The video review of the Chuwi Hi13 has been online for over 24 hours now on YouTube and it’s below. My written Chuwi Hi13 review is also online with some more details and handy for those of you that can’t understand my odd New Zealand accent in the videos! Or if English isn’t your first language you could translate it as I know the site does have a lot of visitors from Spain, Germany, France and other non-English countries.
I’ve added a few photos, some benchmark screens, pros and cons and of course the rating. The Hi13 might have scored higher if it wasn’t for the average 6-7 hour battery life and poor audio.
Still, for $339 I think it’s a great 2-in-1 with stylus support. The large 3000 x 2000 Surface Book screen really makes this tablet. We are getting closer to an almost perfect tablet from China if only it has 8GB/128GB eMMC or SSD.
I’m still holding out for a Core M3 tablet from Chuwi, hope we finally get one this year? You listening Chuwi?
My dream Chinese tablet would be:
- Core M3-7Y30 or N4200 (Cheaper version)
- 8GB RAM
- 128GB SSD
- Surface Pro 4 screen with stylus support. (OGS if possible)
- Wireless AC
- AKG or H&K tuned speakers!
- At least one full sized USB 3 port on the tablet.
- 45wh+ battery
- Priced around $400
This would sell great I think. Doesn’t sound too hard since Chuwi has that 12.3″ SP4 screen in stock, they can use the same build as the Hi13 or Hi12. Similar keyboard dock would be fine.
Justifun
I also didnt like the fact that chuwi didn’t include full sized USB ports, and adapters are usually big and clumsy, so i came across these (the smallest possible adapters) for a full size USB to micro USB
only $5 for 5 of them. work like a charm
https://www.amazon.com/CHENYANG-Ultra-Adapter-Connector-Tablet/dp/B015GZOHKW/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1492725183&sr=8-14&keywords=micro+usb+adapters
Matt
Hey so have you used the cube mix plus?
I’m trying to decide what to buy. My cube i7 stopped charging. It is great. So I’m between the Chuwi hi13, cube mix plus, heavy but more powerful and a second hand/old surface pro 2 or 3. What do you think?
zahid
surface pro has only one usb port and that’s the big problem.
Daniel J.
Something one might also point out(don’t know if this is common knowledge, but it wasn’t in my case), is that the Chuwi Hi13 ships with a nearly 100% discharged battery. I tried to turn-on my unit by just pushing the power button and nothing happened….which made me a little bit worried.
After pluggin in the powersupply and finally see the screen turning on and loading windows after a couple of tries, I quickly clicked on the battery icon and it showed 0 % of battery resources. I have never received a battery powered unit before with a discharged battery, so if this is standard practise with Chuwi units, I thought it would be worth mentioning, as this means people should start by leaving the device charging for at least a xouple minutes before trying to power-on the unit! 🙂
zahid
Thanks for the thorough review. I have ordered one and eagerly waiting now. though a little bit disappointed for it’s weight and thickness.
zahid
1.5 kg and 15 mm with keyboard max would be great.
Chris G
Would be great if the tablet was 730 grams like the Surface Book.
Daniel J.
Thanks for a really thourough and nice review of the Hi13 model Chris! 😀
Regarding the lesser than desired battery time….have you experimented with the windows powersaving settings?
And speaking of performance, you do know that the power setting choosed in windows also influence the general performance of the tablet? 🙂
Now, regarding the wether the battery is 37W or not. You can calculate this, using Ohm’s law!
First you find the battery voltage: 37(watt)/10(amperes) = 3,7v
Then you can re-calculate the watt using the voltage * amperes = watt formula
3,7(v) * 10 (amperes) = 37 watts!
So in conclusion, 37 watts is the correct number, IF the batteries are rated 3,7voltage…..which I believe is the standard voltage for lithium battery cells. Go look and report back to us! 😉
Daniel J.
Btw. was a little dissapointed in the latency when using the stylus pen. I my mind, the drawing of lines on the screen should be a pretty low task CPU process, so I imagined this would be possible without any delays.
But hopefully I will be able to improve this, by perhaps finding a better optimized drawing tool and also optimizing the windows settings for more speed! 😉
Chris G
If you set high performance and use an application like Mischief it’s a lot better than Photoshop CS 2017, which was really slow.
Justifun
Clip studio paint is usually the quickest of the art programs.
ISAIAH HICKEY
So if I use Clip Art Studio Ex on this (the only art program I use) it should be all good right?
Cuberdon75
There seems to have been a distinct stylus improvement over the previous generation.
Btw thanks Chris for paying more attention to stylus handling. I think a significant portion of the customer base for these Chinese tablets is starving artists/students on a budget types.
Chris G
Yes quite an improvement over the first H1 stylus, I added more stylus tests because It was requested a lot from people in the unboxing.
Vernal Scott
Ideal tablet… Hey Chris, don’t forget to add awesome speakers/sound to your list;
Chris G
It’s in the list AKG or H&K tuned speakers. Even the ones like in the Mi Pad 2 would be great.
athanato
they might be going conservative on the battery for a reason, lets see what you find with your gearbest order
Chris G
Got my DHL Gearbest Hi13, same as the Aliexpress one, 37Wh battery. I’ll run a Windows batteries report and see if they reserved any battery.
david251
Is battery life tested with or without the keyboard? On my Chuwi Hi12 the keyboard drains the battery a lot!
Chris G
Tested with the keyboard, without it might add a half an hour more. The USB 2 ports do drain a little.