Crowdfunding campaign: CHUWI Aerobook Notebook

For the new CHUWI Aerobook, the Chinese manufacturer will (once again) launch an Indiegogo campaign, which will start on 27.02.. The Chinese manufacturer wants to position a mid-range device with Intel-m3 processor on the market for the first time. Can this work with the Aerobook? We took a closer look at the new notebook.

• CHUWI Aerobook Notebook Indiegogo campaign

Technical data

Clear design line with recognition value

Currently, the Chinese laptop market is quite busy, manufacturers such as Teclast, CHUWI and Jumper are launching new devices and variations on the market at short intervals. In my opinion CHUWI is doing quite well, at least in terms of design. After the first CHUWI LapBook models, in the white plastic case with 14.1 inch and 15.6 inch, followed already the first devices with high-quality aluminum body with 12.3 inch and the CHUWI LapBook Air with 14.1 inch.

With the older CHUWI budget laptops, the design was still arbitrary and selected according to availability or cost. However, this has changed since the CHUWI LapBook SE was launched in August 2018. In all the following variations, the design is at least very similar.

The recognition value consists of the housing colour in combination with a large keyboard and a comparatively large touchpad. In addition, there is an illuminated CHUWI logo on the back of the display. Meanwhile three models are already available with the CHUWI LapBook SE, CHUWI LapBook Pro and the CHUWI Herobook. The CHUWI Aerobook is the fourth and most powerful model in the current product range with a clear, recognisable design line.

Hardware of the CHUWI Aerobook

This time, the Intel Celeron N4100 Quad-Core, which is currently used in almost all budget notebooks, isn’t operating inside. Instead, CHUWI opted for an Intel Core m3-6y30 dual core for the Aerobook. Does that make me happy? Unfortunately only a little bit, because the processor dates back to 2015 and was already installed by Xiaomi in the Mi Notebook Air 12.5 inch in 2016.

Despite the age and the somewhat lower clock rate, the Intel Core m3-6y30 with Hyper-Threading still performs slightly better in most benchmark tests than the Intel Celeron N4100. I don’t want to talk about a real upgrade with a processor that’s almost four years old. As usual, CHUWI uses the on-board graphics chip, which is called Intel HD Graphics 515.

I like the fact that CHUWI uses a 128 GB SSD and not cheap eMMC memory. In addition, there is a solid 8 GB RAM, which is also sufficient with a view to the future. Like the other CHUWI models, the laptop is passively cooled.

Connections: again no USB-C

Unfortunately, the CHUWI Aerobook is again charged by hollow plug, here I would wish for a solution manufacturer-independent per USB-C. Among other things, this offers the advantage that EU power supplies, or spare power supplies, would be much easier to obtain. So far only Xiaomi consistently uses USB-C (except gaming notebooks). Meanwhile Teclast also often installs a USB-C data and charging port, for example in the Teclast F5 or Teclast F6 Pro. CHUWI and Jumper have unfortunately not yet taken full advantage of the trend towards universal connectivity.

Otherwise the CHUWI Aerobook offers enough connections to get along in my opinion, in everyday life. These include 2x USB-A 3.0, a 3.5 mm jack input, a microSD card slot, the charging port and an HDMI port. According to the manufacturer, the latter is a micro HDMI interface, but because of the photos I would rather bet on mini HDMI.

Evaluation

In my opinion, the CHUWI Aerobook is a step in the right direction. However, in my opinion, Chinese manufacturers are coming too late with it. I don’t like the almost four years old hardware, even if it is still usable. I myself have been using the Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 12.5″ for three years now, with exactly this processor, but with only 4 GB RAM. You can still work well with it, only with too many browser tabs it gets a bit slow. With the CHUWI Aerobook that should be less of a problem, thanks to the double RAM.

Indiegogo will give you a 25% discount right at the beginning, so you can get it for $379. A price that is certainly okay. Much more interesting, however, is for which price it will be in the China shops. In comparison, you can also get the Teclast F6 Pro for around $400, depending on the supply situation. Here the following Intel Core m3-7y30 was already installed and you get a convertible with touchscreen and USB-C connection. It remains to be seen whether the CHUWI Aerobook is competitive in terms of price/performance ratio.