Apart from the smartphone business, one of Huawei‘s stronghold is its laptop business. Huawei manufactures some of the best laptops worldwide, in terms of design and even the configuration (hardware and software). Until now, Huawei laptops run Microsoft Windows but the recent US trade ban is threatening to shut down the laptop business. Well. that isn’t going to happen as Huawei has started selling its latest Matebook models running Deepin Linux.

Deepin is a Chinese software brand with a beautiful and polished desktop Linux distribution. The laptop models were spotted on Huawei’s official store in China – VMall. The models listed include the Huawei Matebook X Pro, Matebook 13 and Matebook 14. On the interface, the Windows logo is ditched and replaced with a key that simply reads “Start.” The prices also vary slightly from those of the Windows version with all three models priced at 300 yuan (about $42 USD) less than the Windows 10-running models.

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While we cannot say for sure why the company released these versions, it may not be unconnected to the US/China trade war in which Huawei is caught in the middle. When the trade ban goes into effect, Huawei won’t be able to install Microsoft Windows on its laptops. but with this new option, the company may just have found an easy alternative.

The Chinese tech giant had also hinted that it would launch laptops running its self-developed HarmonyOS in the future. But for now, Deepin Linux comes to the rescue and we believe the company must have worked on the software to ensure that the desktop and other aspects like battery are optimised.

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(source)

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