Huawei MateBook 13 review: 2 crucial reasons not to buy it

I tried the Huawei MateBook 13 laptop in January, well before Huawei was banned from doing business with US companies.

The MateBook 13 offers great specs for a great price, but a drawback is that it only has two USB-C ports, and no traditional USB ports.

The MateBook 13, astoundingly, does not support Thunderbolt 3, in what could be a major deal-breaker.

Regardless, it will be tough to justify MateBook laptops if Huawei is unable to do business with Microsoft — all Huawei laptops run on Windows software.

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Back in January, I was on the hunt for the perfect Windows 10 laptop.

After seeing Huawei's MateBook 13 at CES this year, I thought it could be a good contender. In the wake of the conference, the laptop had garnered a ton of buzz from show attendees and journalists who named it among the best in show.

This was well before Huawei ended up on a US government blacklist that banned the company from doing business with US companies due to security concerns. Being added to the “entity list,” as it's called, means that any companies wishing to sell or transfer technology to Huawei must obtain government permission.

It's a tricky situation for Huawei's consumer devices, since the company's smartphones run on Google's Android operating system and its laptops run on Microsoft's Windows.

Read more: Microsoft hasn't said a word so far about Huawei's ban in the US, but it removed Huawei laptops from its stores

But even before Huawei ran afoul of the US government, I found another massive deal-breaker with Huawei's MateBook 13 that made it hard for me to live with.

The MateBook 13 has only two USB-C ports, and no other USB ports at all, which is fine. I can live without regular USB ports, which is something I've suffered through with my current 2016 MacBook Pro.

And Huawei also includes a USB-C adapter with the laptop itself, for connecting regular USB accessories to the MateBook 13, which is a nice touch. But, somehow, the company didn't grace the MateBook 13 with one of the only reasons for USB-C to exist: Thunderbolt 3.

Here's why the MateBook 13 is a great laptop, and why the lack of Thunderbolt 3 is a deal-breaker: