[Craig]

Hard to say, but i’d probably not recommend it. Performance isn’t strong, WiFi is poor. It may serve its purpose for you, but just expect a choppy experience overall. Maybe a native 1080 tablet will provide a better experience as the hibook pro with its hires screen is a drain, although nice looking.

[Craig]

God this thing is a dog. Got it from Banggood on Monday and played around with it past few nights. What’s to like? Screen, build quality and battery life. Unfortunately, the performance is very poor. This thing can only deal with basic web pages. The WiFi is also very poor. Don’t waste your money folks. An X5 z8300 with gen 8 graphics pushing such a hires screen couples with a poor emmc and WiFi is just a recipe for disaster.

[Craig]

Remember guys, when you upgrade your emulated KMS Windows 8.1 to Windows 10, you’ve done so on the volume channel. Volume is not legitimately allowed a free upgrade to 10 and it will be easy for Microsoft to deactivate. I suspect they won’t, however as all KMS activated computers have been assigned the same generic volume license key, it would be easy to kill off these activations as they were not eligible to begin with.

[Craig]

Volume licence is not supposed to legitimately be able to upgrade to Windows 10. Thing is, the experience of those with pirated Windows 8.1 with KMS shows that it is indeed possible to upgrade to Windows 10. What you will get is a fully activated and operational Windows  without any nag screens or any other indication that Windows is not genuine. Many people have reported a successful upgrade. Windows will show that it is a permanent activation and a generic volume key has been assigned. Remember, it is not legitimate, and Microsoft may decide at a later date to deactivate anyone who upgraded through a volume channel, whether that was a genuine volume activation or emulated KMS.

 

 

[Craig]

Surely all Cube stylus i7’s would exhibit the same instability problem if it was due to a hardware problem between the wifi antenna and ssd. I think the more likely explanation for the problem resolving is simply that something has been disturbed upon opening up and putting the tablet back together. I don’t think a small piece of foil would do a lot with respect to shielding the wifi antenna from the ssd.

[Craig]

I don’t think there is much we can do about the cracked windows 8.1 pro. Cube are a Chinese company, and business practices there are very different to the west. Pirating windows is normal in China. Ripping off others, both individuals and other companies is common practice in China. Also, I don’t think anyone could take any legal action as in China, pirating is normal and considered business as usual. Who would take any notice?

[Craig]

Sounds like you have faulty hardware Sean. That’s the problem with buying online – the hassle of sending the thing all the way back to China if it’s faulty. Its always a lottery what you will get. Maybe a bios update or a change of bios settings will help? I really don’t think there is a major problem with the WiFi interfering with the ssd on the cube i7 stylus. Most people aren’t having any problems, particularly when running Windows 8.1.

[Craig]

Hmm, not sure about the WiFi interfering with the ssd. Does this only happen with Windows 10? If so, it’s a driver problem. I’m on Windows 8.1 and having no wifi problems at all.

[Craig]

Hmm, not sure about the WiFi interfering with the ssd. Does this only happen with Windows 10? If so, it’s a driver problem. I’m on Windows 8.1 and having no wifi problems at all.

[Craig]

KMSpico definitely does not contain any virus or trojan. At least if it’s from the official source and the user doesn’t agree to install the bundled crap as part of the install process. Windows activated with kmspico will function exactly the same as an officially activated os, without any performance issues or anything. Still, if you’ve bought a brand new tablet, the least you expect is a properly licensed Windows.

It seems cube have factory installed Windows 8.1 pro with a volume licence. Not sure if the volume licence is legitimate, it may be licensed to cube for use in the Chinese market, but it does have an activation expiry. Kmspico was then put on as an afterthought so that windows will appear to remain activated. Very shady practice, not that Microsoft will care or indeed do anything.

[Craig]

I’m hoping Linux takes off on tablets in a big way. Would much rather use Linux Mint for example than Windows. I only use Windows for games on my main rig, everything else I switch to Linux. I’m not sure how viable the Cube i7 stylus is for Linux though, suppose it depends on the touchscreen and wifi drivers.

[Craig]

A friend who bought a Cube i7 stylus from the cube store has just had his delivered. And yes, it is the Windows 8.1 pro version with… you guessed it, cracked activation with kmspico. So it seems they now all have this and not just those bought from Geekbuying. No wonder they’re cheap. I emailed Geekbuying about this and they said they could send me a key, but it would be for Chinese language only. Its probably the same volume licence key that is already used on the device, with an expiry of sometime in December 2015 (if I recall correctly). Sad thing is, kmspico works both on Windows 8.1 AND Windows 10, so it seems not even Microsoft care. Updating a pirated kms-activated Windows 8.1 pro to Windows 10 pro gives you a fully activated volume licence OS, even when kmspico has been uninstalled.

Be careful buying Windows 8.1 keys online from the likes of g2a. Yes they’re cheap, but they’re probably not legitimate. Probably stolen keys, student, MSDN keys or keys that have been sold several times over that will undoubtly get blocked once MS find out. Asking Geekbuying or the cube store for an activation key will probably just end in them sending you a volume key or any other illegal key that will probably get blocked at some point. Makes me wonder how widespread this windows key issue is with other Chinese tablets in general.

[Craig]

So then, finally received the tablet from Geekbuying. And guess what, yep, it has the Chinese cracked Windows 8 pro with kmspico. I emailed them and got a reply saying they only have the Chinese version and no English key and they “hope I understand”. Well, no I don’t understand. I’m wondering if I should dispute this with PayPal now? I want a partial refund as now I will have to buy a windows key and will have to go to the effort of uninstalling the Chinese pro version and installing standard windows 8.

[Craig]

Sounds like some people have been done for with the cube store promotion. Remember what they say, if something sounds too good to be true….

My Cube i7 stylus from Geekbuying was shipped last few days. Be interesting to see if it has that dirty kmspico activation hack, or because it appears to be from the second batch it has Windows 8.1 with Bing and English. I wonder how many people have bought from Geekbuying and don’t even realise they’ve got a cracked activation. I see a lot of complaints when it comes to upgrading to Windows 10 where they will get the non-genuine message.

[Craig]

Geekbuying are jokers. I’ve had an email telling me mine can’t yet be sent as they’re out of stock and they’re wanting me to consider an alternative. Erm, no, I want the Cube i7 stylus. I’ve emailed them asking to cancel my order and refund my PayPal. We’ll see how long this takes, and hopefully I won’t need to open a dispute case. Looking at the reviews for Geekbuying, it seems they have a bad reputation – wish I’d have done some research first. And that cracked windows 8 pro sounds like a really bad stunt to pull.

[Author]

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