The most affordable Windows 10 and Android 2-in-1 right now

Aug 14, 2016 07:51 GMT  ·  By
INTRODUCTION DESIGN
HARDWARE CONCLUSIONS

CHUWI isn’t exactly a premium device manufacturer, but it’s certainly improving, so while the fact that it’s based in China could more or less impact its sales, holding one of their devices in hand makes you reconsider your options.

On paper, CHUWI builds products that are surprising, to say the least, as they follow the recipe of Chinese manufacturers and offer pretty much everything you’d expect from a modern computing device, but without compromising quality and performance.

This is what CHUWI promises, and we hearing about this, the HiBook 2-in-1 device certainly seems compelling, mostly because it mixes two different operating systems and promises to do good in the hardware department too.

The CHUWI HiBook 2-in-1 “ultrabook tablet PC,” as the manufacturer calls it, isn’t quite an expensive device and can be purchased for just $195 from GearBest (Update, September 12, 2016: Pricing drops to $190.99 with coupon code PediaHibook). For an extra $40, you also get a keyboard, which, in our opinion, is a must-have if you really want to make the most of this device, especially when using it with Windows 10.

Since it all sounds too good to be true, we wanted to find out what this is all about on our own, so we took the CHUWI HiBook for a test. Read on to find out what we think about the device.

CHUWI HiBook design
CHUWI HiBook design

DESIGN

If the first impression is important to you, then you’re going to like the CHUWI HiBook. At first glance, it looks like a really premium device, and the metal casing gives it a shiny appearance that you rarely find on such affordable models.

The screen, or the tablet if you wish, measures 26.20 x 16.75 x 0.85 cm / 10.31 x 6.59 x 0.33 inches, and according to the official specs, it weighs 0.5 kilos. And yet, you’ll certainly feel it heavier than that, and you’ll be shocked when you first hold it in your hand, especially if a keyboard is attached. The keyboard itself also adds some 0.5 kg, so the 2-in-1 device tips the scales at approximately 1+ kilograms (2.2 pounds).

The design of the screen is nothing unusual, and it’s just the typical tablet that you find these days. It’s full of ports on one side and the other, including TF card, USB Type-C (used for connectivity and charging), micro USB, micro HDMI, headphone jack, and a magnetic port for the keyboard.

Heavier than you think.

The screen measures 10.1 inches and has a resolution of 1920x1200 pixels, which is pretty decent for the price you have to pay, but also for its size.

The keyboard, on the other hand, looks surprisingly good and feels nice to the touch, although the mechanism used to attach it to the screen isn’t really the best we’ve seen. Of course, we’re not going to compare it with the Microsoft Surface, which is one of the most expensive premium devices on the market, but there’s still plenty of room for improvement, and you’re going to feel it when trying to detach or connect the keyboard for the first time.

While the latching system looks perfectly alright, you need to pull the screen and the keyboard apart very hard, and a kid might really have a hard time doing it. Everything could get a bit loose over time, but during our test, the exact same thing happened over and over again.

The keyboard seems nice to the touch, although the plasticky feel of the keys doesn’t quite align with the impression you get when looking at it. It works fine, but nothing out of the ordinary.

We’ve heard many people complaining about the position of the screen on the keyboard, and some said the “laptop” could easily get flimsy, but we experienced exactly the opposite. Everything was strongly kept in place, and we could adjust the angle just as we wanted - sometimes, it was even very hard to open the lid, given that extra strength was needed.

Other than that, the CHUWI HiBook looks good, and it is, indeed, a little bit too heavy, it remains the kind of device that you won’t feel embarrassed to show up with in a room full of people.

HARDWARE

#CPU, GPU, storage

If you were considering buying the CHUWI HiBook to play games, think again. The device comes with an Intel Cherry Trail Z8300 64-bit quad-core clocked at 1.44GHz and reaching 1.84 GHz in turbo mode, which is coupled with 4GB of RAM and Intel HD eight-generation GPU.

At first glance, this configuration seems powerful enough to deal with the majority of activities you perform every day on your PCs, but when actually using it, things are entirely different.

The CPU was launched in the second quarter of 2015 and is based on the 14nm architecture, with a 2MB cache and 4 cores. It’s a processor specifically designed for low-cost devices where pricing is the main thing to have in mind, so it won’t be able to handle more than regular web browsing, video, and music playback.

If you’re the type of user who browses the web with just one tab open, then you’re safe, but whenever multitasking is involved, the CHUWI HiBook really struggles. We’ve tried to use it with Microsoft Edge in Windows 10 Anniversary Update, and while it performs smoothly with just one tab, it’s getting slower as you open more.

Gaming? Nope. Solitaire? For sure!

We’ve discovered Android (our sample unit is a dual-boot model) is a bit more resource-friendly, and everything seems to be running more smoothly, mostly because it’s an operating system that’s more appropriate for tablets. Microsoft worked hard to make Windows 10 a better OS on such devices, but it’s still slow on budget configurations.

For gaming, the CHUWI HiBook won’t be able to deal with anything else beyond Solitaire and old games, such as Starcraft, but it’s not even supposed to. The 10.1-inch IPS screen with 1920x1200 pixels resolution is more appropriate for casual browsing and movie watching than for playing games, but it still does a decent job if you want to play poker or things like that. What’s important to have in mind is that, while some people claim this is Retina display, it is certainly not.

It offers average quality and nothing beyond that, and you really can’t compare a Retina display with the screen available on the HiBook. But the difference in price between this display and Retina is huge, so you’ll be fine with CHUWI’s choice anyway.

#Keyboard, touch, and trackpad

Thanks to the fact that it’s a 2-in-1 device, the HiBook is both a tablet and a laptop, so it comes with a detachable keyboard that can be reattached whenever you need to type faster.

The touchscreen is just like you’d expect it to be, and it’s quite responsive, providing pretty good value for the money. You can use it in both portrait and landscape modes, and thanks to optimizations made in Windows 10, the display reacts very fast to touch input.

The keyboard, on the other hand, feels nice to the touch, but it loses important points when you look at the HiBook as to a regular laptop. The big weight of the tablet makes it pretty difficult for the keyboard to hold it in place, and there are moments when the HiBook can’t stay on the desk in the typical laptop position because it falls over.

CHUWI HiBook magnetic port
CHUWI HiBook magnetic port

The magnetic connector that should help recognize when the keyboard is attached and removed works well at first, but after a few days, you might need to clean it up a little bit because otherwise a connection might not be detected.

The touchpad, unfortunately, is quite awful, and not only is it small (it can’t be otherwise, given the size of the device), but it’s also super unresponsive. There are moments when you click something by mistake, but there are also cases when you browse the web, and it doesn’t recognize a click, so it’s up to how lucky you are to get a better or worse experience.

#Battery life

As far as the battery is concerned, the CHUWI HiBook comes with a 6,600 mAh battery that can provide you with 5 to 6 hours of average use.

The experience we had here was pretty mixed. First of all, if you want to use the HiBook for the typical stuff, such as browsing the web, chatting, or working on a document, you can really reach those 6 hours of battery life.

On the other hand, if you want to watch movies on the HiBook, expect no more than somewhere between 3 and 3 and a half hours of autonomy, also depending on the quality of the video.

The recharging process takes place via a USB Type-C port, and the CHUWI device is super handy in this regard. You don’t even have to carry a charger with you all the time, and a Type-C cable is enough - and with more manufacturers adopting this standard, USB Type-C cables will soon be everywhere.

It doesn’t take more than one hour and a half to fully recharge the battery, and this is also partially thanks to the Type-C port. Without a doubt, the Chinese manufacturer made the right choice here.

#Other features

And because it’s a tablet manufactured by a Chinese company, it comes with everything you’d ever want on a modern laptop.

It runs both Android 5.1 and Windows 10, it comes with a USB Type-C port, it also features 64GB of eMMC storage, but also boasts a TF card port if you want more space. Micro HDMI is also available if you want to connect it to an external screen, and so are Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi.

There are also two cameras for photos and videos calls, and the front-facing one comes with 2 megapixels while the rear one features 5 megapixels. And that’s not all.

The CHUWI HiBook features a microUSB slot, a 3.5mm headphone jack (heard that, Apple?), as well as two speakers - the quality of the sound, however, isn’t really impressive, and we’ve found ourselves using the headphones more often just because of the poor quality.

CHUWI HiBook side view
CHUWI HiBook side view

THE BOTTOM LINE

In the end, CHUWI HiBook is living proof that the Chinese are no longer building just cheap devices that offer terrible quality and products leaving a lot to be desired.

The HiBook is an interesting combination of premium look and decent hardware, and when you add an affordable price, the result is compelling, to say the least.

Truth be told, the HiBook can’t really be a productivity machine, and this is only because the hardware doesn’t meet expectations, and at certain times, Windows 10 becomes painfully slow. In Android, the device runs everything more smoothly, but there’s no other option than Windows 10 if you really want to be productive on the go (we’re pretty sure that many of you won’t agree with us here, but when it comes to working, Windows is clearly a better option than Android).

The HiBook, on the other hand, can be used as an occasional device that lets you perform certain things, such as browsing or chatting, more quickly while on the go, but nothing beyond that.

Fortunately for those who hoped CHUWI HiBook would not be the typical Chinese product, the old saying claiming that what you pay is what you get isn’t entirely valid right now, and for the price of this 2-in-1, you actually get plenty of stuff.

Obviously, this doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone should buy it, but it shows that Chinese products are improving. It’s not yet the revolution, but it’s a good place to start.

CHUWI HiBook (20 Images)

CHUWI HiBook running Windows 10
CHUWI HiBook screen and keyboardCHUWI HiBook keyboard
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