AUGUST 2019 PCWorld 9The Matebook X Pro was one of the sleeper laptop hits of the year. But should you still buy one?
STILL NOT FOR
NERVOUS NELLIES
The problem for Huawei is that it can’t prove a
negative, and few will believe the company to
be blameless at this point. It’s also impossible
to know whether the U.S. companies
currently trying to be flexible might be forced
to shift their stances. Combine all that fear,
uncertainty, and doubt, and it’s probably fair
to say a Huawei laptop isn’t for those who like
to play it safe. You just don’t have to worry
about these issues with a Dell or HP
computer. Tariffs, well, that’s another thing
(go.pcworld.com/trif).
But for those who don’t care about the
politics of it all, the situation for Huawei
laptops—at least those already on store
shelves—doesn’t look quite as dire as it did a
month ago.ARE HUAWEI
LAPTOPS SAFE?
With OS and firmware security updates out
of the way, the only other concern is whether
Huawei laptops are “spying on you.” That
lingering question is probably what has
tarnished Huawei’s reputation even more
than the possibility of being cut off from
Windows updates. It didn’t help when
Microsoft found that Huawei’s Matebook X
had a factory-installed “backdoor” (go.
pcworld.com/bkdr; a hidden way for
anyone to get access to the computer’s
data). Huawei patched the exploit in January
and denied accusations that the backdoor
was intentionally installed. The company also
pointed out that it’s not the first tech firm
that’s had to patch security holes or suffer
embarrassing security exploits, which is true.