Huawei MateBook 16 (2021) vs Apple Macbook Air (M1, 2020)

You can select specific configurations for the laptops to get a more accurate comparative review
CPU
Apple M1
RAM 16GB
Storage

Review

Evaluation of Huawei MateBook 16 (2021) and Apple Macbook Air (M1, 2020) important characteristics
Performance
System and application performance
Gaming
Performance in popular 3D games
Display
Viewing angle, color accuracy, brightness
Battery Life
Potential battery life in light and average use
Connectivity
Ports, webcam and other interfaces
Case
Design, materials, durability and usability

Key Differences

What are the key differences between the notebooks
Advantages of the Huawei MateBook 16 (2021)
  • Includes an old-school USB-A port
  • Features a much bigger (~68%) battery – 84 against 49.9 watt-hours
  • Thinner bezels and 7% higher screen-to-body ratio
  • Around 28% better multi-core CPU performance in the Cinebench R23 test
Advantages of the Apple Macbook Air (M1, 2020)
  • Significantly easier to carry: weighs 700 grams less (around 1.54 lbs)
  • Much smaller footprint: 28% more compact case (100.1 vs 138.7 square inches)
  • Provides 33% higher max. screen brightness: 400 vs 300 nits
  • 20% sharper screen – 227 versus 189 pixels per inch (PPI)
We may earn commissions from Amazon for purchases made via the links below. This does not affect our assessment methodology.

Tests and Specifications

Comparison table of test results and technical specs

Case

Weight 1.99 kg (4.39 lbs) 1.29 kg (2.84 lbs)
Dimensions 351 x 254.9 x 17.8 mm
13.82 x 10.04 x 0.7 inches
304.1 x 212.4 x 16.1 mm
11.97 x 8.36 x 0.63 inches
Area 895 cm2 (138.8 inches2) 646 cm2 (100.1 inches2)
Screen-to-body ratio ~85.2% ~79.4%
Side bezels 6.4 mm 8.8 mm
Colors Gray Silver, Gold, Gray
Transformer No No
Opening angle 145° 130°
Size comparison
Cooling solution
Cooling system Active Passive
Vapor chamber No Yes
Number of fans 2 -
Noise level (max. load) 42.4 dB -

Display

Size 16 inches 13.3 inches
Type IPS LCD IPS LCD
Refresh rate 60 Hz 60 Hz
PPI 189 ppi 227 ppi
Aspect ratio 3:2 16:10
Resolution 2520 x 1680 pixels 2560 x 1600 pixels
HDR support No Yes, HDR10
Touchscreen No No
Coating Matte Glossy (Antireflective)
Display tests
Contrast 1500:1 1069:1
sRGB color space 94.9% 99.8%
Adobe RGB profile 65.1% 85.9%
DCI-P3 color gamut 63.1% 98.6%
Response time 34 ms 35 ms
Max. brightness

Battery

Capacity
Voltage - 11.4 V
Full charging time 2:30 hr 2:23 hr
Battery type Li-Po Li-Po
Replaceable No No
Fast charging Yes Yes
USB Power Delivery Yes Yes
Charging port position Left Left
Charge power 135 W 30 W
Cable length - 2 meters
Weigh of AC adapter 482 grams 172 grams

CPU

CPU name
Base frequency 3.3 GHz 3.2 GHz
Turbo frequency 4.2 GHz -
Cores 6 8 (4P + 4E)
Threads 12 8
L3 Cache 16 MB -
Integrated GPU Radeon RX Vega 7 Apple M1 GPU
Fabrication process 7 nm 5 nm

Benchmarks

Geekbench 5 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 5 (Multi-Core)
Cinebench R23 (Single-Core)
Cinebench R23 (Multi-Core)

Graphics Card

GPU name
TGP 10-45 W 15 W
Type Integrated Integrated
Fabrication process 7 nm 5 nm
GPU base clock 300 MHz 450 MHz
GPU boost clock 1600 MHz 1278 MHz
FLOPS 1.108 TFLOPS 2.6 TFLOPS
Memory size System Shared System Shared
Memory type DDR4 LPDDR4X
Memory bus - 128 bit
Memory speed 3.2 Gbps 4.27 Gbps
Shading units (cores) 448 1024
Texture mapping units (TMUs) 28 64
Raster operations pipelines (ROPs) 7 32
GPU performance
1.108 TFLOPS
2.6 TFLOPS

RAM

RAM size
Channels 2x8 GB 2x4 GB
Clock 3200 MHz 4266 MHz
Type DDR4 LPDDR4X
Upgradable No No

Storage

Storage size
Bus PCI-E Gen 3.0 (4x) Custom
Storage type SSD (M2) SSD (M2)
Channels 1x256 GB 1x256 GB
Upgradable Yes No
Total slots 1 -
NVMe Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers 2.0 2.0
Dolby Atmos No Yes
Loudness 86 dB 79.6 dB
Microphones 2 3

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard v6 v6
Bluetooth v5.1 v5
Fingerprint Yes Yes
Optical drive No No
Webcam In the keyboard button Above the display
Webcam resolution 1280 x 720 1280 x 720
Ports
USB-A 2x USB 3.2 No
USB Type-C 2x USB 3.2 2x USB 3.1
Thunderbolt No Thunderbolt 3
HDMI 1x HDMI 2.0 No
DisplayPort No No
VGA No No
Audio jack (3.5 mm) Yes Yes
Ethernet (RJ45) No No
SD card reader No No
Proprietary charging port No No

Input

Keyboard
Keyboard type Island Island
Numpad No No
Backlight Yes Yes
Key travel - 1 mm
Touchpad
Size 14.1 x 9.1 cm 12.1 x 8.1 cm
Surface - Glass
Windows Precision Yes No
*Disclaimer! Ports, speakers, display, and other specifications can vary depending on the laptop's specific configuration or region.

Cast your vote

So, which laptop would you choose?
31 (50%)
31 (50%)
Total votes: 62

Comments

Write your opinion about the comparison of Apple Macbook Air (M1, 2020) and Huawei MateBook 16 (2021) or ask any questions
Avatar
Charlie 03 July 2022 21:18
Huawei MateBook is the cheaper and bigger size it is a win-win situation and runs on windows.
0 Reply
Promotion