Huawei’s pending MateBook X Pro and Matebook 13 launch in Singapore up in the air

Hours after news broke that American tech companies were to cut off all ties with Huawei, the company called off its hands-on media preview of its MateBook X Pro and Matebook 13 laptops, which was supposed to take place tomorrow at The Westin Singapore. 

The cancellation was unsurprising, of course, given the Chinese electronics giant’s disastrous couple of days. All thanks to an increasingly hostile trade dispute between the Trump administration and the Chinese government — the former of which blacklisted Huawei last Friday on grounds that the firm is allegedly aiding Beijing in espionage. 

The fallout was tremendous. Google cut off its supply of hardware and some Android services. American chipmakers Intel, Qualcomm, Xilinx and Broadcom reportedly won’t work with Huawei until further notice. Microsoft has yet to comment if it will continue to provide its Windows operating system for Huawei’s laptops, but it is quite likely. 

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Controversy aside, Huawei’s series of laptops have been widely lauded as some of the best ones around despite only having entered the market two years ago. The company’s 2017 Matebook X Pro was critically-acclaimed at launched — a top-notch portable powerhouse that was cheap but did not skimp on specs. The follow-up, the MateBook 13, got similar love when review units went out earlier this year. 

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Despite our geographical (and political) proximity with China, the Matebook X Pro did not receive an official launch here. Until earlier this year that is, when Huawei announced that both their Matebook X Pro and the new Matebook 13 will be coming to Singapore, with a confirmed sale date on May 30. 

Now, however, it remains unclear if we’ll ever get to buy ‘em. Huawei’s marketing representative sent out an email to the media that the exclusive hands-on preview has been cancelled until further notice. The firm didn’t respond to follow up questions by AsiaOne either. 

With Google out of the picture and Microsoft’s pending pull-out incoming, Huawei could end up using Linux operating systems for its future devices. But whatever the outcome, it’s clear that Huawei is in for a pretty bad time without the aid of established services, hardware and software. Even if they manage to continue rolling with their own custom OS, its devices will remain open to security exploits given that it’s a relatively new thing. 

ilyas@asiaone.com