Chuwi Minibook X Review

Do you still remember the time when Apple still offered the 11-inch MacBook Air? What about netbooks that were around 11 inches big at most? Sadly those days are long past. Instead, the smallest laptops you’ll find on the market nowadays are 13 inches in size.

But if you really just want a tiny laptop similar to those sold in the past, and branding doesn’t matter, then the Chuwi MiniBook X might just be what you’re looking for.

It’s a tiny laptop, especially if you compare it to those offered by manufacturers today – only 9.6 inches long. Your iPad or tablet is probably even bigger than this thing. As with most Chuwi products, the MiniBook X also runs on Windows OS, and it also comes with a touchscreen display. Best of all, it’s quite affordable.

However, the big question is this – is the MiniBook X something you should consider if you’re looking for a small laptop?

Design and Construction

In terms of design, the Chuwi Minibook X looks and feels very premium. It features an all-aluminum body, similar to what you’d find on most laptops today – from the deck lid to the frame of the laptop.

If you like minimalism, then you’ll love the styling of the Minibook X. There’s barely any branding at all. The deck lid is free from any Chuwi logo or branding, which is nice but is a bit too boring for my taste. It doesn’t help that our unit is in this grayish-silver colorway too.

I mean, a logo would be nice to have at the very least at the center or even the corner of the deck lid. But hey, at least you can customize it yourself by adding stickers and whatnot. If you want branding, you’ll have to flip the Minibook X over since they’re hidden underneath the laptop.

As for the rest of the laptop, it only measures 9.6 inches long, making it one of the smallest laptops I’ve ever tried. In terms of thickness though it isn’t the thinnest at 17mm. I mean they do need to fit all of the components into this thing. But still, this makes it easy to store and carry around wherever you go.

For the ports though, there isn’t a lot. There are only two USB-C ports on the right side, one of which acts as your charging port. So if you’re using it while plugged in, you will need to use a USB hub to plug in your other devices. You do get a 3.5mm audio port at least.

Another thing you’ll notice about the Minibook X is that there aren’t a lot of vents on this laptop – only one on the left side and another at the bottom. This did lead to heating issues, which we’ll talk about later.

Once you open up the lid, you’re greeted by the 10.51-inch display, and at the bottom of the screen is where you’ll find the Chuwi logo. What’s great about the display is that you can open it up to 360 degrees, turning it into a tablet.

Alternatively, you can let it set up as a display if you want to watch a movie. Or you know, just use it as a regular laptop. The hinges feel strong, and it doesn’t feel like it will come apart even if you keep opening and closing it fully. So there’s no need to worry about it coming apart.

As for the keyboard, I’m surprised Chuwi went with something similar to a compact TKL layout despite the small space available. Despite that, it even has an LED backlight, which is a nice touch.

In terms of ergonomics though the keys feel very cramped, and you will easily make typing mistakes especially if you’re used to how keyboards are normally spaced out. It’s also not the most comfortable to type with for long periods of time since your fingers get tired easily.

I tried writing a chunk of this review using the Minibook X, but I eventually gave up since I kept making typing mistakes. Eventually, I did get used to it, but it’s not something I would recommend for typing long documents and such.

As for the trackpad, I like how it’s quite accurate and my fingers easily glide over it. There are no accidental taps or misclicks here. My only complaint is that it’s quite small, which did make it a bit hard to use. But for the most part, it’s decent.

Display and Multimedia

Moving back to the display, you have a 10.51-inch touchscreen panel with 1920×1200 resolution and a 16:10 aspect ratio. It’s not the best-looking display since it is a basic IPS panel, but the viewing angles are decent. The borders are quite thick though, which is a bit disappointing.

The colors of the display aren’t the most vivid either, especially if you’re used to OLED panels. However, the colors are accurate, which is a nice bonus. The screen isn’t the brightest either, but you can use it outdoors.

Personally, it’s more than enough if you’re just going to be watching videos on Netflix or YouTube. Considering how small the laptop screen is, you won’t be able to fully immerse yourself too. I mean, the display does only have a 50Hz refresh rate, which isn’t exactly the best. I wish they did bump it up to 60Hz at the very least.

This did make gaming a bit of a challenge. Yes, it can game, somewhat, but we’ll talk about that later on.

If you’re using it similar to a tablet, the touchscreen is decent and it’s quite accurate. You even get a digital keyboard that pops out instead of having to revert it back to laptop form. There is some noticeable delay when you tap too fast, but that’s likely caused by the 50Hz refresh rate.

As for the audio, it’s decent at best. There’s barely any bass, and the sound comes out a bit muddied. I was surprised at how loud it could get though. But honestly, you’re better off plugging in your earphones via the 3.5mm audio port or using your bluetooth headphones.

There’s also a 2MP webcam, but it’s not that good, especially in the dark. But if you need to open your camera for a video conference it can work.

Performance and Benchmarks

Under the hood, the Chuwi Minibook X runs Intel’s N150 chipset, which is often found in entry level laptops and mini PCs. Our review unit comes with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage, which is decent if you’re not going to be storing a lot of files on this device.

With all things considered, you shouldn’t really expect the best performance out of the Minibook X. Instead, this laptop-tablet hybrid is instead meant for productivity purposes, which it does so well.

If you’re just going through Google Docs or finalizing a presentation, it can do so without issues. You can even have a lot of tabs open in Chrome, and it will do just fine. I even installed Lightroom Classic on this to see how it would do when it comes to photo editing.

While it can run Lightroom no problem, it does take a while to load, and there is noticeable lag when you’re going through the app. It’s also slow to export photos especially if it’s a bit more high-res.

Now, the question that’s probably on your mind is can it run games. As I mentioned earlier, it can but you won’t really enjoy playing anything. I installed Genshin just to see how it would do, and it does run. The downside is that you have to adjust the graphic settings to the lowest possible. I even had to set the FPS to 45 since it stutters at 60.

Honestly, you won’t enjoy playing the game this way, and it applies to all other games. You might even be better off playing on your phone.

Considering how thin this laptop is, I’m not surprised it has heating issues. Even when you’re not playing games, it already heats up a bit. It gets even worse when playing games because it becomes very hot to the touch.

We run our usual benchmarks too, and you can check them out below. For reference these were run on Best Performance mode with the laptop plugged in.

PCMark 10 – 3063

Cinebench 2024
GPU – N/A
CPU (Multi) – 177 pts
CPU (Single) – 59 pts

Geekbench 6
Single – 1172
Multi – 2978
Vulkan – 4961
OpenCL – 4299

CrystalDiskMark
Read – 3313.91 MB/s
Write – 2721.37 MB/s

Battery and Connectivity

In terms of battery, the Chuwi MiniBook X doesn’t have the largest battery. It packs a 28.88Wh or 3800 mAh battery pack, which means you will find yourself charging often especially if you’re running a lot of apps at the same time.

On a full charge, the laptop says you will have approximately 5 hours of battery life, which is quite optimistic. Upon testing, it’s more accurate to say battery life is around 3 hours depending on what you’re doing.

For reference, I was using it to watch a video on YouTube, and the battery drained from full to 78 percent in just 30 minutes. The volume and brightness were maxed out with no other apps open.

With that, it’s best to bring the charger around with you all the time. It comes with a 36W charger out of the box, if you want to plug into a socket. Alternatively, you can also bring a fast power bank and a USB-C to charge it.

As for connectivity, it’s got the basics down – Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2

Conclusion

Overall, I like how the Chuwi Minibook X offers a combination of a laptop and tablet in a very compact size. I miss when companies offered laptops that were smaller than 13 inches. However, the small size does mean you sacrifice power and even battery life.

At best, this is something you bring to get work done, and that’s about it. Should it replace the laptop you’re using now? Not really. But if you want something that’s practical and small that can also work as a tablet, then this could be a good buy for you.

For a Windows laptop that doubles as a tablet, this isn’t too expensive. On the Chuwi website, the Minibook X with the same N150 chipset, 12GB RAM and 512GB storage retails for PHP 20,160 excluding shipping. On their official Lazada page, it retails for PHP 20,947.00.

Given its price, I’m sure some would consider the Chuwi Minibook X. But what do you think? Is it something you’d cop? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

What we liked:
Small form factor
Decent Display 
Doubles as a tablet 

What we didn’t like:
Short battery life
Heating issues