You’re not reading that wrong: Huawei has entered the world of desktop PCs. Everyone is pretty much aware of the company’s expansion into more platforms other than smartphones. From smart watches to the MateBook laptops, they’re simply just adding more products to the portfolio. This time around, it’s not a portable device they’re launching.

Meet the Huawei MateStation S, the company’s latest workstation system designed for students and young professionals. It comes with a variety of work-centric features mixed in with Huawei’s technologies to provide the ultimate work experience. Also, Huawei integrated smart features for full utility with their smart devices.

So, how exactly does this entire system look like when you bring it all together?

Stacks of boxes lined up

When the entire workstation arrived, I immediately pulled out all the Huawei boxes lying around my house. I decided to take one big family photo that will make some of you think I did a Huawei device haul or something. In many ways, this was what they were going for with the smart integration for the workstation — something we’ll get to later on.

As you can already tell, the packaging seems quite simple — three boxes for the monitor, desktop PC, and keyboard. Unboxing all of them was also straightforward, and needs some level of care in the process. In no particular order:

The Huawei Display

This one was in the largest box among the three boxes that arrived, and rightfully so because of the 23.8-inch display it comes with. Along with the main display, you also get the monitor stand, the power adapter and an HDMI cable. It’s pretty standard stuff for any typical monitor in the market.

What stood out to me, at least, was the sleek and simple design of the Huawei Display. Sure, it comes in a shiny, subtle black color; the gold Huawei brand name was a nice touch. It’s not a flashy color option, but it didn’t have to be. Upon booting it up and attaching it to a laptop, it’s actually pretty bright.

Although I’m curious about that little bit of flare at the right side of the display. When the screen is black, it’s something incredibly obvious to the eyes. Now, I’m not entirely sure if something happened in shipping, but once you boot the PC, it’s not that big of a bother.

The Huawei MateStation S PC itself

I decided to put the last two boxes here, which were dedicated to the PC and the keyboard. Admittedly, I thought that the MateStation S would be roughly as big as the box it came in. For something you need for working long hours, I thought it would be a wide tower placed inside. When I got it out of the box, I was pleasantly surprised at how compact the form factor was.

Now, it comes in a Space Gray type of finish, similar to its MateBook laptops with a Star Trail design etched in front. Personally, it’s a nice aesthetic choice but it’s not something you will continually notice every time you use the PC. I thought it was going to be another way for hot air to come out of the system.

In the longer yet thinner box, you have Huawei’s Ultra-Slim Keyboard in Space Gray, as well. What’s nice about it is that it comes with both a fingerprint sensor and a Huawei Share button on the keyboard. Supposedly, it provides a faster and easier log-in option with Windows Hello, plus easy file transfer from your phone.

Setting it up and making it work

Piecing everything together didn’t necessarily take that long, especially on a relatively small table. The fact that the MateStation S is relatively compact allows for more space for the display and other peripherals to fit nicely. Once everything was in its place, the system booted up relatively quickly.

The Huawei MateStation S comes with a 4th-generation AMD Ryzen 5 processor inside, along with 8GB of RAM. For average office work, this is a great list of hardware for most tasks and applications you throw at it. Along with a 256GB SSD inside, all of these applications will ideally load up quite fast.

From initial tests and usage, I fully agree with what they had in mind with all of these hardware inside. Working on Word documents and Excel spreadsheets was a breeze, even with some complicated data in there. Also, it comes with a dual-band WiFi card inside so you can place this system anywhere you want.

How far will the Huawei PC go?

For the most part, I’ve showered Huawei’s newest system with praises on its design and performance. Obviously, it’s much different from their laptops in terms of portability, but offers the same smart technologies in the process. Plus, it’s a form factor that brings more benefits than distractions while you’re working.

Of course, this is only scratching the surface of what the Huawei MateStation S can actually do. While it is fast, responsive, and handles most Office applications, let’s see how the system handles, well, everything else.