Chuwi LapBook Air Is Still Low Cost, Despite Light Weight

Low-cost Chuwi LapBook Air looks to make mark in ultralight notebook market

By Jon Martindale September 25, 2017

chuwi lapbook air debut chuwilaptop06 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Chuwi is bringing its unique brand of economic competition to the light laptop game with the introduction of the Chuwi LapBook Air. The laptop weighs less than 3 pounds, carries a price tag of just $430, and will complement the brand’s existing 14-inch notebook offerings.

The affordable laptop market is a highly competitive one, with a number of manufacturers vying to bring some of their more impressive features down to a price that larger audiences can afford. There are always sacrifices to be made, most commonly in performance, but Chuwi is looking to deliver a pretty powerful package, despite a diminutive price tag.

Packed inside the LapBook Air’s 14-inch frame is an Intel Celeron N3450 quad-core processor, which at 2.2GHz is said to be more than enough for most everyday tasks, according to AnandTech. That’s paired up with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of solid state storage (SSD).

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chuwi lapbook air debut chuwi04 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

chuwi lapbook air debut chuwi03 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

That’s quite a sizable amount of local storage for an affordable system like the LapBook Air, and can even be expanded through the M.2 slot if needed. However, it should be said that Chuwi isn’t 100 percent clear on the type of storage this laptop offers. In some cases, Chuwi claims it’s an SSD, while describing it in others as a “hard drive,” and in one Amazon listing as “memory.”

As AnandTech says, considering most other Chuwi laptops use EMMC flash storage, it’s probably a good bet that this model follows suit

Whatever the hardware configuration, it all helps run the 14.1-inch 1080P IPS display, which we’re told could be a little on the dim side when compared with more high-end offerings, but should otherwise be fine for most uses. It’s surrounded by a relatively slimline bezel that contributes only a few millimeters to the device’s overall thickness. At its thinnest, it’s said to be just six millimeters deep, and at just under three pounds, it’s a very portable little system.

Connectivity-wise, there’s an HDMI port, twin USB 3.0 Type-A ports, a TF card slot, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

The Chuwi LapBook Air is slated for release on October 10, with a price of $430.

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