Review: Huawei MateView monitor

DESIGN

The MateView has the sort of premium design you’d expect from a monitor at this price level.

Huawei claims it has been inspired by the compositions of renowned painter Wassily Kandinsky and the concept of Futurism!

Now I’m no art critic, but to the untrained eye, it does look well.

With sharp corners and a minimal 6mm bezel, the 94% screen to body ratio means it is the display rather than the housing that attracts your attention.

Silver in colour, the body is mostly made of plastic, but carries off a brushed metal look well.

There is a premium alloy in the frame and the flat slimline stand though, to give it strength in the right places.

Huawei has located the motherboard strategically inside the frame and this makes for a slimmer overall screen design.

The set-up is well balanced, making it easy to adjust the tilt with the gentlest of pushes.

Using the stainless steel hinge, the angle of the screen can be set between -5 and 18 degrees, with an adjustable height elevation of 110mm.

The on/off button is embedded in the right side of the stand and the device is controlled by an integrated slimline touchpad positioned on the underside of the display panel.

After a little playing around I found it easy enough to navigate and use – swiping left and right increases and decreases volume, a tap opens the main picture menu and double tapping closes it down.

DISPLAY

The IPS display itself is 28.2 inches in size and has a 3:2 aspect ratio – plenty big enough and the right tall shape for viewing long windows, but not so great for positioning multiple windows side by side.

Offering 4K+ Ultra-HD at a resolution of 3840 × 2560 and HDR 400, the output is really sharp and clear.

At a typical brightness level of 500 nits, it is bright too and Huawei also claims it can replicate 1.07bn colours with a high level of accuracy.

A 60Hz refresh rate means rapid scrolling or graphics heavy video playback is pretty smooth.

The monitor is certified under the TUV Rheinland Low Blue Light and Flicker Free programme and certainly in testing on and off over the course of a week, it didn’t leave my eyes feeling strained.

FEATURES

When it comes to connecting the MateView to other devices there are plenty of options.

Alongside the USB-C power supply port, there’s a second USB-C for connecting other hardware to the display, transferring data and for charging from (up to 65W maximum).

In addition, there are two USB-A 3.0 ports, a HDMI 2.0 socket and MiniDP to choose from.

The ports can also be used to connect mice and keyboards to the screen if you want them for inputting and navigation across multiple connected devices, which is handy.

You can also plug in a headset and microphone into a 2-in-1 jack.

But it does have two of its own microphones built in, as well as two 5W speakers embedded in the stand, which churn out reasonable but not wonderfully rich sound.

If a wired video connection seems like too much trouble, or you are sick of the tangle of cables on your desk, then there is a wireless option too.

Using this, a mobile phone, laptop or tablet can be connected to the monitor wirelessly and you can project from them.

The catch is that only certain Huawei mobile devices can connect wirelessly which is a big drawback.

I also found connecting my Windows 10 PC wirelessly to be quite fiddly.

CONCLUSION

If you are searching for a big bold bright display that looks really good to sit on your desk beside other nice looking devices, then the MateView is worth considering.

The smart touch bar works well too and there are lots of ways of connecting other devices to the screen.

But the wireless option that Huawei makes much marketing noise about is limited, so you’d want to have a Huawei device if that is important to your thinking.

And the aspect ratio may not suit everyone’s needs.

At around €699, it isn’t a cheap piece of kit.

But if aesthetics and display quality are important to you, the MateView may be worth a look.