The Chuwi LapBook 12.3 Review: Premium Feel, Budget Price
by Brett Howse on September 6, 2017 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- Apollo Lake
- Goldmont
- Chuwi
Wireless
Chuwi has stuck with the Intel Wireless-AC 3165 NIC for the smaller LapBook, which is an 802.11ac model with a 1x1 antennae. Most Ultrabooks are going to ship with a 2x2 solution, which would double the bandwidth, but for a budget system, sticking with a cheaper 1x1 model is fine. The great part about the 3165 is that it’s 802.11ac, meaning it’s both 2.4 and 5 GHz capable, and if you have an 802.11ac access point, the performance should be reasonable.
Despite the metal chassis, the LapBook 12.3 actually outperformed the plastic LapBook 14.1, although only slightly. This is a solid wireless offering, and the Intel drivers have been, in our experience, the most stable and reliable of any of the wireless NIC cards, so it’s great to see Chuwi keep a good offering here. The 1x1 is a drawback for outright performance, but for light tasks, it’s going to be fine. You probably won’t be copying multiple GB of data to this machine over the network anyway, since the storage is so limited, but if you do, it’ll take a while.
Audio
It’s a rare laptop that manages to find a way to pack good speakers in, thanks to the cramped quarters, and the additional weight that would be required for a proper speaker magnet. Pretty much the best we can hope for is that the laptop gets reasonably loud.
This is one area where the Chuwi once again shows its budget nature. The speakers only get to around 80 dB(A) measured one inch over the trackpad at maximum volume, and the sound quality leaves a lot to be desired. No laptop can produce much sound in the lower end of the frequency range, but the Chuwi is especially poor in this regard.
Software
We mentioned this in the last Chuwi review as well, but it certainly bears mentioning again. Chuwi ships the LapBook with a bone stock Windows OS. There’s no extra software installed at all, other than the drivers for the hardware.
In an age where everyone wants to bump their margins by installing paid trail-ware on their systems, it’s impressive that one of the most budget machines around doesn’t need to do this.
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Arbie - Wednesday, September 6, 2017 - link
" it would be best if Power wasn’t so easily pressed by mistake. It’s fairly frustrating to accidentally shut off your computer when you meant to make an edit."I am endlessly amazed that the designers of "On" and "Off" buttons / keys / software have never heard of time delays, multiple-press sequences, or confirmations. I've got at least two computers where accidentally hitting the power button shuts them down - right now, no questions. Why can't Windows give me an optional confirmation in the power options? Stupid beyond belief IMHO.
systemBuilder - Wednesday, September 6, 2017 - link
They are apparently using a Chromebook keyboard with standard windows keycaps.kaidenshi - Friday, September 8, 2017 - link
"Why can't Windows give me an optional confirmation in the power options?"It does, in the Power settings in the control panel. It probably took you longer to type out that comment than it would to change the setting to ask for confirmation.
Samus - Wednesday, September 6, 2017 - link
Still has a power button in a devastating place...who wants a computer that shuts down every time you blindly hit backspace...Ej24 - Thursday, September 7, 2017 - link
Change the setting of what the power button does in control panel > power options > choose what the power button does. Change it to sleep or something other than shutdown. Problem solved.0iron - Thursday, September 7, 2017 - link
I have ASUS UX305, with same power button location. What I did was change setting to 'Turn off the display' & 'Do nothing' when power button is pressed. Problem solved.Flunk - Wednesday, September 6, 2017 - link
I think Chuwi's biggest branding issue is that they name sounds like chewy. That's not something you want if you make electronics. Maybe if you make cookies.Naris17 - Thursday, September 7, 2017 - link
Think I've heard them go by the name 'Beetles' in Asia if that's any better to say.Personally I always equate the Chuwi name to Chewbacca, so I think it's awesome.
Icehawk - Wednesday, September 6, 2017 - link
I still have no idea how fast this is in real life. It would be nice to actually know how it will work in real life - how long to open a PDF, run a filter, merge data in Excel or whatever. I could care less what CineBench score it gets we aren't trying to determine IPC or architecture improvements. More real world testing is what review sites need to be doing as part of their testing IMO.Can it play 1080p HEVC? 4k? How long to load a web site?
sarscott - Wednesday, September 6, 2017 - link
I own the Chuwi 14.1 and if the laptop is in a very cool room and the CPU is not overheating, the laptop can play a 10 bit 4k HEVC mkv video. Don't know if the 12.3 has the same overheating issues. There is a mod to add a copper shim to the 14.1 that works very well but I feel the laptop is not worth the effort. https://youtu.be/uhtgUHZYjZ8