Missed Keystrokes

[Chris G]

I think I got a bad one, some others in the YouTube video said later their battery was fine, and the keystrokes also fine.

Chris | Admin
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[sportnok]

 

My battery seems fine, charged a couple of times now with the supplied charger, although the charging led stays orange by the type C port. My keyboard is definitely not fine, at least half a dozen don’t respond when you press away from the centre. Some are when you press anywhere along the top of the key, there are others that are more towards the top corners of the key. The keyboard looks like the one on the Tbook4 and a couple of others, so maybe they are the same.

I know a couple of people had problems with the Cube Thinker keyboard.

[sigma]

sportnok wrote:

My battery seems fine, charged a couple of times now with the supplied charger, although the charging led stays orange by the type C port. My keyboard is definitely not fine, at least half a dozen don’t respond when you press away from the centre. Some are when you press anywhere along the top of the key, there are others that are more towards the top corners of the key. The keyboard looks like the one on the Tbook4 and a couple of others, so maybe they are the same. I know a couple of people had problems with the Cube Thinker keyboard.

yup I also got the orange led. but after a few charges it will actually turn green (after orange) when it is full. just seems to be the battery callibrating itself at first use.

my keyboard is also so so, seem to have gotten used to pressing the buttons in the middle rather than on the side – the lower key travel was also a bit weird to adjust to.

[sportnok]

Sigma, which keys of yours are affected? On mine it’s 3,6,q,r,p,z,m and also the colon and semi colon keys.

[sigma]

sportnok wrote:

Sigma, which keys of yours are affected? On mine it’s 3,6,q,r,p,z,m and also the colon and semi colon keys.

The one I really noticed was the right arrow. Seems to be missing some of its travel but still works – just feels a bit weird to press.

Can’t really tell if any of the others are too bad – i appear to always hit the keys in the middle rather than on a corner so the issue is less recognisable to me. looks like they have tried to use a tablet keyboard on a laptop, probably would have been a thicker build if they went with a proper laptop one given the additional key travel needed.

Does your screen have any dead pixels by the way? I have one, thankfully not in the middle! and also thankfully not a bright pixel.

[sportnok]

No dead pixels. Everything except the keyboard is good, but if I’d have wanted a screen without a keyboard, I’d have bought a tablet!! And it would weight half as much…

Speaking to the Cube official store on Aliexpress, they have not been at all helpful. Trying to get out of paying return postage for a defective product, I think that is least they should be doing. I asked what they would offer if I kept it, again, no useful Response or offer, they just refused my offer. I have had a Cube i7 and Cube u55 which were good but it has to said, this has really put me off, very poor service on their part.

[sigma]

sportnok wrote:

No dead pixels. Everything except the keyboard is good, but if I’d have wanted a screen without a keyboard, I’d have bought a tablet!! And it would weight half as much… Speaking to the Cube official store on Aliexpress, they have not been at all helpful. Trying to get out of paying return postage for a defective product, I think that is least they should be doing. I asked what they would offer if I kept it, again, no useful Response or offer, they just refused my offer. I have had a Cube i7 and Cube u55 which were good but it has to said, this has really put me off, very poor service on their part.

Have you tried to lodge a dispute on AE? I have found them to be quite helpful there. Though it won’t get you out of paying the return postage. Returning was not much of an option for me because due to local regulations (carriage of li lon batteries) it has to be sent by express courier, which is a bit pricey when you are in the country which is the futherest from any in the world! Thats why I just settled for a part refund. Just a tip – always upload a video and even narrate it if possible.

I sometimes wonder if they are dumping factory seconds on the western countries which they sell to. Because when you look on local chinese sites like jd.com you never see complaints about the faults we experience!

[sigma]

but as chris always says, its a gamble when you order online from china, never quite know what will show up! thats why im quite hesistant to order something more expensive than the 5x like the mi book, because i would be pretty ticked off if it showed up with dead pixels / coil whine / keyboard issues!

[Chris G]

@sigma It is a gamble. The only one that really seems to have the quality always perfect for me is Xiaomi. All my Mi notebooks have zero issues and so they should for the price!

Sounds like my keyboard isn’t too bad then if it’s just my A key that’s a little poor (working only 8-9 times out of 10). My screen is perfect no dead pixels and the touch response & accuracy is great, better than the Hi13. I still haven’t found a stylus that works on it. But gave up on that idea now my review is done.

@sportnok So far I like the type-c port using it with my desktop monitor and keyboard, but does anyone else have the issue of the type-c port not charging it or super slow to charge? I can’t seem to get over 5W according to HWInfo, but the D/C port will do 15W+ easy when in use.

Also some good news after a full drain and overnight recharge the battery is now calibrated correctly to show 100% (for now) I’m not sure it will always go from 7% to 100%. But I hope so, I’m now at 52% and no issues after almost 4 hours use. I have a feeling the type-c charging might have been what messed up the battery which is a shame.

Really liking the speakers, better than most and with a few tweaks quite loud.

Chris | Admin
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Ordered and waiting for my: BMAX S15 & Teclast F6 Plus
Currently testing: LG G8X & Redmi K30

[sigma]

I am still waiting for my xiaomi type C multi mode charger to arrive so will report back when I try it out. hope it does not screw up the battery! hope it does work because I was planning to retire the DC adaptor since my mobile phone also uses type C to charge.

I did plug my nexus 5x factory type C charger into it but that did not seem to do much besides turn the indicator light red (not enough voltage as I learnt afterwards, thankfully not more than 12v or I would have probably fried the mainboard). Strangely that charger stopped working for a few minutes afterwards and then started working normally with my phone (rapid charge) after that. Not too sure what caused that.

I think if those mid tier brands like chuwi / cube etc just got their act together with stricter quality control and also version control (as we have seen with the recent lapbook 14.1 disaster!) they would be quite attractive in  the international market.

Looking forward to the TT review of the Surbook though, have been following the campaign and see they are starting to ship now. Did not order one because I’m quite skeptical on the use of the N3450 in it – looks like something which would have been far more suited to a core M. Hopefully there are no showstopper bugs with it though!

[sportnok]

I tried a Microsoft ac100x charger in the c port but just showed 5w in batterybar, not got anything more powerful to try.

I have opened a dispute to return it asking for them to pay postage, the dispute accepted return but failed to make comment of my request for postage refund. Initially messaged Alldocube Aliexpress store with a video, they ignored me for a week, no response, so I opened a dispute. As I said really poor, and really not the way to encourage future customers to buy from them, there is a video of a cube thinker on utube with issues, think I will post a video on there.

[sigma]

yup that uses the same rating of charger as the nexus 5x. problem is its 5v not 12v so thats why it doesnt do much for the battery, well from what I read online. in the thinker forum here a guy used the xioma charger quite successfully (will let you guys know how it goes). would not be surprised if the 5x and thinker share some components (of course not the cpu!).

messaging aliexpress sellers does not help, they just send standard responses and more fake tracking numbers. they jump when you start a dispute because it puts their business at risk of closure by AE.

doubt they would compensate for postage because the sale terms (well most of them) say buyer pays return postage. sounds a bit dickish when you know they probably knew they were sending you a damaged unit, but i guess thats how it is.

[Chris G]

So it seems all units have the Type-C port only accepting 5W max charge rate, this is a real shame I’ve tried a few chargers and none will charger more than 5W, seems there is a limit on it. I’m not sure I’ll keep it now, think I’ll go back to the EZbook 3 Pro I’m going to miss the type-c port and touch screen, but over all I think the EZBP V4 will be much better in the long run.

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

[sportnok]

The way the Aliexpress Official Alldocube store have dealt with my keyboard issue has definitely put me off buying there again. They don’t seem to understand that if you don’t play fair its not going to do their business any favours. They have come out with a sob story about not making much profit, which may well be true but that doesn’t excuse not giving good customer service, its only going to mean they will drive away customers, very short sighted. The right attitude should have been, OK, really sorry you have a problem, lets sort it out so you can enjoy your new laptop, send it back to us and we will replace it, not allow the customer to feel badly let down and tell social media of there useless business sense. I’m pretty sure a few negative comments has quite dramatic effect on sales, especially on a new product with very little feedback.

It would appear their tactic is to ignore me, drag it out, ignore questions, I’m not even convinced the return address is correct, I guess that gives me more time to tell people how bad they are at customer service!!

I’ve been told that the official outlet is run by a subsidiary/secondary company, they are certainly not doing Alldocube any favours.. oh well..

[sigma]

sportnok wrote:

The way the Aliexpress Official Alldocube store have dealt with my keyboard issue has definitely put me off buying there again. They don’t seem to understand that if you don’t play fair its not going to do their business any favours. They have come out with a sob story about not making much profit, which may well be true but that doesn’t excuse not giving good customer service, its only going to mean they will drive away customers, very short sighted. The right attitude should have been, OK, really sorry you have a problem, lets sort it out so you can enjoy your new laptop, send it back to us and we will replace it, not allow the customer to feel badly let down and tell social media of there useless business sense. I’m pretty sure a few negative comments has quite dramatic effect on sales, especially on a new product with very little feedback. It would appear their tactic is to ignore me, drag it out, ignore questions, I’m not even convinced the return address is correct, I guess that gives me more time to tell people how bad they are at customer service!! I’ve been told that the official outlet is run by a subsidiary/secondary company, they are certainly not doing Alldocube any favours.. oh well..

Once i was told by an aliexpress seller that if I did not want to be scammed I should not be buying products from China!!! Yup some of them have sunk that low…

For them its probably also a numbers game because the demand for cheaper products is so high so if they screw a few people over along the way then they dont really care. I dont think they fully understand the concept of customer loyalty as westerners do.

I find it hard to believe that margins are all that small, given how low cost it is to manufacture in China. But that is a typical excuse that is used nonetheless. The ignoring tactic is very common in disputes because they assume you will just forget about it. Return addresses are hilarious, for Gearbest I got some random apartment in Shenzhen, I mean really, for such a big operation! But yeah I would never trust sending anything back, because once it leaves your hands you are at the mercy of the seller – most also insist you send it untracked which exposes your risk even more. That being said, Chris seems to have had quite a bit of luck sending things back so at least not all of them are dishonest.

What they fail to understand in my opinion is that by having crap customer service the “stigma” around buying from China will always remain and limit their pool of foreign consumers. Sad really because I think alot of these brands have major potential on the global stage. Aliexpress does provide a fair amount of support but I think the sellers need to pull their weight as well.

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