Buy your next laptop on Aliexpress... MAYBE?
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Typically when we buy laptops off AliExpress it is because they are comically bad... but on paper the Chuwi Corebook X is just plain a good deal.
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MUSIC CREDIT
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Intro: Laszlo - Supernova
Video Link: • [Electro] - Laszlo - S...
iTunes Download Link: itunes.apple.com/us/album/sup...
Artist Link: / laszlomusic
Outro: Approaching Nirvana - Sugar High
Video Link: • Sugar High - Approachi...
Listen on Spotify: spoti.fi/UxWkUw
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Intro animation by MBarek Abdelwassaa / mbarek_abdel
Monitor And Keyboard by vadimmihalkevich / CC BY 4.0 geni.us/PgGWp
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Mouse Gamer free Model By Oscar Creativo / CC BY 4.0 geni.us/Ps3XfE
CHAPTERS
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0:00 - Intro
0:46 - The Ridge!
1:05 - Unboxing
3:20 - What to look for in a $500 laptop
4:05 - The HP Laptop
6:30 - Weight Test
7:24 - Maraca Test
7:57 - Keyboard, Trackpad
9:14 - Display Results
11:30 - Performance Results
13:10 - SSD Cache and Performance
15:10 - Speakers, Webcam
16:17 - Repairability
17:29 - Battery Life
20:46 - Conclusion
21:26 - DeleteMe!
22:28 - Outro
Never thought I'd hear Linus say 'Buy' and 'AliExpress' in the same sentence without grinning
*Without the word "never"
There are tons of excellent deals on there if you know where to look.
Linus lost his marbles
@@norudeor "don't", etc etc
I mean, he was grinning, but yeah
I haven't used a Chuwi for about 3 years, but my experience was similar, the build quality felt way better than expected for the price. The CPU was disgustingly slow though, some random Celeron I'd never heard of, so it's cool to see that they're using something decent now.
Now we need ur review for this and their higher end laptops
Please make a video on it
@@berrymckockiner5883and suffer through his slow rambling? I'm good
Was probably an Atom-based Celeron if I had to guess.
My uncle had one in 2018, don't remember the exact model but it was a 13" and the battery didn't have a damn BMS (legit). It would have one side inflate every 6 months.
7 days later and there's at least two things to note here. 1. Chuwi does sell on Aliexpress, and they have laptops on AliExpress right now, however, they are cheaper and even more low-end than the laptop featured in this video. As Linus said in this video, they bought this laptop directly from Chuwi's website, not AliExpress. 2. Chuwi's website went down for at least a full 24 hours in this past week. Once it returned, the laptop that you see in this review was no longer available, and is still no longer available. The cheaper laptops look nearly identical, but they have a lesser spec cpu, and less RAM. No word on whether the better laptop will return later, but for now it looks like this video has done its damage to Chuwi's inventory.
that's a good problem to be having
I was thinking like that. if the investors of video paid much more, they always shows like fair side of the laptops, if opposite, if there is no investors the laptops reputation always been reduced
Still available at the EU store but price went up about 10%
Another thing to note, is that Chuwi’s website could potentially be giving out misinformation, or the recent Chuwi Corebook X has had a revision/downgrade, as it states on the FAQ page that the Chuwi Corebook X does not come with a fan.
14 Days later and there is a XPro priced at $499 as follows: CoreBook XPro 15.6 inch i3-1215U 15.6 inches FHD 1080P 16：9 Intel Core i3-1235U 4.4GHz 8GB RAM+512GB SSD 69.99 Wh, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2 Backlit keyboard, Windows 11
That easy access panel for the SSD is pretty sweet. My first ever laptop was $500. It's cool seeing how far the price range has come, especially if you're willing to poke around.
They are pretty rare, some high end laptops have them, but low/mid range usually don't.
I'd like to see you guys test their entire lineup of laptops vs more mainstream options. This one did so well, that I am now curious if that ends up being the case for the others.
You should look at their n100 model, it's 270€ and is actually a really really well thought out machine I'm personally buying a larkbox and my mum has the aforementioned laptop.
Yessss
I'm honestly so glad I have no use for a laptop haha. Long gone are my days of laptop gaming, and I don't miss them at all.
@@I_enjoy_some_things Oh, I'm not remotely interested in them for gaming, but I'm disabled (back pain and random spasms, which can mess me up for a couple weeks at a time) so having a decent enough laptop to use to do my writing, check the web, and do some surveys (only way I can afford groceries, plus make a few bucks extra each month) even if I'm barely able to stand up, would be a nice little backup plan...can't use my desktop for that lol So, yeah, I could definitely use one since I doubt that the U.S. is going to suddenly decide that giving the disabled enough to actually afford rent and bills anytime soon.
Aliexpress isn't that bad of a place to order these days. It just takes a long time to arrive. There are lots of really good products you can't find anywhere else.
I'm glad you are calling out HP at 16:34 for hiding the screws, my last 3 laptops have been HP, and they all had this problem for when I upgraded RAM or SSD. (Pavilion, Laptop, then Pavilion again, both pavilions are 1366x768, actually most specs for the laptop were all better than the pavilions but it had a plastic chassis). Another thing, here in El Salvador, they are selling models with 4/8 GB RAM, lower CPUs and the aforementioned screens at 800-900 USD, so I will definitely be exploring chuwi when I am due for a laptop renewal
You can buy a full hd bare LCD panel for the hp and swap it out
900 usd for a computer like that? That's just plain obscene. Here in the US 750 will get you an HP with 16 gb of ram, and a core I-7 with a touch screen. Y'all are being straight up fleeced down there.
I really hated my Pavilion 15 p285-ur for that. It was my first and last HP laptop.
Chuwi is no better.
@@Hex-Mas I can imagine, I have seen comments about the battery and there's also a few issues they mention in the video. But you might expect a few rough spots when you are paying a lot less, however they also have some pros against hp
i noticed a pretty consistent pattern servicing laptips - business laptops are designed to be relatively easy to service and come with good manuals for technicians. Premium consumer goods are hit or miss, but budget laptops are purepousfully difficult to disassemble.
Underrated comment... this is brilliant... some of this applies to boots and clothes industry as well.
I agree on the arrow key thing. I hate using the half keys on the two arrows I use the most. I need full keys (or at least consistently sized ones if they MUST be slimmed).
Yes, the Chuwi has some problems with the battery, but if you think about the fact that you can easily have a battery back-up for it due to USB-C, then it becomes less bad in my opinion. I sometimes used my powerbank on my laptop and even though it can't really charge it, it at least solws down the discharge
This is a good point. Another reason USB-C charging is epic. The HP having a USB-C port but NOT supporting charging from it (likely causing customer confusion) infurates me. I really wish the USB organization would put a stop to crap like this once and for all.
Most people have a usb c charger for their phone or laptop anyways and unless you work outside or travel for work alot, then you are gonna be in a building with power you can use. My Samsung galaxy book gets like 4 hours with entensive tasks which is a pretty sage compromise compared to other stuff.
If only I had a laptop that was so low-powered it could be charged via a USB port.
@@FlyboyHelosim USB-c can deliver up to 240w of power
@@kelmanl4 But rarely does. It's always the 65 watt range that use USB-C. Anything more powerful typically still uses a barrel jack.
It's always depressing for me when I see fantastic tech prices (especially laptops from HP/Dell) only to find out that the identical model available in Germany costs at least 50-70% more..
On which do you refer? I'm from Germany and these prices did not seem to be so good - or better: they seemed to be pretty expensive.
@@gregor2436i think he meant seeing the US pricing, then checking locally. Some of that difference is tax related though No worries for him though, Chuwi is price comparable in Europe.
HP price in the US are always mentioned tax free. So you can add 19% on any price mentioned when comparing to German price (or remove 19% from the German price).
Chuwi have eu store, they are cheap there
yep, recently bought a thinkpad t470s for almost 600 euros in slovenia...
also another thing I think the Chuwi has over other cheap laptops is that the trackpad is centered. I know its a super small detail, but it is just such a pet peeve of mine when manufacturers have the trackpad off to the left a little bit. The centering of the trackpad is enough to give it the premium look
Yeah. I don’t get it why most windows laptops still trying to fit numpad. It costs more, looks bad, no place for speakers and so on.
@@BelikovSV I hate numpads. They look hideous, push the main keyboard to the left and just ruin typing experience.
@@fidelisitor8953 for some people Numpad is their method of input numbers on keyboard so this is mostly a personal preference. My current ODM laptop has a numpad but i don't use it. Honestly i don't care about numpads
I don't get why they'd offset it to the left rather than the right if they are going to do it at all.. Most people are right handed.
@@BelikovSV Personally I don't buy laptops that don't have a numpad. I do a lot of calculation day to day.
Linus doesn't know how competitive laptop market is in China, as literally over 95% gaming audience in high school and university is limited to use laptops rather than diy pc due to residence and some other factors at play. Truly wish someone like Andy can actually take Linus a tour on the specs of laptops they can get at various price points, because now I am just so angry at the greedy pricing strategies computer companies are forcing onto consumers.
import import import. all western companies are greedy as fuck, even in other poorer markets. i got 16GB of DDR3 ram imported from china NEW for $19. shipping and all other fees included. locally id probably need to pay at least 30 for the same thing on USED market
More Andy content would be so great
Im interested what laptop can u get in china for 2k or more
@@miodekksSurpisingly they don’t get to the top end because of very very harsh US sanctions. You won’t get a super top end laptop, but you probably will get a good one.
@@dnsjtoh？？？？？ who told you that? We have everything you have in the market , maybe 10%-20% cheaper than your price and no tax on it .
"It's a big deal for a student" *proceeds to plug $250 backpack
I got an HP 15 with an R5 5500U, about 2.5 years ago for $450. It only came with a 1x8gb 3200 stick of RAM and a 256gb SSD. I upgraded it with a matching spec 1x8gb 3200 stick of RAM and got a way bigger m.2 SSD for it for cheap on Ebay. Still works great. I don't use it a lot but with dual channel 3200mhz memory those Vega 8 graphics can slap. Even runs Diablo 4 pretty stable with FSR. The screws being under the feet is the only thing I greatly dislike about this generation of HP Laptop. They've been using this chassis for like 3-4 years now, it's the one little detail that will keep me from looking at HP for my next laptop.
I see a 14 inch HP Envy 2-in-1 with a current gen i5/8gb ram/ 512 gb ssd for $550 rn at best buy. 450 open box. I think they coulda found a better deal
Hey have this exact spec 13inch hp and was debating the other day if upgrading was worth it. What model ram did you use?
The one that Linus had looks like the Hand-Me-down Envy 2-in-1 that I used in HS (USA Section 504 Accommodations for ADHD, but was a hand-me-down from my father, this was Skylake so in ~2018). The charger looks similar, although I think the video has a 65w (blur but looks more 6 than 4 to me). Not the same chassis, but similar enough. It wasn't gaming, and came with an HDD (I replaced the SSD twice because the first WD blue died (I think because I dual-booted one of those android-x86 and had bluestacks on windows, along with synching Google Drive and OneDrive (my district had both) locally. I actually had a boot issue with the WD drive during a science class.
Another huge problem with these hp laptops is the hinge. Cheap Hp laptop chasis uses plastic to hold the screws that attach the hinge. I had a motherboard replaced under warranty and just the service guy removing the screw once broke it. Ive seen the same thing happen to many hp laptops over time.
@@parthmalani6286I was just looking at the chuwi subreddit with people saying they had similiar problems.
"Casual games like dota 2"
Hey Linus, I met one of the members of your production staff this weekend while at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo. It was a good vibe. Thanks for doing your tech tips.
Since it takes USB-PD, you can always use a portable power bank to compensate for the worse battery! The extra space and weight you save with the Chuwi vs. the HP would allow for a sizeable one in your backpack or whatever.
A 65W output power bank isn’t cheap. You might be better off just using that money for a better laptop in the first place.
@@FredjikrangYou could get a ugreen powerbank for around 62 USD. It’s not that much expensive
@@Fredjikrangits not THAT expensive either. Basesus makes a good one $63 not the greatest capacity, but I've seen on sale for $45 before and its held up great for about 2 years now.
I still wouldn't recommend this approach to compensate. The Chuwi actually has a decently large battery, and the fact that it has such low endurance means that it drains power way too fast. It's still much better to get a laptop that runs very efficiently if you need battery life.
@@leonroa $50 powerbank and this $550 laptop is still cheaper than comparable specs brand laptops
Asus Zenbook 14 and 14X goes on sale often for 500-600usd, 14X is more It has a 2.8k oled display, 14X is 120hz as well. They have 13th gen core H processor
Picked up a 12th gen 14 oled 2.8k for 550 open box in the spring
I came here to say the same thing, the 14 OLED can be bought for $550 on best buy, has 90hz, i5-1240P a 75Wh battery, usb c charging with thunderbolt 4 and a really nice keyboard, only drawback is that its has 8gb of non-upgradeable ram, but models with 16gb exist, i have one and feels miles ahead of everything for the price
@@Masther33 Got a Vivobook K6500ZC (i5 12th gen, RTX3050, 16GB RAM, 15,6" OLED screen) and that thing is WILD for that money. I even think its just too nice for simple work notebook
I was lucky on the 14X Pro (AMD 5800H with 16GB and the 3050) for around $800 on sale but that was before the new models were released. It has some small issues (like the keyboard backlight bleed, stock Mediatek Wifi/BT card is just rubbish - its now on Intel AX210 with 0 issues).
Laptop display brightness is huge imo. I got my GP66 thinking the 1080p 300 nit screen wasn't a big deal but swapped in a 1440p 400 nit screen a few months ago and the difference is insane.
yeah that was big BIG change.
This was a very useful and entertaining review. I think you should do more laptop reviews like this one.
Chuwi has been making budget laptops and tablets in China for more than a decade now. They have always been great at this budget segment, though I'd say the laptop in this video is probably one of the higher end and more expensive option they offer.
sub 500$ is crazy for that kind of performance. I'm thinking of getting their 100$ android tablet to use as a touch screen on the side.
As a highschooler I do say that the chuwi 3.5 hours is decent for school use cause even though we have laptops for doing school work, teachers barely even tell us to pull out our laptops and when we do classes are usually just 45mins and so the chuwi laptop will last half of the school day if we have it open from 1-5 period, so I think the chuwi laptop is actually really good for students if your school doesn't provide you with Chromebook.
I'd rather get a 1440p color accurate display. You won't use your disk much but having a better CPU will come in clutch for sure.
🎉❤🎉🎉❤😮🎉❤😮
🎉❤🎉🎉❤😮🎉❤😮🎉🎉🎉😮
@@__Random_user_ I guess again I said for students, highschool students, buying a 1440p color accurate display won't add anything to just doing school work but flexing to other students
Doesn’t work in uni sadly
I bought a Chuwi tablet in 2016 for $275 and it was way better than the price would indicate. That quad core atom CPU wasn't amazing but it was fine for schoolwork and content consumption. The thing that sold it for me was the screen and I/O. It used the same 12" screen as the previous gen Microsoft Surface. 2 USB A ports, micro SD slot, and mini HDMI out all in an aluminum chassis. FOR $275!!! OH and that included a magnetic keyboard. Really cool to seem them still making fantastic cheap computers.
Is the tablet still working? Im thinking about getting Chuwi Ubook tablet with pen but Im scared a bit about the warranty and shipping. And Im not sure if I should go through their official site or aliexpress (for some reason 12gb version is cheaper on their site and 8gb version is cheaper on aliexpress :D ), and yeah I wonder how the warranty works here if it is 2 years as normal and how would it perform after some time. I plan to use it for school + 3d modelling while travelling in train etc.
@@RandallJakub I honestly couldn't tell you about the warranty. I haven't used it in a couple years but it still works. When I didn't need it for school anymore I just used it for watching yt videos and movies.
Chuwi, from my experience, feels really close to what a Huawei laptop feels especially between the Huawei Matebook 14 (one I own) and the Chuwi Corebook 14. So far, I have been using the Matebook for work and I'm quite satisfied. Chuwi has always been notably slower and now I know why. I wonder if LMG can do a quick review of the Matebook series and see how it really compares to the Chuwi. If anything, you can have a slew of comparisons since other chinese companies have done the same trend with their notebook and laptop models like Realme (Realme Book), Infinix (INBook Y1), and Xiaomi (RedMi Book). From what I can tell, this seems to be a decent attempt at making Macbook clones but I kinda like it. Not everyone will though and I respect that.
Not sure if you'll see, but that SSD is a MAP1202A + some YMTC memory (QLC I think, for the cheaper stuff). It runs HMB. It's a very common configuration in cheap budget drives from lesser-named brands because the configuration is super cheap in price.
I bought a Chuwi Lapbook pro a few years ago. It is an amazing computer, but the hinge broke after a year. I have yet to try and diy fix it, but apparently it's not uncommon for their laptops to have some cheap internal structural materials. Something to keep in mind.
To be fair, that's not exclusive to Chuwi or other noname brands, as far as cheap laptops go. Years ago a hinge on my sisters Lenovo cracked and when trying to get a replacement hinge, I found there are dozens of offers for the OTHER side hinge on ebay, but none for the one she needed. Lenovo only sold them in pairs and one of them had a hole drilled in the middle of the hinge (to this day I find it hard to believe it wasn't intentional) where they tended to break... so everyone was trying to sell off the other after replacing the broken one.
I own the Corebook X! Great device for the money, but I had some graphical glitches after a year. Also you can hear static noises from the inside, but they only happen when the device is not charging
HP has used that bottom panel design for years. It's really not hard to get the rubber strip off to get to the screws. I work on them all the time. That being said, yes, there's really not any reason to hide the screws when they already have some showing anyway.
I've been running a $300 ThinkPad for the last 4 years. 8th gen i3 is surpisingly powerful, more than enough for basic tasks and even some lightweight gaming. Oh, and one of the best Linux experiences I've had on a laptop. Going ThinkPad again for sure.
We buy $250-$350 t580's for our organization. 8th gen i5, 16gb ram, a 512gb SSD, and we buy the big extended batteries. They last all day on battery, are compatible with windows 11, and are plenty quick enough for office tasks.
Lenovo is partnered with Red Hat to make sure their products have a good linux experience.
I'm still using a ThinkPad T440p which I got for 500€ used in 2019. i7-4800MQ, originally 8GB RAM but I upgraded it to 16GB, GT 730M, 256GB Samsung SSD, 14" 1080p IPS
I got a ThinkPad yoga L390 and I put 16g of ram and a 1t SSD 330€ in total Running linux Mint
Ibm/lenovos are great. Sure they might be a tad bit more expensive than a similar hp but the quality is just much better. Running an x1 yoga for 3 years and had multiple others before that. Great little machine, though a bit more expensive when i bought it (1250€) it can be bought used for 500ish as well now.
I had an older model of this, that I retired and gave to a friend not long ago, it's still absolutely in service. These things are honestly surprisingly good for the price you pay. Well built and a really good display.
I daily a Dell Inspiron with i5-1135G7 and 16GB of RAM. It get a plastic chassis, but it have a 2.5 inch HDD mount and a NVMe bay. I dual-drive it. For daily driver you want robust reliability, above all else. Hp will be able to push BIOS and other updates along the way, smaller companies cannot be said equally.
Recently took delivery of Framework 13 with AMD 7840U. It came out to almost 3x the cost, but I love the hardware. Software side, I'm hoping, will improve over time. And I do wish it had one more NVMe slot, but oh well. Nothing is perfect.
I have the one with the 8259u. In just over a year of use the hinge catastrophically failed, I was very gentle. The overseas after warranty support is very sparse and expensive to ship. Also had to pay shipping to replace a battery that swole in warranty. Be warned, these are somewhat disposable products with questionable lifespans, like he said you pay for the cost in every product at this price and for this one they took the skill points away from durability.
Yeah, warranty claims is a concern for this product
One middle hinge in general is a recipe for disaster.
Also, 10-key and backlit are mandatory for any laptop I own. I like the directional arrows as well.
It should have decent rollover as well. I once had a cheap laptop that couldn't register pressing W, left shift, left ctrl and space bar at the same time - and I was trying to play warframe, where that's basic mobility. That sucked.
5:53 I realised this when I went on vacation recently. I had my phone, laptop and wireless earbuds and all of them shared the same charger and the charger was my macbook charger. We could only dream of this 10 years ago.
Love you guys are back to the little banter between builders and employees. Best stuff
I got the Ryzen version of that HP last year for $460 in the US. I am really impressed with it for the price. My biggest complaints are the cheap, easily scratched plastic and deck flex. The HP now has 32 Gb of RAM and a 2 TB SSD. I'll still look at Framework for upgradeability next go around.
I have the same version Linues bought, great laptop and also the touch screen that mine has justifies the price premium I had to pay, but overall wish US prices would be available in more countries. Had to pay around 580 USD for the laptop after conversion from my currency.
I get it. I was on vacation down there when I bought mine.@@dennisazurdia2638
The plastic cassis on those hp laptops are so bad, they feel super cheap and this only gets worse with a few years of use and start cracking. Also those trackpads become more and more rattily with more use until they no longer register clicks. This has happened on my laptop and the same laptop my friend has. To be fair it is quite easy to get into and replace the trackpad but this is clearly a problem. Loved the video!
I work in a computer repair shop and I see that exact type of HP laptop all the time for all sorts of issues. The biggest being the "hinge" breaking (a.k.a. the hinge screws ripping out of the extremely cheap plastic chassis). I also immediately knew when I saw that laptop that there are two-three screws hidden under the rear feet and some models have even more hidden under the front one. I've had to open up so many HP laptops and the majority have cheap build quality with annoying hidden screws for no reason which makes them a pain to work on and they rarely go back together properly unless you know what you're doing. So many people buy HP because they're the cheapest option (Computers as well as printers) and they appear to be a good cost for the specs but we've had so many problems with HP's products we have stopped recommending them to our customers. We've also noticed that some HP laptops (usually the cheap ones but sometimes even some of the higher end models) will not allow you to install a regular copy of Windows due to driver requirements which make it so Windows will not even boot up after a fresh install. Instead, HP requires you to use their tool to install a model specific Windows image which includes their drivers as well as all their bloatware which is sometimes up to 10 apps.
Microcenter has a Gateway laptop for $499 (I’ve seen it on sale for $399 and open box for $350) it has a i5-11400H, 16GB, 512GB SSD, AND RTX 3050. Not sure about other things like screen, battery, build quality, speakers, ect…. But that should be something to look into vs a random Ali express laptop IMO
can't help but point out that you can get a usb-c to HP barrel jack adaptor for 3-10$, works great, lets you use just a usb c charger. They are probably available for all brands, and it still lets you rotate the cable around the laptop
but then you have to carry around a dongle
@@mihirghawghawe9255who doesnt carry dongles in 2023
I’ve missed these type of reviews from LTT. Keep them coming please!
The problem with the arrow keys (6:35) is when your hand is moving from the keyboard to the arrow keys, it's much easier to find the right key when the left/right are at the same height as the up/down. MacBooks switched to the HP style arrows for a few generations and then (thankfully!) switched back -- because it was horrible.
3:53 I literally ordered this laptop for 600€ a few days ago so it's a bit worrying to see you saying the wifi is going to be slow. I was mainly impressed by it having an oled and a good processor. If anyone is interested I can review the wifi speed when it arrives in a few days
All modern laptops have good Wi-Fi, casual user isn’t going to notice
Actually in the Asus store where I bought it it has wifi 6 2x2 so that's not a factor at all. I'd love Linus to review that vivobook
Sometimes you can activate type c charging in the bios. My laptop didn’t ship with it out the box , but with a bit of digging I now charge it via type c (I also have a 5 year old hp laptop )
Can you tell me how you did it?
@@aranntzagBoot into Bios and look for the option (Most likely USB charging). Every Bios is a bit different so there's not really any standards. Even the way to access the BIOS depends on manufacturer. It's usually hold Del while booting but could also be F2 or F10, like I said there is no standard. Sometimes it tells you what to press during boot. Would help to know the make and model.
These HP laptops were the machines I worked on the most back when that was what I did for a living. Not because they had more issues or anything, but it was the bulk of what we sold and at the time the HDD was still too common, I did a ton of HDD to SSD swaps. Their chassis hasn't changed in years and the screws under the feet still annoys me to this day, I got really good at getting them back on, but if you give it a hard look it's never quite as exact as the machine that rolls them off the line. I don't even get why manufacturers hide screws, anyone who knows how to work on a laptop still knows where they are, everyone knows the thing has to be assembled somehow and therefore able to be disassembled, just give me a dozen visible holes in the machine.
The only thing worse is devices like the Surface Pro where you have to pry the screen up to get inside...
@@Steamrick thankfully those are getting slightly more repairable, they have the ssd easily accessible under the kickstand and they sell some replacement parts too. still quite a ways to go though
I get older ones with that body style occasionally at my job testing and reimaging used laptops and I felt that "HP, you dickheads!" in my soul.
19:37 alex is the smart one. Give him a raise
Thanks for bringing value for money reviews, and alternative brands that operate in that space. I like flagship reviews but that is a crowded space as everybody likes to review them. The cheap but good realm is under reviewed by major channels, but there is definitely a huge market for them. Please keep doing this kind of review.
I had that Chinese Chwoi whatever; it's a CRAP !! Its battery barely lasts for half an hour; it constantly freezes and dies in the middle of the work; its fan is so noisy; and the screen starts shaking every time I connect to WIFI. And it suddenly died within a couple of months. It's a waste of money !!!
If the power settings make so little a difference, then it's pretty safe to say they don't change anything essential. Most commonly it's some device or bug preventing actual power conservation mode. But even with only 3 hours, this is a very clear recommendation - which I never thought i'd see or get for anything at least introduced on AliExpress.
I also bought a really cheap Chinese laptop while living in China. I have no idea what brand it was. But it had some reaaaallly godly components for its price range. ... It was a really awesome 15" gaming laptop ... ... It lasted 6 months before it broke down and never worked again.
Hey, I just noticed the subtitles are out of sync. Aside from that, informative video. I enjoy bargain hunting for all my tech; I'll definitely look into aliexpress to see what you can find there.
I love my CHUWI LarkBox X, AMD Ryzen 7 3750H that I use as a home lab server. After a swift memory upgrade to 32 GB it runs a few VMs without a problem. Only thing I wish was better is the cooling fan that sounds way to much.
arent you worried about the battery catching fire when plugged all the time.
No, since the Larkbox X isn't a laptop, it's a small NUC.
can you replace the fan? @@DenatusDotCom
@DenatusDotCom 😄I just assumed it was a laptop
I remember chuwi from my journey with them 7 years ago. At the time, budget segment was either xiaomi air, a 3rd gen i5 Thinkpad (the last gen built with ibm), and acers. Chuwi appeared at this time selling only mcore laptops. It was really cheap but they had no branding, with the only trustworthy reviewer being Chris from techtablet. Got one of it and it worked fine, but it seemed to have the life span of an Acer for me
1 lesson on my school takes 2 hours. Most days I have 2 lessons back to back, so the 3 hour battery wouldn't even last a schoolday for me without having to resort to charging it during the class (which isn't always a problem if there are enough wall outlets).
I had one of the tablets. Bad battery life & the screen easily cracked. But nice ports
The 3rd gen i5 (so e.g. t430 I think) had nothing to do with IBM. Lenovo was not allowed any more to use IBM for marketing - let alone IBM participating in the development. Even the t61 were produced (and as far as I know mostly developed by Lenovo). But, of course, they reused old stuff, but it developed by Lenovo.
@@gregor2436Lenovo ended the IBM licensing early, not the other way around, They chose to stop partnering with IBM.
Same. My Chuwi tablet has been working great for several years already. Don't expect OTA software updates though.
12:45 I just bought an HP victus s0095ax and I can confirm that HP has this weird thing were the fan ramps up to max speed while running a game but after you stop the game it will continue to stay at max speed forever, unless you open omen gaming hub then switch the performance profile to performance then back to balanced.
ill have to look into it more im looking for a laptop to run some of my biz function on and for file work like recipes and such :) Tho that Chuwi would be right on the aisle for keeping plugged in for my gamers to have access to make the or print their character sheets and stuff
Good thing with HP is you can download their laptop service manual that shows how to completely take it apart and change bits.
Good thing most people who want to take their laptop away don't need a service manual to do so.
You guys should do more laptop comparisons and videos about laptops at different price points. Loved the video
Awesome to see LTT repping the Edison motors gear! Those are guys are making awesome steps in hybrid ev trucking
I had an HP laptop, forgot the model. But it was purchased for me by my parents in 8th grade. My passion was digital art. (and now I'm in grad school for art) But anyways, the color accuracy was heart breaking. I would draw something and sometimes even not see big blotches that were there when I opened the artwork on my iPad screen. It was heart breaking. I'm glad there are better options out there these days.
Really interesting, I always see these Chuwi on Amazon and AliExpress, thank you LTT staff for reviewing this unit (also didn't know they have an official store on their website)
I bought a small notebook from Chuwi (on Amazon) which I used for web browsing fo a year before selling it on to my neighbour last year, it was a great little machine for not a lot of money. I also had a Chuwi tablet which was superb for under GB£150, it was metal framed, HD screen, good storage and pretty fast while multi tasking. I'd recommend them if you're on a budget and have just bought the laptop in the video for my son for college...
I considered a Chuwi tablet ~5 years ago, and ended up getting a Teclast and a Cube instead (I don't know if Cube exists anymore), which were absolutely amazing. I'd recommend anyone on a budget check out the reputable Chinese brands.
It makes sense people don’t worry much about battery life on a cheap laptop. When I was in school, what mattered most was squeezing every bit of performance per dollar - I was broke but always within reach of an outlet in every class and every lab.
I think Chuwi is really good if you also want to add an egpu and keep it home. It has an accessible m.2 PCI-E (NVMe) slot. I would be very happy to see with an eGPU.
What , egpu with nvme slot ? I dont know that was a thing
I have had a Chuwi Hi-x 10 (Windows 10, eventually Ubuntu swapped) with the detachable keyboard for a couple hundred bucks a while back. I actually Really like it. So I am not surprised this machine is pretty capable. I wouldn't turn my nose up at getting another new device from Chuwi in the future.
I had that Chinese Chwoi whatever; it's a CRAP !! Its battery barely lasts for half an hour; it constantly freezes and dies in the middle of the work; its fan is so noisy; and the screen starts shaking every time I connect to WIFI. And it suddenly died within a couple of months. It's a waste of money!!
Personally I would not ever look for a new laptop then looking at the under 500€ price range. I would always look for business laptops one cycle behind. That does mean they will be around 5 years old. But you are getting a really good quality laptop that will easily last another 5 years for every day use and even light gaming.
Good point, I did this for years, used an old work laptop as a school laptop for general use. Worked great, especially with an ssd upgrade.
As to HP Laptops, I have an HP elite book that I have had for about 5 years and it was already a few years old when I got it, and the only issue I have with it is that after these several years of moderate use by me and my ol' lady, the SSD is nearing the end of it's life. But replacements are just a convenient excuse to upgrade.
I bought one of these Chuwi Corebook laptops last year at a DEEP discount and was very impressed. I wanted a cheap laptop that I could throw in my messenger bag and run around town with (specifically a laptop that wouldn't worry about accidentally banging up). It delivered. Now I mostly use it at home with an external display and keyboard.
For someone with more access to the Chinese market, I had recently seen laptops with Ryzen 7-7840HS inside, alongside upgradable so-dimms and a 2880*1800 120Hz panel for $550USD, but the bigger problem is that the company making this decided to scalp their price up to $600 during normal sales, but it might make an interesting showing against this chuwi. That said, this supposedly $550USD laptop got horrific speakers, but at least it got quite some performance for its price.
Why do the speakers on a laptop matter? Especially in that price range they will always be crappy. So you gonna have to use headphones anyways. So why would it matter if it's crappier than others?
Yeah speakers is a good place to sacrifice. But there's also a chance these laptops have terrible DACs that it can't power some earphones or headphones even at 100% volume while also being very noisy.
@Qimchiy you can get like 20 to 40 dollar usb dac which able to power 300ohm headphones, not gonna sound good but way better than any desktop internal dac even
@@Simon-tr9hv well yes. But then again that's just one extra thing to bring. Which I do, bring. Just something you wouldn't expect.
@@Qimchiy well, with how everything trending right now, when most laptop only have 2 maybe 3 usb c port, not even usb a port, do you really care carrying one extra thumb drive sized dac when you got all the dongles
im literally watching this on the $500 hp laptop in the intro
I have a big problem with the cache-less SSD topic Alex was talking about. Instead of DRAM in the M.2 board those use the system DRAM. And it doesn't matter really, if you don't use it for really drive-heavy tasks. Even then with the Avocado DirectStorage benchmark we can see that DRAM-less SSDs work well. And besides that DRAM-less SSDs will become more dominant on the market.
I think it's good to keep on eye on slightly older models that go down in price too
WOW! Nice to see a CHUWI make an appearance!! I bought a CHUWI Lapbook 14 around June of 2016 (there was a plasticky one with 4gb ram and a metal chassis one with 8gb, mines the jank one unfortunately) but that makes it all the more impressive that over 7 years later it's still my main laptop, I still use it regularly and it's still going strong, the battery even lasts a good few hours still (was like 8-10 hours when new, probably 4-6ish now). I was really impressed with the thing for how much it cost (£220ish IIRC). I do wish I had the 8gb metal chassis version in hindsight but I honestly didn't expect it to last me as long as it is doing. It even managed to edit and render out some 1080p video in hitfilm, not that I'd recommend trying that on something with a one-point-something GHz CPU and 4GB of RAM to !!SHARE!! with the graphics haha. Web browsing, document creation and even GIMP photo editing is all 👌 though. Great, now I want a new Chuw.
I feel the same way about my (now sadly gone) Teclast and Cube (similar Chinese brands) which I bought because I felt they were better quality than Chuwi at the time. But this has got me wanting to try Chuwi!
I had that Chinese Chwoi whatever; it's a CRAP !! Its battery barely lasts for half an hour; it constantly freezes and dies in the middle of the work; its fan is so noisy; and the screen starts shaking every time I connect to WIFI. And it suddenly died within a couple of months. It's a waste of money !!!@@dreamersmask
Amazing that such a cheap laptop can be so good! I'm sticking with my framework though 😅
You haven't even watched the video
@@hillbillysamuraiprob a like farmer
@@hillbillysamurai I've watched about 2/3rds of it, do you all watch at 1X speed?
Sponsored by LTT
@@itsJuGofrnot a bit 😅 just watched it fast as soon as it came out
I found the librarian analog to the DRAM/less SSD to be quite accurate and makes the concept easy to grasp!
Actually, a lot of Dram-less SSDs nowadays use the host memory buffer technology which stores the index in the system RAM instead of the NAND so it won't be nearly as bad as described in this video.
I got my Lenovo Flex 14 (2020) that is a 2 in 1 with stylus for $600 and I'm very happy with it.
If I was still in the market for a low powered gaming lap top I would definitely give this a look! Unfortunately, I gave up on budget options after 3 failed 500-600 laptops and ended up increasing my budget to $1000 and getting an Open Box gaming laptop from Best Buy.
The Best Buy Open box lottery is so hit and miss to actually have things but the scores are incredible when you do. When my 1060 laptop died I found a cute little ryzen 5 lenovo yoga for under 300 bucks on open box and it's done all I ask as long as I leave gaming to the desktop.
if you are lucky at 500-700 you can get lucky with a actual "gaming" low end gpu instead; if not, theres always the amd+cpu gpu combo which are usually ok ; but you know people can get a higher end mini box PC 5"x5" size with higher end amd at around 350$ lol, out performs most 500$ ones if not little higher. I would spend at least 1200-1500$ at least to get almost top tier gaming card, I never go above top tier where the laptop over heats/throttles, short battery, usually laptops in the price range range of 1500+3000.
@koilamaoh4238 I'm enjoying my Asus Gaming Tuf. While it certainly isn't the best, it allows me to play FF14 on the go and that's all I needed it to do.
I repaired a hp pavilion a couple of days ago. I hated it. The hinges were attached by brittle plastic ....
16:24 I knew for a FACT those screws were under the feet, and the last HP laptop I had was in 2014!
Could the ssd just be replaced with a better one and the old one put in the spare slot as a second drive? I'd take the shorter batter life for the screen and better performance as long as the thing is reliable. A power bank could help with battery life if need be.
Still better than my school's "computers"
Fax
In such a hurry to comment an overused joke that it doesn’t even work for the device being reviewed.
@@thatdarnskag5043 except it was MY joke
@@DavidMorseMusic...and the joke doesn't work for this device at all. It's a recent device that is well specced and competitively priced. It's unlikely a school would have hardware of that caliber unless they recently re-equiped their computer rooms.
At this price point, used options like a M1 MacBook Air seems like a stellar deal.
why tf would u buy a macbook
@@efdbjon2114why not? It's decent if you don't really do much heavy workload on it and if you're not a pirate.
@@efdbjon2114Apple Silicon. The M1 SOC that can run rings around anything in 2020 at a fraction of the heat with these x86 laptops. If you need game compatibility, then I guess you have a point.
Wtf are you talking about? There is plenty of cracked software for Mac...@@ecalz2100
Are we talking about $500 laptop or $1000 laptop? I confuse
I love my Asus VivoBook... MediaTek WiFi6 card works just fine, 16:10 display helps me a lot editing/recording music, R7 5800 with 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD handle 80+ track sessions without a sweat... was ~700USD on sale but worth it. Keep in mind I work a full time job and music is a hobby. I also game on a Series X so gaming performance was never expected or tested
Am I just out of touch? Almost every time I've ever used a laptop, I've had it plugged in. If it can manage over an hour solid on a bad day unplugged, it can do everything I'd probably ever need in between outlets. Home, work, school, even many businesses as restaurants there's always an outlet nearby, and when there isn't you can probably get by on battery for an hour or two and then plug it in at the next location. Spending 4+ hours in a location with no power, save for when your power goes out or if for some insane reason you would want to do all your computing outdoors just doesn't make sense. I'm sure there are some niche cases where you might have some kind of job that requires you to use a computer constantly but also be in a place without electricity, but I can't actually think of any. That definitely does not apply to all devices of course. The thing about laptops though is that in order to use them you generally need to sit down (or at least use a standing desk or something), and if you are going to sit (or use a desk you are probably going to be stationary, and if you are stationary you probably can plug something in. Other devices like phones and headphones are used on the move and plugging in is a serious drawback.
One thing that is never tested in these videos (most probably because it can't be tested) is the longevity of the batteries. I experienced more than once - even with premium manufacturer's laptops - that batteries degrade extremely fast. I'm talking 35% over less than 100 battery cycles on my HP elitebook 830 G8 for example.
Thanks for not selling out and keeping information real and knowing not all of us are born with a sliver platter, always recommending and always posting
too bad the price of the laptop skyrocketed since then
I opened alot of those HP laptop, that rubber hiding screws are easily broken but sometime its easy to peel without breaking. There are 3 shiny screw underneath. If I had to choose between the two, I'd take chewy laptop because I need high resolution screen and i have my PD charger with me all the time.
People don't talk enough about how important a solid screen hinge is. If the screen shakes everytime you type on the keyboard, it gets really annoying really fast
"buy your next laptop" People watching Linus without buying anything: "yeah, sure, cheers"
You everywhere
I see you on every popular KZheadrs comments
@@BabyGronk69 It's a bot
The only experience I had with a Chuwi was about two years ago helping a friend. A budget laptop that seemed to be okay on the surface, but the BIOS was a huge mess the more I dug in deeper. It was a combination of listing excessive settings that even a tech savvy user wouldn't use, some power settings didn't work, terrible menu layout, terrible setting descriptions. At the time, drivers and BIOS updates were also nonexistent on the site. I also accidentally spilled a little rubbing alcohol on the keyboard while cleaning off some grime, no more than maybe a teaspoon. I managed to soak it all up and dry it off but it reacted with the plastic that held the key switches and within a week all the keys all broke off on half the keyboard. Couldn't replace the keyboard either without changing the chassis since it was held in place by glue and plastic welded rivets. It pretty much went to scrap and got it replaced with a better built laptop.
So you damaged the laptop yourself and...... yea. 😂
@@4partmedia Sure did and made up for it! 😅 Although I've never seen plastic melt away like that with alcohol, it's more of an observance that cheaper plastics are used.
It might not be caused by cheap plastic (probably), because in actuality even many "expensive" plastics dissolve very fast in rubbing alcohol, but it is the manufacturer's duty to add a chemically resistive coating, literally everyone does it, I don't see why they can't do it, but it's the little things that they cheap out on that don't matter until you really need them to be there. the coatings used are rarely sometimes applied externally but mostly just imbedded in the mix to begin with, its literally dirt cheap, maybe pennies per laptop. @@railgrinder alternatively you could DIY a coating but I doubt anyone without a chemistry MS can do it well lol.
I have a HP Pavilion 15 gaming and it does me just fine. I did like the 2.5inch drive expansion on it aswell which made up for the 256gb nvme ssd in it lol
Here I am still using a laptop with a 2nd gen i5 that originally had win7 on it (dell latitude). Its my roommates old one that's sat unused for a couple years. I ended up needing one for 3-4 hours for 1 night per week and I'm not going to be buying a new laptop for that. I did spend the $25 on an ssd for it.
QC is definitely an issue with these types of products, but it looks like the company at least has actually existed under that name for a while, so that helps. Also, if you're buying in that price range, look at used. Laptops drop in value soo much, and if you find a good one it'll probably still work fine for another few years.
But for students the battery is a deal breaker. Just for that I would always take HP over it. (Especially based on my own experience where I had first had a gaming laptop which lasted MAX 2.5 hours continuous use with all battery saving tricks on. After that I installed Linux on a 10 year old laptop which I get 6 hours of battery from continuous use.)
I don't know about that. In my experience, you're always close enough to an outlet that you can just... keep the laptop charged. I've met a few people using laptops with completely dead batteries: unplug, off instantly.
18:00 50% brightness is right way to test it. Chuwi has brightness of 450 nits. HP is 250 nits. 50% on Chuwi would be almost as bright as HP at full brightness. It should be tested on fixed brightness.
To be fair to at least HP, the way the put the feet on is better than it seems. I don’t have the same model, but it has the same feet idea, and the glue they used is actually pretty good at being reapplied. I took mine off and I could have simply not added glue had I been a bit more careful not to drop it on the carpet while reapplying it.
Yeah buy 500$ laptop with 250$ bagpack 5:56 💀
wait... how much of an effect does resolution have on battery life? Sounds like we need the lab to test that. I am super curious! (also on mac, does "scaling" actually change battery life in any meaningful way?) I've seen a test on a smartphone where it made almost no difference, except with games
I bought a Chuwi Aerobook back in 2019 and it has been one of my best tech purchases. I have always run Linux on it full time. My model has a Core m3-6y30 and 8gb single channel RAM. Performance is expected and the battery life is definitely longer than 3 hours, but still not great. Personally I will not buy any laptop bigger than 13.3" and any aspect ratio other than 16:9 or 16:10. Both of the laptops in this video have major deal breakers for me. Also, I don't care much about battery life. I rarely use my laptop more than 2 or 3 hours away from a charger and can always whip one out if needed.
better screen over battery life for sure. Most time if you have to work on the run you have power plugins around if not then 3.5hours of work time should be good enough
The chuwi laptop with access to the nvme ssd on the bottom of the laptop should also be implemented the same way with the steam deck, asus rog ally and any new handheld gaming device. For example, the steam deck, asus rog ally and any new handheld gaming device should implement the 2 screws to access a removable nvme ssd like the chuwi laptop in this video.
Eh I mean on the deck its not that big of a deal. My biggest issue is the cheap self tapping phillips screws the deck uses that are easy to strip the head on. Even with the correct bit and firm pressure it still feels like its going to slip. I mean come on, it at most would have been a few more pennies for torx style heads? and anyone with a precision bit set good for those phillips would have the right bits. It makes me irrationally angry. Not to mention I've seen cheaper devices with brass inserts. Self tapping screws into plastic is kind of ghetto to begin with, especially on a device where they went out of their way to make repairable.
Most devices in the 90s were easily accessible but they were held on by screws. For example, to access the removable battery of the supaboy, you have to unscrew the battery compartment that was held on by 2 screws to access the battery. The supaboy was a very thick device but it had so many features and functionalities that is missing in the modem era of gaming. Most of the newer devices are soldered to the motherboard with non upgradeable components with certain models of laptops instead of using the standard screws that was being used in the electronics in the 90s. I prefer old electronics from the 90s because of the removable batteries since all you need is a screw driver to access the battery compartment and there was less soldering to deal with. Nowadays, most of the newer devices are just held on by glue and soldering. I prefer dealing with screws than having to deal with glue and soldering components. Dealing with screws are easier to deal with, when I take stuff apart, I end up breaking something. For instance, if I was going to try to fix a smartphone, I would end damaging it and breaking something in the process. It's why I prefer to go a repair shop when something is broken and have someone else fix whatever might be broken.