Huawei’s Bringing Their Laptops Back To Australia

It’s been a weird time for Huawei’s Matebook laptops. After making a brief and supremely competitive appearance in the Australian market, all sales of the thin and light devices were pulled after the US launched trade sanctions and a string of indictments against the Chinese firm.

But in a local briefing with Australian media, Huawei insisted they weren’t abandoning the Australian market, pledging to release their second-generation foldable phone and refresh of the excellent Matebook X Pro locally.

We spent some time with the Matebook X Pro back in 2018 when it first launched, and both Kotaku and our sister site Gizmodo were impressed. Huawei followed Microsoft by using a 3000 x 2000 squarer display, which is a massive win for productivity. Shipping with a GeForce MX150, a relatively bright screen and a 91 percent screen-to-body ratio and super competitive pricing made the Matebook X Pro one of the best laptops of the year. Local stock sold out within a day, and the Matebook 13 did similarly well when it hit Australia last year.

[referenced url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2019/05/huaweis-matebook-13-review-macbook-air-windows-rival/” thumb=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/05/DSC2274-410×231.jpg” title=”Huawei’s Take On A Macbook Air Is Still Great” excerpt=”My dream for a laptop has always been pretty simple. I want something lightweight like an XPS 13 or a Macbook, with just enough power that can also play Overwatch or Counter-Strike on. And if you’re prepared to sacrifice quite a bit when it comes to fidelity, sharpness, and a resolution that fits the screen, but you still want something that’s light for work and university, the Huawei Matebook 13 does an admirable job.”]

You can’t buy any Huawei laptops in Australia at the moment, but Huawei confirmed the Matebook X Pro’s refresh would be available later this year. It’ll ship with the same 450 nits, 3000 x 2000 3:2 screen as the original X Pro, but the 2020 model will have a 2GB MX250 with a 10th generation i7-10510U CPU, 16GB RAM and 1TB storage in the top model. The base offering will have an i5 and Intel integrated GPU, and while the 512GB base storage is decent, having the 16GB RAM and the MX250 is really the best option here.

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A local release date or pricing isn’t available yet, but I’ve reached out to Huawei for specifics. Huawei’s still forging ahead with their mobile devices too, despite the obvious problems around not having access to the Google Play store. The latest one of those will be their second generation Mate Xs foldable phone, which you can get locally in April – provided you want to spend $3999.

[referenced url=”https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2020/02/huawei-plans-to-sell-the-mate-xs-in-australia-from-april-but-it-wont-be-cheap/” thumb=”https://www.gizmodo.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/02/HuaweiMateXS-2.jpg” title=”Huawei Plans To Sell The Mate Xs In Australia From April (But It Won’t Be Cheap)” excerpt=”Huawei Australia isn’t going to hold back on selling its second-generation foldable phone, the Huawei Mate Xs in Australia, but you’d better be prepared to part with a lot of cash to get your hands on one. Which is why we’ve already done that, at least for a few minutes.”]

I’ve also reached out for clarity on local availability of Huawei’s smaller and more affordable laptops, the Matebook 13 and Matebook D series, and I’ll update this post if word arrives on what’s happening to either of those. Update: Huawei’s local team has confirmed the new Matebook 13 and Matebook D models will get a local release as well. No date or price at this stage, though.