Chuwi LapBook vs Xiaomi MI Notebook Air – Step by step review (Coupon included)

CHUWI LapBook is the new creation of Chuwi. The LapBook is in fact a 15.6 inch Notebook with Intel Cherry Trail Z8300 Quad Core 1.44GHz, 4GB RAM, 64GB ROM, HDMI and 10000mAh Battery. Comes with the moto…The Bigger, the Better!

On the other hand, Xiaomi launched in August 2016 Xiaomi Air 12 and its bigger brother, the Xiaomi Air 13. The Xiaomi Notebook Air is their first notebook release of two. This version is the 12.5″ version powered by a Core M3-6Y30. It has 4GB of DDR3 1866Mhz RAM. 128GB Samsung SSD and even a spare M.2 2280 PCIE slot for adding additional fast SSD storage. As for the name…I guess we all understand what it reminds to us.

Design

CHUWI LapBook comes with super large 15.6 inch 1920*1080 Full HD and display ratio 16:9 display, the richer colors and sharper contrast can make your videos, photos and web pages look better. LapBook has a very large full-size keyboard and a mis-touch avoiding trackpad, every detail was curated just for an exceptional input experience. Material of back cover is from plastic. Comes with the 9-22mm thickness and 1860g weight (50% thinner and 40% lighter than an ordinary laptop), the LapBook has very good portability. While the white main enclosure makes it more charming and elegant. The dimensions of the CHUWI LapBook are just 37.10 x 23.97 x 2.20 cm.

Xiaomi Air 12 looks like a metallic roof tile, with no logo or logotype on the cover. At 292 x 202 x 12.9mm, it is smaller than an A4 sheet and its thickness is reasonable for a device of this size. With the weight of 1.08kg, puts it in between Apple’s MacBook and the Dell XPS 13. When you have a good look at the Mi Air, you can say that Xiaomi had inspiration from the MacBook Pro. The notebook has a similar black bezel and an almost constant thickness, with no wedge. You’ll also notice the same brushed aluminium finish, the same chamfered cut in front and that single, long hinge which connects the base to the screen. The keyboard is backlit, and the letter keys on the Xiaomi Air 12 are actually bigger than on the MacBook Pro (16mm compared to 15mm). There are no physical buttons and its surface is as smooth as that of the aforementioned Dell laptop. As for connectors, there’s a grand total of four: one HDMI port, one full-sized USB 3.0, a USB Type-C port which doubles as the power connection and an audio jack. This configuration is much better from the Apple MacBook. The screen of the Xiaomi Air is edge-to-edge glass covering most of it, which scores a 7 on the Mohs hardness scale. In comparison, the popular Gorilla Glass 3 scores 6.8. Sadly, the Air 12 is not touchscreen-enabled.

Hardware

CHUWI LapBook is equipped with a Quad Core Intel Cherry Trail Z8300 running up to 1.44GHz. For GPU is equipped with a Intel HD Graphic (Gen8). Thanks to the advanced 14nm Intel X5 CPU and 8th generation Intel HD Graphics GPU, whether you are playing games or watching the videos, it can guarantee everything to run more fastly and smoothly. It has 2MB Caching and the Power Consumption is only 2W. The CHUWI LapBook is equipped with 4GB DDR3 of Ram and 64GB of Rom. 4GB memory makes LapBook run a variety of programs and tasks with no pressure and 64GB storage can meet all your storage needs for work, study and entertainment. Besides, by using a Micro SD card slot, you can easily expand its storage up to 128GB.

Xiaomi has chosen an Intel Core M processor to power the Air 12, to be more exact the Skylake-based m3-6Y30 CPU, a model that was launched a year ago featuring two cores, four threads, a base processor frequency of 900MHz and a maximum turbo frequency of 2.2GHz. The CPU comes with 4MB cache and it offers a TDP of only 4.5W. For the graphics, an Intel HD Graphics 515 is helping, with a base frequency of 300MHz and a maximum dynamic frequency of 850MHz. Supports 4K at 60Hz via DisplayPort, but doesn’t support 4K at that frequency via HDMI as it tops 30Hz. You cannot upgrade the 4GB of DDR3 RAM as it is soldered on the motherboard and sadly there is no option to increase that. A 128GB SATA3 M2 SSD from Samsung occupies one slot with another free PCIe M2 slot available next to it. Both can be accessed simply by removing the cover, a fairly easy task.

Battery

The CHUWI LapBook features a Built-in, 3.7V / 10000mAh, Polymer Li-ion battery. It has about 7-8 hours standby time and about 5 hours video playing time. Its 10000mAh large internal battery capacity is perfect for all-day using. Also, it can be very fast recharged by using the original 5V/3A charger.

The battery on the Xiaomi Notebook Air is a non-replaceable 7.4V/5000mAh 37Whr model, one which according to Xiaomi should power the laptop for up to a whopping 11.5 hours, but in reality, that can only be achieved under extreme, unrealistic circumstances (no connectivity, lowest brightness setting). Normally I should give about the half time from Chuwi.

Features

The CHUWI LapBook features WIFI 802.11b/g/n wireless internet connection and Bluetooth 4.0 for connecting with other devices and the internet. Features also a single front camera of 2.0MP for taking pictures and speaking with others through Skype or whats-app. Features also 1 x USB 3.0 + 1 x USB 2.0 slots, Micro HDMI slot, DC Jack and 3.5mm Headphone Jack. With the dual USB-A ports (USB 3.0, USB 2.0), you can transmit your data quickly between your laptop and other devices. The micro HDMI port can allow you to connect with projectors, TVs or other video devices. Supports Skype, Youtube. For images supports BMP, GIF, JPEG, JPG and PNG, for audio supports MP3 and for video supports MP4. From MS Office format supports Excel, PPT and Word. The Chuwi LapBook comes with installed Windows 10. Windows OS is built-in Chinese and English, and other languages need to be downloaded by WiFi. Windows 10 is the latest and most popular OS from Microsoft. It’s not only great for entertainment, but also great for productivity. The Edge browser, Cortana assistant and Xbox game can also offer you more comfortable using experience.

The Xiaomi Notebook Air features 802.11ac Wi-Fi, a 1-megapixel front-facing camera, Bluetooth 4.1 and a pair of AKG custom dual speakers. Features also 1 x USB 3.0, standard HDMI slot, 3.5mm Headphone Jack and a Type-C port. For images supports BMP, GIF, JPEG and PNG. For audio supports AAC, MP3 and WAV. For video supports 3GP, AVI, H.264, MKV and MP4. From MS Office format supports Excel PPT and Word and from E-book format supports PDF and TXT. Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air comes with preinstalled Windows 10 in Chinese or a trial version in English. If you want to have a full english version installed, you must do a clean install of an english version of Windows 10 with your key.

Conclusion

The CHUWI LapBook is a really big Notebook, since it features 15.6 inch display! With very strong characteristics and a 10000mAh battery comes to win! So if you are searching for a winner, Chuwi Lapbook must be yours. You can find more at the official page of the Notebook at Chuwi. On the other hand the Xiaomi Mi notebook Air is a very decent first effort from Xiaomi but unfortunately the competition is absolutely cutthroat even at this price range. It has a great MacBook-inspired design, decent performance and battery life, but suffers from a couple of flaws that dampen its appeal. Don’t forget that you can order Chuwi LapBook from Gearbest at a lower price if you use our coupon CHULAIT, so the price to fall to $222.99! And you can also enjoy coupon code: XAIR13IV for xiaomi mi notebook air 13inch at $887. If you are into a cheaper one with more competitive notebook, Chuwi LapBook can be the first choice. Check more details from Chuwi official.

Update on May 29, 2018