Huawei may be down but the company certainly isn’t out. Amid the news that it’s getting harder than ever for Huawei to source components for its hardware (we think you all know the orange person responsible for that), Huawei’s announced that its MateBook range is getting a little upgrade. Specifically, the MateBook X and the MateBook 14 are in for bumps in the processor, RAM and storage departments. There may be a few other upgrades in-store as well.

Interesting developments

This info, as well as the news that Huawei’s HarmonyOS is coming to its smartphones (because there really seems to be no end in sight for Trump’s interference), turned up during Huawei’s ongoing Developer Conference. The MateBook X, which isn’t officially available here in South Africa (yet) gets a spec bump starting from October this year.

Said bump includes a jump to Intel’s 10th-gen processor hardware, with the Core i7-10510U representing the best chip the notebook range will feature. Expect up to 16GB of RAM and up to 512GB of SSD storage for the lightweight powerhouse notebook. There’s no aftermarket GPU option (as is the case with Huawei’s top-end MateBook X Pro series) but the 13in 3,000 x 2,000 display, 13.3mm thickness and improved, haptics-featuring touchpad hope to make up for it.

The MateBook 14, on the other hand, is available in SA. But not this version of it. Not yet, at any rate. AMD’s Ryzen 4800H is being dropped into the updated machine, along with a max of 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. The display gets a bump from HD to 1440p and there’s a 56Wh battery that should make this notebook a bit of a workhorse.

There are also lower-spec models planned, with an AMD Ryzen 5 4600H, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD storage representing the bottom of the range. But, unlike the MateBook X, the MateBook 14 comes with a more traditional range of ports so you can plug in all your bits without needing to purchase a USB-C dock beforehand. International release for both the MateBook X and MateBook 14 updates is October this year. We’ll let you know when (or if) a South African launch forms part of Huawei’s plans.