Huawei MateView Review

 Huawei announced the company's first liquid crystal display product. While entering the LCD display for the first time, we have a lineup of models for a wide range of applications from the beginning, such as low-priced full HD models targeting general office use and wide models for gaming use.

And the product that attracts the most attention is "Mate View", which we will cover this time. Now that I have the opportunity to try out the actual machine, let's introduce the features of MateView. It is already on sale.

Uses a 28.2-inch 4K + LCD panel with an aspect ratio of 3: 2.

The biggest feature of MateView is that it uses a 28.2-inch 4K + LCD panel with an aspect ratio of 3: 2. The display resolution is 3,840 x 2,560 dots, and 400 dots of vertical resolution are added compared to general 4K. In recent years, notebook PCs are increasingly adopting portrait displays with aspect ratios of 16:10 and 3: 2, but there are still few portrait products for external LCD displays, and they are valuable in that sense as well.

Even when I actually use it, I find it very convenient because it has a large amount of vertical information. Not only when browsing the Web, but also when using Office applications such as Excel and Word, more information can be displayed at once, improving work efficiency. On the other hand, when watching video content, there are hidden parts at the top and bottom, but 4K content can also be displayed without degrading the quality, so it should not be a big problem.

The pixel pitch is about 0.155 mm (164 dpi). This is equivalent to a 27-inch 4K panel, and the appearance of characters can be considered to be almost the same as a 27-inch 4K display. Although the characters are a little small and difficult to see in the same size display, this area can be improved by adjusting the scaling. The advantage of high-resolution displays is that users can freely adjust and use the balance between the amount of information and the visibility of characters.

　An IPS panel is used for the liquid crystal panel. The viewing angle is quite wide, and even if you move the viewpoint greatly up, down, left, and right, you can hardly feel the color development or change in hue. Also, since the panel surface is non-glossy, it is a nice part that you can hardly feel the reflection of outside light such as ceiling lighting.

　The color development performance is compatible with 10-bit color display, DCI-P3 coverage rate is 98%, and sRGB coverage rate is 100%, and it supports a perfect wide color gamut display. In addition, it is said that color calibration is performed on all individuals at the time of shipment. In addition, the color difference (Delta E) is suppressed to less than 2. The contrast ratio is 1,200: 1 and the standard brightness is 500 cd / sq.m. There will be no worries for users who expect vivid and accurate color development in combination with high color development performance.

Even if you actually display photos and videos, you can feel the vividness of the colors. It doesn't feel like a vivid and tight color like a liquid crystal display with a glossy panel, but it is a vivid and deep color overall. If this is the case, you will be able to retouch photos and edit videos while checking the colors.

　HDR display supports VESA Display HDR 400, and I connected PlayStation 5 to display and play games that support HDR display, but I was able to display bright and dark places without being crushed. The refresh rate is up to 60Hz, and the response speed of the panel is not disclosed, but I did not feel any afterimage.

Simple and stylish design with narrow bezel specifications

The design of MateView is very simple, like removing unnecessary things and leaving only what you need. However, it doesn't feel cheap at all, and on the contrary, its simple housing feels stylish. At the same time, I strongly feel the commitment to Huawei's design cultivated with smartphones.

　The narrowness of the bezel around the display is strongly felt when viewed from the front. The width of the upper and left and right bezels is 6 mm, and even the slightly thicker lower part is 9.3 mm, both of which are considerably narrowed. The screen occupancy rate with respect to the front has reached 94%, and almost all of the front feels like a display area.

　Also, when viewed from the side, the thinness of the display part is noticeable, but the depth of the display part is only 12.8 mm. At the same time, the stand arm is also thin, and these parts are also factors that enhance the stylish impression.

　The stand is equipped with a display height adjustment and tilt angle adjustment mechanism. The height can be adjusted within the range of 110 mm, and the tilt angle can be adjusted within the range of 5 degrees down and 18 degrees up (± 2 degrees). However, since it does not have a mechanism such as a swivel or a pivot, it is said that it is functionally moderate. Also, since the display and stand cannot be separated, it cannot be used by attaching it to the VESA mount. You can think of this as a division by giving priority to design.

　In addition, a stereo speaker and dual microphones are installed in front of the stand arm. The speaker has two built-in 5W speakers that use a speaker box with a capacity of 28cc. Compared to a full-fledged external speaker, the power of bass and the extension of treble are inferior, but it can reproduce sound with considerably higher sound quality than a general speaker with a built-in display. However, I couldn't feel the spread of stereo as much as I expected, probably because I had two speakers built into the arm.

　The dual microphone can be used from a PC connected via USB Type-C, and can be used for web conferencing. This microphone has a noise canceling function and can clearly pick up voice about 4m away.

　The main body size is 608 x 182 x 591 to 701 mm (width x depth x height), and the weight is about 6.2 kg.

The connection terminals are concentrated at the bottom of the stand, and the power supply uses an AC adapter

The connection terminals are grouped on the lower back surface and the right side surface of the stand arm. USB Type-C, Mini DisplayPort 1.2, and HDMI 2.0 terminals are available on the back side. Of these, USB Type-C is for connecting the included AC adapter and does not support video input. Only Mini DisplayPort and HDMI support video input.

　USB 3.0 x 2, USB Type-C x 1, headphone jack, and power button are located on the right side. This USB Type-C supports Display Port Alt Mode and allows video input. Therefore, MateView will be equipped with Mini DisplayPort and HDMI on the rear, USB Type-C on the right side, and three video input terminals.

　In addition, the USB Type-C on the right side can supply up to 65W of power to the connected PC. In addition, the two-port USB Type-A can be used as a USB Hub via USB Type-C, and the MateView built-in speaker and microphone can also be used via USB Type-C. Therefore, if your PC is equipped with USB PD and DisplayPort Alt Mode compatible USB Type-C, you can simply connect it with a single USB Type-C cable to output video and use MateView, a peripheral device connected to the MateView USB port. Sound playback, use of microphone, and power supply can be performed at the same time. This will be quite useful, especially when connecting and using a laptop.

　MateView does not have a built-in power supply, so use the included dedicated AC adapter by connecting it to the rear USB Type-C. The thinness of the main body and the simple structure may have been realized by using the AC adapter for the power supply.

　By the way, this AC adapter has an output of 135W and is compatible with Huawei's original "HUAWEI Super Charge". I tried connecting a general-purpose USB PD AC adapter with an output of 100W separately, but MateView did not start. If possible, I would have liked to have a USB PD compliant AC adapter used, but since it seems unlikely that the MateView AC adapter will be used for general purposes, there should be no major problem.

　In addition, the product also comes with a Mini DisplayPort-DisplayPort cable and a USB Type-C cable.

OSD operated by touch sensor has a slightly weak function

The OSD, which makes various display settings, has a slightly weaker function for a display of this class. Blue light cut, brightness adjustment, input switching, color gamut change, etc. are prepared. The only setting items related to image quality are contrast, sharpness, and color temperature, but the color temperature can only be set to standard, warm, and cold, and cannot be set numerically. Also, there is no RGB color balance adjustment function. Since MateView is a product with relatively excellent color development performance, the weakness of this OSD's function is quite disappointing.

　Still, the operability of the OSD is not bad. The OSD is operated using the touch sensor bar located on the lower side of the display. You can operate the OSD by tapping this touch par or swiping left or right, so you can operate it quite intuitively. It's a shame that the OSD itself is weak. However, since MateView supports firmware updates via the Internet, we hope to provide updates that enhance the OSD function in the future.

It has a built-in wireless LAN and can be used as a wireless display, but there are problems with smartphones.

　MateView is the first to notice the adoption of a 4K + LCD panel with an aspect ratio of 3: 2 and its stylish design, but it also has other major features. It is equipped with IEEE 802.11ac (2 x 2) compliant wireless LAN and Bluetooth 5.1 as standard, and has a built-in NFC in the stand. When you touch a Huawei smartphone that supports "HUAWEI Share", MateView The point is that it has a function called "MateView base" that allows you to easily connect to Bluetooth.

　Actually, I tried using the HUAWEI Share compatible smartphone "Mate 30 Pro 5G", but just by touching the NFC mounting part of the stand, it wirelessly connected to Mate View and the image of Mate 30 Pro 5G was displayed. The Mate 30 Pro 5G has a "desktop mode" that allows you to connect it to a display and use it like a PC, but of course you could use that as well. This is a pretty attractive feature for anyone using a compatible Huawei smartphone.

　However, there are some unfortunate problems when using it with a wireless connection. That is, the aspect ratio of the displayed image collapses. Apparently, it seems that it is caused by ignoring the aspect ratio and trying to stretch the image to the full screen and display it, but at the moment there is no function to correct the collapse of the aspect ratio. Therefore, even if it can be used with one touch, it cannot be used properly.

　By the way, when connecting MateView and Mate 30 Pro 5G using a USB Type-C cable, the aspect ratio does not collapse, so it seems to be a problem that occurs only when connecting wirelessly. I hope that this point will be improved in future updates.

　In addition, smartphones other than those made by Huawei can only read the NFC tag and cannot automatically connect even if they touch the NFC mounting part. This is also a very disappointing part, and I would like to see the HUAWEI Share function expanded so that it can be used on other smartphones as well.

That doesn't mean you can't connect and use non-Huawei smartphones and PCs wirelessly. Since MateView's wireless display function is based on Miracat, any smartphone or PC that supports Miracast can display images wirelessly by connecting manually.

　When I tried it on a Fujitsu client computing notebook PC "LIFEBOOK WU2 / E3", I was able to connect without problems from the wireless display function of Windows 10 and display desktop images. When connecting to a wireless display, there was a slight delay and the display resolution was up to 2,160 x 1,440 dots due to the limitation of Miracast, but it could be used without any loss of aspect ratio.

　As for smartphones, when I tried it with Samsung's smartphone "Galaxy Note20 Ultra", it was also possible to connect and display without problems. With the Galaxy Note20 Ultra, you could not only display the screen of your smartphone as it is, but also use the "DeX" function that you can use like a PC. However, as with the Mate 30 Pro 5G, the aspect ratio is broken because it is forcibly displayed in full screen. The Note20 Ultra has a function to adjust the aspect ratio, and although it was possible to improve it to some extent, it was not possible to completely eliminate it.

　If this is also a USB Type-C connection, it can be displayed without losing the aspect ratio. Therefore, when connecting a smartphone, it should be used with a USB Type-C connection at this time.

　Also, it seems that not all smartphones that support Miracast can be connected. As far as confirmed this time, on Sony's smartphone "Xperia 1 III", MateView can be found as a connection destination, but when I actually tried to connect, an error occurred and I could not connect. I haven't confirmed it on many smartphones, but it seems that some of them may not be able to connect like the Xperia 1 III. At the same time, Pixel series such as Google's smartphone "Pixel 5" does not support Miracast, so wireless display connection to MateView is not possible.

Stylish 4K display that can be used for a wide range of purposes

　MateView is a product full of originality with stylish design, adoption of 4K + liquid crystal panel with aspect ratio 3: 2, built-in wireless LAN and wireless display display by itself, with features not found in competing products. There is. Moreover, it supports a wide color gamut display with a DCI-P3 coverage rate of 98%, and is sufficiently attractive as a high-quality display.

　There are some unfortunate parts such as the aspect ratio may collapse when using a wireless display and the OSD function is weak. This part is probably due to the lack of know-how of just entering the display business. However, since MateView is designed so that the firmware can be updated, these problems may be improved in the future. It can be said that such a part is also a feature different from a general display.

　Despite these improvements, the unique features are pretty appealing, and while they're a bit more expensive than their competitors, they're well worth it. I would like to recommend it to those who are looking for a portrait display, those who are looking for a display over 4K with perfect color development performance, and those who are looking for a display that emphasizes design.