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Comment by monocasa

4 years ago

My Huawei Matebook Pro has been everything I wanted in a Mac, in a way I couldn't get from Apple.

Pros that Macbooks don't have: USB-A (along with USB-C), no touch bar, 3:2 screen, can enable secure boot if I choose so feel like I'll be able to run whatever I want on it, replaceable SSD, etc.

Pros that Macbooks also have: still has a great build quality, full day battery

Cons that both have: Non replaceable RAM

I can second this, I'm on the Matebook 14 2020 with the Ryzen 7 I think rather than the Pro. But after a dreadful run of luck with the XPS15, the Matebook (so far) is an amazing bit of kit for almost half the price.

It feels like if they play the next iteration right Huawei could blow most of the top end out the water, there's so little choice at the top end and they all seem riddled with build quality, hardware or software issues.

I'm glad I took the risk on the Huawei and I don't really regard the Chinese spying moral panic as an issue. If they want to spy on you I'm sure there's far easier ways online than trying to backdoor a highly scrutinised laptop.

My huawei matebook pro is the best laptop I've ever owned.

The only downside is that I have Windows 10 on it, and considering Microsoft actively destorys user data and has for 15+ years as company policy...I won't use it for serious work, only entertainment. :(

User state is also a time investment, so rebooting and destorying this is not ok even if all files by some stroke of luck were saved first

Are you not worried about your data going to China? Huawei looks indeed great, but I would never use it. Maybe if there was a way to replace components with ones from legitimate source like Mouser or digikey, to ensure there is no spying going on.

  • I think a firmware- or hardware-level exfiltration system that works anywhere would be valuable enough that they are not likely to burn it by putting it in systems sold widely to consumers, where it would only be a matter of time before it was detected. Unless monocasa is someone fairly important, that is!