So Jumper has moved in the right direction releasing a Core M3-7Y30 Kaby Lake laptop. Mine finally arrived with non-express shipping that took over 2 weeks. But one direction they have gone on this model isn’t great, the screen is a TN panel with bad vertical viewing angles. Take a look at my unboxing and hands-on video below for a proper look at that screen:
Horizontal view angles are fine, but really you need to look at the screen straight on otherwise the top or bottom will start shifting out if not aimed directly at your eyes. But once viewed straight on the panel isn’t that bad then. It’s bright, and whites are on the cool side. Blacks are at least nice and deep. The coating is anti glare so reflections aren’t an issue.
The build of it as I suspected is the same as the Tbook4, thankfully it doesn’t exhibit the same issues that plagued the Tbook4, a bad keyboard with missed keystrokes and a dead Micro HDMI port. Not here, the keys are different and typing this out here on the EZbook 3 Plus I’m enjoying it so far, to say that it’s working well and no missed key strokes. That Micro HDMI port on the left also works just fine.
The touchpad is like the Tbook4’s, a large precision touchpad with full gesture support and control. It’s a far better touchpad than the like of the EZBook 3 Pro’s, but still not as good as the Synaptics one in the Mi Notebook 12 or 13 series. The touchpad is one of the big pros of this laptop.
So It’s slightly cheaper than the Mi Notebook Air 12 as the EZBook 3 Plus is selling for $424 over at Gearbest, but I see no reason to go for it over the Mi Notebook Air 12. Unless of course, you must have 8GB of RAM, have a tight budget and you don’t mind the screen vertical viewing angles.
Other things I’ve noticed so far.
- The speakers, while there are 4 of them are poor. They lack volume and at 100% distort and crackle.
- The weight of the laptop is just under 1.4 kilos and it’s quite slim.
- The build quality is good, good fit and finish no issues on my unit.
- The hinge feels fine on mine, others in the EZBook 3 Plus forum say theirs is loose.
- No wireless issues so far in 10 hours of use. I’ll report back if I do have issues.
- Battery looks like it will go for around 6 hours. But this is just an estimate. Exact figures in the full review.
- The thermals so far looking good, but I really need to push it hard and test same games.
- RAM is dual channel 1866Mhz like the Mi Notebook and other Core M3-7Y30’s
- Plays 4K HEVC and VP9 very smoothly, as expected with native decoding on the Intel HD 615 GFX.
- The 128GB SSD is a forsee 2242 spec one. The easy access hatch seems to only support this smaller M.2 SSD size.
- Linux runs, the only driver issue with Manjaro 17.0.3 RC1 was the touchpad. Everything works!
- USB ports power external hard drives.
More over in the EZbook 3 Plus forum thread.
Alex
Hey, Chris, I’m considering getting one of these or the Mi Notebook Air 12 for my nephew, he’ll be using it for games probably Minecraft and something else, what do you think is the better buy? he really thinks he needs 8gb of ram.
Chris G
The Mi Notebook is better than the EZBook 3 Plus here for sure. But it has only 4GB and not really that great at games. You might be better of with a Nvidia 1050 TI gaming laptop for that from ASUS, MSI or Acer.
Alex
Cheers, appreciate the feedback.
Pete
New MI Air is $459 at https://www.gearbest.com/laptops/pp_625263.html?wid=4 and coupon NEWMIAIR12 (only works with login though, account specific?) So jumper have got their work cut out with pricing and specs on this one.
(Deal found initially on HotUKDeals forum: https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/xiaomi-air-12-m3-7y30-laptop-355-gearbest-using-coupon-2796721, though better to use Chris’s links via Techtablets of course :-)…)
Puneet
Another great review from you Chris! Thanks on behalf of viewers. I did like what jumper addressed in this laptop. Specs are good enough for day to day tasks but a shame in the department of display panel. A bit disappointed due to lack of backlit keyboard but that’s a personal preference. I really wish chuwi come up with core m3s. Till then wait is what in my hand.
Chris G
I still don’t understand Chuwi, no Core M3’s in the market yet! Maybe we will finally see a Core M3 Lapbook Air.
Wolf
Good and really fast unboxing and pre review. I am happy that I ordered the EZBook 3 Pro V4 with hopefully great touchpad and backdoor.
I did not want to buy 150€ more for only 2 GB of RAM, processor and 64 GB more eMMc/SSD. Currently the Pro V4 is about 190€ and this is over 350€ nearly twice as much.
So I can wait until Jumper learned there lessons.
Anyway they had to try to cut the cost at some point and they knew about the Mi Air price – 40€ more and they were done.
And it seems it is not the worst display. It is still the market introduction price and they must have a lot reservces to lower that price within the next 6 – 9 month of production about 100€ or more.
They needed a product in the segment above the EZB 3 Pro which price is slightly going down … and as it seems they are improving and relaunching their product over and over again.
They now save a lot of money by that cheaper display and can later upgrade that product once or twice and gain a new sale momentum as you could see here in the forum over the 4 month of EZ Bock 3 Pro sales.
Many have flipped their first / second/third generation for a newer one. So they follow the tack they had it done before.
I like my 3 Pro V3 more and more and can not wait to get my hands on the new V4 the next days.
But this review saved me a lot of headache and a most likely wrong investment cause I can live with the current performance.
But imagine: 5,x EZB 3 Pro or 1 single Samsung Note 8 – without DEX !
That is the real dimension, more than 5 of them
Kyle Battle
Just watched your hands-on and for sure this is identical to the Tbook 4, Jumper used the same OEM. Body/shell, screen, keyboard design, hatch on the bottom, speakers in the hinge (probably why they sound bad), webcam with mic ports on each side – identical! Good to know they’ve used a better keyboard & of course upgraded the internals. But that screen has to be TN just like the Tbook, for me that didn’t work out so I sent my Tbook back to Geekbuying for a refund. I don’t like having to position my screen *exactly* right to get the best picture. I think these Chinese companies aren’t thinking through their design choices well, they seem to be just throwing stuff together in a race to see who can put out the most models on the market!
inhalt
The screen on my Tbook4 is definitely IPS. The vertical viewing angles are identical as the EZbook 3 PRO’s…
Kyle Battle
Interesting, my Tbook’s screen performed exactly like the 3 Plus did in Chris’ video, i.e. when I twisted it left & right in my palm the viewing angles were OK but tilting it backwards & forwards made the screen wash out almost immediately. I didn’t see any screen protector either so I still assume I had a TN panel. Also interesting was how Chris’ Tbook doesn’t have magnets to hold the lid closed but mine did 🙂 and I also had a fully licensed Win 10 when Chris ran into activation problems. These Chinese companies are all over the board when it comes to QA.
Chris G
Varies a lot. So it seems on the Tbook4 they have used both TN and IPS and then the activation and magnets differ from batch to batch.
Chris G
My screen on the Tbook4 was also IPS, so they have downgraded the screen Jumper when ordering and configuring the EZBook 3 Plus. Cost cutting maybe? Still not a great move. They did also add magnets to hold the screen closed, something my Tbook4 was missing.
Chris G
It also seems the EZBook 3L Pro, is exactly like this, but with an N3450 & 6GB of RAM. I wonder if that model will also suffer the same fate and ship with a TN panel.
Roberto
Yes, but big difference here: for the EZbook 3L Pro, the customer service stated from the beginning that it would have a TN panel!
For the 3 Plus, they always said it was an IPS display.
Maybe it was even initially planned to use an IPS display on the 3 Plus, but they couldn’t supply enough? That might also explain the delay of like 3 weeks after the presale to the actual shipping.
inhalt
According to the Geekbuying staff, the 3L PRO not only would mount a TN panel but the internal memory of 64Gb would be eMMC instead of SSD as advertised from the very begining, which made me cancel my order straight away…
So I asked about the screen on the 3 Plus in the same chat, and they confirmed it was a TN panel too 🙁
Why Jumper decided to ruin the reputation gained with they EZbook 3 and 3 PRO (after a few adjustments) I’ll never know.
Chris G
Yes crazy for them to swap to using TN panels. I’m sure the plan was IPS, but for some reason, they didn’t have stock or the cost? But I hope they release an EZBook 3 Plus V2 version with IPS panel and improved speakers, then it will be great.
Blackburn
Okay so judging from your video Chris (thanks by the way saw it on YT) I think that screen looks fine. Okay vertical angles aren’t great. Excuse me if I sound dumb, but who is NOT looking at a screen front on? Do people view it angled back in the air or, are their monitors angled 50 degrees towards the floor for viewing pleasure HAHA — Where is your screen now? Facing you or facing towards the floor? Get what I mean??? I think people are over reacting expecting $2k screens in a $400 laptop. Wake up, it’s not going to happen.
I’m I missing something here?? Now I’m not sure if my decision to buy the Mi Notebook Air 12 limited to 4GB of RAM was a wise choice. I based my option on those in the forum saying it was complete trash the screen, but looking at it in action in this video… I don’t know
Chris G
Well, the screen is facing the camera straight on. But even so, when I look at the screen in person 80% of the screen looks perfect but either the top 10% or bottom 10% is starting to shift out or grey like a TN panel does. This is annoying and means you have to always move the screen to get the best quality image.
The Mi Notebook Air 12 is one of the best, to put it this way, it’s the only Chinese laptop I’ve kept and used over the last year my 6Y30 model. It’s great for everything except heavy tasks like video editing. Now if you can live with the screen trade off and use the extra 4GB of RAM that’s up to you.
Wolf
Regarding viewing angle: if you use it with a second, but smaller or taller person than you it gets really annoying cause none could see really good or only one. And due to the 14 inch it becomes a problem in the top and bottom are where the important status or taskbars are located. So it can be a pain in certain circumstances.
Chris G
Yes, I can see that happening, use it now on my desk it’s fine. Just a little TN color shift, but if I stand up then look at it you can see that bad vertical viewing angle. Not cool!
Kalle
The problem is the corners, it’s shifting so bad that you can read small status bars, buttons or text at the edges without constantly shifting your head or the screen.
Ralph McIntosh
Hi Kalle
I don’t have the probs you describe. If I am sitting in front at my desk i don’t have to shift head or screen when screen is at right position.
Bruce Dailey
Nice review as usual. Looks like a good value notebook. The speakers are a bit of a disappointment. They put in four speakers. Maybe two quality speakers would have been better.
Question of the SD slot. Is it normal that the SD slot is wired to the USB 2? Is perhaps the reason that they don’t want too much power to be consumed on the USB 3 bus?
Chris G
Normally they are connected to a USB 2.0 hub and RealTek readers. But in some tech, the slots have been USB 3.0 and you can then enjoy full high-speed card reads and writes. The reason behind it might be a limit to only 2 USB 3.0 lanes which are already used for the ports.
Wolf
But in this case it is not a real con cause I prefer 2x USB 3.0 cand might buy a 3 $ MicrosSD card reader for USB 3.
At least for 3$ I can compensate the missing USB 3 connected micro sd card slot – with the EZB 3 Pro touchpad there is no such pimp option available…
Chris G
Yes for me it’s not an issue either as when I want to use my fastest cards I have a USB 3 MicroSD reader. Also prefer to have 2x USB 3 ports rather than USB 2.0 + USB 3.0 and USB 3 card reader.