An Ultralight Laptop Under 800g That Finally Makes Sense
The Huawei MateBook Pro S is an ultralight laptop under 800g that pairs a magnesium-lithium alloy chassis with a 14.2-inch OLED touchscreen, Kirin XE90 processor, and HarmonyOS 6.1 to deliver long battery life and premium portability for users who work, watch, and collaborate on the move.
Huawei has launched the MateBook Pro S as part of its HarmonyOS PC lineup, targeting people who rank portability as highly as speed and display quality. At 798 grams and 11.9mm thick, this magnesium‑lithium notebook is not only Huawei’s lightest 14‑inch HarmonyOS machine, it resets expectations for what an ultra‑mobile computer can be. For years, thin-and-light laptops have forced a trade-off: you carried less weight but gave up battery life, screen quality, or thermal headroom. The MateBook Pro S challenges that compromise by hitting three targets at once—weight, endurance, and screen—without looking like a niche experiment. That combination makes it more than another spec bump; it is a statement about where portable laptop design should go next.
Design: 798g Magnesium-Lithium Shows Where Portables Are Heading
The headline achievement of the MateBook Pro S is its magnesium‑lithium alloy body that weighs only 798g and measures 11.9mm thick, making it Huawei’s lightest 14‑inch HarmonyOS laptop to date. In practical terms, that makes this machine feel closer to a tablet with a keyboard than a traditional notebook in your bag. Yet unlike detachable tablets or cramped 12‑inch devices, you still get a full 14.2‑inch canvas and a proper clamshell form factor. This is the kind of portable laptop design frequent travellers, commuters, and students have been asking for—one-handed carry, no shoulder strain, and no sense that you have brought the “secondary” computer instead of your main workhorse. The MateBook Pro S demonstrates that if competitors keep shipping 1.2–1.3kg “ultrabooks”, they will start to look dated, not premium.
Portability here is not only about the scale number. Magnesium‑lithium is notoriously challenging to engineer around, yet its use hints at where the high end of the market is moving: exotic alloys tuned for stiffness and weight, instead of endlessly shaving fractions of a millimetre off aluminium shells. By going under 800g without shrinking the screen, Huawei is effectively setting a new informal benchmark for what an ultralight laptop under 800g can look and feel like.
Display and Privacy: 3.1K pOLED Without the Usual Battery Penalty
Where most ultralights compromise is the screen; the MateBook Pro S moves the opposite way. It uses a 14.2‑inch flexible OLED display with 3120 × 2080 resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, 1600‑nit peak brightness, P3 colour gamut, and touch support. That is flagbearer‑level hardware in a chassis that weighs less than many tablets. This pOLED panel does not only exist for movie nights; the high refresh rate helps with scrolling through documents and spreadsheets, while the high pixel density makes text crisper over long workdays. According to one source, Huawei’s specialised version adds an industry‑first Lingdun privacy display that restricts viewing angles so “strangers [are prevented] from spying on your work”.
The privacy feature also comes with a dedicated key, so users can instantly switch privacy mode on or off rather than diving into menus. For anyone who works on trains, in cafés, or in open offices, that design is more meaningful than yet another marketing claim about thin bezels. Crucially, pairing an OLED panel with a thin chassis has often meant poor OLED laptop battery life due to higher power draw. By claiming more than 18 hours of 1080p video playback on this OLED screen, Huawei is directly attacking that weakness instead of ignoring it.
Performance and Battery: Kirin XE90 Plus HarmonyOS 6.1 Efficiency
Any ultralight laptop is easy to market until you ask it to work hard. The MateBook Pro S leans on the new Kirin XE90 processor, which Huawei claims delivers a 23% improvement in single‑core performance, 25% higher power efficiency, and 40% faster NPU performance compared to the Kirin X90. That is backed by a redesigned cooling system with dual fans, vertically oriented graphene thermal material, and ultra‑thin aluminium fan blades, enabling up to 20W sustained performance despite the featherweight frame. In other words, this is not a glorified Chromebook‑class device; it aims to be a primary machine for productivity and AI‑assisted workflows, not merely web browsing.
Power comes from a 54Wh battery rated for up to 18 hours of runtime or over 18 hours of 1080p video playback, supported by 66W USB‑C fast charging. HarmonyOS 6.1 helps by managing background processes more aggressively to keep power consumption low. AI features such as upgraded Celia, AI meeting transcription, deep research tools, cross‑device collaboration, and system‑level security further show that Huawei expects this machine to sit in the middle of your digital life, not on the fringe. The real promise here is simple: OLED laptop battery life that is finally good enough that you stop hunting for sockets between meetings.
Pricing, Positioning, and Why This Design Matters
The MateBook Pro S enters the market as a premium notebook, with configurations scaling storage and memory—from 16GB RAM with 512GB SSD up to higher‑capacity combinations and special privacy or collector editions, plus colour options like Dawn Yellow, Summer Purple, Velvet White, Smoky Grey, and Feather Black. While exact positioning will vary by market, the intent is clear: this is designed to compete head‑on with established premium ultrabooks on quality and features, not undercut them as a budget alternative. In that context, the combination of an ultralight chassis, 3.1K pOLED screen, AI‑ready processor, and long battery life is an aggressive package rather than a niche experiment.
For ordinary users, the practical impact is straightforward. You get a main computer that weighs less than many tablets, runs full HarmonyOS 6.1 with cross‑device collaboration, and lasts through a day of real use without anxiety. A dedicated privacy key and restricted viewing angles on certain models reduce the risk of shoulder‑surfing on public transport or in open workspaces. The MateBook Pro S is not perfect—no laptop is—but it redraws the map. From now on, calling a 1.3kg machine an “ultrabook” will feel lazy. The new bar for a premium portable laptop design has been set under 800g, with no built‑in excuse to sacrifice the screen or the battery.
