The Chuwi LapBook 14.1 Review: Redefining Affordable
by Brett Howse on March 10, 2017 8:00 AM ESTPowering the Chuwi LapBook 14.1: Intel Apollo Lake
Intel’s Atom processor is their low-cost offering, with a smaller die size than Intel’s Core series, allowing them to sell them for less money, but keep their margins up. Atom has had a bit of a roller coaster of a ride over the last several years. When it launched in 2008, it was an in-order design, offering low power, but also low performance. It was originally on the 5-year cadence that Intel was still doing with their main CPUs as well, which really made the original Atom long in the tooth, despite several process changes along the way.
Eventually Intel saw the threat of ARM processors, and tried to speed up the cadence of Atom so that it could be used in thin and light tablets, as well as smartphones. We saw some brief success with Atom, partially due to a strategy of contra-revenue, and partially because Windows RT was a failure, but with Intel never gaining a foothold in smartphones and basically only available in Windows tablets, Intel made the decision to cancel the Broxton tablet platform completely. This was a bit of a shock, and I’m sure it caught a lot of their partners a bit flat footed, since they had devices being sold with Cherry Trail that would never get an update.
But this didn’t impact the low-end PC market, because Intel was moving forward with their PC platform, which they dubbed Apollo Lake. The new 14 nm successor to Airmont, named Goldmont, was going to live on, albeit in less devices. Much of the confusion about the death of Atom has to do with just how many products it was in.
Comparison of Intel's Atom SoC Platforms | |||||||
Node | Release Year | Smartphone | Tablet | Netbook Notebook |
|||
Saltwell | 32 nm | 2011 | Medfield Clover Trail+ |
Clover Trail | Cedar Trail | ||
Silvermont | 22 nm | 2013 | Merrifield Moorefield |
Bay Trail-T | Bay Trail-M/D | ||
Airmont | 14 nm | 2015 | 'Riverton' | Cherry Trail-T | Braswell | ||
Goldmont | 14 nm | 2016 | Broxton (cancelled) |
Willow Trail (cancelled) |
Apollo Lake |
So, the low-end PC market was still going to go ahead, with Intel focusing on its strengths, despite the decrease in the PC market, rather than push a new Atom against the latest ARM products in tablets and phones. While this retrenching by Intel likely seemed like a good idea for them at the time, Microsoft’s announcement that Windows 10 will support ARM processors with x86 support, surely did not make them happy. Intel is likely to get the ARM competition against Atom they never wanted, but we’ll have to wait and see how the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 compares later this year.
That brings up back to the present, which is the Chuwi Lapbook 14.1, which run on the Intel Celeron N3450, and despite the name Celeron, this is most certainly an Apollo Lake platform featuring the Intel Atom Goldmont core. Apollo Lake was first publicly announced at IDF in 2016, and it offers some nice advancements over the Braswell PC platform it replaces. The main change should help performance, with Goldmont cores replacing Airmont cores, but also with Gen 9 graphics replacing Gen 8 in Braswell.
Apollo Lake Mobile Lineup | ||||
Pentium N4200 | Celeron N3450 | Celeron N3350 | Pentium N3700 (Braswell) | |
Cores | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 |
Threads | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 |
Base CPU Freq. | 1.1 GHz | 1.1 GHz | 1.1 GHz | 1.6 GHz |
Turbo CPU Freq. | 2.5 GHz | 2.2 GHz | 2.4 GHz | 2.4 GHz |
CPU Architecture | Goldmont | Goldmont | Goldmont | Airmont |
iGPU | HD 505 (Gen 9) | HD 500 (Gen 9) | HD 500 (Gen 9) | HD 405 (Gen 8) |
EUs | 18 | 12 | 12 | 16 |
Turbo iGPU Freq. | 750 MHz | 700 MHz | 650 MHz | 700 MHz |
TDP | 6W | 6W | 6W | 6W |
Max Memory | 8GB | 8GB | 8GB | 8GB |
PCIe 2.0 Lanes | 6 | 6 | 6 | 4 |
Modern Standby (S0ix) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Price | $161 | $107 | $107 | $161 |
Much of the changes with Goldmont were about improving the out-of-order execution compared to Silvermont, with a wider decoder, better branch prediction, and a larger out-of-order execution window. Goldmont can perform one load and one store per cycle, and it can execute up to three simple integer ALU operations per cycle. There’s new instruction support for hashing with SHA1 and SHA256, and there’s new support for the RDSEED instruction. The graphics are also improved, with Gen 9 offering better performance than Gen 8, as well as features like Quick Sync for H.265, and low-power H.264 encode.
Overall, Intel’s previous marketing materials have outlined what kind of performance gains to expect:
Apollo Lake Mobile Performance: Pentium N4200 vs. Pentium N3710 | |
CPU Performance | +30% |
GPU Performance | +45% |
With a lower bill of materials, higher performance, and lower power consumption, Apollo Lake is certainly a nice step forward. It remains to be seen just how competitive it will be, and Atom is still a significant step down in performance from Core, even at similar TDP numbers. It remains to be seen if Apollo Lake will be competitive with ARM offerings, and we should have a nice ability to test that later this year.
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DanNeely - Friday, March 10, 2017 - link
That means Chuwi charges $15 for the real one. It doesn't necessarily mean that's what MS is charging them for it, MS does offer cheaper licenses for low end hardware. With a 64GB SSD this laptop doesn't qualify for any of the thresholds that MS was using last fall though. OTOH MS has been having problems with companies buying the really low end cheap OS license and using it on non-qualifying machines. So it's entirely possible your choices are a fake licence and one not valid for the hardware you're actually getting...http://www.cnx-software.com/2016/09/02/hardware-re...
wumpus - Saturday, March 11, 2017 - link
Scary. The reviewer blew away windows with no reassurance that Linux was going on this thing (it failed to give the option numerous times). I'd recommend learning to use Knoppix (or some other "live OS") and use dd|compress to save the windows image onto a USB stick or something.GekkePrutser - Sunday, March 12, 2017 - link
Yep I also do exactly the same as that (using GRML as live OS).I always keep the image in case I need to return or want to resell the laptop.
hojnikb - Friday, March 10, 2017 - link
i really wish there were more super cheap laptops in 11-14" range. Something like a 720p 11" display that can run linux for ~100$Can't find those.
dragosmp - Friday, March 10, 2017 - link
refurb x205ta aren't too far from that markBrokenCrayons - Friday, March 10, 2017 - link
I've owned a x205ta and it was a nightmarishly miserable disaster for Linux conversion. As of early last year, there was a 33 page long forum thread in the Ubuntu forums documenting the struggles of people to get Linux working and stable on it. Maybe things have changed since then, but I'd suggest looking elsewhere for a Linux laptop, but people were running them without audio support, with skittish wifi, and periodic crashing. I struggled with one for a couple of months before restoring Windows 8 and donating it to a local charity for resale.andychow - Friday, March 10, 2017 - link
I've been waiting for the PINEBOOK ARM Linux Laptop to come out. ARM chip, but 79$ and 99$ for the 11" and 14" laptop, 720p display.hojnikb - Saturday, March 11, 2017 - link
Same here. Looking for this one just because it's cheap and small, so if i lost it or break it, i don't care.Too bad not much info about it.
BFH - Saturday, March 25, 2017 - link
Refurbished Acer C720 chrome book fits the bill. I got one for $140 3 years ago.Arbie - Friday, March 10, 2017 - link
Thanks for looking into this market and providing a unique review. I see these products available but there's rarely any reliable info on how they really perform. Especially on battery life, where I always suspect the worst since the metrics are so fuzzy. At least, with this review, the picture is clear.I bought an HP Stream 11 when they were closed out, and it does fine for web browsing including Youtube-type videos, document editing etc. So this Chuwi machine should satisfy those needs very well.