft Surface Book 2 to laptops with 38/45W
CPUs. On CPU intensive workloads an i7-8550U is going to under perform an
i7-7920HQ pretty soundly, around 40-50%, particularly for sustained workloads
where the i7-8550U is going to start throttling hard to stay within it's TDP
boundaries.

If you're considering a laptop with an i7-8550U in it, it's doubtful you're in
the target market for a Macbook Pro, at least certainly not the 15" model, the
13" is at least a little closer in performance depending on workload.

The i7-8550U seems like a great option in the 15W category and smashes
previous 15W parts. But, it's not a competitor in the 'Pro' market if anything
you do leverages the CPU heavily. It's also just a matter of time before intel
releases quad core 38W parts which will pull laptops like the 13" MBP far
ahead in performance again.

------
smacktoward
For comparison, The Wirecutter avoids a single "the best laptop you can buy
right now" recommendation altogether, instead recommending various sensible
choices depending on what you're looking to do with the thing:
[https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-
laptops/](https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-laptops/)

This seems like a smarter approach to me, given the wide range of things
people do with laptops.

------
dbot
I just bought one because Apple didn't refresh the MBP. It is nice - maybe I
need to get used to it, but it's not a MBP. Continuity between my phone for
everything - iMessage, clipboard, wifi networks - is something you begin to
miss quickly. The Apple trackpad is also hands-down the best experience.

------
dopamean
Literally the only thing that matters to me when thinking about ditching my
MBP is how well the computer works with linux. I have had such horrible
experiences with linux laptops and honestly it seems like as time goes by it
gets worse. This article doesn't mention linux at all but I suspect the
experience is poor.

~~~
thedoops
I'm cautiously anticipating Lenovo's announcement of the P1 which will
supposedly ship with the intel+Vega chip. Rumors are that same chip will be
used in the next Gen MacBooks.

They're also working on some Ryzen cpu model equivalents to the t480, t580,
etc. All of which will have better graphics performance than the equivalent
Intel cpu.

What I really want is a Ryzen Thinkpad x1 2 in 1 with good Linux support, but
maybe that's too much hopeful thinking. My t430 will suffice until I find
something worthy to upgrade to.

~~~
dna_polymerase
Ryzen Based X1 would be so amazing. We need options to ditch Intel.

------
znpy
This article is clearly biased and written by Apple fanboys/fangirls: they
publicize basically the whole Apple lineup and praise the top performer for
being a mac-like laptop.

Now I am clearly (and admittedly) a ThinkPad-leaning guy but despite this it
must be noted that Lenovo offers ThinkPads in 12", 14" and 15" versions but
such laptops get no representation (same for Dell).

This article is basically bullshit.

------
mmphosis
I am looking for a laptop with 32GB RAM or higher. This "best" laptop appears
to maxed out at 16GB RAM like current MacBooks.

~~~
AtlasLion
Get yourself a Thinkpad p52. It supports 128GB of RAM and comes with mobile
Xeon CPU

~~~
chanchar
jesus christ that's a monster. What kind of sane person needs that kind of
portability paired with those specs.

~~~
slededit
I use mine for PCB layout. Wish it was faster. Note: it has removable
batteries so I bring a spare and swap it out.

------
highace
Not convinced. I'd say the best laptop right now is still the 2015 Macbook
Pro.

~~~
awalton
While you are still able to purchase them, it's not exactly on the market as a
new machine...

It's not wrong that this was probably one of the best hardware designs and
Apple was _wrong_ not to just keep upgrading the processors and memory and
churning machines out... but since Apple decided Touchbars and shitty
keyboards all for want of a few millimeters that nobody cares about is the way
of the future, we're stuck looking elsewhere for hardware.

I have to personally admit that I have seriously contemplated buying one of
these 2015 machines refurbed, as my 2012 MBP is on its last legs and I need to
replace it... six months ago. I also looked at the machine in this article and
really quite liked the hardware, but would never buy it from the company
that's building it, which is another market fail.

(And it's also annoying to watch people call the machine in the article a
Macbook clone, when it's really closer to being a Chromebook Pixel clone, all
the way down to the 3:2 screen; I love the Chromebook Pixel too, but living
with Chromebook hardware as a software dev is a high-level annoyance that I
wouldn't wish on anyone for their daily driving experience.)

~~~
imwally
I too entertained the idea of the PixelBook but just this week I sold my 2017
15" MacBook Pro and bought a 2015. I couldn't care less about the TouchBar but
there are some serious reliability problems with the butterfly keyboard.

What I liked about the 2017:

\- Great screen (the P3 does make a difference).

\- Loud speakers (though over a certain percent the chassis would vibrate).

\- Slightly smaller footprint.

\- Slightly thinner.

\- Weighs slightly less.

What I like about the 2015:

\- Reliable keyboard.

\- Stiffer LCD hinge (less wobbling, don't care about how hard it is to open).

\- No branding at the bottom of screen.

\- MagSafe power adapter with charging/charged LED status indicator.

\- Storage can be self-upgraded.

\- No accidental TouchBar taps resulting in play/pause or locking screen.

------
nwj
Has anyone tried running linux on one of these? How'd it go? It's not
currently in any of the hardware compatibility lists that I am aware of.

~~~
coolspot
Looks like it works well:

[https://liliputing.com/2018/06/first-look-huawei-
matebook-x-...](https://liliputing.com/2018/06/first-look-huawei-matebook-x-
pro-with-ubuntu-18-04-linux.html)

~~~
kentt
From your linked article: > It recognized touch input, allowing me to move an
on-screen cursor and tap app shortcuts, among other things. But I noticed that
tapping the “Show Applications” icon made the app list expand and disappear
quickly. I think it’s registering single-taps as double-taps.

To me that's an annoying enough problem that I'd say it does not work.

~~~
amaccuish
That was the touchscreen, not the trackpad

------
Apreche
Can you trust a Huawei, though?

~~~
zedderled
I agree...it's also funny because The Verge in Feb wrote an article about not
trusting Huawei phones.

> [https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/14/17011246/huawei-phones-
> sa...](https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/14/17011246/huawei-phones-safe-us-
> intelligence-chief-fears)

~~~
ihsw2
Leftist news outlets are not known for their integrity or consistency.

~~~
joshumax
Could you elaborate on that? For instance several right-leaning news sources
such as FOX News have been known to misrepresent information, and it seems
like journalistic integrity and a lack thereof supersedes any political bias.

------
mark-r
It's refreshing to see the industry try aspect ratios other than 16:9. This
3:2 looks like it would be a lot more useful.

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amatheus
I think it is funny how the article compares laptops with tablets and phones
and never mention desktops. I'm thinking of upgrading my 2014 MacBook Air and
right now the iMac 27" seems to me like the best option every way, except if
you really need portability (specially because it still has upgradable
memory). I mean, it has a 4gb video card and a huge, beautiful retina display,
and it's about the same price as the macbook pro.

------
paulgpetty
Nah. I get the argument that maybe American laptop makers are complacent or
that we shouldn't create borders within which to judge technology. To be fair,
if Matebook is a rip off of the Macbook design, devices are getting to be a
lot like cars. Ford & Toyota are both composited of parts made all over the
world. The Macbook is probably just as Chinese by weight as a Huawei.

But compare the integrity & intangibles … If HN is a developer community
shouldn’t we appreciate originality? Shouldn’t we depreciate a company that is
heavily inspired by another & offers no credit where credit is due?

Apple’s designs aren’t the end-all-be-all & their software lags well behind
the innovations we’ve seen in their hardware through the years. But they & any
company that does something original enough deserves some credit.

"The Mac option: Apple MacBook Pro” should actually say: "The Original option:
Apple MacBook Pro” … and all of the scores should be weighted against that
original. (Why is that section the second section? Would making it the last
make it stand out more?)

In fact, I don’t think it’d be out of line to rate every other device by how
well they copied the form factor from Apple, how well they varied and added to
the number of ports, what they did differently than Apple & how that impacted
usability and security among other things.

There’s a really objective way to gage devices … I know I’m biased but at
least I know I am. The Verge is as clueless as most sites I’ve seen that rate
laptops like each one was an original idea that coincidentally all happen to
look alike.

------
imwally
Note that there's supposedly some nasty coil whine on these machines:
[https://twitter.com/jcs/status/1000117326728060929](https://twitter.com/jcs/status/1000117326728060929)

------
pornel
It's funny that a rip-off of 2015 MacBook Pro is hailed as better than the
latest MacBook Pro, just because it didn't follow Apple's latest arrogant
missteps.

Keeping non-squashed keyboard and USB-A is all that MacBooks needed to stay on
top.

------
traverseda
Consider instead the Xiaomi probook, another macbook clone. It works well with
linux.

~~~
ValentineC
> _Consider instead the Xiaomi probook, another macbook clone._

I haven't had a chance to try the Huawei Matebook, but Xiaomi's trackpad is
rough and doesn't come anywhere close to Apple's.

------
parliament32
Just from the first image I can already tell that keyboard will feel
horrendous.

------
nickthemagicman
I've noticed this hunk o' junk being shucked all over the internet.

The title should be "The best laptop marketing team right now".

~~~
jjeaff
Looks like a nice machine. Could you elaborate on "hunk o junk".

~~~
nickthemagicman
See the other post in this thread for explanation.

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vokep
Sounds nice I guess, the 3kx2k display sounds good.

Other than that, I don't really want Huawei hardware tho

