With the Huawei Matebook D16, the Chinese manufacturer is presenting a new edition of the popular 16-inch notebook. The successor to the Huawei Matebook D16 (2022) (test report) is very similar to its predecessor in terms of design and size and should not be easily distinguishable at first glance.
As a 16-inch laptop with a large display and narrow bezels, it offers significantly more screen real estate than standard 15.6-inch laptops. Nevertheless, it is hardly bigger or heavier. Thanks to the Intel Core i9, our test sample offers enough power for work and entertainment. Our test shows how the new model performs.
Highlights
The Huawei Matebook D16 impresses with its attractive design, impressive display, strong performance, extensive features and impressive battery life, making it an excellent choice for users who are looking for a powerful yet portable notebook with a large display. Compared to its predecessor, however, there is little new, apart from the current chip generation. Some of the equipment even seems outdated.
The top model with Core i9 has already fallen in price and is off 1099 Euro instead of 1399 euros (RRP) available much cheaper.
Design
The Huawei Matebook D16 presents itself in a slim and elegant design. The aluminum surface ensures the multimedia laptop for a high-quality look, while the narrow display edges give the device a modern and attractive appearance. The build quality is excellent and the keyboard offers pleasant typing comfort. Overall, the design of the Matebook D16 makes a positive impression, even if the differences from its predecessor are hardly noticeable. For a 16-inch device, the laptop is relatively compact and also light at 1.7 kilograms.
Display
The 16-inch display of the Huawei Matebook D16 in 16:10 format offers a Full HD resolution of 1920 × 1200 pixels. The vibrant colors of the IPS panel are really good, as they also ensure good viewing angle stability and a brightness of 330 cd/m². The screen-to-body ratio is quite high at 90 percent thanks to the narrow bezels, resulting in a relatively large display relative to the size for the multimedia experience. However, the 60 Hertz refresh rate is a bit old-fashioned.
Furnishing
Our test device offers an extremely powerful chipset with the Intel Core i9-13900H. In the PCmark 10 benchmark, the device achieved a top score of over 6500 points. The Matebook D16 is more than powerful enough for everyday tasks such as working or surfing and streaming content. However, it is less suitable for demanding games because the integrated graphics unit from Intel is not particularly powerful. However, it could still handle older games with low graphics settings. The fan rarely kicks in during use and is also very quiet.
The rest of the equipment offers a few ports (USB-C 3.0 with Displayport, USB-A 3.0, USB-A 2.0, HDMI 1.4, 3.5 mm jack) and Wi-Fi 6 as well as a fingerprint reader in the power button with TPM 2.0. New standards, such as Thunderbolt 4, are already missing here. For such a large device, there could have been more ports. At least the RAM is decent at 16 GB. However, this is soldered and therefore cannot be expanded. The memory used is 512 GB or 1 TB. The speakers are really good. The cheaper variants offer significantly less power with a Core i5. It’s a shame that there isn’t a version with Ryzen or a Core i7 as an interim solution.
battery pack
The battery of the Huawei Matebook D16 impresses with a long runtime of around 12.5 hours according to PCmark 10. That’s pretty good for a device of this size and a best value from our tests. With normal use, the notebook easily lasts through a working day, and the battery life is more than satisfactory even with more intensive use. Intelligent power management helps optimize battery life.
Huawei Matebook D16 (2024) – photo series
Huawei Matebook D16 – photo gallery
Price & alternatives
Our tested top model with Core i9 has an impressive RRP of 1399 euros. The model has now dropped significantly in price and is already on sale 1099 Euro available at Cyberport. The cheaper model with the significantly weaker Intel Core i5-12450H processor is available 699 Eurowith Core i5-13420H it currently costs 849 Euro instead of 949 euros (RRP).
Technical data