Anyone used a cheap Chinese long term that's been reliable?

[Chris G]

Hi, So it has a power on fault? And it won’t even enter the bios on boot (Del or Esc key). Tried unplugging the battery to clear the bios?

Long term, well my Teclast X98 Air is still going strong. My daughter’s tablet now and a good 3 years old. Also, my Chuwi Hi10 is still running as well. I guess it’s down to luck. These aren’t laptops of course. My oldest laptop would be the Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 12, Core M3 6Y30 still going fine. That’s now about 2 years old? And has been used a lot. It was also used a desktop PC for quite some time hocked up via a type-c dock and really abused. It use to cook itself almost with a higher power limit and my own copper heatsink mod driving my 1440p display and on 24/7 download or as a desktop.

And that’s is the risk with buying the cheaper tech it might not last as long. But in my experience so far that’s not the case. I had Dell Venue 11 pro’s fail left right and center on me. Acer Timeline X core duo 520 laptop, ASUS transformer die on me and other with ghost touches.

Chris | Admin
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[Anonymous]

David, why can’t you wipe all your personal data out of the EZbook, and then send it back to Gearbest?  My experience with Gearbest is that no matter what you ask of them, they merely reply with a prewritten, generic response that tells you nothing.  I have read that if you want to get a return authorization for them to deal with a warranty issue they try and insist that you instead take some paltry amount, e.g., $10 or $20, to settle your problem.   I too bought one of the EZbook 3 Pros.  Now I wish I had gotten something better like the Xiaomi Notebook 12.  Please report back how Gearbest is responding to your warranty issue, okay?

[David Stone]

It’s working again!

I did what you said – opened the case, unplugged the battery, left it for a while (overnight) and then charged it up fully before turning it on again!

It must have been some BIOS /  boot glitch as it’s working again now.

Thanks Chris!!

[Chris G]

Glad it worked, has for many in the past. Often it’s a bad bios setting or sometimes it just bugs out. A reset from unlocking the battery will fix it. Happened to me before but it was my own fault changing stuff in the bios I shouldn’t have.

Chris | Admin
Please support us and help keep TechTablets online. Affiliate revenue is used to pay for the server, studio apartment (Techtablets HQ) and buy new tech to review. Without it, this site would be dead.
Next up for review:
Ordered and waiting for my: BMAX S15 & Teclast F6 Plus
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[Ben]

Hey guys,

I’m triggered by this tread – I’m planning to set up a laptop rental program for students, so I’ll need a lot good looking and reliaable/solid laptops. They don’t need to be super fast – as long as apps like Netflix/Internet/Spotify and Word work very vast and stable.

I’m already in contact with ‘normal’ hardware suppliers like Asus, HP and Lenovo, but I started to wonder if they’re really that much better/more durable/solid than these less-know brands. And since most of the ‘normal’ hardware suppliers build in Asia as well, I wonder if there’s any difference at all…

What’s your opinion? And from these ‘less-know brands’, what would you guys recommend in terms for durability? Chuwi? Teclast? Cube? something else?

I’m really looking forward your opinion!

[Chris G]

Hi Ben,

I wouldn’t recommend an ally clad laptop to rent out like these Xiaomi’s they are far too easy to damage and will not take the beating a plastic laptop would. Most people never treat a rental as good as their own bought item, but I imagine you know this of course.

I don’t see too many going for unknown brands from China either. I would stick to Dell, HP etc as you also get support which is very important. if it breaks the Chinese tech would have to be returned to China normally.

Chris | Admin
Please support us and help keep TechTablets online. Affiliate revenue is used to pay for the server, studio apartment (Techtablets HQ) and buy new tech to review. Without it, this site would be dead.
Next up for review:
Ordered and waiting for my: BMAX S15 & Teclast F6 Plus
Currently testing: LG G8X & Redmi K30

[Ben]

I’m afraid I’ve to agree with you that people don’t treat their rental as if their own :S.
And it’s indeed way more ease to return an Asus to the computer store around the corner than to ship a Chuwi machine all the way back to China.

And I know the Dell/HP/Lenovo ‘big and boring plastic business machines’ are more reliable and robust as a magnesium cased Teclast, but that comparison isn’t fair to make. Above, I believe students don’t want those big plasic beasts, but prefere smaller and more ‘sexy’ designs.
But can a, let’s say, Teclast F6 compete with a Lenovo Yoga 520 in terms of reliability and building quality?

And from the different ‘new Chinese brands’, is it possible to scale them in terms of reliability/building quality?

I’m curious about your opinion!

[Chris G]

Teclast F6 Pro, for example, has a great build quality, almost up there with know brands.

Teclast F7 is also very decent the build for the price it sells for, but it’s a less powerful model with the Celeron N3450

Cube & Teclast are up there for build quality, followed by Chuwi, with Voyo and Onda down the bottom in my experience. I haven’t seen the new series of tablets from Voyo or Onda so this could have changed.

Chris | Admin
Please support us and help keep TechTablets online. Affiliate revenue is used to pay for the server, studio apartment (Techtablets HQ) and buy new tech to review. Without it, this site would be dead.
Next up for review:
Ordered and waiting for my: BMAX S15 & Teclast F6 Plus
Currently testing: LG G8X & Redmi K30

[Ben]

Thanks for this info Chris  🙂

[Author]

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