Chuwi Announces The LapBook 12.3 With 3:2 267 PPI Display
by Brett Howse on April 8, 2017 2:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- Apollo Lake
- Chuwi
Chuwi is a relatively unknown company in the PC space, but only about a month ago we took a look at the Chuwi LapBook 14.1, and came away very impressed. They are shaking up the low-cost segment of the PC market with some low cost, but well featured devices. The LapBook 14.1, for instance, ships with a 1920x1080 IPS display, 4 GB of RAM, and 64 GB of storage, all for less than $300 USD. Normally when you see notebooks around these price points, they come with several serious compromises which really detract from the experience, but the LapBook 14.1 made some great trade-offs to offer a good machine for a low price.
Today Chuwi reached out with some news that they are going to be releasing the LapBook 12.3 at the end of April. It features the same CPU as the LapBook 14.1, with an Intel Celeron N3450, which is a quad-core Apollo Lake. Performance is not as good as a Core based laptop, but the experience is reasonable for less demanding tasks. Chuwi is pairing this with 6 GB of RAM, and 64 GB of eMMC flash storage, so the experience should be similar to the LapBook 14.1, but with more RAM so you can multitask a bit more. They are also keeping the 802.11ac Wi-Fi, which is probably the same 1x1 card found in the larger LapBook.
Probably the most interesting part of the LapBook 12.3 is that it is shipping with a 2736x1824 3:2 display at 12.3-inches. That gives a density of 267 pixels per inch, and eagle-eyed readers might have noticed that this is the same resolution and size as the display in the Surface Pro 4, so it is likely the same panel that Microsoft is using in their tablet. Chuwi didn’t confirm if it was an IPS display, but it most likely is. It's similar to their Hi 13 2-in-1 which uses a 3000x2000 13.5-inch display, so they are clearly using Microsoft's influence to source components which is great to see.
| Chuwi LapBook 12.3 | |
| CPU | Intel Celeron N3450 4C/4T 1.1-2.2 GHz 2MB L2 Cache 6W TDP |
| GPU | Intel HD Graphics 500 12 Execution Units (Gen 9) 200-700 MHz |
| Memory | 6 GB Dual-Channel |
| Display | 12.3" 2736x1824 3:2 Aspect Ratio |
| Storage | 64 GB eMMC |
| Dimensions | 300 x 223 x 16.7 mm 11.8 x 8.78 x 0.66 inches |
| Weight | 1.45 kg / 3.18 lbs |
| Wireless | 802.11ac |
| Launch | April 30, 2017 |
| Price | TBD |
The new LapBook 12.3 measures in at 300 x 223 x 16.7 mm (11.8 x 8.78 x 0.66 inches), and weighs in at 1.45 kg (3.18 lbs), so despite the small and thin design, it’s not as light as a more expensive Ultrabook would be at this size.
Chuwi hasn’t announced pricing yet, but considering the rest of their lineup, it should be very competitive.
Look for the LapBook 12.3 when it launches at the end of April.
Source: Chuwi
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prisonerX - Saturday, April 8, 2017 - link
You seem to think that people will be playing Crysis on this thing. 2D graphics isn't exactly challenging for any modern GPU.nagi603 - Saturday, April 8, 2017 - link
Depends on how and how fast you work. I could choke a 4790K iGPU with quick alt-tabbing needed for work. And it wasn't photoshop or anything like that, but browser windows and coding tools. I could actually work faster with a dedicated GPU because I didn't have to be careful to keep alt-tab pressed for more than a frame. Yes, the average office worker won't run into this, but a high-functioning multitasker probably will.jospoortvliet - Saturday, April 8, 2017 - link
No offense but I find that EXTREMELY hard to believe. I'm using a Haswell CPU + iGPU to game on a 2560x1440 monitor playing 2003-2005 games (Warcraft 3, Command & Conquer Generals) which play full screen, maximum quality, without stutter. Your alt-tabbin can't get anywhere near 1% of the resource usage, it's just switching between (admittedly large) textures of windows. Unless the OS you use is totally incompetent with regards to the graphical layer or you have serious driver or memory bandwidth issues this can't be a problem in any way...jabber - Saturday, April 8, 2017 - link
Hey you'll always meet the uber super power user in such discussions. Bow down before them or just roll your eyes choice is yours.MrSpadge - Saturday, April 8, 2017 - link
If you're so uber-fast simply switch off the fancy animation for alt+tab and that's it.jabber - Saturday, April 8, 2017 - link
Yeah how much power do I need to configure a router, NAS or switch on the go. I never game on laptops or do video editing so lower power is fine for me and many others. I also don't feel the need to carry around my entire lifetimes collection of music and video.wilsonkf - Saturday, April 8, 2017 - link
You are not going to play any 3D game on this notebook even if the screen is 1366 X 768 anyway.The high resolution screen is great for text. For Chinese text it is even greater - CHUWI is a Chinese company and China is of course their most important market.
cerberusss - Saturday, April 8, 2017 - link
It looks like it's charged over the USB-C ports on either side but the specs don't mention it. Am I correct?davepermen - Saturday, April 8, 2017 - link
Looks like someone got access to spare surface pro 4 screens. identical format and resolution..Calin - Sunday, April 9, 2017 - link
It's possible they are failed Surface 4 screens (production batches with too many errors would fail the entire batch, not only the failed screens). Or screens built on Mondays, or in the night shift, or something.