Huawei MateBook X Pro (2022) review: Another Huawei great, but still not perfect

Even with its phone business struggling due to legal restrictions, Huawei’s laptops have kept trucking along, and the 2022 iteration of the Huawei MateBook X Pro is another great laptop from the company. It’s fast, it has a beautiful display, and it’s solidly built. It feels like a premium laptop, and it’s great to use, for the most part.

I have a few issues with it, starting with the fact that the webcam still isn’t amazing (though at least it’s properly placed this time). I also don’t like the placement of the microphones, as it’s very easy to cause distractions if I want to use the laptop while I’m on a call.

I’d say this is probably the best Huawei laptop I’ve used, though I still wish some things were different. It’s far from flawless, but it deserves some attention.

Huawei also sent me a MateView SE monitor, which I tested alongside the MateBook X Pro. I don’t think it warrants its own review, but I can say it’s a solid basic monitor, with pretty good color coverage and some interesting features like an eBook mode for long periods of reading. It’s definitely worth checking out for home and office use.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2022)

The Huawei MateBook X Pro is a premium laptop with high-end performance and a beautiful, sharp display.

Features:

Pros: Cons:

See at Huawei

Huawei MateView SE (asjustable stand)

The Huawei MateView SE is a fairly basic monitor, but it still delivers a solid experience with its 24-inch Full HD panel.

Features:

Pros: Cons:

See at Amazon UK

Navigate this review:

• Huawei MateBook X Pro: Price and availability
• Huawei MateBook X Pro: Specs
• Design: The build quality feels premium
• Display: A beautiful 3.1K screen
• Second screen: The Huawei MateView SE is a great basic monitor
• Keyboard and touchpad: Typing is great, but I don’t love this touchpad
• Performance: It’s fast, but battery life is still an issue for Intel’s P-series
• The Huawei ecosystem and software
• Should you buy the Huawei MateBook X Pro?

Huawei MateBook X Pro: Price and availability

• The Huawei MateBook X Pro is available now, but you can’t get it in the US
• It costs £1,799 in the UK, including an Intel Core i7 and 16GB of RAM

The Huawei MateBook X Pro was first announced during the summer, and if you’re in the UK, you can buy it right now, though only from Huawei’s website. It will likely be available on Amazon as well as other retailers at some point.

The only configuration Huawei is selling right now costs £1,799 in the UK or €2,199 in Germany, but it also includes a free Huawei MateView (the standard model, not the SE mentioned in this review), which makes that cost more reasonable.

Huawei MateBook X Pro: Specs

CPU	Intel Core i7-1260P (12 cores, 16 threads, up to 4.7GHz, 18MB cache)
Graphics	Intel Iris Xe graphics (96 EUs, up to 1.4GHz)
Display	14.2-inch FullView display, 3.1K (3120 x 2080) IPS, 264 DPI, 90Hz refresh rate, up to 500 nits, 100% DCI-P3, Delta E<1, 10-point multi-touch Corning Gorilla Glass
Dimensions	310 x 221 x 15.6 mm (12.2 x 8.7 x 0.61 in) 1.26 kg (2.78 lbs)
Memory	16GB LPDDR5 (soldered)
Storage	1TB NVMe PCIe 4 SSD
Battery	60Wh battery
Ports	2 x Thunderbolt 4 (40Gbos) 2 x USB Type-C (with Power Delivery and DisplayPort) 3.5mm headphone jack
Audio	Six stereo speakers Quad array microphone with noise cancelling Huawei Sound
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 6E, 802.11ax 2×2 Bluetooth 5.2
Camera	HD 720p RGB and IR hybrid camera, E-privacy shutter
Color	Space Grey
Material	Aluminum
OS	Windows 11 Home
Price	£1,799 (including Huawei MateView monitor)

Design: The build quality feels premium

• The all-aluminum build of the Huawei MateBook X Pro feels as solid as a premium product should
• It only has USB Type-C ports, two of which support Thunderbolt 4

If there’s one thing I’ve never had any complaints with Huawei’s laptops, it’s the build quality. Every laptop I’ve reviewed feels super solid, and this is no exception. it has an all-aluminum chassis that has a reassuring heft to it, and it feels solid as can be. Being made of aluminum means it’s not the lightest laptop around, but 2.77lbs is far from heavy. As far as aluminum laptops go, it’s one of the lightest you’ll find.

One thing I do wish Huawei would change is the color of this laptop. This year’s edition comes in Ink Blue and White colorways, but my review unit is still the classic Space Grey, which I really don’t like. It’s not bad, but almost every Huawei/Honor laptop I’ve reviewed comes in this color, and it’s just kind of boring. I think it doesn’t help that the keyboard is just black and not color-matched to the chassis, that would have made it feel a bit more premium to me. Huawei did do some nice things here, though – I like the shiny trim around the edges of the lid and the base, giving this otherwise plain chassis a bit of flair.

Something else that’s interesting is the touchpad, which I’ll talk about more later on. For now, I’ll say that I like how it looks. The touchpad extends all the way to the edge of the laptop, even around the notch at the bottom, so it looks pretty unique in that sense.

The Huawei MateBook X Pro is fairly thin, measuring 15.6mm, but I’m still somewhat disappointed with the selection of ports here. On the left side of the laptop, there are two Thunderbolt 4 ports, along with a headphone jack.

On the right, two USB Type-C ports (not Thunderbolt) round out the total selection of ports.

USB Type-C is the future, and indeed, it would be great if every peripheral used it. But many don’t, so if you have a mouse, keyboard, or external monitor, there’s a very good chance you’re going to need adapters. Some people are okay with this because they already have a Thunderbolt dock, but I always find it disappointing when a laptop requires me to buy an extra peripheral for what should be relatively basic functionality. And while 15.6mm is definitely thin, there are thinner laptops out there with more ports. But because Huawei made the edges significantly thinner than the rest of the chassis, there actually isn’t much room for anything else. I would have taken a slightly flatter chassis for USB Type-A and HDMI support, personally.

Display and sound: A beautiful 3.1K screen

• The Huawei MateBook X Pro has a super-sharp 3.1K IPS display with a 3:2 aspect ratio
• It covers 100% of DCI-P3 and it gets very bright if you need it to

The Huawei MateBook X Pro comes with a 14.2-inch display, and it has a 3:2 aspect ratio, which is already a great start. I’ve tried a few laptops with a 16:10 aspect ratio, but 3:2 is more of a rarity, and it’s always great to see. Taller screens make multi-tasking that much easier if you want to read a webpage or document without scrolling as much, so it’s great for work. I wouldn’t say it’s a huge difference from 16:10, but I’ll always appreciate a taller screen.

It’s super sharp, too, at 3120 x 2080 resolution, and it has a 90Hz refresh rate, though it’s set to 60Hz by default. 90Hz displays actually reduce battery life a lot, though, so you may want to stick with 60Hz when you’re on battery power.

You also get touch support, something else I always love to see on a laptop, even if it’s not a convertible. There are many cases where I instinctively want to reach out and touch the screen, and it’s disappointing when I can’t, so I’m glad that’s not the case here.

Huawei touts 100% coverage of DCI-P3 with this display, as well as a Delta E < 1 rating for color accuracy, and indeed, this is a great screen. From just using it, it looks absolutely fantastic, with vibrant colors and great contrast. My tests show that it covers 98% of DCI-P3, 100% of sRGB, and 89% of Adobe RGB, which is great for content creators and creative professionals.

I also measured the brightness and contrast levels, and the MateBook X Pro also excels here. Even though Huawei touts up to 500 nits of brightness, I actually got up to 580, which is fantastic for any laptop, and it reaches a maximum contrast of 1,300:1 – also a great result for an IPS panel.

For sound, Huawei packed a six-speaker setup in the MateBook X Pro, and while I’m far from an audiophile, I can say that it gets very loud, and there’s no discernible distortion to my ears. It sounds fantastic, whether that’s for music and voice calls, which is something Huawei emphasizes for this laptop with what it calls “Huawei Smart Conference”. There are various features to enhance your voice as well as filters and effects for the webcam.

Unfortunately, other parts of this experience make calls less than ideal. There are four microphones placed along the front of the laptop, just below the touchpad and wrist rest. If you can’t see where this is going, this is also where your hands go, which means if you’re trying to use the computer while on a call, you’re going to make some noise directly into the microphone, and it won’t be a great experience for the person on the other side.

One criticism I’ve always had with all the Huawei laptops I’ve reviewed is the webcam placement, since it’s typically been under the keyboard. Thankfully this time, Huawei put the camera above the display, which is long overdue. However, this is still a 720p webcam, and image quality is not fantastic. Like most 720p cameras, it’s serviceable, but it’s very grainy and far from sharp. That might be because the laptop also supports Windows Hello facial recognition, which kind of makes up for the image quality to me. Widows Hello works really well here, and it’s very convenient to have.

Second screen: The Huawei MateView SE is a great basic monitor

• The Huawei MateView SE comes in Full HD resolution and has a 75Hz refresh rate
• It covers 90% of DCI-P3, so it’s still great for creative work

Along with the MateBook X Pro, Huawei also sent me the MateView SE, a relatively basic monitor meant for office work. This is a 24-inch (23.8-inch, technically) monitor, and it comes in Full HD resolution, which is about what you’d expect for something at this price. It also has a 75Hz maximum refresh rate, which is nice if you want things to look a little bit smoother. It’s not really meant to match the MateBook X Pro, it just happened to be announced around the same time.

Still, this is a nice screen. Next to my own personal monitor, it looks brighter and more vibrant, yet it feels like it’s a little easier on the eyes. Huawei claims 90% coverage of DCI-P3 with this monitor, and that seems to hold true based on my tests. It also covers 81% of Adobe RGB and 80% of NTSC, so it’s a great panel all around, even if it’s not as great as the MateBook X Pro.

For brightness, Huawei only claims 250 nits, which isn’t exceptional, though not entirely unexpected for a cheaper monitor. In my testing, it did reach 274 nits, so it’s a little better than advertised.

There are also a few temperature profiles available, including Warm, Standard, Neutral, and Cool, though you can set your custom profile. I found Standard to be the best (and that’s what I tested above), as it was actually a bit more “neutral” than the Neutral profile, which leans more towards a cooler white point, around 7300K.

Of course, the monitor includes a few color profiles, like sRGB, HDR mode, and game mode, but I always left it in P3 mode for the best color coverage. The most notable is eBook mode, which is meant for reading for longer periods.  In this mode, the display turns black and white, and the blu light levels are reduced significantly so as to reduce eye fatigue while reading.

You can find monitors with USB hubs around this price.

This model of the MateView SE also includes an adjustable stand, so you can adjust the height and tilt angles, as well as pivot the screen to use it vertically, which goes great with the eBook color profile if you want to read on a large screen. There’s no swivel support, which is unfortunate, but the monitor is easy enough to adjust and the slim profile of the base means it shouldn’t be much of a bother for your desk space.

For inputs, you get one HDMI port and one DisplayPort port, though only the HDMI cable comes in the box. This port setup isn’t terrible, but at this price, you can start finding some monitors that also have USB hubs, or at least built-in speakers, which you also don’t get here. Most of those monitors probably won’t have color coverage on the same level, though, so it depends on your priorities.

Keyboard and touchpad: Typing is great, but I don’t love this touchpad

• The keyboard has 1.5mm of travel and it’s fairly comfortable
• Huawei Free Touch adds some really cool features to the touchpad, but there are problems

Back to the laptop itself, it’s time to talk about the keyboard, which is frankly fine. I have typically not been very picky with keyboards, and I’d say this one is pretty good. The keys have a whole 1.5mm of travel, which is very good for a laptop, and they feel comfortable to type on. I don’t really have any problems with it at all, though I don’t think I’d put it on the same level as something like a Lenovo laptop or the Dynabook Portégé X40L-K I recently reviewed. Those have fantastic keyboards, and this one is great too, but not quite as amazing.

There isn’t anything too noteworthy about this keyboard, except that Huawei seems to have used the space where the webcam used to be hidden to add a new key that launches the Windows voice typing feature. It might be a useful feature for some, though it kind of comes across as a rushed decision just to make use of that space. The power button still has a fingerprint sensor built-in, even with facial recognition already available, so you can choose whatever method you prefer.

Below the keyboard is the touchpad, which is simultaneously super cool and somewhat disappointing. Huawei has been touting some unique touchpad features for a while, like knocking on the touchpad to take a screenshot. In the MateBook X Pro, there are a total of eight gestures you can perform with the touchpad, including minimizing or closing the active window by clicking the top corners of the touchpad. My favorite is that you can slide a single finger on the right edge of the touchpad to adjust the volume, or on the left edge to adjust the display brightness. That’s not exactly new, but Huawei has added tactile feedback to this mechanism, so you feel each degree of adjustment. You don’t even have to press hard on it, it just starts clicking when it recognizes the gesture. I can’t overstate how much I love this tactility.

I wish that would extend to the basic functionality of the touchpad, though. Clicking this touchpad doesn’t feel great, especially if you’re trying to click and drag and you move your finger up near the middle of the touchpad. More than once I’ve found myself unsure if I had lifted my finger off the touchpad enough, and I’ve accidentally dragged things or selected more than I should. If you just click the bottom of the touchpad, it feels fine, but while it can still click near the middle, the tactility isn’t there, so it sometimes gets in the flow of my work.

Performance: It’s fast, but battery life is still an issue for Intel’s P series

• An Intel Core i7-1260P and 16GB of RAM give you plenty of performance for daily work
• Battery life still isn’t great with Intel P-series processors

Turning to performance, the Huawei MateBook X Pro comes powered by an Intel Core i7-1260P, part of Intel’s P-series with a 28W default TDP. With 12 cores and 16 threads, this is a very powerful CPU for a relatively lightweight laptop like this one, and it’s backed by 16GB of RAM. In my usage, mostly consisting of working in WordPress while browsing the web with multiple tabs open, I’ve never run into any performance hurdles. I also do some light image editing, and that too, is handled without much of a problem. The laptop also doesn’t tend to get overly loud, though the fans can spin up a lot occasionally.

Looking at benchmarks, the scores are about what you might expect from this processor. It’s on par with other laptops I’ve reviewed with Intel P-series processors, and in some tests, it even beats the Dynabook Portégé X40L-K, which has a Core i7-1270P. If you want maximum performance, you’re going to want to enable performance mode in Huawei PC Manager. In some cases, it seems like it actually performs worse, but for the most part, it’s faster this way. That’s what these benchmarks are based on.

	Huawei MateBook X Pro Core i7-1260P	Dynabok Portégé X40L-K Core i7-1270P	HP Spectre x360 13.5 Core i7-1255U
PCMark 10	5,653	4,878	5,533
3DMark: Time Spy	1,967	1,939	1,553
Geekbench 5 (single / multi)	1,761 / 9,865	1,742 / 9,195	1,682 / 7,534
Cinebench R23 (single / multi)	1,543 / 9,348	1,707 / 8,319	1,684 / 6,287
CrossMark (overall / productivity / creativity / responsiveness)	1,791 / 1,666 / 1989 / 1,624	1,504 / 1,407 / 1,774 / 1,119	1,593 / 1,509 / 1,781 / 1,340

Intel P-series processors still have issues with thermal throttiling and battery life.

While thermal throttling isn’t the worst on this laptop, these results highlight one of the problems with the Intel Core P-series processors. They have a higher TDP and the potential to be much faster, but companies are putting them in laptops that used to have 15W processors, and it just doesn’t make sense in that context. This is pretty much the same chassis that had a U-series processor earlier this year, and now it has a CPU that’s generating a lot more heat and needs more cooling. While it is faster than the HP Spectre x360 13.5, which still has U-series processors, the difference isn’t that big in a lot of these tests.

The second downside to these processors is battery life. To test the battery life of this laptop, I did two things. First, for a more standardized test, I let a 20-hour YouTube video play (at 720p, fullscreen) with the brightness and volume set to 50%. It lasted roughly 6 hours and 40 minutes, which isn’t terrible. Then, for real-life usage, I just used it for work as I normally would, with brightness set to 50%, 60Hz refresh rate, and the Windows power setting set to Balanced, and with battery saver kicking in at 20% battery life. In general, battery life was hovering around 4 hours and 40 minutes. The worst I got was just over three hours, but this was a clear outlier, and for the most part, I was at least very close to four hours. One time, I got up to 5 hours.

Frankly, that’s not as bad as I expected. Considering other laptops I’ve reviewed with P-series processors and the fact that this has an incredibly sharp display, I was expecting a lot worse, so this was a pleasant surprise. Still, it’s far from amazing battery life, and if you plan to take your laptop with you somewhere, you’re going to want an outlet nearby.

The Huawei ecosystem and software

• You can connect your Huawei phone or tablet to the MateBook X Pro
• Huawei also packs features like Huawei Smart Conference and Free Touch

One of the big selling points of Huawei laptops is how they integrate with the Huawei ecosystem, and that’s also the case here. There’s nothing new here, but it’s worth reiterating if you’re not familiar with it. One of the things you can do is connect your phone to your laptop, which lets you mirror your phone’s screen and even open multiple apps from your phone at the same time. You can also easily transfer files from your phone to your PC.

With a Huawei tablet, you can actually use it as a second screen for your laptop, so it’s a great feature to have if you want to have two screens on the go. You can also use your computer mouse and keyboard to interact with your tablet, and move files between devices more easily. Again, this isn’t new, and since I don’t personally use a Huawei phone or tablet, I don’t find it that useful.

Oddly enough, I can’t seem to enable Huawei Mobile App Engine, which iss supposed to let you run Android apps on Windows, even without Windows 11 or using the Windows Subsystem for Android. There’s no mention of it in the Huawei PC Manager app, so maybe this laptop isn’t supported yet.

Huawei bundles in other software with the laptop, though. First, there’s Huawei Sound and Huawei Camera, which collectively are part of what Huawei also refers to as “Smart Conference”. Huawei Sound offers a few different settings to enhance voice recognition during video calls, so you can be heard more clearly in specific scenarios. You can also tune the audio from your speakers, though these features aren’t all that different from what you’d get with a standard audio driver.

Huawei Camera is a bit more interesting, since it can apply virtual backgrounds to your webcam, add beauty filters, and more. It doesn’t make up for the lackluster webcam we have here, but it’s potentially nice to have, and something many other laptops have started doing due to the broad transition to remote work.

Finally, Huawei Free Touch lets you customize the gestures you can use with this unique touchpad. As I’ve mentioned above, there are eight gestures available, and they help you make the most of a touchpad by giving you quick shortcuts to certain features. These are actually very useful, though it depends on your willingness to get used to them. I already mentioned scrolling on the edges to adjust the volume or brightness, but you can knock on the touchpad with your knuckles to take screenshots or record the screen, press the top corners of the touchpad to close or minimize a window, and more.

Who should buy the Huawei MateBook X Pro?

All in all, I think the Huawei MateBook X Pro has a lot to offer, and while it is a bit pricy, it’s not overly expensive for what you get. Again, the £1,799 price tag includes a fairly expensive monitor in the package, so this isn’t as expensive as it initially appears. For what you pay, you get a phenomenal display, great sound, premium build quality, and a good typing experience. You can’t ask for a lot more. Except, maybe, for it to be available in the United States.

You should buy the Huawei MateBook X Pro if:

• You work as a creative professional and want a color-accurate display
• Consume a lot of media, such as movies, music, or web videos
• You value premium design and build quality
• You spend a lot of time typing

You shouldn’t buy the Huawei MateBook X Pro if:

• You live in the United States
• Long battery life is essential for your use case
• You want to make a lot of calls with the built-in webcam and microphone
• You have a lot of peripherals that require legacy ports and don’t want an adapter

My biggest issues with the Huawei MateBook X Pro have to do with the built-in webcam and microphone setup, plus the lack of legacy ports is unfortunate. I also didn’t love some aspects of the touchpad, but you might be able to get used to how it works.

As for the Huawei MateView SE, I’d say this is a nice monitor for the price. I find the lack of speakers a bit unfortunate because I would also like to hook up my Nintendo Switch to it, but if you’re only using a laptop, it probably already has better speakers than any monitor in this price range. The reasons to get this are the nice color coverage, pivot support, and the eBook mode, which might come in handy if you spend a lot of time reading.

Huawei MateBook X Pro (2022)

The Huawei MateBook X Pro is a premium laptop with high-end performance and a beautiful, sharp display.

Features:

Pros: Cons:

See at Huawei

Huawei MateView SE (asjustable stand)

The Huawei MateView SE is a fairly basic monitor, but it still delivers a solid experience with its 24-inch Full HD panel.

Features:

Pros: Cons:

See at Amazon UK

The post Huawei MateBook X Pro (2022) review: Another Huawei great, but still not perfect appeared first on XDA.

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You can now share YouTube Music to your Instagram Stories

If you’ve been dying to share your YouTube Music hits and playlists with people that follow you on Instagram, your time has finally arrived, as the feature is now rolling out to users with the latest update of YouTube Music for Android.

Previously, YouTube Music updated its apps to allow users to share music to Snapchat. Now, several months later, users who have downloaded the latest update of YouTube Music, version 5.23.50, will now be able to share music with people on Instagram. According to 9to5Google, the ability to share songs to Instagram Stories is now slowly rolling out. Although there was previously an icon for the feature, using it resulted in the app crashing, which undoubtedly left many users disappointed. Luckily, now that button is fully operational, allowing users to share songs, playlists, album pages, and more.

By engaging with the share icon, users will now see the option to share music to Instagram, pressing this, users will be launched into Instagram Stories. In Instagram Stories, you’ll see the cover art for the music that you are trying to share. The art looks clean with a small logo attached underneath showing what music service it is being shared from. Once you have shared your music on Instagram, users will be able to play the music by hitting the link in the top left-hand corner.

YouTube Music has made many updates to its platform over the past few months. The most recent update brought support for Android 13. The enhanced UI offered larger media buttons, along with a themed look that matched album cover art. The app has also brought better support to Android tablets and has also introduced seasonal music recaps so that you can enjoy your best music of each season. If you are not seeing the update, try heading to the Google Play Store to download the latest version.

YouTube Music (Free, Google Play) →

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Source: 9to5Google

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Google ChromeOS could soon add built-in effects for video conferencing

There was a time, not long ago, when meetings needed to happen face to face. But, after certain events, a lot of that has changed, and the tools have only improved. There are lots of different services, and each offers there own benefits, but there are also lots of tools and optimizations that are made within each platform that bring massive quality of life improvements as well. Now it looks like ChromeOS users might be getting those kinds of enhancements in a future update.

According to 9to5Google, the ChromeOS developers have been working to bring native video enhancements to the OS. For example, one of the most common video enhancements that you will find in almost any video conferencing app is the ability to add background blur. This allows users to have some privacy when taking a meeting, regardless of the environment that they are in. This feature has been found in the code and will apparently use machine learning to apply the filter, meaning it might require a more high-end ChromeOS device. Furthermore, it looks like there could be other effects that are also being worked on, like a “portrait relighting” effect that will allow users to essentially relight the subject in the video. Digging further into the code, it also looks like an auto-framing feature could also be in the works.

Of course, these are just some of the changes that were spotted and are features that could eventually find their way into ChromeOS. But, since these are still in development, there is the chance that these features never make it to see the light of day. But, what is important is that Google is working on more tools and features that will become increasingly more important as time passes. So, if you are a ChromeOS user, keep a lookout, as the aforementioned video features could arrive to you sooner than later.

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Source: Chromium Gerrit 1, 2,
Via: 9to5Google

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macOS 13 Ventura: Everything coming in Apple’s next desktop OS

Back at WWDC, Apple announced all of the big 2022 updates for its major operating systems. Among them are iOS 16, watchOS 9, and of course, macOS Ventura. Also known as macOS 13, Ventura packs all kinds of new features for Mac users like Stage Manager, Continuity Camera, and much more.

MacOS Ventura: Release Date and Availability

Developer betas have been available since WWDC, as is always the case. But now, we’re getting pretty close to the actual release, which means a couple things. For one thing, the beta is available to both developers and the public now. The other is that the builds are getting more stable as we get close to having a release candidate.

If you’re not willing to be a beta tester, the answer is that macOS 13 Ventura is coming in October. Typically, Apple releases its new iOS and watchOS updates the week after its iPhone launch in September. macOS tends to come a little bit later though. This year, we’re expecting it to be timed with an event where we’ll see new MacBook Pro refreshes, along with new iPads. It will be a free update for supported Macs.

Those supported Macs include the following:

iMac	2017 and later
iMac Pro	2017
MacBook Air	2018 and later
MacBook Pro	2017 and later
Mac Pro	2019 and later
Mac Mini	2018 and later
MacBook	2017 and later
Mac Studio	2022

Being that all supported Macs have to be made in 2017 or later, there are a fair bit of PCs that aren’t supported anymore. With macOS Monterey, support went back to 2015.

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What’s new in macOS Ventura

Stage Manager

Stage Manager is another way to organize the apps that you have open. It’s going to take all of your open apps and place them into groups on the side of the screen. So now, those will sit on your desktop, and you can easily use them to switch between apps.

Continuity Camera and FaceTime Handoff

macOS Ventura is going to let you switch between iOS, iPadOS, and macOS in FaceTime calls. So now, if you’re talking to someone on your Mac and you want to get up and show that person something in the other room, you can transfer your call to your iPhone. I think we’ve all wanted to handoff a FaceTime call at one point or another.

That’s not all, because there’s a new feature called Continuity Camera, which will actually let you use your iPhone as a webcam. That’s right; you’ll be able to strap an iPhone to your Mac and use the camera for whatever it is you’re doing, giving you a significant boost in video quality, at least with most Macs.

That also means that Center Stage – which allows the camera to move the field of view to focus on you – will be available to all Macs, using the phone you probably already have. Indeed, it’s not just about camera quality. It also adds portrait mode and studio light, and there’s a Desk View feature that works as an overhead camera.

Freeform is a new whiteboarding app

Freeform is a new collaboration app that Apple is making, aiming at a new take on whiteboarding. You can add text, files, links, photos, and so on. And naturally, you can collaborate in real-time with this.

Mail improvements

As usual, Mail is getting a bunch of new features. There’s better search functionality, which gives you better results and will give you suggestions as you type. You can also now unsend an email, schedule messages to be sent, and get reminders to return to a draft. It’s also going to notice when you’ve forgotten to include an attachment. A lot of these features seem to be inspired by Gmail.

Spotlight improvements

Spotlight is getting a bunch of improvements. If you search for images, you’ll find pictures from Photos, Messages, Notes, the web, and more, and you can use Live Text to search for text inside of the image.

You’ll also find new quick actions in Spotlight. You’ll be able to search and quickly start a timer, create an alarm, find the name of a song in Shazam, and more.

Safari improvements

As usual, Safari is getting some improvements. Passkeys are a feature that lets you sign in to services and they’re end-to-end encrypted, making them way more secure. Moreover, Apple says they work on non-Apple devices.

You’re going to be able to share tab groups from Safari, and you’ll even be able to start a FaceTime call to collaborate on something. The people that you’re collaborating with will be able to add their own tabs to the group as well.

Messages improvements

It’s official; iMessages are getting an edit button before Twitter does. Yes, you’ll be able to change a message after you send it, although, of course, this doesn’t apply to those green SMS messages. You can also mark a message as unread, in case you don’t have time to respond at the moment and you don’t want to leave the sender on read.

Apple is also bringing SharePlay to Messages. This will let you chat about things while you’re watching something with friends. In fact, Apple seems to be gearing up Messages as the place where you can text friends while still doing things together. Adding onto the Freeform app and Safari features above, there’s a broader range of collaboration features you can use. If you have a shared project, there will be a button to chat in Messages or start a FaceTime call.

Photos improvements

Apple has announced iCloud Shared Photo Library, which is pretty self-explanatory. You can share photos with up to five people at a time, and while sharing photos isn’t new, the ability to edit them is. This is proper collaboration-style sharing, rather than just sending an album to someone and letting them download it. Obviously, edits sync instantly.

You can choose what’s in the album you’re sharing based on things like people in photos, so it’s intelligently figuring out who’s in the picture. And when you tell Photos what you want in the album, you’ll see more in the For Your Shared Library tab.

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We’ll continue to update this page as we learn more, but ultimately, macOS Ventura is getting pretty close to release, so we don’t antincipate having that much more to say.

The post macOS 13 Ventura: Everything coming in Apple’s next desktop OS appeared first on XDA.

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Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 review: Finally, a modern take on a ThinkPad

The Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 is a delightful laptop to use, packing AMD’s latest Ryzen 6000 processors and an all-new design. Indeed, I first saw the bronze frame with the vegan leather lid back in January at CES, and it was one of those things that I just couldn’t wait to get my hands on. After all, when you think ThinkPad, you rarely associate it with modern. It’s more likely that you associate it with a black design, the red TrackPoint that’s a relic from an age when touchpads were awful, and things like that.

The ThinkPad Z13 comes with a haptic touchpad, and unlike other ThinkPads, the tocuhpad isn’t shrunken down to accommodate two physical buttons. Thanks to the haptic touchpad that’s used, that space at the top can either be buttons, or it can be an extension of the touchpad.

It’s not perfect though. The biggest issue is one that we find with all mobile Ryzen processors. Performance takes a dive when it’s not connected to power, and you’ll feel the difference. Unfortunately, this doesn’t result in better battery life either.

But as long as you’re connected to power at least most of the time, the Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 is delightful.

Lenovo ThinkPad Z13

The Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 was designed in collaboration with AMD, and packs a lot of modern features like a haptic touchpad, a brand-new design, an FHD webcam, and more.

Features:

Pros: Cons:

See at Lenovo

Navigate this review:

• Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 pricing and availability
• Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 specs
• Design: The Z13 is the sexiest ThinkPad in history
• Display: There’s an option for OLED
• Keyboard: Finally, no more buttons above the touchpad
• Performance: Ryzen 6000 is a beast
• Who should buy the Lenovo ThinkPad Z13?

Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 pricing and availability

• The ThinkPad Z13 starts at $1,355.40 and it’s available now

On Lenovo.com, the ThinkPad Z13 currently starts at $1,355.40, although that price does fluctuate. The company is always running one deal or another. And when I say always, I mean it. The listed normal price is actually $2,259, but you’ll never be asked to pay that price. The base model comes with an AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 6650U, 16GB LPDDR5, a 256GB PCIe Gen 4 SSD, and a 1,920×1,200 display.

The model that Lenovo sent me for review includes the same FHD+ display, but it has a Ryzen 7 PRO 6850U, 16GB RAM, and a 512GB SSD. This one will run you $2,099 from Costco, although to be fair, it’s actually about $1,754 on Lenovo.com right now. With ThinkPads, and any business laptop for that matter, it helps to look around.

The Z13 comes in Vegan Leather Black, Grey, and Black.

Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 specs

Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850U
Graphics	AMD Radeon Graphics
Display	13.3-inch 16:10, WUXGA (1920 x 1200) low power, touch IPS, 400 nits, Eyesafe certified low blue-light emissions, antiglare, anti-smudge
Body	294.4 x 199.6 x 13.99 mm (11.59 x 7.86 x 0.55 inches), 1.26kg (2.78lbs)
Memory	16GB LPDDR5 6400Mhz (soldered dual channel)
Storage	512GB PCIe SSD Gen 4
Connectivity	Qualcomm NFA-725A Wi-Fi 6E, 802.11ax 2×2 Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 5.2
Ports	2 x USB4 40Gbps (support data transfer, Power Delivery 3.0 and DisplayPort 1.4a) 1 x Headphone / microphone combo jack (3.5mm)
Camera	IR & FHD 1080p hybrid, with E-camera shutter, fixed focus
Input	6-row, spill-resistant, edge-to-edge, multimedia Fn keys with Unified Communications controls
Audio	Stereo speakers, 2W x2, Dolby® Atmos® Dual array microphone, 360° far-field, Dolby Voice
Security	Discrete TPM 2.0 (TCG certified, with Microsoft Pluton integrated in chipset), Touch style fingerprint reader in keyboard key, BIOS Security, E-Camera shutter, IR camera for Windows Hello
Battery	51.5 Wh, supports Rapid Charge (80% in 1hr)
Material	Aluminum (top), Aluminum (bottom)
Color	Bronze with black vegan leather (top), black (bottom)
OS	Windows 11 Pro
Price	$2,099

Design: The Z13 is the sexiest ThinkPad in history

• With a two-tone design that has a vegan leather lid, it breaks from ThinkPad tradition
• It has USB4, making it one of the first AMD laptops that’s not lacking from Thunderbolt

When you think of a Lenovo ThinkPad, you probably think of something along the lines of a ThinkPad X1 Carbon. And let’s face it. When you’re thinking of an X1 Carbon, you’re basically thinking of pretty much every other ThinkPad too. You’re imagining a matte black laptop with a gray logo stamped in the corner of a lid. Sure, there’s the aluminum ThinkPad X1 Yoga and there’s the foldable ThinkPad X1 Fold, but 99% of the time, ThinkPad design is very conservative.

I remember a few years ago, someone was asking me which laptop to buy. At the time, I said a ThinkPad, and was met with the response that ThinkPads are ugly. This was before the X1 Yoga was even made out of aluminum, so there very much was one look for a ThinkPad.

While there have been those modest changes in certain models, the Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 is a big change. It comes in grey and it comes in black, but there’s a third model that’s made to be sexy. This one has a bronze frame and a black vegan leather top. It’s the most beautiful ThinkPad ever made.

The ThinkPad Z13 is the most beautiful ThinkPad ever made.

Part of me wants to call it the sexiest laptop on the market. HP used to do a two-tone design on its Spectre x360 laptops with those bold accents, but the company toned it down a lot with the latest generation. If you want that kind of eye-catching look, this feels like the way to go.

Also, I really want to note that when it comes to PC design, I really think Lenovo is the 2022 winner. That’s saying a lot because in previous years, I’d have told you that the company makes some of the best, yet ugliest laptops there are. On the consumer end, it felt like everything was a bland gunmetal gray, and that’s been replaced by the stunning Yoga 9i. On the business end, we had bland black ThinkPads, and now we have this stunner. I love to see it. I love any time companies get creative with laptop design.

It weighs in at 2.78 pounds, which is about average for a light and premium ultrabook before you move onto materials like carbon fiber and magnesium. It’s right around what a MacBook Air weighs. It feels great to carry in a bag, and it also feels great to hold. I really enjoy this year’s theme of laptops that aren’t wedge-shaped, that have a uniform depth throughout the device. It’s a nice touch.

Now, let’s talk about ports because this is pretty important. Historically, this is an area where AMD-powered laptops have come at a significant disadvantage, because they don’t have Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt is a staple for a premium Intel-powered laptop, as you can connect an external graphics card, you can connect two 4K displays on a single port, you can get 40Gbps data transfer speeds, and more.

AMD’s new Ryzen 6000 processors support USB4, which is more similar to Thunderbolt 3. Here’s what you need to know about that. Thunderbolt 3, USB4, and Thunderbolt 4 support data transfer speeds of up to 40Gbps, but with Thunderbolt 4, that’s actually the standard. But with the introduction of USB4 and it being open to everyone, that means that lacking Thunderbolt doesn’t mean what it used to. I no longer have to ding AMD laptops in pros and cons lists for this.

The Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 has two USB4 ports, one on each side. And yes, I always think it’s a plus when you can charge a laptop from either side. On the right side, you’ll also find the power button and a 3.5mm audio jack.

There’s no USB Type-A on this, which I wouldn’t expect. While business laptops tend to have more legacy ports, this is designed to be more modern.

Just to sum things up, I really love the design on this laptop. With the bronze accents and the vegan leather cover, it’s just beautiful.

Display: There’s an option for OLED

• The screen is 13.3 inches and 16:10
• You can get a 2.8K OLED option too, but the base model is FHD+

The screen is probably the least exciting thing to talk about on the ThinkPad Z13, because the one that Lenovo sent me has an FHD+ display. The more exciting configuration is 2.8K OLED, which I’m sure is beautiful. But for now, we have the FHD+ one, which I’m starting to think Lenovo sent for battery life purposes. Obviously, you get more battery life from fewer pixels than more, and I don’t love what I’m seeing from Ryzen 6000, which we’ll talk more about in a bit.

The screen is pretty good. It supports touch, and as you’ll see from my tests results, everything about it is solid. It doesn’t really stand out in any way, but there’s nothing bad about it.

From my testing, it supports 100% sRGB, 79% NTSC, 84% Adobe RGB, and 84% P3. Those are all good scores. Again, I’m sure the OLED model is all in the 90% range.

Brightness maxed out at 466.9 nits, which is really great considering that Lenovo only promised 400 nits. Contrast ratio maxed out at 1,670:1. All of these are solid marks.

There’s a 2.1MP webcam, which there’s a bit more room for in the top bezel thanks to Lenovo’s reverse notch design. 2.1MP means that it supports FHD resolution, something that’s critical in the age of working from home. Intel-powered PCs were pushed to do this through the new Evo spec, so I’m glad to see it in an AMD laptop as well.

Keyboard: Finally, no more buttons above the touchpad

• The keyboard has 1.35mm keys
• It’s a haptic touchpad with no physical buttons

The Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 has a keyboard with 1.35mm keys, which is the correct depth for a ThinkPad keyboard. It debuted in the ThinkPad X1 Nano and the ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga, and we’ve seen it in other new designs more recently such as this one and the ThinkPad X13s. Older designs like the ThinkPad X1 Carbon and the ThinkPad X1 Yoga use a 1.5mm keyboard, and some ThinkPads are 1.8mm.

The keyboard is comfortable and accurate, and like I said, 1.35mm is the proper depth for the keys. Lenovo needs to use this keyboard across the entire ThinkPad lineup. It’s more modern, and it’s really well done.

The one thing about this laptop that’s decidedly not modern is the TrackPoint, which sits between the G, H, and B key. It’s been this way for every ThinkPad, ever, and it’s a relic from the age when Windows touchpads weren’t good. It needs to go away at some point, but that time is not now. Companies like HP and Dell still use one, but those companies limit it to certain mainstream models. Lenovo still includes is on every ThinkPad.

One other thing I want to point out is that the Ctrl button is to the left of the Fn key. On most other ThinkPads, the Fn key is on the left, which is really annoying because it’s a deviation from how every other laptop works. It’s nice to see the Ctrl button in the proper place for once.

We’ve also got a modern take on the ThinkPad touchpad. For one thing, it’s a haptic touchpad now, which feels great to use. As you can see, there are also no physical buttons at the top, which are traditionally there for use with the TrackPoint. Thanks to the haptic touchpad, you can use that space as buttons, or you can use it as an extension of the touchpad. It’s a very welcome change, since ThinkPads tend to have small touchpads because of that valuable real estate being taken up by buttons.

Performance: Ryzen 6000 is a beast, most of the time

• Performance with Ryzen 6000 is great, but once again, AMD fails to deliver when not connected to power
• Battery life isn’t very good

Just like we saw when Ryzen 5000 and Ryzen 4000 came out of the gate, Ryzen 6000 is a winner. In most benchmark tests, you’ll see it beat out its Intel counterpart, and it has the exact same flaw as its predecessors too: performance drops in a meaningful way when you’re not connected to power. You’ll see in the benchmark chart below that this laptop scored 6,281 in PCMark while it was plugged in and the power slider was set to best performance. Running on battery, it scored 5,340.

The ThinkPad Z13 is a true pleasure to use.

That’s almost a 15% hit, which is actually better than a lot of Ryzen 5000 laptops I’ve used. Still, you won’t experience this much of an issue on an Intel laptop. I was on a meeting a few days ago, and our EIC Aamir Siddiqui pointed out that my internet must be having a rough day, as I looked terrible. He was pretty surprised when everything was fixed when I connected a power cable to the laptop I was using.

I don’t want to bash the performance loss when not connected to power too much, although I do want to be clear that it is noticeable, but let’s be fair. When it’s connected to power, this is a really well-performing laptop. I used it a lot for photo editing in Adobe Lightroom Classic and Photoshop, and it did great. It didn’t miss a beat. For general productivity, it’s even better.

After all, general productivity is really what U-series processors are supposed to be for. And when working in productivity applications like a Chromium web browser, OneNote, Slack, Skype, and more, it just feels so fast. This laptop is a true pleasure to use.

	ThinkPad Z13 Ryzen 7 PRO 6850U	HP Spectre x360 13.5 Core i7-1255U	Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 Carbon Ryzen 7 5800U	Dell XPS 13 Plus Core i7-1280P
PCMark 10	6,281	5,533	5,621	5,481
3DMark: Time Spy	2,357	1,553	1,323	1,992
Geekbench 5 (single / multi)	1,507 / 8,697	1,682 / 7,534	1,412 / 6,347	1,700 / 10,293
Cinebench R23 (single / multi)	1,504 / 10,092	1,684 / 6,287	1,377 / 8,222	1,629 / 10,121
CrossMark (overall / productivity / creativity / responsiveness)	1,499 / 1,466 / 1,636 / 1,233	1,593 / 1,509 / 1,781 / 1,340		1,729 / 1,575 / 2,022 / 1,433

As you can see, the PCMark score, when plugged in, is far away from anything else, including Intel’s 15W U-series, 28W P-series, and AMD’s Ryzen 5000 U-series chips. It’s not perfect though. While I noted that the Z13 drops to 5,340 when not connected to power, HP’s Spectre x360 13.5 only dropped to 5,368 when using the battery, a much smaller decline. Also, Intel still holds the lead in single-threaded performance, which is really important in regular tasks.

Battery life was not great, something that’s a bit surprising considering how much AMD throttles everything when power isn’t connected. Also, to be clear, I do battery testing by doing my normal work load and measuring how long it takes for the battery to die. In most cases, I set the power slider to balanced, but with AMD chips, I’m forced to set it to best performance.

The absolute best I got was 245 minutes, which is just over four hours. It was the only time I got over four hours in all of my use. The worst I got was 170 minutes, which is under three hours. As you could probably guess, average was around three and a half hours, which isn’t great for a 51.5WHr battery.

Who should buy the Lenovo ThinkPad Z13?

The Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 is a pretty sweet laptop. It checks the right boxes for design, performance, keyboard, and more.

You should buy the Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 if:

• You’re looking for a stylish business laptop
• You want productivity performance, and you’re plugged into power most of the time
• You use a dock to connect to a larger workstation
• You’ve thought about getting a ThinkPad, but have held back

You should NOT buy the Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 if:

• You’re not connected to power the vast majority of the time
• You require a more subtle design

To be fair, the Grey model does offer the more subtle design that a lot of business users need. The Vegan Leather Black one is sexy, and it’s really nice to see because business laptops are usually pretty bland. Of course, the biggest drawback is that performance takes a meaningful hit when it’s not connected to power, an issue we’ve seen with plenty of AMD Ryzen processors over the years.

Lenovo ThinkPad Z13

The Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 was designed in collaboration with AMD, and packs a lot of modern features like a haptic touchpad, a brand-new design, an FHD webcam, and more.

Features:

Pros: Cons:

See at Lenovo

The post Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 review: Finally, a modern take on a ThinkPad appeared first on XDA.

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