We have received the Chuwi HeroBook Pro, which boasts excellent parameters compared to its extremely low price. Most of the hardware is perfectly fine, but there are some weak points as well.
The Chuwi HeroBook Pro, the next release of the Chuwi HeroBook, launched last year, has evolved in almost every area. We had high hopes for the laptop I bought from the GearBest store, as it has a particularly impressive performance compared to its current price of $249.99.
The Chuwi brand may not be familiar to many, even though they have been present in the market since 2004. Initially, only MP3 and MP4 players were launched, and in 2010 they became a partner of MediaTek, giving them the opportunity to jump into the tablet market. In recent years, plenty of tablets have been made that are competitive with the competition’s products.
Another milestone in Chuwi’s life arrived in 2013, when a strategic deal was signed with Intel and Microsoft. In the coming years, in addition to tablets, Intel-based laptops have already been added to the company’s portfolio. Last year, they also opened their stores in large online spaces such as Amazon, Aliexpress or Ebay.
The Chuwi HeroBook Pro was released in February, exactly one year after the Chuwi HeroBook hit the market. The basic version was also available at a very low price, so it could have even been successful. However, a lot of things were stabbed in the design that the users quickly spotted. The weak Atom processor, low memory, slow storage, and low-resolution, lousy display were all sore spots on last year’s model. But it’s not over here yet, one could read on the official Chuwi forum that for several, after a few months of use, the device’s battery failed, which could only be remedied by replacement. Fortunately, in terms of warranty, Chuwi also has service centers in Hong Kong, Spain and Russia.
The Pro version tried to fix these bugs and it can be said that it worked almost perfectly. With a more powerful processor, dual-size memory, SSD storage and a FullHD resolution display, the HeroBook Pro stands out from other manufacturers.
If we look around in the current laptop market, we can’t find much for $249.99, not even a product with similar knowledge.
You can currently order the Chuwi HeroBook Pro laptop for $249.99 from the GearBest store. On our site you can find the current offers and the latest coupon offers related to the product:
CHUWI HEROBOOK PRO – Prices
Where to buy? Prices, specifications
Design
The Chuwi HeroBook Pro came in an extremely simple box, with only the brand name and Intel logo packaged on the front. On the side you will also find a sticker describing the exact name of the type, the installed Windows operating system and the main features.
In the box, a thick black foam protects the laptop itself, next to which we find a charger and various documents and descriptions.
The HeroBook Pro has an excellent 14.1-inch IPS display that can be opened easily, even with one hand, up to a maximum angle of 120 degrees.
Thanks to the small display, the size of the laptop (332×214 millimeters) is neither large nor small, it is barely larger than an A4 sheet of paper. Thanks to its weight of 1.4 kilograms and its thickness of only 2 centimeters, it is extremely portable.
Holding the laptop in hand, it can be felt that it is a cheap device, here the manufacturer has saved a lot. No metal elements found, each cover is made of plastic. As the whole product is extremely light and thin, it is definitely worth taking care of it during use.
Four rubber discs on the bottom of the laptop ensure that the entire device does not slip when placed on a table. There is also the M.2 SSD slot in which you can find the 256GB SSD storage. By the way, the product comes with a Netac brand 2280 SSD, if you want more storage space, it can be replaced with an M.2 2280 or 2242 expansion card (max. 512GB). There is no extra SSD slot, but MicroSD card slot does. True, the write / read speed of these cards lags far behind that of an SSD.
Additional connectors can be found on the HeroBook Pro website:
- 1 x USB 3.0
- 1 x USB 2.0
- 1 x 3.5 mm Jack connector
- 1 x Mini HDMI output – for TV, monitor, projector
- 1 x DC power connector (12V / 2A)
The size of the keyboard is right, the distance between the keys allows comfortable typing, their sensitivity is right. However, the quality and design of the plastic buttons is poor and a bit loud.
Use the function key (Fn) to adjust the volume, brightness, and turn Wi-Fi on / off. You can also use the Fn key to access the numeric keypad, which is especially useful for calculation tasks.
It is also clear from the picture that the Chuwi HeroBook Pro, like other laptops purchased abroad, has been given a QWERTY keyboard layout, meaning that by default they do not have special keys for languages other than English. Of course, this does not mean that it cannot be used.
By changing the keyboard language in Windows, special characters are now available.
If you’re bothered that you don’t see what you’re typing on the key, you might want to get a keyboard sticker in the right language for a few dollars. I have had several such laptops in recent years, and for example, I didn’t need a sticker to use it, in a few days I could get used to the location of the letters.
The size of the Touch Pad under the keyboard is appropriate and easy to use. The four-finger touchpad can also be used for gesture control, which can make work easier and faster in Windows.
Hardware
The Chuwi HeroBook Pro has evolved a lot in hardware compared to the base model, with a better display, more memory, faster storage, and a more powerful processor. If we look at it, it has improved in almost every respect, but the price has not changed, and it is even cheaper to buy the Pro model now.
Below the back cover is the Intel Celeron N-series processor from the Gemini Lake platform, the Intel Celeron N4000, which is nearly 50% faster than the Atom x5-E8000 found in its predecessor. The dual-core, dual-thread Celeron processor has a base range of 1.1 GHz, which it can raise up to 2.6 GHz, albeit only for a short time. The central unit, made with 14nm manufacturing technology, operates at low power consumption (6W TDP, 4.8W SDP), which has a good effect on operating time. In addition to the processor, there is also 8 GB of DDR4 type memory, which may be plenty for the average user.
Unfortunately, despite all these developments, the laptop’s weakest point remains the processor. Don’t expect more serious, hardware-intensive tasks. However, it is excellent for running office software (word processing, spreadsheets, making presentations, etc.), watching movies, listening to music, and surfing the Internet. True, the quality of the speakers cannot be called outstanding, if good sound is important, it is better to connect a headset or an external speaker to the machine.
If you want to play on your HeroBook Pro laptop, you really need to choose the games that run normally on it. Unfortunately, the Intel UHD Graphics 600 graphics processor is not designed for gaming, so if you want to play anyway, you should only install older classics.
Out of curiosity, I installed some games to see what to expect on a lower performance laptop. Luckily, there are some big names from the past to try, of course with only the lowest graphics settings: Asphalt 9 (25-30 fps) from the Windows Store runs quite well, similar to Counter Strike (60-80 fps), ES – Skyrim (25 fps), Half Life 2 (60-70 fps), Minecraft (50 fps), Sims 4 (30-35 fps) or just Crysis (25 fps), Team Fortres 2 (30-40 fps), DOTA 2 (25 -30 fps) and League of Legends (25-35 fps) to name just the bigger games. And you could still go on the list. As you can see, there is a choice.
However, newer games are not very worth a try, as even a CS GO (10-15 fps), Overwatch (13 fps), GTA IV (15 fps) or GTA V (5-10 fps) was already unenjoyable.
Benchmarks
To test the Celeron processor, I ran several Benchmark programs, including the CPU-Z Benchmark, CineBench, GeekBench, 7Zip tests. The results were not surprising, this processor is so capable:
| CPU-Z Single Thread: | 186.0 |
| CPU-Z Multi Threads: | 389.1 |
| CineBench 15 CPU: | 125 cb |
| CineBench 15 OpenGL: | 14.40 fps |
| CineBench 20 CPU: | 275 cp |
| 7Zip (19) Compressing: | 4299 MIPS |
| 7Zip (19) Decompressing: | 6517 MIPS |
| GeekBench 5 Single: | 433 |
| GeekBench 5 Multi: | 787 |
| GeekBench 4 Single: | 1864 |
| GeekBench 4 Multi: | 3258 |
| 3D Mark 11 GPU: | 542 |
| 3D Mark 11 Combined: | 515 |
I compared the results with the predecessors, the Chuwi HeroBook (Intel Atom x5-E8000), the Chuwi Lapbook Pro (Intel Celeron N4100) and the Chuwi AeroBook laptops, you can see the results in the graph below:
In addition to the Intel Celeron processor and 8GB of memory, this time paired with an M.2 (2280) 256GB SSD that Netac is supplying to Chuwi. The storage, which has about 211 GB of free space after the first setup, is capable of lightning-fast write and read speeds of nearly 500 MB / second thanks to technology.
As a result, the system can be said to be extremely fast, the installation of programs is shortened, and the launch of applications takes only a few seconds. Interruptions sometimes occur when using programs, especially if several were running in the background at the same time, but this is more likely to be attributed to the weaker processor.
You can see the results for AS SSD and Crystal Disk Mark 8 below:
Software
The Chuwi HeroBook Pro includes a pre-installed Windows 10 Home operating system with a version number of 1903. The 64-bit system is full-fledged Windows, so you can install future updates without any problems.
When you turn on your laptop for the first time, you need to select the system language, but only a few languages are available here at first. All other languages must be installed separately on the system later.
The setup process, like other similar laptops, is extremely simple:
- Enter Language Settings in the viewfinder
- Add preferred language -> we select the language we need
- You can also set this to be the default language in the system immediately before installation: “Set as my display language”
- The installation is done over the internet and takes a few minutes
- After restarting or logging out, the system will greet you in the appropriate language
- Windows does not include installed office software, but there is an Office cloud-based service where you can access a slightly dumb version of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. You will need a Microsoft account to use them.
Battery
The laptop comes with a 38Wh battery that can last for about 4-5 hours with average usage. This is a little different from the 8 hours specified by the manufacturer, I would add, I used the display with quite high brightness, but it is still quite good in this price range.
With the included 24 W charger, charging time takes about 3 hours.
I was able to watch a 720p Youtube video with a Wi-Fi connection for about 6 hours, here:
Summary – Where to buy?
The Chuwi HeroBook Pro has made progress in all respects over its predecessor, the Chuwi HeroBook, setting an example for other manufacturers. At the entry level, we can see hardware solutions that have been unknown so far in this price category. These include a 14.1-inch FullHD IPS display, lightning-fast SSD storage and 8GB of internal memory.
Anyone looking to buy this notebook should be aware of its limitations: the Celeron N4000 processor is far from agile. However, it is more than enough for the Internet, word processing, submissions and presentations. We can also make video calls, but due to the weak front-facing camera, the quality can be criticized.
Because the laptop is extremely thin and there is no active cooling inside, there are problems with heat dissipation. The left side of the device can become very hot during charging or when running highly hardware-intensive applications or games, making it almost uncomfortable to hold on to your lap.
The Chuwi HeroBook Pro, at the entry level, is currently a very good offer for $249.99, so we can’t find a better deal right now. Of course, with more serious machines, you can’t and don’t want to put on gloves, and the manufacturer didn’t design the notebook for that purpose. Based on the test, I think everyone can decide for themselves whether the new Chuwi notebook is right for their own usage habits.
The product came to us from the GearBest store, the current price is $249.99:
BUY – CHUWI HEROBOOK PRO
Price: 249.99 USD
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