In need of a budget laptop? HUAWEI’s MateBook D 14 seems to check all the right boxes.
The 14″ D 14 was designed to be a budget, portable workhorse. It weighs a modest 1.38kg and tops out at 15.9mm thick. For the price, it’s not a bad looker, and they bothered to make the bezels on the 1080p IPS display fairly teeny (84% screen-to-body ratio) to give an impression of a premium product. The laptop also features an Intel U-series processor (G10, i5-10210U) that’s coupled with an NVIDIA GeForce MX250 graphics card, which is good enough to play most games albeit at low settings. It comes with 8GB RAM and 512GB storage and is available in any colour you want so long as it is Mystic Silver. All things considered, it’s not bad at all for an all-rounder that’s supposed to be a productivity tool.
The MateBook’s signature webcam.
(And yes, it’s got that fancy webcam that pops up from the keyboard and a fingerprint reader on the power button too)
HUAWEI also touts other quality of life features like an excellent cooling fan – the Shark Fin Fan – thanks to its new s-shaped fan blades for optimised airflow. The 56Wh battery is rated for up to 13.2 hours of continuous video playback, while a blue light filter on the display should help relieve eyestrain when putting in the hours in front of the computer as well.
If you’re using a supported Huawei phone you also have additional itsy tricks (via Huawei Share ) like the ability to drag and drop files or running phone tasks on your laptop instead. Honestly, I think just being able to drag and drop files reliably would be enough.
Pricing and perks
Priced at $1,098, the MateBook D 14 will be available from 20 February.
Until 31 March and while stocks last, every D 14 purchase comes with a bevvy of perks worth up to $351 – depending on where you get it.
The standard $243 gift bundle includes:
- Huawei Backpack
- USB Flash Drive
- Huawei Bluetooth Speaker
- 1-year extended warranty
Also, if you purchase from Huawei Experience Stores, you’ll receive free Kaspersky Internet Security Software worth $40.95.
If you purchase from Best Denki, Challenger & Hachi.tech, Courts or Gain City, you’ll receive a one-year subscription to Microsoft 365 Personal worth S$108.
