Desktop Tourism Rightly or wrongly, Huawei has acquired a reputation for being a risky proposition, security-wise. It almost beggars belief, then, that the Chinese goliath's flagship Matebook X Pro laptop contains a literal hidden webcam secreted under a fake function key on the top row of its keyboard.
Touch the key and it clicks lightly, then springs up to reveal the camera.
It's a terrible place for the camera because when the laptop is flat on a desk and close enough to type on, the view it affords would probably please an ear, nose, and throat surgeon conducting a remote examination. Needless to say, that angle is not going to show your best side during a Zoom or Teams session. And you can't change the angle without moving the entire laptop into odd positions or placing it too far away to type.
Your reviewer, as seen through Huawei's webcam when the Matebook was in a comfortable typing position. Click to enlarge – if you dare
Complicating matters further is that the laptop's 3.5mm audio jack is positioned at the back of its left edge, which means wired headphones with a cord of average length have just that little extra distance to stretch as you work your way into a more photogenic position.
Huawei has decided to put the camera in this odd spot in the name of privacy protection, which is noble, but I found the camera popped up unintentionally when I opened and closed the laptop.
The camera has not been integrated with Windows at all – so when the key it hides under is down, using any camera-enabled app results in inexplicable blackness. Such a novel hardware design is easy to forget and surely deserved a little help from the OS.
Putting the camera under a key does allow the laptop a very thin bezel surrounding its screen. The result is a 13.9-inch screen in a 13-inch laptop. But the odd camera placement also means the laptop is hard to use for one of the main applications laptops are needed for these days.
Huawei's hidden webcam ... Source: Huawei. Click to enlarge
At least it's a decent camera, and a lovely screen – the 3K display has 3000x2000 resolution and is vividly bright and makes lovely distinctions between colors. I'll happily work or watch movies on it all day – and I almost mean that literally, because the machine eased its way to six hours of unconnected usage.
The display's touch sensitivity is sharp and swift, but Huawei's swipe-to-screenshot feature didn't work reliably for me despite the vendor advancing it as an important demonstration of its ability to add value in what is a very crowded laptop market.
Desktop tourism? PCs and alternative devices have increasingly diversified into myriad and marvelous forms, so I've decided that in 2022 I'll use a different one each month and share the experience. This article is the latest part in this series.
The feature also feels redundant, given the Windows Snipping Tool does a fine job with a keypress many users will have memorized. The screen is so glossy that every touch leaves a mark and after a day or two the machine looks a mess, so swiping to take screenshots just adds to the smearing.
The laptop is powered by an Intel 11th-gen Core i7-1165G7 quad-core processor that can go through the gears from 1.2GHz to 4.7GHz. The laptop includes Intel Iris X graphics, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB solid state drive.
The machine did decently on my go-to nasty job: running Handbrake to transcode a five-minute 4K video file down to 1080p, consuming six minutes and 20 seconds for the job. That was just two minutes slower than the Corei9-powered Asus laptop I used on my last Desktop Tourism adventure.
However, the Huawei struggled mightily running the same workload in an Ubuntu VM under VMware Workstation. The laptop's fans got quite a workout as it struggled through the job in 16:11, more than double the time needed by the Asus.
The machine's fans also kicked in at seemingly random moments, and unnervingly often. Connecting an external monitor sometimes taxed the laptop notably, but on other occasions did not impinge on performance. Some light workloads caused the machines to struggle – downloads were a bugbear – but on other days it hummed along impressively under heavier loads.
The machine wakes up feeling grumpy. Flipping it open often produced either a hung application or odd errors such as an inability to play audio. Other applications just didn't get on with the machine. My preferred cycling metaverse, Zwift, limped into action and then hung – performance far worse than a much older Windows laptop that is my everyday workhorse.
At least the laptop's biometric-enabled On button was swift and accurate, meaning the unusual number of restarts required to work with the machine were not made frustrating by bodgy biometrics. The touchpad is also pleasingly sensitive and generously sized.
A single USB-A port and dual USB-Cs is an adequate combination, but demonstrates PC-makers' unfounded optimism about the prevalence of USB-C monitors. The laptop did not struggle with the no-name USB-C dongles I use for things like wireless keyboard dongles and HDMI.
The machine is very pretty, and is certainly thin and light.
But it is also eminently forgettable and you can do better for the $2,000 or so Huawei charges for it – perhaps with the 2022 version of the Matebook Pro X which is starting to dribble into stores around the world.
Sadly, Huawei won't offer the version of the machine powered by its own motherboard and Kunpeng 920 processor outside of China. I say that as I came away from my time with the laptop thinking Huawei can do better, and perhaps controlling the hardware would be a factor that might allow it to address the imperfections that made this machine a hollow experience for your desktop tourist, rather than a trip to remember. ®
Desktop Tourism My 20-year-old son is an aspiring athlete who spends a lot of time in the gym and thinks nothing of lifting 100 kilograms in various directions. So I was a little surprised when I handed him Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Studio and he declared it uncomfortably heavy.
At 1.8kg it's certainly not among today's lighter laptops. That matters, because the device's big design selling point is a split along the rear of its screen that lets it sit at an angle that covers the keyboard and places its touch-sensitive surface in a comfortable position for prodding with a pen. The screen can also fold completely flat to allow the laptop to serve as a tablet.
Below is a .GIF to show that all in action.
Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE has announced what it claims is the first "cloud laptop" – an Android-powered device that the consumes just five watts and links to its cloud desktop-as-a-service.
Announced this week at the partially state-owned company's 2022 Cloud Network Ecosystem Summit, the machine – model W600D – measures 325mm × 215mm × 14 mm, weighs 1.1kg and includes a 14-inch HD display, full-size keyboard, HD camera, and Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity. An unspecified eight-core processors drives it, and a 40.42 watt-hour battery is claimed to last for eight hours.
It seems the primary purpose of this thing is to access a cloud-hosted remote desktop in which you do all or most of your work. ZTE claimed its home-grown RAP protocol ensures these remote desktops will be usable even on connections of a mere 128Kbit/sec, or with latency of 300ms and packet loss of six percent. That's quite a brag.
Updated Microsoft's latest set of Windows patches are causing problems for users.
Windows 10 and 11 are affected, with both experiencing similar issues (although the latter seems to be suffering a little more).
KB5014697, released on June 14 for Windows 11, addresses a number of issues, but the known issues list has also been growing. Some .NET Framework 3.5 apps might fail to open (if using Windows Communication Foundation or Windows Workflow component) and the Wi-Fi hotspot features appears broken.
If Windows Autopatch arrives in July as planned, some of you will be able to say goodbye to Patch Tuesday.
Windows Autopatch formed part of Microsoft's April announcements on updates to the company's Windows-in-the-cloud product. The tech was in public preview since May.
Aimed at enterprise users running Windows 10 and 11, Autopatch can, in theory, be used to replace the traditional Patch Tuesday to which administrators have become accustomed over the years. A small set of devices will get the patches first before Autopatch moves on to gradually larger sets, gated by checks to ensure that nothing breaks.
Dell has pulled the lid off the latest pair of laptops in its XPS 13 line, in the hopes the new designs, refreshed internals, and an unmistakably Apple-like aesthetic of its 2-in-1 approach can give them a boost in a sputtering PC market.
Both new machines are total redesigns, which is in line with Dell's plans to revamp its XPS series. Dell users considering an upgrade will want to take note, especially those interested in the XPS 13 2-in-1: There is quite a bit of difference, for both enterprise and consumer folks.
The XPS 13 maintains its form factor – for the most part – but gets a new smooth aluminum chassis that makes it look more like a MacBook Air than ever. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing: the new design is reportedly lighter and thinner, too.
The United States last week quietly eased its ban on investors holding stock in, or otherwise profiting from, Chinese companies that are felt to have ties to China's military.
The ban was first imposed by president Donald Trump with a 2020 executive order that forbade US-based individuals or entities owning shares in private Chinese companies identified as offering support to China's military, intelligence, and security agencies, by auditing their "development and modernization."
President Biden later issued a similar order of his own.
WWDC Apple opened its 33rd annual Worldwide Developer Conference on Monday with a preview of upcoming hardware and planned changes in its mobile, desktop, and wrist accessory operating systems.
The confab consists primarily of streamed video, as it did in 2020 and 2021, though there is a limited in-person component for the favored few. Apart from the preview of Apple's homegrown Arm-compatible M2 chip – coming next month in a redesigned MacBook Air and 13" MacBook Pro – there was not much meaningful innovation. The M2 Air has a full-size touch ID button, apparently.
Apple's software-oriented enhancements consist mainly of worthy but not particularly thrilling interface and workflow improvements, alongside a handful of useful APIs and personalization capabilities. Company video performers made no mention of Apple's anticipated AR/VR headset.
US PC shipments fell by double digits in the first quarter of 2022, mostly due to the collapse of Chromebook orders, yet the effect of inflation and a greater mix of higher spec machines lifted the value of those sales.
According to data compiled by tech analyst Canalys, some 19.554 million units were shipped into the channel during the three months, down 14 percent year on year, but revenues were up a whopping 40 percent.
This is the third straight quarter of unit sale declines after the "relative strengths of end-user segments changed," said Brian Lynch, research analyst. "The consumer and education segments saw demand slow further due to market saturation and rising concerns about inflation, which peaked in March at 8.5 percent, the highest rate of 12-month increase since 1981."
Huawei's long established trading relationship with Leica to integrate the German camera maker's technology into its phones is over, the companies have confirmed.
From February 2016, all Huawei flagships were slated [PDF] to have Leica-developed lenses and branding.
The Reg was generally quite impressed by the combined products over the years.
Desktop Tourism If you drop Dell's Latitude 5430 laptop from hip height onto vinyl flooring that covers a concrete slab, it lands with a sharp crack, bounces a little, then skitters to a halt. Drop it two meters onto sodden grass and it lands with a meaty squish on its long rear edge. The impact pushes a spray of water and flecks of mud through the crack between the screen and keyboard, with a spot or two of each making it onto the keyboard's ASDF row.
I know this, because I did it. And more.
If you put it in a domestic freezer after that drop onto wet grass, then pull it out after ten minutes, a couple of water and mud flecks freeze into little teardrops on the keyboard. The latch that holds the screen to the body of the laptop takes a little extra effort to open.
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