CHUWI AeroBook 13.3-Inch Laptop, Intel Core M3-6Y30 Processor, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, FHD (1920x1080) IPS Display, Windows 10 Home, Backlit Keyboard, 4K Video Decoding, Metal Cover

I haven’t had this for long, but so far so good. I’ve always brought well known brand laptops so I was a bit cautious going for this one. My last laptop was a student deal when I got it 6 years ago, I’ve been overdue for a new one for a while. This is a great budget laptop, working better than my Toshiba before for £100 less. The Aerobook is the perfect size for me, very easy to travel with in a backpack, only a little bigger than A4 paper, it’s thin and light weight. Some people have said about the keys being mislabelled for the UK. Chuwi included a Custom silicone keyboard cover to correct this minor problem, with the added benefit of the keys being better protected from dust/dirt/maybe a small spill. Much appreciated. After a long press of the power button, it boots up very quickly, same for shutting down. So far I’ve used it for streaming, word processing, browsing the internet and storing files. It’s well up to the job, I haven’t fully tested it’s multitasking capabilities yet. I was under the impression that it came with a 2.2Ghz processor speed but it seemed that cpu was saying 0.9GHz which is significantly less. I have found a reboot for turbo performance to improve it which of course will impact battery life, which may not be a problem for everyone. Before changing the processor speed the battery life seemed adequate, however I noted the predicted battery life in hours seems inconsistent with the battery per cent reading. Maybe this will even out once its more settled. The camera isn’t amazing but is adequate, I admit I tested it only briefly in poor light, it would be better if placed on a desk rather than on a lap when making web calls. Speakers do the job, decent key travel on keyboard, great windows 10 customisation, decent hinge for the screen. I like the dark metal design which is sleek and professional, it’s very quiet and I’m still very happy just for not having a bulky, hot, large laptop. Having no fan is a plus, as is lack of other features that I don’t actually need such as disk drive. At first glance its what I need in a laptop for performance and what I want in specs for laptop size, design and price too! If it keeps up current performance for its whole one year manufacturers warranty, I’d consider it money well spent. Nothing so far suggests it shouldn’t. I hope it lasts a long time; Chuwi, being such a good competitor in features, will be a brand I stick with if so.

Initially I thought I had made a good purchase. The speed was excellent, battery life decent, and the overlay to a UK keyboard worked well. However, a month in the issues started to mount. First, the battery started acting up. It started to suddenly die abruptly when not plugged in. After a week or two more, it had to be plugged in at all times for it to work. Secondly, the boot-up started to glitch up, with the computer turning itself off and on again before finally booting. Now it is damn near unusable, 3 months after the purchase. Turning it on is a gamble, sometimes it won't even start. Just save yourself the frustration and go with something else.

After initial problems - cool bananas! The WIFI was initially turned off in the Bios and I had to re-enable (F7 on reboot to get into the bios). The micro SD Card slot - you need to turn the card upside down. Nice build quality, screen, track-board, and keyboard. Plays low spec PC games fine. You can do more on this than an android tablet. Update: The battery died and expanded pushing the keyboard up. The hinge for the screen broke away from the plastic casing - braking it (leaving exposed motherboard). Obviously, had to take out battery and re-screw in the motherboard to the casing, but the keyboard works fine and I still use it every day. It now has character - having gone through a few trials. This laptop is for people who refuse to cough up money for an over-spec'd laptop, but instead want something tittering on the brink of failure. Very enjoyable!

In terms of appearance, the brushed metal finish and dark grey colour scheme is really stylish. The build quality is also excellent, gaps are tight and even, the lid is rigid and can barely be twisted. It actually has a bit of a MacBook feel to it in terms of appearance and build quality (without that pesky Apple operating system of course) which is surprising for the price. The keyboard has a decent feel (certainly comparable to most laptops that I have used) and the touchpad, which is my biggest pet hate on laptops (I almost always use a mouse) is fairly large, smooth and quite sensitive with a nice solid click sound when left or right clicking. Performance wise, the Intel m3-6Y30 processor is perfectly capable of carrying out the tasks that I have used it for (word processing, spreadsheets, surfing the web and streaming videos). I haven’t tried testing it out with any games as that’s not really what I bought it for but it should be able to cope with some of the older ones comfortably. One particular advantage that comes with the processor is that it is totally silent, it doesn’t use a fan, so there is no background noise and absolute peace and quite (except for your typing) when you are using it. This does mean that it can sometimes get warm if overtaxed but if you are sticking to the core activities as I mentioned previously this shouldn’t be an issue. It comes with two USB 3.0 ports, one USB Type-C connector, one microSD card slot, one mini-HDMI and one audio jack which is ample and a generous spread compared with my older laptop, and, a 240GB hard disk is not too shabby and more than capable for most everyday needs. Overall, for the purpose that I bought this for, it ticks all the boxes. Super light weight, slim and stylish, while perfectly able to handle word processing, spreadsheets, surfing and streaming and at a reasonable price. No complaints.