So Huawei is doing something genuinely interesting with their upcoming MateBook 14. Not interesting in that vague press release way. Actually interesting.
The MateBook 14 HarmonyOS Edition lands on April 20, and the spec sheet being talked about in leaks has people paying attention. The laptop is expected to ship with 24 GB RAM, 512 GB storage, and the same Kirin X90A chipset that powers Huawei's MatePad Edge tablet. Compare that to the MacBook Neo which Apple released at 8 GB base and you start to see why this comparison keeps coming up.
And look, 24 GB is not nothing. For anyone doing light creative work, running multiple apps, or just tired of babysitting their RAM usage, that number actually matters. Apple's base MacBook Neo at 8 GB feels a bit stingy in 2026.
The screen is 14.2 inches with a 2.8K resolution and a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate. The aspect ratio is 3:2 and the screen to body ratio sits at 91%. Those bezels look genuinely thin from what Huawei has shown so far. Thinner than the MacBook Neo from what we can tell.
The port situation also works in Huawei's favor. The MateBook 14 reportedly includes HDMI, USB Type A, USB Type C, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The MacBook Neo drops most of that in the name of thinness. Not everyone loves dongling their life away.
Now the keyboard design is where things get a bit odd. Huawei went with round keycaps this time, calling it a "polka dot art" keyboard. It is a retro modern typewriter style, which is a departure from their usual flat square keycaps. Whether that actully feels good to type on for long sessions is somthing only hands on time will settle. It looks distinctive. Divisive, maybe.
The software story is where things get complicated. This is the first time Huawei is putting HarmonyOS on a 14 inch laptop. The company started with the MateBook Pro and is now expanding the ecosystem to more portable form factors. HarmonyOS is not Windows. It is not even close to the macOS app ecosystem. If you need specific software, especially western tools, you will run into gaps.
The Kirin X90 chip underneath all of this has a 10 core, 20 thread setup with a peak clock speed of 4.2 GHz. It also packs a dual Da Vinci NPU delivering around 40 TOPS of AI compute, which is enough to run models like DeepSeek locally on device. The X90A inside the MateBook 14 is a step below that but shares the same basic architecture.
In raw peak performance, the Kirin X90A trails Apple's M1. That is a chip from 2020. So managing expecations here is probably smart. The day to day productivity experience on HarmonyOS might cover that gap through tight integration, but benchmark comparisons with the current MacBook Neo chip are going to look rough for Huawei.
What Huawei is really building here is not a MacBook killer. It is an ecosytem device. The company is pushing for the kind of vertically integrated computing experience Apple has with its M series chips, but aimed at a more budget focused audience. If you are already deep in the Huawei phone and tablet world, this makes sense. If you are not, it requires some commitment.
The MacBook Neo caused some noise when it launched at around $589, undercutting the comparable Surface Laptop by several hundred dollars after Microsoft's recent price increases. Huawei will need to price the MateBook 14 sharply to make the software tradeoffs worth it for buyers who could just pick up the Mac.
We will know the full picture on April 20. Until then the 24 GB RAM headline is doing the job of getting attention, which is probably exactly what Huawei intended.
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