Great laptop for everyday use.

Great laptop for everyday use.  Read Less

I am so happy with this laptop. It is well worth the price.

I am so happy with this laptop. It is well worth the price.  Read Less

Update 9/16/20 - Now the bad news. After setting the system up and using it for three days, the excitement and patience has wor...  Read More

Update 9/16/20 - Now the bad news. After setting the system up and using it for three days, the excitement and patience has worn thin, now to off. I have three things installed on the system, and all have become unusable due to the wait for the apps to load or to load content. Those three things are Mircosoft Edge/Firefox (I put them down as one, as I only use one or the other), Adobe Acrobat, and Microsoft Office. Moving from page to page in Edge/Firefox can take 5-20 seconds. Acrobat is unusable. 90% of my productivity comes from Word, Excel and Outlook or Mail. This morning when I picked up the laptop a slight sense of dread sat in, this from knowing I was going to return to 1995 and slow internet efficiencies. When I launched my Office to get to Word it took 11 second for Word to load, it took another 22 seconds for my entire doc to launch. This really breaks my heart because the machine is thin, fast to start up, quiet (no fan) and generally very cool to operate. Since I am being hindered and not enhanced by the machine, it has to go back, and if I am charged a restocking fee at this point I will gladly pay it.I'm going to list off first impressions from opening the shipping box, to start up.1. Opened the Amazon box to find a very basic Chuwi plain box.2. You can only open the Chuwi box from one end, where the power cord and charging brick are in another box, protecting the laptop with another flap.3. Pull out the laptop and you will be surprised as to how thin and light it is. (covered in a simple plastic sleeve with a keyboard/screen protector)4. The charging brick is CHEAP. I don't expect it to last, which is really bad and I'll explain later.5. Plug it in, turn it on, and the standard Windows configuration awaits.6. IT DOES NOT ASK FOR A NETWORK DURING THE SETUP. You can do this easy after the configuration, but for someone new, it will add some difficulty after its all done.7. You set it up with a username and password.8. After you're all done, then you type Update in the dialogue box and start the 10 updates, largely because this ships with a pretty aged build of Windows 10.9. When that's all done run Update again to pick up the three that won't install until the basic upgrades are complete (select Restart).10. Then run Update again to get the most recent security update.11. If you're an Office user you'll also have to run the Mail and Calendar update (in my case it took three tries, but it finally downloaded).12. After all is said and done, you'll download the basics (Adobe Reader, your favorite Office Suite, your favorite VPN and browser, GIMP/Photo Scape - photo editor, unzipper, an anti-virus software, etc). I also suggest something like Revo Uninstaller. I do not have any affiliation to them, but the standard uninstall built into Windows never completely removes a program, which is nice if you ever decide to reinstall an uninstalled program, but if you want it gone they leave breadcrumbs all throughout the Registry.I suspect all of the Windows updates is because Chuwi purchased an older OEM license for Windows to keep the costs down. For me that's OK, because I customize the configuration and fiddle enough that it gives me the option to opt out of more items than if it was a current default Windows build.Now to the experience. I'm going to say it once for effect, anytime I state a negative remember, this laptop is $350 has a 90% display that is pretty darn good, 8 Gb of RAM and a 256Gb SSD. The RAM and SSD are slow, but it's $350.Opening the laptop - It is magnetic and cannot be opened with one hand. It takes a few tries to find out how to easily open it with two hands.The screen - Aside from a very small light leak in the bottom left corner that is noticeable during the CHUWI splash screen, it is pretty amazing. The bezels are about a 1/4 around the sides and top. The color accuracy is very good, but the refresh rate is slow. Slow refresh rates are a pain, but not at this price point. IT DOES NOT HAVE A TOUCH SCREEN - Nor does it advertise a touch screen.The Keyboard - It has a very positive response and nice travel. After only a day I have not noticed any reporting errors in dialogue boxes. The backlighting is a joke, largely because the cutouts for the keys are not uniform, and thick as the backlight does not really show through well. The keys themselves are very pronounced with the light exploding around them. This one item brings down my overall review, because the backlighted keyboard was a major selling point.Boot up - It is =/- 15 seconds to the date and time Windows log in screen.Programs - All except the Edge browser and Office apps seem to launch pretty quick. Once inside the app everything works pretty timely. But (remember my disclaimer), apps are not as quick as they are on a desktop, or a $700 plus laptop with faster RAM and SSD. The CPU is not fast, but faster RAM and SSD would help a lot. While RAM is soldered to the motherboard, the Gen 3 m.3 PCIE storage upgrade is easy with a port door on the bottom. I'm not going to upgrade the unit, and can't speak to the speed improvements in doing so.Browser experience with Edge - Slow between sites. Youtube runs fine once you're on the site, but going from video to video there is a delay. There are other browsers out there that might be faster, although I think the limitations are within the laptop, not external to the web, router speeds, or how much pipe you have to the word (the speed at which you connect - although going over phone lines will not help with speed issues).This laptop is a generic stop gap media consumption device for me while I wait for the Apple Silicone Macbook Pro's to come out. Nope, I'm not an Apple fanboy, but attempting to unify around my last year's iPhone 11 purchase has me focused on platform unification. I did the same thing when I had a Windows phone.A p.s. to the Chuwi laptop review. It is fully Linux compatible, and will dual boot.My recommendations and caveats - This is a very nice inexpensive laptop, best suited for lower demand Office apps, media consumption, and lower demand apps. Photo editing is about the highest reasonable use you'll get from it. If you want a gaming system you'll need a drastically different video solution, faster (by a lot) RAM, and SSD. If you're wanting to produce videos, this system will be the bane of your existence. If you're looking for a school system, a small office stop gap laptop for administration (call center, excel sheets, adobe docs) this will be a great solution.Right now Chromebooks are like Unicorns, Leprechauns, and the Boogieman (impossible to find). If you do find one, you won't find one with 8Gb of RAM, 256GB of SSD, or this screen resolution for under $500.I said I'd address the charging block and forgot. I've tried a couple other USB-C chargers and the only one that works (so far) is the one provided with the laptop.In short, this laptop is a fantastic buy.  Read Less