Buy your next laptop on AliExpress

[AlexTheGreatish]

Typically when we buy laptops off AliExpress it is because they are comically bad... but on paper the Chuwi Corebook X is just plain a good deal.

 

Buy a Chuwi CoreBook X 14" Laptop: https://lmg.gg/gFSmq

Buy a HP 15.6" Laptop w/ Intel Core i5-1135G7 CPU: https://geni.us/ecsjKv

Buy a Sabrent Rocket 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD: https://geni.us/Q2an

Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group.

 

 

 

[Zednix]

Holy cow the bit about the battery usage for a fake 8 hours is pretty funny. A lot of the bits of info about the Chuwi are pretty interesting. I have been considering the Pixel Tablet for around 550 cad and this chuwi laptop is similar in price.

[AndreiArgeanu]

Watch the Chuwi increase in price or go out of stock soon if it hasn't already.

 

As an alternative at least in the UK at least for about 80-90£ extra you can spec out a Lenovo Thinkpad E16 with an i5 1335U, 16GB of ram and 512gb of storage for about 560£. It has a nicer aluminium build, although a lesser screen. Otherwise a solid laptop.

[kokosnh]

Just if anyone would be curious, SSD usually need 1MB of DRAM to map 1GB of NAND. 

Lots of DRAM-less SSD use HBM (NVMe 1.2 spec) to cache  FTL (map of the data), they use host system RAM memory to cache small part of the FTL, as it's still faster, than getting it from NAND. But they usually use only like 32MB of host RAM for HMB, so they can cache usually around 32GB of NAND. It's enough to fool benchmarks/test, as it speeds up writes, and reads of newly written data. The old data is still in the rest of the FTL in slow NAND memory. And remember, the controller and NAND do matter, not only if the SSD have DRAM, or not.

[Hooorse]

Have you tried plugging in the HP? On mine plugging it in makes colors, performance and brightness better. That would also explain the long battery life.

[aisle9]

Anyone else here get the feeling that Chuwi might have slapped a much smaller battery in there and put a fake label on it?

[CyberneticTitan]

I understand that BestBuy laptop was chosen probably because what was in stock at the price at the time but there are some decent 12th Gen laptops for $700 CAD: https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/asus-vivobook-15-15-6-laptop-quiet-blue-intel-core-i5-1235u-512gb-ssd-8gb-ram-windows-11/16690940

 

Or a Zen 3 model from USA: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/dell-inspiron-14-0-2-in-1-touch-laptop-amd-ryzen-5-7530u-8gb-memory-512gb-ssd-lavender-blue/6538395.p?skuId=6538395

 

Also for $600 USD you can get the XPS 13: https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-laptops/xps-13-laptop/spd/xps-13-9315-laptop

[AndreiArgeanu]

50 minutes ago, CyberneticTitan said:

$700 CAD: https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/asus-vivobook-15-15-6-laptop-quiet-blue-intel-core-i5-1235u-512gb-ssd-8gb-ram-windows-11/16690940

 

They showed it at the very beginning of the video and chose to omit because of the awful wifi card.

[CyberneticTitan]

55 minutes ago, AndreiArgeanu said:

They showed it at the very beginning of the video and chose to omit because of the awful wifi card.

Ah that was the same model.

 

Well there is also this one: https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/msi-modern-15-b12m-15-6-laptop-black-intel-core-i5-1235u-512gb-ssd-16gb-ram-windows-11/16769764

[dogwitch]

3 minutes ago, CyberneticTitan said:

Ah that was the same model.

 

Well there is also this one: https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/msi-modern-15-b12m-15-6-laptop-black-intel-core-i5-1235u-512gb-ssd-16gb-ram-windows-11/16769764

honestly how they show laptop models now. its a nightmare fuel online.

 

[swimtome]

5 hours ago, AndreiArgeanu said:

They showed it at the very beginning of the video and chose to omit because of the awful wifi card.

Why didn't the show how they checked the info on the wifi card...

[Needfuldoer]

29 minutes ago, swimtome said:

Why didn't the show how they checked the info on the wifi card...

Because that wasn't the point of the video. "We didn't include X laptop for Y reason because we know just from the spec sheet it's going to be a worse experience" is enough explanation without getting too sidetracked.

[AverageDad]

Question? i'm looking to replace my wifes old Hp with a new laptop to watch youtube and sometimes play BDG3 with me if i get the SSD and the Chuwi Would that work ok?

[Rarity]

that looks like a lot of unused spcae in the Chuwi laptop .. 

[powertoys]

My eyes must be deceiving me, an actually decent review of a $500 laptop from a big youtube channel

 

I do have some criticism about your recommendations... this one being the worst offender

 

 

On laptops, AVOID the 3rd gen (3000-series) Ryzens. For the most part this is a non-issue, because almost if not all budget laptops currently being sold are using 5000-series Ryzen CPUs, which are Zen 2 (in the case of the 5500U) and SO much better than the 3000-series Ryzens. They represent a huge jump in both performance and efficiency.

 

I'd say to also avoid the 7x2x Ryzens (like the 7520U) - these CPUs are actually downgrades from their 5000-series counterparts and laptops currently on the market, these are almost exclusively using LPDDR5 RAM, which is fully soldered, but the worst part is the iGPU... these get absolutely demolished by the Vega iGPUs on the 5000-series. It's like going from a 4070 to a 1050 Ti, that's how bad they are, not even the faster RAM can help them, and I'd go as far as to call it a scam to sell older chips, because unsuspecting customers WILL think they are better because 7000 is a higher number than 5000.

 

--

 

For SSDs, if you really wanna dive into that, I suggest you throw in a large sustained write load, beyond the SSD's SLC cache, which is usually where they fall apart - and the presence of a DRAM cache absolutely does NOT mean that it's a good SSD. I've seen quite a lot of NVMe SSDs with DRAM cache get absolutely trashed by a regular 2.5" SATA SSD, where the worst cases had the NVMe sustained write speed in USB 2.0 levels. CrystalDiskMark is a good test for short bursts but nothing more, and benchmarking the same drive that the entire OS is running on isn't the smartest thing to do - that could probably the cause of the wild variation between benchmarks...

 

I should also use this opportunity to say that it just isn't good advice for newbies because, apart from Framework, not a SINGLE laptop OEM lists the exact SSD in their laptops, it's usually just "SSD 512 GB PCIe NVMe" and that's it, because doing it this way means they can use a huge variety of SSDs while technically meeting all specifications - the average user can't tell a difference (as proven by your own blind test from 3 years ago). It would be a very useful advice in a "SSD Shopping" video.

 

--

 

I know hiding screws under the feet is a dick move but only opening the Chuwi laptop is even more of a dick move for the viewer, especially considering that IT ALSO HAD SCREW HIDDEN UNDER THE FEET. And this is even worse because it's where you'd find the biggest difference between these 2 laptops. These chinese laptops have a terrible track record when it comes to longevity and it'd be nice to see the internals side-by-side.

 

-----

 

Now my personal opinion... I think sacrifing 3 hours of battery life for a QHD screen is just dumb. FHD looks more than good enough on a 15-16" screen, a huge chunk of users resort to 125% scaling to be able to see comfortably - this is precisely the reason why the "1536x864" resolution is "popular", this resolution is how web browsers report 1080p with 125% scaling because 1080 / 1.25 = 864.

 

I'd much rather have a better color gamut instead of more resolution. Speaking of that, it's shocking that this is still an issue in 2023. 45% NTSC (~60% sRGB) is stupidly common on laptops (and the Steam Deck) to this day and I just don't understand why. You'd have a hard time finding an Android smartphone under $100 that couldn't cover more than 90% of sRGB. What is the screen component, or the combination of components, responsible for this, and why does this seem to affect laptops exclusively? I've never seen someone deep diving into this (probably for good reason, because it's an extremely niche topic). Though you can tell that these screens ALWAYS have trouble with reds and blues, green is mostly unaffected.

[dogwitch]

1 hour ago, powertoys said:

My eyes must be deceiving me, an actually decent review of a $500 laptop from a big youtube channel

 

I do have some criticism about your recommendations... this one being the worst offender

 

 

On laptops, AVOID the 3rd gen (3000-series) Ryzens. For the most part this is a non-issue, because almost if not all budget laptops currently being sold are using 5000-series Ryzen CPUs, which are Zen 2 (in the case of the 5500U) and SO much better than the 3000-series Ryzens. They represent a huge jump in both performance and efficiency.

 

I'd say to also avoid the 7x2x Ryzens (like the 7520U) - these CPUs are actually downgrades from their 5000-series counterparts and laptops currently on the market, these are almost exclusively using LPDDR5 RAM, which is fully soldered, but the worst part is the iGPU... these get absolutely demolished by the Vega iGPUs on the 5000-series. It's like going from a 4070 to a 1050 Ti, that's how bad they are, not even the faster RAM can help them, and I'd go as far as to call it a scam to sell older chips, because unsuspecting customers WILL think they are better because 7000 is a higher number than 5000.

 

--

 

For SSDs, if you really wanna dive into that, I suggest you throw in a large sustained write load, beyond the SSD's SLC cache, which is usually where they fall apart - and the presence of a DRAM cache absolutely does NOT mean that it's a good SSD. I've seen quite a lot of NVMe SSDs with DRAM cache get absolutely trashed by a regular 2.5" SATA SSD, where the worst cases had the NVMe sustained write speed in USB 2.0 levels. CrystalDiskMark is a good test for short bursts but nothing more, and benchmarking the same drive that the entire OS is running on isn't the smartest thing to do - that could probably the cause of the wild variation between benchmarks...

 

I should also use this opportunity to say that it just isn't good advice for newbies because, apart from Framework, not a SINGLE laptop OEM lists the exact SSD in their laptops, it's usually just "SSD 512 GB PCIe NVMe" and that's it, because doing it this way means they can use a huge variety of SSDs while technically meeting all specifications - the average user can't tell a difference (as proven by your own blind test from 3 years ago). It would be a very useful advice in a "SSD Shopping" video.

 

--

 

I know hiding screws under the feet is a dick move but only opening the Chuwi laptop is even more of a dick move for the viewer, especially considering that IT ALSO HAD SCREW HIDDEN UNDER THE FEET. And this is even worse because it's where you'd find the biggest difference between these 2 laptops. These chinese laptops have a terrible track record when it comes to longevity and it'd be nice to see the internals side-by-side.

 

-----

 

Now my personal opinion... I think sacrifing 3 hours of battery life for a QHD screen is just dumb. FHD looks more than good enough on a 15-16" screen, a huge chunk of users resort to 125% scaling to be able to see comfortably - this is precisely the reason why the "1536x864" resolution is "popular", this resolution is how web browsers report 1080p with 125% scaling because 1080 / 1.25 = 864.

 

I'd much rather have a better color gamut instead of more resolution. Speaking of that, it's shocking that this is still an issue in 2023. 45% NTSC (~60% sRGB) is stupidly common on laptops (and the Steam Deck) to this day and I just don't understand why. You'd have a hard time finding an Android smartphone under $100 that couldn't cover more than 90% of sRGB. What is the screen component, or the combination of components, responsible for this, and why does this seem to affect laptops exclusively? I've never seen someone deep diving into this (probably for good reason, because it's an extremely niche topic). Though you can tell that these screens ALWAYS have trouble with reds and blues, green is mostly unaffected.

on screen. larger screen higher fail rate.

[IanSzot]

Aliexpress also has some gaming laptops from random brands, I'd like to see some tests done on them aswell. They have some crazy specs for a very cheap price, of course it'll have all the downsides of buying unkown aliexpress brands: no warranty and no guarantee that they'll keep updating the BIOS.

[kokosnh]

16 hours ago, AndreiArgeanu said:

They showed it at the very beginning of the video and chose to omit because of the awful wifi card

Question, what do they mean by that „one by one Wi-Fi”? Is it just that, it’s not a mu-mimo? i don't understand it

[AndreiArgeanu]

32 minutes ago, kokosnh said:

Question, what do they mean by that „one by one Wi-Fi”? Is it just that, it’s not a mu-mimo? i don't understand it

It refers to the amount of "transmit and receive radio chains built into the Wi-Fi card"

https://superuser.com/questions/323347/laptop-wireless-networking-options-1x1-vs-2x2

To further quote

Quote

1x1 and 2x2 refer to the number of transmit and receive radio chains built into the Wi-Fi card. 2x2 means it has two transmit and two receive radio chains, and usually implies that it supports 2 "spacial streams", which is a key way that 802.11n is faster than the previous generation of Wi-Fi technologies.

 

[powertoys]

7 hours ago, dogwitch said:

on screen. larger screen higher fail rate.

If this is true, then why it does not apply to TVs and monitors, both of which have a much larger volume of sales than laptops?

 

I have a very basic secondary monitor from LG (1366x768, TN) that I use exclusively for WhatsApp, and yet this one is actually 72% NTSC.

 

I did some researching and all of these cheap monitors are using either 60 or 72% NTSC panels. Funnily enough, the entry-level 1600x900 TN panel on most 17" laptops is actually 60% NTSC, not 45%, so it looks like making a bigger screen is easier?

[kokosnh]

18 minutes ago, AndreiArgeanu said:

It refers to the amount of "transmit and receive radio chains built into the Wi-Fi card"

https://superuser.com/questions/323347/laptop-wireless-networking-options-1x1-vs-2x2

To further quote

 

So I was thinking about the correct thing.  
but then why do they mention it, as it really doesn't matter.
I would be more interested to know how wide the channels it can support, and wifi frequencies and standard it support ( that would tell me the max speed ).

I would rather have one channel laptop and phone, on 2x2 wifi AC. Then both fighting for the transmission time.

 

 

I get the feeling, that they concentrate on some part of the spec, while completely ignorant to the others ( that do matter ), just like that DRAM in SSD.

only knowing that the wifi is 2x2 doesn't necessarily mean is better, than a good 1x1 one. you have to look at the whole specification of the component. 

Just like in SSD, just because it has, or doesn't have DRAM, doesn't mean we should ignore the controller spec ( cores, channels count and speed ets. ), and NAND type, generation, speeds, P/E cycles ets. 

 

[AndreiArgeanu]

16 minutes ago, kokosnh said:

So I was thinking about the correct thing.  
but then why do they mention it, as it really doesn't matter.
I would be more interested to know how wide the channels it can support, and wifi frequencies and standard it support ( that would tell me the max speed ).

I would rather have one channel laptop and phone, on 2x2 wifi AC. Then both fighting for the transmission time.

 

 

I get the feeling, that they concentrate on some part of the spec, while completely ignorant to the others ( that do matter ), just like that DRAM in SSD.

only knowing that the wifi is 2x2 doesn't necessarily mean is better, than a good 1x1 one. you have to look at the whole specification of the component. 

Just like in SSD, just because it has, or doesn't have DRAM, doesn't mean we should ignore the controller spec ( cores, channels count and speed ets. ), and NAND type, generation, speeds, P/E cycles ets. 

 

Maybe they didn't go into it further in the video because they didn't need to. From what info I could find the HP uses a MediaTek MT7921 and the Asus a RTL8821CE. The MediaTek to me looks better in every way than the RTL8821CE. I don't think they need to spend half an hour in the video as to why.

[kokosnh]

11 minutes ago, AndreiArgeanu said:

Maybe they didn't go into it further in the video because they didn't need to. From what info I could find the HP uses a MediaTek MT7921 and the Asus a RTL8821CE. The MediaTek to me looks better in every way than the RTL8821CE. I don't think they need to spend half an hour in the video as to why.

Yes that is true.
 

but then again, in this situation, it’s more complicated, as the AP need to support 2x2 for that part of the spec to matter ( well, the channels width, wifi frequencies, and wifi standards, also need to be supported for the rest of the gains to be available ) 

 

most people just use the internet provider router, and they usually suck.

[swimtome]

18 hours ago, Needfuldoer said:

Because that wasn't the point of the video. "We didn't include X laptop for Y reason because we know just from the spec sheet it's going to be a worse experience" is enough explanation without getting too sidetracked.

I mean would a quick screenshot of at least the card model number been getting sidetracked?  

[ARandomPerson]

        In July of this year, I was in a Virginia Best Buy and got an open-box Dell G15 with an RTX3050 mobile, R5 6600H, and 8 gigs of RAM with a 512 gig SSD and a 120 hertz 1080p display for 455 USD. After some setup and upgrading(just RAM to 32 gigs for its use case). It is amazing. The only thing to note was that the GPU wasn't recognized out of the box, but that was long-solved.