The large screen and those bezels make it unusually large – it measures 368mm x 246.4mm and was too long to fit into the laptop compartment of my backpack, which has had no trouble housing half a dozen other tablets and laptops in the past. Its 1.6kg weight and 9mm thickness are impressive, however.
The internals and ports also leave something to be desired. Powering the laptop is a dated mid-tier “Apollo Lake” Core i5 8250U processor. While its 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage are no slouch in this price range, there is no USB-C connectivity. Charging is done via a proprietary DC plug, which is increasingly a hassle as all laptops (and phones) move towards USB-C. Other ports include a micro-HDMI out, two USB-A 3.0s, and a microSD card slot.
The saving grace here is that 4K display panel. With resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels and the ability to cover 100 per cent of the sRGB colour gamut, this is a gorgeous panel that is excellent for consuming media. Maybe it’s because I’m used to a smaller, 12.9-inch screen on my main work machine, but the extra three inches of screen real estate really adds to the immersiveness.
The laptop’s size is put to good use in the bottom half of the clam shell too, as the LapBook Plus features a full-sized keyboard with numeric pad. The track pad, too, is large and responsive, which is rare in budget laptops out of Shenzhen.
Software and features
The LapBook Plus is a bare-bones device in terms of additional software or features. It runs a clean version of Windows 10 with no bloatware, and there is no fingerprint scanner or touch screen support.
Performance and battery life
The LapBook Plus is best used to watch video, listen to music or perform basic office work. However, the limited processing power means you can’t really do both. For example, streaming 4K videos on YouTube is fine if that’s all the laptop is doing, but try doing that with apps such as Google Docs or Facebook, or multiple tabs in Google Chrome, open and the computer bogs down.
If you stick to doing one of those tasks at a time, then the device won’t disappoint. The screen is brilliant and gets bright enough for outdoor use; the stereo speakers to the left and right side of the keyboard are in ideal positions and pump out loud, clear audio; and the full-sized, backlit keyboard is great for typing and should further frustrate anyone with a recent MacBook – Apple’s stubbornness has resulted in a terrible typing experience that is routinely surpassed by laptops that cost a fraction of its product.
To be fair, Chuwi doesn’t try to advertise the laptop for anything more. This isn’t meant to be a machine for gaming or 4K video editing.
The 36Wh battery was good to power the machine for about eight hours of continuous use during my testing, which mainly involved streaming music, word processing, social media and the occasional YouTube video.
Conclusion
If you’re in the market for a laptop with a large 4K screen for mostly stationary media consumption and basic office work, the Chuwi LapBook Plus’ US$499 price tag cannot be beaten. If you want something more portable that you’ll lug around often, or if you want a machine capable of graphic-intensive work such as photo editing and gaming, you’ll have to look elsewhere.
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