Huawei’s Windows 10 MateBook seems heavily ‘inspired’ by the iPad Pro

Huawei announced the MateBook 2-in1 hybrid PC at Mobile World Congress 2016 on Sunday. The tablet’s design is heavily inspired from the iPad Pro and manges to stay lighter and as slim as the Apple device.

At a starting at $699, the MateBook challenges the iPad Pro and Surface Pro 4 with similar design, accessories and power (AFP)

Huawei announced the MateBook 2-in1 hybrid PC at Mobile World Congress 2016 on Sunday. The tablet's design is heavily inspired from the iPad Pro and manges to stay lighter and as slim as the Apple device.

Smartphone sales hit a new high in 2015 with Apple and Samsung acquiring the largest chunk of the pie as usual. However, they were beat by Huawei in terms of growth. The Nexus 6P maker sold 44.5% more than its previous year. Now, with the MateBook -- which sounds much like MacBook -- Huawei is trying to make a foothold in the PC business too.

At a starting at $699, the MateBook challenges the iPad Pro and Surface Pro 4 with similar design, accessories and purpose. The MateBook runs Windows 10 on sixth generation of Core M processors, making it a full-fledged PC and Tablet competent enough for daily needs. The once base model of the device packs a 128 GB storage and 4 GB of RAM which are great for a tablet that claims to churn out nine hours of usage on regular web browsing and productivity. With USB Type-C, the MateBook takes just two and a half hours to reach full charge and up to 60% in just an hour.

The USB Type-C also makes it possible to connect multiple peripherals with the help of a $89 dock that even sports an LAN port. The 12-inch display covers 85% of the device making watching content a vivid experience.

The folio keyboard also lets you use the MateBook as a laptop and cost a hefty $129. However, it doesn't provide a clever way to clamp the $59 pen. Huawei said, "MatePen stylus offers 2,048 levels of sensitivity, perfectly capturing users' subtle and diverse pen-tip actions with zero delay. For advanced business functions, MatePen supports graphics and mathematic functions, and can be used as a laser pointer for delivering presentations."

The volume rocker on the MateBook sports a fingerprint sensor to make unlocking the device as simple as touching it at the right spot. But that seems to be the only interesting addition we've seen on a 2-in-1 device since Microsoft's Surface.