Chuwi FreeBook: Convertible 13.5-inch laptop revealed with a 3:2 aspect ratio, a 2K display and an Intel Jasper Lake processor

[Redaktion]

Chuwi has unveiled the FreeBook, an Intel Jasper Lake-based laptop. The Chuwi FreeBook also has a 13.5-inch and 2K display, along with 8 GB of RAM and a 256 GB SSD. The FreeBook will be orderable later this month.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Chuwi-FreeBook-Convertible-13-5-inch-laptop-revealed-with-a-3-2-aspect-ratio-a-2K-display-and-an-Intel-Jasper-Lake-processor.583941.0.html

[Erik]

"While that may sound promising, Chuwi has opted for the Celeron N5100, a quad-core processor based on Intel's Jasper Lake architecture. The Celeron N5100 may be a modern processor, but it compares woefully against much older Intel processors, such as the Core i5-8265U."

I don't understand the negativity about the processor choice, or the SSD for that matter, when you give 86% score to the Vivobook 13 Slate OLED, which is pretty similar in concept (while being likely more expensive), an impressive screen paired with an underwhelming processor and relatively slow SSD. The real focus should be on build quality, real world performance and performance-to-price ratio, which can't be known until it's released.

[B W]

I kind of get it ... Being a big fan of the brand, I have a half dozen of their devices floating around my home .

They tend to get whatever anemic, power sipping Intel CPU's are available at the time they need to sell product, and they skimp on the bill of materials for all other components. The screens consistently impress, and feel like the rest of the laptop or tablet was created around that one attribute.

I've seen screws work their way out of the bottom plate of my laptop case, from daily use. I've seen YouTube playback get copy when playing at a panel's native res, unable to avoid skipping frames because of the video decide demand, in very extreme cases. I would suggest CHUWI is great to someone that will only need light use or to someone that wants a "second screen" backup device, because you will feel the ceremony limit of the processor performance. In my case, a Thin'n'light for travel use while making my Desktop-Replacement Laptop stowed in luggage.

Comparing it to an I5 is kind of silly, as CHUWI consistently punches up in weight class but generally keeps in the Pentium range, and only once or twice dipping their feet in Core i3 range. Their N4100 devices will throttle hard, though, delivering under TDP spec, so it's expect the same for whatever thermal solution is slapped on their next-gen 2-in-1.

TL;DR -- CHUWI straps great screens to subpar CPU's and Storage, and the pro's and con's tend to cancel each other out, becoming net neutral in the end. Being a junky for pixel density, it's still often worth it.

[Commentator, a]

Being a big fan of the brand, I have a half dozen of their devices floating around my home .

"Floating", AKA broken cr@p I can't be bothered to recycle.
But that would be characteristic of any Chinese-designed product