CHUWI Minibook X N100 2023 Review

Photosensitive epilepsy warning, this video contains flashing lights.
Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
00:22 - Specification
01:03 - Configurations
01:22 - What's inside the box
01:30 - Build quality
02:08 - Keyboard
02:47 - Touchpad
03:14 - 2-in-1 feature
03:44 - Touchscreen
04:03 - Ports and charging options
05:27 - Speakers
06:10 - Display
07:19 - Camera & microphone
07:35 - Performance
09:15 - Heat issue
09:48 - Battery life
10:13 - WiFi & Bluetooth
10:31 - Internals
10:56 - BIOS
11:13 - Opinion
11:49 - Alternatives and verdict
12:58 - Improvements that can be done
14:01 - Ending note
Source for video timeline:
(remark: migrated to pastebin due to youtube link truncation)
pastebin.com/raw/jM4JQ2M0
For Linux compatibility, refer to links below:
pastebin.com/raw/yvc907Uf
Linux good to know:
Display scaling is needed for such a small screen. Fractional display scaling on X11 is more computationally expensive, and makes everything tad blurry. I recommend using font scaling (for Ubuntu, Large Text option is available in Accessibility Settings) instead of fractional display scaling.

[@BrewingOwl-sm8zu]

Let's keep the comment section insightful for others! P.S. timestamps, sources, and linux compatibility are in the description.

[@Suzu_BEE]

Hello, can you please try installing a chromeos flex or fydeos stsrem and see what the battery performance is like? pleaseeeeeee

[@jerrypinewood6278]

This is an incredible review - everything you'd want covered, you've covered. Clear, objective and without any bloat or typical reviewer nonsense. Its straight to the point and its clear you've made it for your fellow techies. I hope you make more reviews in the future.

[@phoenixcello4103]

Congratulations! Excellent review. Didactic!

[@allesdurchprobiert]

Great attention to detail! Way better than the average on KZbin! 👍

[@qwertyx7ts]

wow you made exactly the sort of review I wanted of this device :) kudos for linux situation commentary :)

[@romanlewandowski6131]

Thx bro. I wish more KZbinrs did such a relatable reviews.

[@thedislikebutton3564]

nice vid man subbed

[@fedayeen_revolutionist]

Thank you for the review, you're amazing

[@aceacejo6114]

very good review! Thank you❤❤❤🎉

[@kismetgorostiza420]

This is one of the best reviews out there. Thank you and you just earned yourself a new subscriber

[@evenleven]

A nice review. you earned my sub.

[@thekrevolution]

thanks for the review, it was helpful

[@kooky2]

Sweet mini laptop. Glad you are enjoying it!

[@Will-kp1iv]

thanks for the reliable review

[@zseli]

thanks for the review! I have a thing for mini laptops, especially not the n100 makes this very interesting

[@nhansgoofyvideos7581]

It's a very detailed review for what it is... Wish your channel would grow further. I was tempted to buy this when it first came out, but on second thought it does not make too much sense for my use case.

[@Soupie62]

There are 2 times this laptop could be useful for me: 1. Field work, supporting ham radio gear. 2. When travelling, I want light weight AND a way to back up camera SD cards to SSD. For both cases, a combination battery supply / external SSD would be a good option. For SD data backup, most laptops have an SD reader - I'd need a plug in USB hub to do that here.

[@miguelalmeida1213]

I was thinking about getting one, but the barebones BIOS is a deterrent. No IOMMU and virtualization settings at all, no control over the power button when the lid is closed, no control over the behavior when the lid is open and the laptop is suspended. Thank you for sparing me 300€ :)

[@edwinphone]

i have 1 too, similar version (N100). Help me a lot in everyday activities.

[@martinmicallef4381]

Thanks amazing review well done 👍 as no one seems to care about low cost portable devices.

[@Mantikal]

This is the best review on this item that I have found. Oh yeah , this little guy has the BIOS with the least amount of setting options to change that I have ever seen. People have asked the company when will they have an updated BIOS (with more settings to tweak) on their site to download and the company rep said that they aren't the real product manufacturer - and won't tell them who it really is. They are also questioning them as to why they would want another BIOS. They are saying that they don't want to deal with people complaining that they did a BIOS update and bricked their device - and blaming them for the problem. I've never heard of this type of reaction from a PC manufacturer. There is the market of Windows users for this item (most of the people commenting here) who want the device for its size, build quality and that they can casually use MS Windows on it - they're set and happy. However, there is another market for it of tweakers - like myself - who like installing an alternate operating system on items like this. In my case - different versions of Linux. If you're going to buy it to put a linux distro on it (like I did), you're in for a nasty surprise. Both your installation media USB plugin thumb drive (when it boots up) and your final install on the laptop's hard drive will BOOT UP SIDEWAYS - all four parts: 1. The bootloader section (at the very beginning) where you're given choices of which OS to load 2. The entire text part - scrolling up the screen as the Distro OS loads 3. The Desktop login screen 4. Finally, after logging in, your desktop itself is also sideways. Actually, everything is rotated 45 degrees counter-clockwise. But wait, it gets better - you also won't be able to use your touchpad correctly - when you try to gesture with it, the cursor on screen will move in a completely different direction - guaranteed to drive you nuts. The touchscreen is what saved me here. You'll have to do online research and find the fixes that more advanced Linux users came up with - installing certain background apps or editing system or bootloader files - a normal day for the Linux community. After several days of doing that, I was able to get everything loading right-side-up.

[@gutenmorgenprachuap1389]

Was it really rotated 45 degrees? That sounds weird. I rather think that it was rotated by 90 degrees.

[@fiser4564]

Thank you for the video, it is great, but one thing, please don't put the laptop sleeve under your laptop, because by that you are stopping the airflow and shorting the device's life or overheating can happen. You can use something that is hard and doesn't bend or you can elevate it, so it has better airflow and not heating it self too much. ps. Sorry for my bad english

[@yourmajesty7604]

Your English is better than native speakers.

[@eusebiomamacjr.3025]

This video is fantastic, and I appreciate the effort you put into creating it. It has been very helpful in guiding my decision on whether to make a purchase. Ultimately, thanks to this video, I've decided not to proceed with the purchase.

[@JosephWall117]

I just bought one of these recently. I really enjoy it and it's very useful for my particular use-case of just wanting a very small laptop I can use in my car while on break at work, small enough to stash in my dashboard but big enough that the keyboard is still usable. I also sometimes just fold it over my steering wheel and watch youtube, it's great. This is a really comprehensive review, you covered pretty much everything. One thing that might concern some people though, is that the screen is 50hz, which feels pretty choppy if you're used to higher refresh rates. It is possible to increase this up to 90hz on some Minibooks, but it's a lottery depending on your individual display. I got lucky, mine goes up to 90hz and it feels so much better to use that way, but I've seen other people try it and not even be able to hit 60hz. Also, I wanted to ask since you're using Linux on the Minibook, is it possible to limit the laptop's state of charge to 85% while under Linux? Chuwi are notorious for not only low battery life but also just cheaply made, short-lived batteries in general, so I wanted to reduce the maximum charge level to sustain the lifespan of the battery, since I'll mostly be using it while plugged in (keeping a battery hot and at 100% capacity will reduce the battery's lifespan). I haven't found a way to do this in Windows but I'd totally switch to linux just for that and to mess around with proton.

[@BrewingOwl-sm8zu]

I tried digging around. As far as I know, it does not support limiting laptop's state of charge on linux.

[@Crowea]

I bought the product, but what was unfortunate was the display. You can't set it with a low resolution below 720P. If you forcibly lower the resolution using the CRU, the screen will not be output. Perhaps the lowest supported resolution of the display mounted on the laptop is 720P.

[@BashingDinosaurs]

Good review - thanks. You mention battery life on Linux in the video. What distribution did you use and was it useable?

[@BrewingOwl-sm8zu]

I'm using Ubuntu, mostly due to familiarity. Not everything works out of the box. It is usable enough for me after a few tweaks. For more details, look for "CHUWI Minibook X Linux Reddit" online. The only main issue that isn't fixed yet is Wayland has screen tearing which isn't present in X11. Also, if orientation detection is important for you, it doesnt work. I have not found an article on the internet touching upon this topic so far, likely due to lack of interest.

[@woahnelly42]

Thanks for diving deep with this one. Glossing over linux compatibility/driver support was a bit of a missed opportunity, though. I assume that everything was working fine for you.

[@BrewingOwl-sm8zu]

Hey, you are the second person that asked about linux compatibility. The short answer is: it works well enough after some modifications. Do check out the comments I've left on another person.

[@woahnelly42]

@@BrewingOwl-sm8zu I see, thanks! A quick google search tells me that most things should be fine on a newer kernel. I don't expect rotation to ever be working under linux unfortunately.

[@stage666]

Mine has horrible light bleed at the top edge of the screen. Sucks....

[@peppermintaviation]

When I checked out this laptop in a Japanese computer shop, I found the power button had a tiny sharp edge and that it was easy in my opinion to accidently power the device in a bag perhaps. Also it slightly rattled in its place.

[@princelloyd]

what is the brand and specs of the power bank you use for this laptop?

[@Bonkikavo]

What do usb-c ports do, are they thunderbolt or what, can you send data and power to external monitor and stuff?

[@josiasjsparkz604]

Could this Chuwi notebook match To Panasonic CF-RZ4 performances since both seems belong to similar class pls ...

[@christiansantos1031]

why some version has narrow bezzle and others are big bezzle...if i want narrow what model will i buy?

[@NikolaosTsitsoulis]

why would you get this instead of a second hand Macbook air 11.6 e.g. from 2015 or a Macbook (12 inch )?

[@enayetchowdhury105]

Does it have back-lit keyboard? Could not tell. Great review.

[@timmark4190]

Micro center sells an HP laptop for $200. With an i3 CPU

[@muhammadanas8043]

What's that white powerbank you showed?

[@AddictManga2.0]

Hello, good video, a question, this chuwi has palm rejection? I want to use it with a pencil from the same brand chuwi hipen H8

[@BrewingOwl-sm8zu]

The 2023 version of Minibook X does not have stylus support (you can see the specs in 0:24), I doubt it has palm rejection. You can get better answer by asking on official Chuwi forum.

[@notloki3140]

Use a higher trackpad sensitivity to get rid of the up and down space limitation, duh.

[@user-xm2eq1yx9v]

dijual ga bang ?

[@Yamuleth]

what is that game you played?

[@archdebiangentoo]

share wallpaper, also based linux user

[@someniceguy524]

I can use this to read visual novels xdd

[@TehMazed]

terrible bezels I went back to the 2022 n5100

[@MikeBeeTV]

Don't buy Chuwi, I paid for a Ubook with a 2160x1440 screen with a keyboard and stylus: they sent me one with a 1920x1080 screen and no keyboard or stylus. I tole Chuwi about this, they said to send the wrong one back and they'd send the right one. A few days later I asked for a tracking number for the correct tablet and they're like, "Huh? What? Who dis?" Don't lose your money like I did: do not give money to Chuwi just to have it taken.

[@nemowei5553]

The quality sucks. I had a Chuwi. Never again.

[@claudebouchard8410]

Helpful and I wont buy thanks

[@dfbess]

The N100 is a good chip, I have a Beelink mini S12 Pro with it .. and it surprised me how capable the CPU is.. If your having issues with wifi and Bluetooth on Linux Try these commands If your running Ubuntu /Debian sudo apt install backport-iwlwifi-dkms cd /lib/firmware/intel/ sudo ln -s ibt-1040-4150.ddc ibt-0040-1050.ddc sudo ln -s ibt-1040-4150.sfi ibt-0040-1050.sfi

[@LapkaKutiapka]

That's an absolute mistake to buy any products with n4100, n95 and n100 processors.