Tech Advisor – October 2019

OCTOBER 2019 • TECH ADVISOR 99

BUYING GUIDE

for action (see opposite). When you don’t need it, it’s
hidden out of sight: handy for security, too.
Its position is far from ideal, though. As with other
laptops that place the webcam below the screen, the
viewing angle is less than flattering. In the MateBook
X Pro’s case, the camera points at your chest rather
than your face if you sit in a normal working position.
Soyou’llhavetomovebackfurtherthannormalif
youwant your face to be in the shot on video calls.
Four mics are present and allow far-field use. That
means you can stand the other side of the room and
talk to your audience, or ask Cortana for assistance.
As with its predecessor, the power button has a
built-in fingerprint sensor, which is compatible with
Windows Hello. From a cold boot, it’ll take just 7.8
seconds until you see Windows 10’s login screen and it’s
marginally quicker if the laptop’s already in hibernation
mode. The fast start-ups aren’t exaggerated: we’ve
measured similar times in our own tests.
On the sides, ports are swapped around a little.
Instead of a USB-C port on either side, you’ll now
find a traditional rectangular USB port on the right.
That’susefulbecauseno-onewantstohavetocarry
anadaptor just to plug in a flash drive.
TherearetwoUSB-Cports,butthey’renowon
theleft. One can be used for data and charging, and
theothersupportsThunderbolt3,whichmeansyou
canhook up an external graphics card.
We’reunconvincedmanypeoplewillwantto
spenda lotofmoneyona graphicscardanda
specialexternalPCIeenclosuretoplaygameson
a14inlaptop, but it’s possible nonetheless.