Review of Huawei MateBook 16s 2023 – a laptop with a powerful filling and a thin body

You should not touch what works so well, - Huawei thought and released the MateBook 16s 2023. Outwardly it is a copy last year's model with a few technical changes. Whether it turned out with their help to improve an already beautiful laptop - we will tell in a short review.

Table of contents

• Specifications
• Appearance
• Keyboard and touchpad
• Screen
• Filling
• Communications
• Software part
• Nutrition
• Results

Specifications

Appearance

We have already mentioned that externally the laptop is indistinguishable from its predecessor, and this is good. In the previous MateBook 16s, the company found its working formula. We are talking about a recognizable design, a thin body, stereo speakers on the sides of the keyboard, a large touchpad and, of course, a narrow-framed screen.

The metal case is strong and reliable, without deflections in the keyboard area and any backlash - the assembly is on top. The lid of the laptop is easy to open with one hand, for this there is a recess under the touchpad.

The body thickness is 17.8 mm, which is not much for a gadget with a 16-inch display. On the left side there is an audio jack, HDMI and two USB-C - both are suitable for charging a laptop and connecting an additional monitor, but only one supports Thunderbolt.

On the right side is a pair of USB‑A for flash drives and various wired accessories. The SD card slot did not appear, which is a pity. Photographers and videographers will be upset.

There are two microphones on the bottom end in the recess area. There are no items on the back. On the bottom panel, everything is the same as its predecessor - two plastic legs and a long ventilation grill.

Keyboard and touchpad

The base keyboard is black, with a key travel of 1.5 mm, a good distance between them and two-level backlighting. There is no digital block. The up and down arrows, as well as the row of F‑keys at the top, have been halved.

Typing on this keyboard is comfortable. Each press is tactile, there are no key warps or accidental touches of several characters. The Russian layout is applied by engraving.

Above the right speaker is a round power button slightly recessed into the body with a fingerprint scanner. The sensor works quickly and without errors.

Under the keyboard is an impressive touchpad with a glass surface. It is responsive, with a confident click. It is also comfortable to use.

Screen

The gadget has a 16-inch IPS display with an aspect ratio of 3: 2 and a resolution of 2520 × 1680 pixels. The panel has a contrast ratio of 1500:1 and provides 100% sRGB gamut coverage. The predecessor had all these parameters, but the brightness of up to 400 nits is a hallmark of the 2023 model. The 2022 version had a limit of 300 nits.

The increase in brightness is noticeable, especially if you are sitting by a window or in an open space. Now you can take a laptop and work somewhere on the summer terrace, even despite the glossy finish of the panel.

The refresh rate here is 60 Hz, while in the more compact models of the series, the company has long used matrices at 90 Hz. Why so - for the glory of autonomy, of course, but more on that below.

In general, the impression of the picture is purely positive. The screen is very clear and moderately contrasty. The image does not break up into pixels and does not hit the eyes when working with white pages.

At the same time, the display is still touch-sensitive, with the ability to recognize up to 10 touches. This can be called an advantage if you are used to this type of interaction in some applications. If not, then usually all the use of a wheelbarrow comes down to scrolling through web pages with a finger, although this is also very amateurish.

Immediately, we note that the screen frames are very narrow, the matrix occupies 90% of the area of ​​the entire panel, but the manufacturer still managed to place a 1080p webcam on top.

Filling

On our test, we had a top version of a laptop with the latest Intel Core i9-13900H processor - these are 14 cores, 20 threads and a frequency of up to 5.4 GHz (Turbo Boost). The chip can operate in a balanced power consumption mode at up to 45 W or in a productive mode at 60 W.

Do I need to say that such a processor gives a top level of performance? In the Cinebench R23 benchmark, the increase compared to the previous model is tangible: 2,013 points in single-core mode and 14,161 in multi-core mode versus 1,818 and 12,610.

In Geekbench 6, the situation is the same: 2,821 and 14,259 points in single-core and multi-core modes versus 1,786 and 12,644 respectively (but not in Geekbench 5).

In terms of memory, everything is also fine - 16 GB of LPDDR5 RAM (soldered on the board) and a very fast 1 TB NVMe SSD drive. The latter demonstrates significantly higher speeds compared to its predecessor SSD: according to CrystalDiskMark, this is up to 5200 MB / s for reading and 5000 MB / s for writing versus 3300 and 2900 MB / s.

The graphics in the laptop are only integrated - Iris Xe Graphics (96 EU). This is not a gaming solution at all, but something old at medium or minimum settings will be fine - the same GTA V or The Witcher 3, for example.

Under load, the laptop heats up, but does not overheat. Responsible for cooling are two 79 mm fans with thin Shark fin blades (“shark fin”), they are usually used in gaming laptops. They are complemented by a pair of heat-removing copper tubes 2 mm thick. Under load, the cooling system can be heard, but it does not howl like an airplane.

If we ignore synthetics and numbers, then in terms of performance, the laptop is certainly a flagship one. It will take out everything that does not require a powerful graphics accelerator. with complex projects in photoshop and AutoCAD subsidence are possible, but they are unlikely to be critical.

We also note that the MateBook 16s 2023 is available in a modification with a slightly less productive Core i7-13700H.

Communications

Here I would like to note the Huawei Metaline antenna, which is located under the display in the hinge area. This discreet component ensures stable and uninterrupted Wi‑Fi performance.

According to the manufacturer, the laptop does not lose signal at a distance of up to 270 meters, but this, of course, only in ideal line-of-sight conditions. In everyday work, you can count on more confident reception where other devices begin to lose the Network.

During testing, the MateBook 16s never failed - even in large public spaces like "Subscribed Editions" in St. Petersburg, there were no problems with Wi-Fi, which cannot be said about anything else laptop.

Software part

The MateBook 16s 2023 runs Windows 11 Home with Huawei PC Manager. The latter greatly simplifies updating drivers, troubleshooting, switching laptop modes, and interacting with other gadgets in the Huawei ecosystem.

If you own a branded smartphone, you'll love the Super Device feature, which provides quick and easy connectivity, laptop screen display, general file searches, and more.

Also on the laptop there is a useful software add-on for the camera, which allows you to include a single background for all video calls, face retouch, auto image centering, and eye contact. The latter programmatically changes the position of the eyes so that the interlocutors see your gaze, even when you look at the keyboard or somewhere behind the screen.

Such a camera is turned on not through the standard Windows menu, but through the proprietary Control Panel. It appears by clicking on the button with sliders, which is displayed on the right side Taskbars.

The same panel gives you quick access to notes, screen recording, search, launch hotspot and other quick settings - almost like on a smartphone.

Nutrition

The battery capacity of the laptop is 84 Wh, the same as its predecessor. However, due to a more energy-efficient chipset, the autonomy of the new model is noticeably better - at least an hour and a half. In office mode with a constant Wi‑Fi connection, you can expect approximately 8 hours.

In the case of YouTube video playback, the charge will last approximately 9 hours, but you will have to lower the brightness and volume level. At maximum load, the laptop will be discharged in 2.5 hours.

The power adapter is now more powerful than it was before - 135W vs. 90W. This increase allows you to charge the battery by 50% in just half an hour. True, the block itself is heavy and with a non-removable cable. If you plan to take your laptop with you often, it makes sense to consider a configuration with a Core i7, because there is a more compact and convenient 90W adapter.

Results

Technically, the MateBook 16s 2023 has four main differences from the previous model: more powerful processor and charging, faster memory, and higher display brightness.

At the same time, the updated chipset had a positive effect on autonomy - the laptop began to work longer due to better energy efficiency. Less noticeable improvements are slightly better speaker sound and a new Wi‑Fi antenna.

All these upgrades have made an excellent laptop almost a reference solution among 16-inch models on Windows 11. But top-end equipment could not help but result in a high price tag - our modification costs 135,990 rubles.

For this money, it will not be difficult to find a gadget of similar performance with powerful discrete graphics, but it will not be as thin, light and autonomous. This is the beauty of the MateBook 16s - it is quite possible to carry it with you in a backpack and not even take a charge if you plan, for example, to work in a cafe for half a day.

If you really look for flaws, then you can only find fault with the soldered RAM. With that much headroom, the ability to upgrade the RAM to 32GB seems reasonable. However, here you will have to be content with only 16 GB.

It is still not entirely clear why Huawei again used a touch screen, which clearly increases energy consumption. With the same success it was possible to equip the device with a matrix with a frequency of 90 Hz. Perhaps this is the same backlog for next year.

Buy Huawei MateBook 16s 2023