Yet another Celeron N3450 (Apollo Lake) based notebook. And there will be a few more reviewed on the site before i get sick of them! This one is the smallest and lightest yet. around 12.5mm, 1.08 kilos. Very thin and portable, with quite a deal break for a few. It only has one type-c port. At least it is USB 3.1 spec, data, video out and charging all possible at the same time. And you do get an included adaptor, but they copied the MacBook too much here.
Besides this, it has a nice 1080p 12.5-inch panel. It’s got a pre-applied screen protector on it making it a glossy display, but pull it off and it’s matte anti-glare. So you have a choice between the two. The keyboard is great to type on, better than expected. And the touchpad is a precision one, fully control of gestures in Windows 10 settings under mouse & touchpad. This is good, but the ELan fingerprint read with-in it doesn’t work, at least not on my unit. Drivers issues it seems or a hardware conflict.
Another issue, once connected to the internet Windows activation promoted me for a key, not good. They have used some temporary key to install Windows. No doubt because the system was first in Chinese only. Buying a cheap Windows 10 Pro key from eBay, upgrading to Home to Pro will sort that out. But it’s unacceptable.
The Wireless AC is Intel 3165, a common chip that performs well. The battery is 31Wh or 8000mah and looks good for only around 6 hours max on 25% brightness. Or about 5 hours at 50 to 75% web use online. The 128GB SSD is of an unknown band, around 520 MB/s reads, but only 120 writes so quite slow. But still much faster reads than an eMMC 5.0 spec.
Thermals and other benchmarks will come later in the full review (If it makes the cut) I’m trying to fix the driver issue and get the activation sorted out first. The laptop is almost exactly the same as the Onda Xiaoma 21, but that model has 2 x USB3.0 ports and a microSD slot!
The Civiltop Air is also expensive $400+ at Gearbest and even selling for more on Aliexpress. I hope t have the Lapbook 12.3 next week, that one looks the most promising N3450 powered lapbook from China. Surface Pro 4 screen, 6GB of RAM, wireless AC, 37Wh battery, USB 3.0 ports, type-c and M.2 SSD slot.
Nicholas
Hi Chris,
Thank you very much for your review. This is a big ask please:
Is the M.2 slot PCI-e nvme compatible?
Does the USB Type C port support ‘DP alt mode’? This would mean that a compliant Type C to DisplayPort adapter would support 4k at 60Hz to an external display (after setting up Intel custom resolution).
My guess is that the Xiaomi 21 does not support DP alt mode, but as the T-bao only has the one port – it might support alt mode. I have tried to source the manufacturer’s pre-sale support to ask this, but to no avail.
Best wishes.
Nicholas
vaLntin
Do you think this is the same one
http://www.geekbuying.com/item/T-bao-Tbook-Air-Silver-380295.html
or it’s a geekbuying error
sportnok
Yes it’s the same, it’s not free postage with geekbuying.
Chris G
Yes the same and also on GB there is a silver version. Just finished my full review of this model and I was regretting buying it at first. But it turns out the RAM is the fastest I’ve seen yet and as a result, iGPU is so much faster than all of the N3450 laptops and tablets reviewed to date. And it feels a lot faster than the rest too.
vaLntin
Chris, on geekbuying it says that it has DDR4 and this CPU should offer support for DDR 4 2133mhz, so it could be with DDR4 RAM
Chris G
Well if it’s anything like this it is 1600Mhz, but dual channel and tighter RAM timings. Geekbuying always has listing errors just like BG and GB. They state things like 1 RAM slot of 2 used, but its soldered to the motherboard!
vaLntin
Well, they used to offer free shipping, but the price is way better, so it’s worthed.
Michael
mistyped weight “10.8 kilos”
filn
360 euros for this while you can get the Xiaomi Air 12 M3 for 400 euros today.
This one should be priced at 299 euros.
Chris G
Yes, Should be priced like the other N3450 laptops. Better of spending a little more for the Mi Notebook Air as you say. Where is the deal for 400 euros?
filn
409.39 euros for the Gold Version Xiaomi Air 12 Laptop
https://goo.gl/GmlZHo
Cupon: KAir12L
Astor
Chris, I really appreciate that you test so many chinese brands. Thanks a lot.
roni
so what your are saying is that this one is a joke
Chris G
Well no, it’s got a lot of good things going for it, thin, light and portable. Good keyboard and touchpad. Decent screen. Great little travel PC. But the lack of ports and it’s overpriced.