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Review: Chuwi's $449 Unibook laptop is a funhouse-mirror MacBook Neo

arstechnica.com

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Re: Review: Chuwi's $449 Unibook laptop is a funhouse-mirror MacBook Neo

#11

Post by Mashimo »

codingisfreedom wrote: post #10

I will never buy another laptop with less than a 500 nits display, no matter its specs/price. I can’t believe virtually every other manufacturer is still making laptops with 250-300 nits. Spending a full day looking at a dim, washed-out screen is just the worst experience ever. The fact that out of all manufacturers, Apple, which is considered the “expensive” and “premium” brand, made the Neo with 500 nits at that pr…

> Spending a full day looking at a dim, washed-out screen is just the worst experience ever.

Odd, I set my desktop monitor to under 200 nits a few years back (25%) and I have no trouble. Only when the room is extremely bright I turn it up.

Why is it the worst experience ever?

I do want the option for more though.

Re: Review: Chuwi's $449 Unibook laptop is a funhouse-mirror MacBook Neo

#13

Post by baybal2 »

LoganDark wrote: post #6
freetonik wrote: post #3

>The Unibook’s keyboard is pretty good, and its trackpad is pretty bad. Just like 98% of non-Apple laptops. Amazing how after all these years nobody could replicate the feel of macbook's trackpads.

It's hard to replicate the R&D that went into Apple's trackpads. I don't know this for sure, but I suspect that most laptop companies do not actually engineer their hardware as much as cobble together existing hardware. Even among those that do engineer their hardware, they don't pay as close attention as Apple. (Also they might not engineer on a low enough level in the first place) There are some haptic trackpads po…

[dead]

Re: Review: Chuwi's $449 Unibook laptop is a funhouse-mirror MacBook Neo

#15

Post by fifticon »

this is another data point in my "year of the linux desktop"; linux is slowly becoming a decent option, not so much because of linux improving leaps and bounds, so much as what happens on the windows side collapsing on its own. 10 years ago, I was used to that windows "of course" would have drivers available for stuff.

Re: Review: Chuwi's $449 Unibook laptop is a funhouse-mirror MacBook Neo

#16

Post by ezst »

freetonik wrote: post #3

>The Unibook’s keyboard is pretty good, and its trackpad is pretty bad. Just like 98% of non-Apple laptops. Amazing how after all these years nobody could replicate the feel of macbook's trackpads.

My ThinkPad's touchpad has been good enough for 10+ years (and I got a trackpoint!), to the extent I stopped caring altogether. Perhaps a MacBook Pro's is better, but however better it may be, that won't swing me towards Apple. "The best touchpad in the world" is some street creds I'm not interested in.

Re: Review: Chuwi's $449 Unibook laptop is a funhouse-mirror MacBook Neo

#17

Post by pizza234 »

As a previous owner of a Chuwi laptop, I think Chuwi is a wasted opportunity. They essentially make product bottom-quality knockoffs, at the lowest possible price.

If they just decided to invest, say, 20% more on quality, they'd have very competitive products - but they just don't.

Re: Review: Chuwi's $449 Unibook laptop is a funhouse-mirror MacBook Neo

#18

Post by pizza234 »

fifticon wrote: post #15

this is another data point in my "year of the linux desktop"; linux is slowly becoming a decent option, not so much because of linux improving leaps and bounds, so much as what happens on the windows side collapsing on its own. 10 years ago, I was used to that windows "of course" would have drivers available for stuff.

Difficult to asses whether it's overall a good or bad thing, but operatively speaking, WSL basically makes any machine a working Linux machine. The year of the linux machine arrived :)

Re: Review: Chuwi's $449 Unibook laptop is a funhouse-mirror MacBook Neo

#19

Post by auggierose »

Peanuts99 wrote: post #8
freetonik wrote: post #3

>The Unibook’s keyboard is pretty good, and its trackpad is pretty bad. Just like 98% of non-Apple laptops. Amazing how after all these years nobody could replicate the feel of macbook's trackpads.

This is mostly a solved problem. My ThinkPad track pad is as good as any Mac.

> mostly a solved problem

> as good as any Mac

Yeah, no. If you don't feel or care about the difference, good for you. The rest of us will have to use a mac.

Re: Review: Chuwi's $449 Unibook laptop is a funhouse-mirror MacBook Neo

#20

Post by onoesworkacct »

Mashimo wrote: post #11
codingisfreedom wrote: post #10

I will never buy another laptop with less than a 500 nits display, no matter its specs/price. I can’t believe virtually every other manufacturer is still making laptops with 250-300 nits. Spending a full day looking at a dim, washed-out screen is just the worst experience ever. The fact that out of all manufacturers, Apple, which is considered the “expensive” and “premium” brand, made the Neo with 500 nits at that pr…

> Spending a full day looking at a dim, washed-out screen is just the worst experience ever. Odd, I set my desktop monitor to under 200 nits a few years back (25%) and I have no trouble. Only when the room is extremely bright I turn it up. Why is it the worst experience ever? I do want the option for more though.

Using a laptop outside is fantastic. I love to sit on my balcony and work there instead of inside. My work laptop is an HP with zero ability to do this.
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