Huawei MateBook D: RyzenTM 5 2500U, 256GB M.2 SSD, Vega8 GPU Expired

My quick review:

I picked one on 6-22-18 for ~$620 after taxes and 5% Discover Card Cashback.

Background
I have a launch Acer Chromebook 14 (CB3-431-C5FM). I love that it's fanless, IPS screen, and aluminum body all for sub $300 at launch. I even installed W10 on it thanks to u/mrchromebox custom firmware. I only use it to surf and watch YouTube. However the churn trying to load up web pages got a little old. It only has a passmark of 1700

Que: Dell XPS 9570 comes in. When I saw they had a 15.6" screen in a 14" chassis I was sold. Spent $1,200ish on a sale. Fan was all over the place. Backlight bleed was UNACCEPTABLE. Exchanged for a 2nd 9570. Backlight bleed was better but the dam power jack broke the 2nd day of ownership and I ended up with a brick. F dell, back you go for a full refund. No excuse for a $1,200+ device. It was at this point I discovered I could upgrade my Acer from GalliumOS to W10. Score!!! I'm back to an eco system I'm comfortable with. However the Acer is just too dang slow for an optimal experience.

I've been searching Reddit and SlickDeals daily for the past several weeks on laptop deals. I was about --><-- this close to pull the trigger on a the $650 Asus Vivobook @ microcenter: http://www.microcenter.com/produc...ter_-_Gray However I'd rather buy local or via Amazon for easy returns in case the panel is crap. So I saw this Matebook D, was completely off my radar spec wise as I was looking into the i5-8250u instead of Ryzen, come to find out the Ryzen and Vega can pull their own weight so I impulse bought the Matebook D knowing that I can test drive it for 15 days per Walmart's return policy.

Initial impressions
Dam this thing is SMALL!!! I really wanted a 15.6" but I impulse bought the Matebook D. Build quality is very good. Reminds me of my Acer 14. No wobble when typing on a smooth flat desk.

Bloat
Really none as this comes with a slimmed down version of Windows 10 called the 'signature' edition. It came shipped with 1709. Regardless I still wiped her and threw on 1803. Took the usual time to install, fans a whirling. I didn't want to rage, so that's good I guess, lol. IIRC everything updated correctly thru Windows updates. I didn't have to go chase down any drivers.

Keyboard/touch-pad
Keyboard flex is a bit unacceptable if I go pushing hard on it, it deflects way to easy. It's like there's no webbing/backing behind it. This flex doesn't affect regular typing though. It's nice to have backlit keys again.

Panel
It's glossy (boo, I'd rather have matte). There's a bit of bleed but I'd call it more 'glow'. It doesn't hotspot at all like the Dell XPS did so it's not quite "shouting" at me while watching a movie in letterbox format with the black bars.

Fans
She likes to idle ~45c surfing and will *mostly* remain dead silent. However it doesn't take much for her to randomly ramp up to 55-65c for no good reason and the fan will come on. It's really pretty quiet though, my fridge fan and other ambient noises can drown it out. I'm pretty anal about noises. This isn't a deal breaker for me but I'm been VERY spoiled by my fanless Acer 14.

Speakers
I hate hate **HATE** that windows chime noise it makes when you adjust the speaker volume. It's at some weird frequency/resonance that'll sound like crap if your speakers are junk or if there is anything loose within the laptop. I'm glad to say that 'ding' sounds **LOVELY** on this Matebook D Clear and full bodied. Listening to some Drum and Bass on the Matebook D will get your head bobbing but yeah, they're still tiny laptop speakers. Stick to headphones if you wanna jam.

Coil whine
NONE I've heard so far! Woot!

Gaming
I tweaked Doom and Diablo 3 to run 30-40fps. It's livable but I was just mainly doing it to nerd out. This Matebook will solely be used for surfing and YouTube watching.

Final thoughts
After a full day of dorking on this Matebook D I'm leaning towards returning it to Walmart. It's not that I don't like it, it's a pretty neat little machine. I've decided I really want a 15.6 for the extra real estate as my laptop stays parked 98% of it's life anyway. I'd equate this Matebook to being an Acer 14 Chromebook on some steroids. Good at surfing, good specs for the $, lovely form factor/design, meh at gaming. So for me this is really a $620 sideways swap. I hope Huawei comes out with a cheap Matebook D Ryzen in a 15.6 form factor, I'd definitely be interested in it.

TLDR
Very good laptop that should be able to compete with the other dogs. This laptop could probably sell for $800, so to get it for $600-$630 is a decent deal IMO. Since us crazy Americans have no clue how to even pronounce Huawei it won't surprise me if these don't sell well and we can score them on clearance here in a few months

Jfc.. you deserve a medal for this review 😎

Hwahway