12th Gen Laptop For Only $249? Chuwi Gemibook XPro Review

00:00 - Intro, unboxing, and weight
01:06 - Design and features
02:56 - Webcam sample
05:17 - Loudspeaker sample
05:36 - Internals
07:35 - Screen
08:38 - Windows 11, benchmarks and performance tests
13:17 - 4k video decoding tests and Youtube 4k60
14:41 - Thermals and fan noise sample
15:21 - GTA V 720p gaming test
16:25 - Final thoughts with Pros and Cons

[Techtablets]

00:00 - Intro, unboxing, and weight
01:06 - Design and features
02:56 - Webcam sample
05:17 - Loudspeaker sample
05:36 - Internals
07:35 - Screen
08:38 - Windows 11, benchmarks and performance tests
13:17 - 4k video decoding tests and Youtube 4k60
14:41 - Thermals and fan noise sample
15:21 - GTA V 720p gaming test
16:25 - Final thoughts with Pros and Cons

[horvbalint]

Please keep testing laptops for Linux compatibility, like Fedora or Ubuntu. This channel was such a valuable source of information for that.

[jacksonallan]

Thanks for the review! A few years ago, I paid $225 for an N5000/4GB laptop + $40 for an SSD to install in it. It's amazing to see that less money can now buy a similar laptop with twice the RAM and a 50-60% more powerful processor.

[BlackCatRedScarf]

Very cool laptop. The only turn off for me is the power button on keyboard. It's pretty easy to have problems on these keyboards and once it gets any short circuit or problem, the laptop becomes a paper weight with power button and it's hard to get replacement keyboards. Also, making work around on the keyboard power button is nearly impossible at the ribbon connector.

[dqkneely]

The webcam looks better than some higher-end laptops and the IO is decent at this price point. It's the Dacia Duster of laptops lol. seems like an excellent day-to-day laptop for those who just need something to surf the net, watch videos, and attend classes. Not being special yet having all of these features makes it special in itself lol

[franciselmer]

This reminds me of the jumper ezbook e pro i bought in 2018 because of your review. I still use it today and still functions well. Might upgrade to this. Thanks Chris!

[waldamy]

I think somewhere in 2017 I had a 14 inch dell Vostro with an i7 dual core which cost somewhere around 800$ at the time.
As far as I can tell, this little laptop has the same performance, similar battery life and a better screen (same sRGB, but better brightness and resolution), for just 250$

Could be a good starter laptop for someone, who doesn't have money to spare, or maybe for a kid.
Slap linux on it and it would feel pretty good for a few years for sure.

[Xibyth]

Thats actually a very solid deal for students or office workers. Battery life is the most critical for them, even a sata 3 speeds this will zip through word, excel, powerpoint, and acrobat. Nice big trackpad. Lightweight. This was built strictly for function, and most buyers vastly overspend for no benifit. 6 years from now it will still be capable of the same thing.

[adammarks]

Imo marketing this chip with "Alder Lake" or 12th gen is not quite true. While Intel N100 is technically of an Alder Lake generation, it lacks P-cores and is solely based on E-cores. Those E-cores are 4th gen Intel Atom microarchitecture (Gracemont), not related in any way to "big" Alder Lake microarch. (Golden Cove).

For the price however those are just fine and acceptable, I only have issue with the marketing.

[sophiaisabelle]

That laptop is sure to increase your productivity. Thanks for this review.

[andyH_England]

Hard to complain about the price. My parents need a laptop but use it once a week at most, so this pricing fits well. However, in the end, I bought a refurb three-year-old laptop for a similar price with more oomph.

[markrichardson]

Chris, I bought the alldocube iPlay 40 pro tablet and Teclast F7 laptop years ago from your reviews and I have much paraise of you and your channel. Currently I'm searching for a tablet that can take the place of both these items and have come to an issue of too many options out there making it a difficult decision!!! Any help here is regarded highly and no need to worry about making a statement vs keeping a decision that may screw you if you help An Aussie fan 😊

[NilsFerry]

Thanks for the detailed review. I'm binge-watching several of your laptop reviews because I'm a teacher who does some lessons by Google Meet, and I've got to replace a broken laptop ASAP and my school has no budget for it. The only activity I do that challenges the computer's processing is presenting YT videos and Google Earth on Google Meet calls. It got laggy on the Chuwi Ubook I was using. Wondering if you could show some presenting in your reviews of this machine and others going forward.

[francxsim]

Had a Chuwi laptop a few years back but product design issues meant the device did not last as long as I hoped. Hopefully this model is better designed and built.

[maujadiprogrammer]

this kind of content is why i love your channel

[peterwalkerden]

Seems like a good laptop for travel, as of it gets stolen it's no great loss. But totally usable for most things whilst traveling.

[Ajirioghene]

I'll be better off buying an old refurbished high-end laptop than a cheap new one.

Thanks for the review, I loved it.

[francescomengoli]

Thanks for the review as always Chris.

Love me some chinese cheap laptops. Alder Lake N is quite nice, shame intel decided to ship them only with support for a single ram channel; can't let the cheap stuff get too good!

I spent quite some time with Jasper Lake processors and fount that for those 15W was really high. If Alder Lake N behaves similarly i think 10w would have been a better fit for such a laptop. Maybe up to 15w for the 8 core model. Also the passive cooling was a nice bonus.

Battery life is quite poor got to say, even with 38Wh it's disappointing.

I'd like to see them start pushing for USB-C charging, we have been stuck in the barrel connector realm since the early Jumper days

Cheers

[davw]

Thanks, helped inform my decision to buy...and mine even sounds not too shabby.

[aa-ytwo]

According to the posts on Chuwi's own forum you cannot use a PCIe SSD, only SATA. The PCIe lanes are not connected to the NVME slot.