You're very welcome, and thanks for all the hard work you put into yours! Can you recommend a USB PD charger (AC powered) that would output the required 12v with a USC-C adapter plug? All of mine will only do 9v...
A somewhat surprising review, but a very watchable and interesting one. I hadn't considered the possibility that devices this capable existed. The charging issue would be my main beef, but I'm sure this will be solved or there's an alternative already out there somewhere. I'd love to see more of these off-the-wall machines as they're almost impulse-buy money!
I use a LG GRAM 16" a bit heaver, more expensive but light weight, ultra thin ( you really need to see one in reallife and once you do you'll get it - subject to being able to afford) a massive high quality screeen , large track pad, fast and powered by usb charger. I travel alot. I love small and cheap but sometimes you just have to realise you need to get the job done. This pc, an ipad and cameras all fit in a bag that fits under an airplane seat. treat yourself Gordon.
1.2kg but you don't need a separate power supply or mouse plus the LG is a 16" screen which, because the bevels are so small, is actually much smaller than most 15.6" standard laptops while giving a bigger and better display. I don't work for LG I just happen to own two. @@cameralabs
To backup your photos on the go, an alternative could be a USB 3 Smartphone paired to a USB-C hub and an external SSD. These hubs usually sports a full SD Card slots and a couple of USB-A ports to plug the SSD in.
Interesting gadget! For $200 we really can't complain. Good enough for backup photos or light editing, checking email, web browsing.. especially during a trip!
During my last trainspotting trip, I took thousands of photos within the first few days and ran out of SD cards. But I had a backup plan, an awesome one in theory. I brought my Xioami Mi Pad 5 tablet, USB hub, USB card reader and an external HDD. All I have to do is, plug them all in, copy and paste the files from the SD card to the external HDD, how hard can it be? Well, spoiler alert, it was hell. Not all file managers can read the external HDD or card reader together. At times, the transfer stopped mid way for no reason and I had to restart it. Since my tablet was only USB 2, the transfer was slow too. What was suppose to be done in 10-20 minutes took me about 3-4 hours. That's when I realise nothing can beat the reliability of a device with proper full OS. I am still shopping around, mostly looking at the Chuwi Minibook X with the Intel N100. Maybe as a Christmas gift to myself. 😅
Exactly my experience. Everyone assumes Android or iOS are up to the job, but they're terrible with file management and external drives. Hence my requirement for full OS
For small form I would look at this: GPD WIN Mini: 7-inch 120Hz Gaming (168 x109 x26 mm - weighs 520 g) lowest version Ryzen 5 7640U ~699$ price GPD Win MAX 2: (227 × 160 × 23 mm weighs 1005 g) Facing delays due to lack of Ryzen 7 7840U chips (only this one is not affected 7640U ~799$ price) Both are on GPD (Indiegogo) Older version with Ryzen 7 6800U exist but new 7840U / 7640U have better GPU.
i had the same laptop with 8gb ram and same processor for experimental purpose, under brand name Pocket Book 7. I used a Bluetooth mouse because i don't like wires dangling here and there, it was ok for basic tasks but proved slow for other stuff. i wish if there was i3 or i5 option in this category. i sold that and now using a surface go 3, with 10-inch screen, it's a tablet convertible and is more expensive like in US$400 to US$700 category depending on configuration but better. the tablet weighs only 550 grams, with keyboard it is 790 grams and i suggest you should give it a try.
A lovely little laptop that just works out of the box. Sure there are compromises due to the size but this doesn’t stop you doing anything you really need to do. An excellent device for all those odd tasks where you need portability or the convenience of a tablet but with proper sized USB ports and Windows. WiFi and Bluetooth work fine and the screen is clear and bright. A bargain with no competitors in this size and price range.
There are a couple competitors worth mentioning, both of which are better deals and have significantly higher performance. The first is the 8" laptop sold under a number of Chinese brands (but all with the same reference design). Mine was by Koosmile, but there are many others. Much better N100 12th-gen quad-core Intel processor, usb-c charging, active stylus...it's a great ultraportable. The other is the Chuwi 10.5 laptop with N100. Even though this has the same N100 and 12G RAM as the 8" I just mentioned, it performs better (likely to it's larger size and better cooling solution). I own both of these, and both are worthwhile, but the keyboard and trackpad are worlds better on the Chuwi 10.5". You can actually type on it without compromise, something that cannot truthfully be said about any 7-8" laptop.
I came here off of S-Tech's videos, and I ended up buying this laptop to fill an odd niche: when I moved countries I had to sell off all my retro consoles, but rather remarkably, this laptop will (just about) run things like Dolphin and ReDream quite well. My smartphone will also run those emulators..... but has no video out, and I had endless trouble trying to get screencasting to work. So, I have it set up with an HDMI cable and a couple of Xbox controllers, and it makes a very nice platform for emulation! Many thanks for the review, and thank you for sharing!
Hey Gordon: fyi there's a new 8" version w/ n100 chip & usb-c charging. Screen swivels and folds down like those old school windows tablets. It's usually labeled the TOPTON P8
@@cameralabs- I was going to mention this newer 8" as well. It has a much better processor, usb-c charging as mentioned, and has active stylus support. It's also sold under a number of different brands, and the one I bought included an active stylus and a usb-a hub for more ports. It's really excellent for what it is.
@@cameralabsYou're welcome. The other one worth looking at is the 10.5" Minibook X by Chuwi. Also an N100, 12Gb Ram, 512GB NMVE SSD, USB-C charging, good cooling solution with active fan and copper heatsinks, and the 1920x1080 display is pretty good. It's a great mini laptop.
I've ordered a lenovo legion go. I also will have a bluetooth mini keyboard (40percent ortho) and I am using that app that turns my phone into a touchpad.
It's around 770 grams with a type cover, 530 without. Not too useful without the cover for me. Some might use it in tablet mode, but then you'll need some other protection for the screen which also add weight. It can be charged with USB-C though so I can bring one charger for Surface, phone and camera.
I bought one of these, and the mouse buttons don't work. Not a huge problem as I like an external mouse. I wrestled with the thing a while till I got it to dual boot Windows 10 and Linux Mint. Display has to be run to change the screen from portrait to landscape, but that's easy (once I figured it out and stopped trying complicated solutions). Depending what you need, this can be good. As I mostly write (as you can see from this mass of verbiage) this is fine for when I don't want to carry a lot, but need to be ready if I trip over any inspiration.
Thanks for reviewing this mini laptop! I've seen it some time ago on Aliexpress and was definitely curious of it. The lack of USB-c for charging is definitely a dealbreaker for a laptop this small... :( How long is the battery life tho?
@@cameralabs That's pretty bad 😅 I'll stick with my Android tablet then to do some work on the go, lol. Thank goodness I usually only need a word processor, web browser and the internet. lol
my go-to, albeit expensive, ultra portable device of choice is the 6th gen ipad mini. it's LR and PS implementations aren't desktop grade, yet the screen definitely will beat most anything that size and for some color/lighting/composition editing it will work wonders. it weighs less than a pro max iphone, has the ability to use an apple pencil and with the 5g model I can automatically back up photos straight from my camera without most data transfer issues as it uses usb c instead of lightning. plus it's a great e-reader and fits in a cargo pant pocket!
Just to point out Gordon what you have is the earlier version with the J4105 CPU running at 1.5 Ghz the later version, which is the one I purchased from the UK has the J4125 CPU running at 2 Ghz. I don't know why not but that never seems to get mentioned anywhere and it really makes a big difference to it's performance so I hear.
Thanks! The aliexpress listings seem to mention both processors randomly, but mine ended up with the J4105. Glad you bagged a faster one! How much did you pay, and are you enjoying it?
I got mine the Fsjun ver. from amazon just over a year ago I believe it was around the £300 mark, the largest SSD at the time was 512Gb. I really enjoy using it although as always with me I did a lot of Tweaking, removing what I don't use like Edge for example. You can get quite a perfomance boost by disabling all unnecessary tasks running in the background and removing clutter. The Bios in my machine is interesting, it's the ver. that has the Advanced tab, and when I last looked I noticed a setting to enable/disable USB-C. Presumably that refers to the hidden USB port but it was set to disabled, so does that mean it's not active and must be switched on to use ?... I wonder. @@cameralabs
Really interesting Gordon - I appreciated you aiming for the value proposition, rather than extolling the virtues of laptops costing several thousands - after all, less spent on computing means more to spend on cameras/lenses!
I recently bought a 2015 11" MacBook air, it is the uncommon 2.2ghz i7 model with 8gb RAM, I upped the storage 256gb to a 2tb M.2 SSD, it runs LR and PS quite ok even with the 125mb RAW files from my 60mp A7Riv. It is my go to with dual USB 3 ports and a pair of USB 3 external drives....
I use a GPD Pocket 3 or a GDP Win Max which work well with Photoshop, Lightroom, Davinci Resolve. I believe that there's a 64gb version of the new Win Max 2023 out soon
@cameralabs I'm sort of tempted to upgrade to the newesr Win Max, although the Pocket 3 transforms into a tablet and also has the HDMI input on the KVM module so can act.as a monitor for the camera.
I wonder how compatible it is with linux, especially with the touch screen. Definitely an interesting device! The bad battery usage is a bit of a shame though.
I installed archlinux and it was an smooth an easy install. The screen and touchscreen are easy to rotate after installation. I haven't been to get wifi and audio to work without a dongle though.
Hi Gordon, thanks for the nice video. I have a pipo on the way 😁. Did you every figure out a "USB to DC Barrel cable" that works. If so do you have a link you could share. Thanks
My biggest concern with these cheap little laptops is that sometimes they can contain unlicensed (or pirated) software since some of these (which this one looks like a Lenovo/IBM knock-off) may come from China and may not have fully licensed software. This is probably too small IMIO. I would probably go for a Surface Pro of some sort, and while it's more expensive, the display is nice and crisp, they have enough storage/RAM to actaully run PS and LR (and in some cases, together if you get enough RAM). But if you just wanted something to review photos, I would rather get a cheaper name-branded laptop instead. You can get ultra cheap Dell, HP, Lenovo laptops that are under $200 (they don't have a bunch of storage and may only be able to run Bridge but for just reviewing images, that's fine).
I'd say it's almost certainly unlicensed, although it was activated. You could install your own though. Yes, I've seen branded cheap laptops, but they're generally too big and heavy for what I want. The challenge is sub 800g with full Windows and a keyboard.
@@sh8736 It is a trade-off but I like to carry as few devices as possible, and the Surface can act as both (a tablet i can tether to in the field and as an editing machine).
I used your link it buy this computer and just received it. Unfortunately, I can’t activate Windows. I’m getting a message that says that Windows has not been purchased for the device. Did you have this problem? Did you have to buy Windows to use on it?
Mine came with Windows already on it, but as I mentioned in the video, I'm not sure if it's official or not. At this price, and from these companies, I'd suggest you need to install your own copy if you want to be 100% official. I suspect you may not be able to activate the one they installed.
Koosmile 8"' laptop (and others that use the same design) or Chuwi Minibook X with the N100 (there is an older version with a lesser processor) are good choices.
Have you ever tried out an X1 carbon or X1 Nano? Insanely light, much lighter than any Mac. I have a 6 year old Gen 4 which doesn't have the performance needed for photo work but it's so light I barely feel it in my bag. Battery life is not going to be up to par with macbooks but for mobility you may want to look into a recent 2nd hand one.
@@cameralabs for the X1 nano, around that weight, ~900gms. Keep in mind this is a full fat 13.3" windows machine with a proper Core i5 or core i7 CPU and 40Wh battery.
windows computers don't give you activation codes anymore. it's stored inside the motherboard firmware. that means if you reinstall, it should auto-activate without you putting in a key. for all we know this could be a legit copy of windows. this has been a thing since 2013 with the release of windows 8
You didn't give the best UMPC in the world a name check, the Sony Vaio UX (of Terminator fame). I wish the Chinese companies would make something similar to that again...
My light-weight option was switching from MacBook Pro to Air. I also lightened the load with a lighter backpack. But then, of course, I filled it up with more gear. Sigh. Interesting. Amazing what a few hundred $$$ will buy.
@@cameralabs Tell me about it. 12 days in Egypt lugging a MacBook Air, 2xG9, 16-800mm equiv in 4 lenses, etc... I will stay tuned. Would love you to find the perfect setup, happy hunting!
To be honest I've not been using as much as expected, as I'm trying to travel as light as possible, so without a laptop most of the time. But the lack of USB charging is still my major issue. I believe newer models might have it now
Dino, I would suggest looking into the Acer Swift 3 and the Lenovo X1 carbon. Those are around 2.7 lbs. And perform fast enough for photography needs. You will feel that 1 pound difference.
An amazing review! My £2,500 Dell 64GB laptop is rubbish. Slow with dreadful screen colour and brightness despite calibration using Spider. Wi-Fi on my £2,500 Dell laptop is also rubbish sh.
@@SkubySnak- I own the same laptop under another name. I'd have no hesitation about using it for PowerPoint slide shows unless they are WAY more complex than anything I've produced!
@@mussietube9909 often the limiting factor is the resolution of the screen. For example it's not really tall enough in resolution to properly show Photoshop. It's workable, but not ideal.
I ordered one of these without a hard drive and installed Windows myself. Now I can't get the touch screen to work. I downloaded a driver from the internet and I only managed to get it to go to a completely different side when I pressed it, and nothing was able to calibrate it. Keep in mind for those who want to buy it without a disk and I would appreciate it if you know, you can help me with the solution.
Honestly your main issue with using a phone or tablet in place of this laptop is that you are using an apple device. Android device use a standard file manager and can copy just fine from usb or even microsd for android device that have microsd slot. You can even find pda like android with a usb keyboard attached.
small tablet with a cover that has a keyboard and a windows 365 subscription if you absolutely need to have windows. this is, something that would have been cool back in the era of netbooks. that era is long gone.
I have a nice HP Chromebook tablet with a keyboard cover, and the crazy part for me is that the tablet is so much heavier than the keyboard. It works on a table top, but if it's on anything that's not completely flat, it falls over unless I grab it. I've also got one of these 7-inch laptops, and they're much more stable on my leg, or on a tilted surface. But what can I say. I still have an Acer Aspire One netbook. 😉
Thinking what to get for my Dyslexia note taking and running chemistry software for my bio chem degree, the GDP or whatever pocket 3 looks great but 500 is too much for me, this video will judge if I get this mini laptop or not, thought id give you a comment early in the video so I am not rude and help peoples channels grow but dyslexia and add means I usually forget. Hope its worth getting
I tried this with a onemix 7 inch… but the problem was the battery only lasts 3 hours and the processor is borderline useless. 7 inch on windows is hard to use. An iPad mini with 256gb would be far better and more usable
This is great. More of these please. I have an M1 iPad Pro that I try to use for work (as a network engineer so it's a different field) and find that I have to pair it with a raspberry pi (nano or 4) to get round some limitations imposed by iPad OS. The GPD pocket mentioned in various comments is very interesting for my use case. The hardware in my iPad will definitely be more capable but the design goal of sandboxing everything (including me from the hardware) means that mobile operating systems will struggle at anything for which a specific workflow and pipeline have not been specifically developed. I think DEX is an example of possibly the best mobile multitasking workflow but had to be specifically designed and I don't know if anything outside Samsung can use it.
I'd wager the Surface Go 2 is probably the best mainstream mini device. And even that is pretty rough to use with your Adobe cloud products. This, to be honest, Gordon, looks barely worth $100 let alone $200! Each to their own though.
Ive Been Looking At This,Do You Feel It Would Work With Astrophotography In The Field,No Guiding,And Have Plenty Of Power Supply..Thank You And Great Video..Clear Skies🙏🏻❤️🔭✨🌏
Good question - I used to do a bit of astro stuff so I know what you mean. Do you want it to power a camera, a guider and or something else? What would you be using it for? It'll work like any Windows laptop, but obviously the battery is your limiting factor - it's not huge and the cold won't help.
@@cameralabs,Running A Camera,Either In Firecap,Icap,,And Be Able To Use Something Like Registax,DSS,Just Some Basic,Short,Under A Min Expo,Probably Under 30 Sec,I Could Add Memory,Just Something Easier To Deal With With Out,Instead Of Lugging My 14” Around,lol..But Its Old And Running Windows 7,So This Little Thing Couldnt Be Much Worse,lol..Cheers
@@PafMedic as you know, the processor isn't that quick in this machine BUT you saw me doing some RAW adjustments on a 26 Megapixel file, and it was workable. I'd say it's worth a shot, it will do what you want, but it may be slow and the battery won't last long. But ultimately it's still the smallest and lightest and cheapest laptop I could find that ran Windows 11 and had full connectivity, so i'd say give it a shot. Let me know how you get on!
@@cameralabs ,I Dont Need It To Be Fast,Ive Got All The Time God Will Allow Me😂But Here Is The One I Ordered Today,Not Exactly The Same,I Went For The 960GB On The SSD Card..I Think This Ones A Little Better..Copied From My Order,ZWYING 【Win 11/MS 2019office】 All Metal 7.0 inch Touch Screen Ultra-Light Mini Laptop High-Speed CPU J4105 DDR4 12G RAM/960GB SSD High-Performance Notebook Computer (960GB SSD)..Now I Did Pay $359 For It Tho,It Gets Here Next Wed..Ascom Will Be 1st😂
@@cameralabs,Hi There..3 Months Later..I Havent Had A Lot Of Skies,But Did Capture The Meteor Shower With My Zwo385Mc All Sky,I Was Rather Impressed,Not Worried About Power,Have Plenty Of That,And My Car Itself As Well.But Its Doing Better Than My Sony Vio Still Running Windows 7😂😂😂It Does The Trick,But Stacking Takes Forever,It Is Still Nice To Use For Post Processing,So I Dont Have To Load Up The Smaller One,Just Some Capturing Apps,Im Thinking Trying To Run The Asiair,And Remotely..Not Gonna do You Much Justice,But I Just Use It Solely For Astro,So Far…I Like It..Clear Skies..
All these people who think they know better than the user who says the solution he is using is the best for his needs. The internet will never change 😂
Also, these machines are first rate for the use case. Just keep an eye on the battery as some units have been known to swell their packs over time. Not dangerous, but not ideal.
@@cameralabs Yeah I need a USB Hub and a App like FE Explorer, just to copy the data from my SD Card to my SSD (for some reason apples native „files“ moves data extremely slowly) And even then I haven’t found a process to make image culling fast. Apple seems to have a problem with file management. Otherwise the iPad is brilliant.
Great review of a peculiar little machine! I could see it used for at least a handful of niches. My choice in this area is the MBA 11 inch, a monster still after many years of oblivion =)) They come around for a good price these days. Weight is 1kg, a bit more than you're looking for. Make a field use review in the future?!? /All the Best
I used a net-book for years, mine is buried now in a closet. Before I got a Mac laptop. Used the net-book for website proofing copy proofing with a Lenovo laptop - side by side. Won’t buy from Alibaba…
This looks good. Real good. So good, my wallet hand is twitching. But... that keyboard. Urgh. I would happily go for an 8 inch, or 9 inch version, IF the extra size went into a keyboard with a more standard layout. That would make the screen bigger, too - which wouldn't hurt.
@@cameralabs My google-fu plus Ali Express diving found a few 8 inch models, but the reviews still complain about the keyboard. Like you said in your review, needing to carry a keyboard kind of defeats the purpose.
Such mini laptops (called "netbooks" back in the day) are obsolete today. iPads and Android tablets have more screen real estate, better screen quality and are faster.
¿Can i use Netbeans and many other full desktop applications on an iPad or Android tablet without having to rely on emulators and compatibility layers or having to modify an whole kernel and jailbreak to install another operating system with less than 10% rate of success?
I have tried many times. You can't reliably copy 10s of GB of photos back and forth on a mobile OS, and the apps aren't as good as full desktop versions. I talk about all of this in the video.
Great review! And thank you for the shout out.
You're very welcome, and thanks for all the hard work you put into yours! Can you recommend a USB PD charger (AC powered) that would output the required 12v with a USC-C adapter plug? All of mine will only do 9v...
Definitely buying this to play Ultima V on the go. Kids nowadays have no idea about the beauty of gadgets like these.
EXACTLY!
A somewhat surprising review, but a very watchable and interesting one. I hadn't considered the possibility that devices this capable existed. The charging issue would be my main beef, but I'm sure this will be solved or there's an alternative already out there somewhere. I'd love to see more of these off-the-wall machines as they're almost impulse-buy money!
Exactly my thoughts!
Wow fantastic find Gordon.
Reminds me of my Asus EEE days - I loved that and got through 3 of them!
Hope you find a charger solution!
I'm hoping...!
I use a LG GRAM 16" a bit heaver, more expensive but light weight, ultra thin ( you really need to see one in reallife and once you do you'll get it - subject to being able to afford) a massive high quality screeen , large track pad, fast and powered by usb charger. I travel alot. I love small and cheap but sometimes you just have to realise you need to get the job done. This pc, an ipad and cameras all fit in a bag that fits under an airplane seat. treat yourself Gordon.
How much does the laptop weigh?
1.2kg but you don't need a separate power supply or mouse plus the LG is a 16" screen which, because the bevels are so small, is actually much smaller than most 15.6" standard laptops while giving a bigger and better display. I don't work for LG I just happen to own two. @@cameralabs
LG gram 14 is awesome too 😊
To backup your photos on the go, an alternative could be a USB 3 Smartphone paired to a USB-C hub and an external SSD. These hubs usually sports a full SD Card slots and a couple of USB-A ports to plug the SSD in.
In theory that would be perfect, but in practice they rarely work, especially for big or lots of files. Hence needing full OS
That's a lot of spaghetti to tote around
Interesting gadget! For $200 we really can't complain. Good enough for backup photos or light editing, checking email, web browsing.. especially during a trip!
Exactly, it is what it is. Undoubtedly cheap and slowish but amazingly the best tool for the job I needed it for
During my last trainspotting trip, I took thousands of photos within the first few days and ran out of SD cards. But I had a backup plan, an awesome one in theory. I brought my Xioami Mi Pad 5 tablet, USB hub, USB card reader and an external HDD. All I have to do is, plug them all in, copy and paste the files from the SD card to the external HDD, how hard can it be? Well, spoiler alert, it was hell.
Not all file managers can read the external HDD or card reader together. At times, the transfer stopped mid way for no reason and I had to restart it. Since my tablet was only USB 2, the transfer was slow too. What was suppose to be done in 10-20 minutes took me about 3-4 hours.
That's when I realise nothing can beat the reliability of a device with proper full OS. I am still shopping around, mostly looking at the Chuwi Minibook X with the Intel N100. Maybe as a Christmas gift to myself. 😅
Exactly my experience. Everyone assumes Android or iOS are up to the job, but they're terrible with file management and external drives. Hence my requirement for full OS
For small form I would look at this:
GPD WIN Mini: 7-inch 120Hz Gaming (168 x109 x26 mm - weighs 520 g) lowest version Ryzen 5 7640U ~699$ price
GPD Win MAX 2: (227 × 160 × 23 mm weighs 1005 g) Facing delays due to lack of Ryzen 7 7840U chips (only this one is not affected 7640U ~799$ price)
Both are on GPD (Indiegogo) Older version with Ryzen 7 6800U exist but new 7840U / 7640U have better GPU.
i had the same laptop with 8gb ram and same processor for experimental purpose, under brand name Pocket Book 7. I used a Bluetooth mouse because i don't like wires dangling here and there, it was ok for basic tasks but proved slow for other stuff. i wish if there was i3 or i5 option in this category. i sold that and now using a surface go 3, with 10-inch screen, it's a tablet convertible and is more expensive like in US$400 to US$700 category depending on configuration but better. the tablet weighs only 550 grams, with keyboard it is 790 grams and i suggest you should give it a try.
Yeah, I am curious about trying a small surface, and sub-800g is just about ok
A lovely little laptop that just works out of the box. Sure there are compromises due to the size but this doesn’t stop you doing anything you really need to do. An excellent device for all those odd tasks where you need portability or the convenience of a tablet but with proper sized USB ports and Windows. WiFi and Bluetooth work fine and the screen is clear and bright. A bargain with no competitors in this size and price range.
There are a couple competitors worth mentioning, both of which are better deals and have significantly higher performance. The first is the 8" laptop sold under a number of Chinese brands (but all with the same reference design). Mine was by Koosmile, but there are many others. Much better N100 12th-gen quad-core Intel processor, usb-c charging, active stylus...it's a great ultraportable.
The other is the Chuwi 10.5 laptop with N100. Even though this has the same N100 and 12G RAM as the 8" I just mentioned, it performs better (likely to it's larger size and better cooling solution).
I own both of these, and both are worthwhile, but the keyboard and trackpad are worlds better on the Chuwi 10.5". You can actually type on it without compromise, something that cannot truthfully be said about any 7-8" laptop.
I came here off of S-Tech's videos, and I ended up buying this laptop to fill an odd niche: when I moved countries I had to sell off all my retro consoles, but rather remarkably, this laptop will (just about) run things like Dolphin and ReDream quite well. My smartphone will also run those emulators..... but has no video out, and I had endless trouble trying to get screencasting to work. So, I have it set up with an HDMI cable and a couple of Xbox controllers, and it makes a very nice platform for emulation! Many thanks for the review, and thank you for sharing!
Nice one! Glad it does what you want it to do!
Hey Gordon: fyi there's a new 8" version w/ n100 chip & usb-c charging. Screen swivels and folds down like those old school windows tablets. It's usually labeled the TOPTON P8
Thanks for letting me know!
@@cameralabs- I was going to mention this newer 8" as well. It has a much better processor, usb-c charging as mentioned, and has active stylus support. It's also sold under a number of different brands, and the one I bought included an active stylus and a usb-a hub for more ports. It's really excellent for what it is.
@@BGeldz thanks, I should check it out!
@@cameralabsYou're welcome. The other one worth looking at is the 10.5" Minibook X by Chuwi. Also an N100, 12Gb Ram, 512GB NMVE SSD, USB-C charging, good cooling solution with active fan and copper heatsinks, and the 1920x1080 display is pretty good. It's a great mini laptop.
@@BGeldz thanks!
Now that really looks like fun. Especially as a fan of Thinkpads who really uses trackpoints. :) Nice "netbook".
I've ordered a lenovo legion go. I also will have a bluetooth mini keyboard (40percent ortho) and I am using that app that turns my phone into a touchpad.
Back in the day those 'nipple' pointers used to sit between the G, B and H keys and were sometimes referred to as 'G Spots'
I use a Surface Go for a similar purpose. First gen so maybe even slower and no two TB storage option, but screen is larger.
How much does it weigh?
It's around 770 grams with a type cover, 530 without. Not too useful without the cover for me. Some might use it in tablet mode, but then you'll need some other protection for the screen which also add weight. It can be charged with USB-C though so I can bring one charger for Surface, phone and camera.
I loved my little Toshiba Libretto back in the day.
I'm hoping to love one again via ebay!
The screen aspect ratio would make this a nice portable DosBox Gaming Machine
It does!
I tried this one for a while ended up on chuwi minibook x 2in1 for usb c charging and the massive performance upgrade.
I bought one of these, and the mouse buttons don't work. Not a huge problem as I like an external mouse. I wrestled with the thing a while till I got it to dual boot Windows 10 and Linux Mint. Display has to be run to change the screen from portrait to landscape, but that's easy (once I figured it out and stopped trying complicated solutions). Depending what you need, this can be good. As I mostly write (as you can see from this mass of verbiage) this is fine for when I don't want to carry a lot, but need to be ready if I trip over any inspiration.
Thanks for reviewing this mini laptop! I've seen it some time ago on Aliexpress and was definitely curious of it. The lack of USB-c for charging is definitely a dealbreaker for a laptop this small... :( How long is the battery life tho?
About 3 hrs of video playback
@@cameralabs That's pretty bad 😅 I'll stick with my Android tablet then to do some work on the go, lol. Thank goodness I usually only need a word processor, web browser and the internet. lol
USB-c to barrel chargers are plenty on amazon
my go-to, albeit expensive, ultra portable device of choice is the 6th gen ipad mini.
it's LR and PS implementations aren't desktop grade, yet the screen definitely will beat most anything that size and for some color/lighting/composition editing it will work wonders.
it weighs less than a pro max iphone, has the ability to use an apple pencil and with the 5g model I can automatically back up photos straight from my camera without most data transfer issues as it uses usb c instead of lightning.
plus it's a great e-reader and fits in a cargo pant pocket!
I like the ipad mini, but what I'd really like is an 11in Air with Apple silicon!
Just to point out Gordon what you have is the earlier version with the J4105 CPU running at 1.5 Ghz the later version, which is the one I purchased from the UK has the J4125 CPU running at 2 Ghz. I don't know why not but that never seems to get mentioned anywhere and it really makes a big difference to it's performance so I hear.
Thanks! The aliexpress listings seem to mention both processors randomly, but mine ended up with the J4105. Glad you bagged a faster one! How much did you pay, and are you enjoying it?
I got mine the Fsjun ver. from amazon just over a year ago I believe it was around the £300 mark, the largest SSD at the time was 512Gb. I really enjoy using it although as always with me I did a lot of Tweaking, removing what I don't use like Edge for example. You can get quite a perfomance boost by disabling all unnecessary tasks running in the background and removing clutter.
The Bios in my machine is interesting, it's the ver. that has the Advanced tab, and when I last looked I noticed a setting to enable/disable USB-C. Presumably that refers to the hidden USB port but it was set to disabled, so does that mean it's not active and must be switched on to use ?... I wonder. @@cameralabs
Really interesting Gordon - I appreciated you aiming for the value proposition, rather than extolling the virtues of laptops costing several thousands - after all, less spent on computing means more to spend on cameras/lenses!
Exactly, although I'd have paid more for a premium mini, but they don't exist!
I recently bought a 2015 11" MacBook air, it is the uncommon 2.2ghz i7 model with 8gb RAM, I upped the storage 256gb to a 2tb M.2 SSD, it runs LR and PS quite ok even with the 125mb RAW files from my 60mp A7Riv. It is my go to with dual USB 3 ports and a pair of USB 3 external drives....
And still 8hrs of battery life when watching video files!!
I miss the 11in model, it could be ideal for me. How much does it weigh? I assume it was a used model?
Yes, used, it weighs 1.08kg but has the advantage of running MacOs so it fits in with my ecosystem with the iPad mini and iMac etc...@@cameralabs
You should try the chuwi minibook X n100
I use a GPD Pocket 3 or a GDP Win Max which work well with Photoshop, Lightroom, Davinci Resolve. I believe that there's a 64gb version of the new Win Max 2023 out soon
Yep the GPD models look nice
@cameralabs I'm sort of tempted to upgrade to the newesr Win Max, although the Pocket 3 transforms into a tablet and also has the HDMI input on the KVM module so can act.as a monitor for the camera.
The prices on GPD devices are just so high!
i think it would be good for me im considering making model rockets and it would be nice having a small laptop like that
My cheap lightweight solution is a acer c720 chromebook running windows 10.
Small enough for my messenger bag and the battery can last about 4 hours.
lol this is the way. 30 dollar machines that outperform this 200 dollar piece of junk
Gordon doing a computer review again!
It's been a minute!
Saw the thumbnail and thought this was a Dino Bytes netbook review
It kinda felt like that making it!
I want something like pocket mini laptop that also could use as smart phone. I really hate touch screen keyboard.
I wonder how compatible it is with linux, especially with the touch screen. Definitely an interesting device! The bad battery usage is a bit of a shame though.
People on the forum I mentioned have installed Linux on it
I installed archlinux and it was an smooth an easy install. The screen and touchscreen are easy to rotate after installation. I haven't been to get wifi and audio to work without a dongle though.
@@marcosramirez385 thanks for the update!
Hi Gordon, thanks for the nice video. I have a pipo on the way 😁. Did you every figure out a "USB to DC Barrel cable" that works. If so do you have a link you could share. Thanks
Sadly not yet!
My biggest concern with these cheap little laptops is that sometimes they can contain unlicensed (or pirated) software since some of these (which this one looks like a Lenovo/IBM knock-off) may come from China and may not have fully licensed software. This is probably too small IMIO. I would probably go for a Surface Pro of some sort, and while it's more expensive, the display is nice and crisp, they have enough storage/RAM to actaully run PS and LR (and in some cases, together if you get enough RAM). But if you just wanted something to review photos, I would rather get a cheaper name-branded laptop instead. You can get ultra cheap Dell, HP, Lenovo laptops that are under $200 (they don't have a bunch of storage and may only be able to run Bridge but for just reviewing images, that's fine).
I'd say it's almost certainly unlicensed, although it was activated. You could install your own though. Yes, I've seen branded cheap laptops, but they're generally too big and heavy for what I want. The challenge is sub 800g with full Windows and a keyboard.
Agree a ms surface pro is the way to go, super light, touch screen good sized keyboard, kick stand, but more costly than your test kit 😊
@@sh8736 It is a trade-off but I like to carry as few devices as possible, and the Surface can act as both (a tablet i can tether to in the field and as an editing machine).
How much MIPS it does in 7zip universal performance test?
Is the photo you are editing at 14:00 Copacabana, Bolivia ? im from Bolivia
Yes it is! Good spot! I was there last year, lovely place.
Спасибо за подробный обзор !
I used your link it buy this computer and just received it. Unfortunately, I can’t activate Windows. I’m getting a message that says that Windows has not been purchased for the device. Did you have this problem? Did you have to buy Windows to use on it?
Mine came with Windows already on it, but as I mentioned in the video, I'm not sure if it's official or not. At this price, and from these companies, I'd suggest you need to install your own copy if you want to be 100% official. I suspect you may not be able to activate the one they installed.
Thanks for the review, I would get one if it had usb c!
Have you found any comparable alternatives that do?
Koosmile 8"' laptop (and others that use the same design) or Chuwi Minibook X with the N100 (there is an older version with a lesser processor) are good choices.
There's a few suggested in the comments here
You can use dext and a uperfect dext laptop
Have you ever tried out an X1 carbon or X1 Nano? Insanely light, much lighter than any Mac. I have a 6 year old Gen 4 which doesn't have the performance needed for photo work but it's so light I barely feel it in my bag. Battery life is not going to be up to par with macbooks but for mobility you may want to look into a recent 2nd hand one.
What weight are we talking? Sub 800g?
@@cameralabs for the X1 nano, around that weight, ~900gms. Keep in mind this is a full fat 13.3" windows machine with a proper Core i5 or core i7 CPU and 40Wh battery.
Can you drag and drop icons and scroll using the pointer on the keyboard?
You have to use it with a push of a button too - it's just a pointer
windows computers don't give you activation codes anymore. it's stored inside the motherboard firmware. that means if you reinstall, it should auto-activate without you putting in a key.
for all we know this could be a legit copy of windows. this has been a thing since 2013 with the release of windows 8
You didn't give the best UMPC in the world a name check, the Sony Vaio UX (of Terminator fame). I wish the Chinese companies would make something similar to that again...
Ah yes, I actually had one of those back in the day - in fact all of the Sony tiny laptops. I reviewed them all for PCW magazine!
My light-weight option was switching from MacBook Pro to Air. I also lightened the load with a lighter backpack. But then, of course, I filled it up with more gear. Sigh. Interesting. Amazing what a few hundred $$$ will buy.
The Airs are awesome but still too heavy for what I wanted. Long trips, backpacking, hiking etc
@@cameralabs Tell me about it. 12 days in Egypt lugging a MacBook Air, 2xG9, 16-800mm equiv in 4 lenses, etc... I will stay tuned. Would love you to find the perfect setup, happy hunting!
Do you think after 10 months of using the laptop any changes or cons that you find?
To be honest I've not been using as much as expected, as I'm trying to travel as light as possible, so without a laptop most of the time. But the lack of USB charging is still my major issue. I believe newer models might have it now
Dino, I would suggest looking into the Acer Swift 3 and the Lenovo X1 carbon. Those are around 2.7 lbs. And perform fast enough for photography needs. You will feel that 1 pound difference.
That's double my target weight, and 2.7lbs could get a macbook air. Nice machines but too heavy for what I'm talking about.
The original manufacturer is Topton
I've come across theirs, but how can you tell?
there is a 5v to 12v usb upstep adapter on Aliexpress
Do you have a link to the correct one
Thanks
An amazing review! My £2,500 Dell 64GB laptop is rubbish. Slow with dreadful screen colour and brightness despite calibration using Spider. Wi-Fi on my £2,500 Dell laptop is also rubbish sh.
Will this handle a Power Point Presentation with audio? LIke you, I'd like to lighten my travel load...
I think if it's a basic one and the transitions are simple, then yes/
@@cameralabs Thanks for the quick reply. Yes, just a standard PPT with the basic transitions. Videos are pretty short, nothing more than 5 min...
@@SkubySnak- I own the same laptop under another name. I'd have no hesitation about using it for PowerPoint slide shows unless they are WAY more complex than anything I've produced!
Can somtething like this run davinciresolve for video colorgrade
If Resolve's minimum specs for things like the screen, CPU and RAM are within it, then yes, albeit slowly.
@@cameralabs thanks for the info
@@mussietube9909 often the limiting factor is the resolution of the screen. For example it's not really tall enough in resolution to properly show Photoshop. It's workable, but not ideal.
I ordered one of these without a hard drive and installed Windows myself. Now I can't get the touch screen to work. I downloaded a driver from the internet and I only managed to get it to go to a completely different side when I pressed it, and nothing was able to calibrate it. Keep in mind for those who want to buy it without a disk and I would appreciate it if you know, you can help me with the solution.
I've not done a reinstall, so I'd recommend going to that forum I suggested in the video.
The touchscreen is a Goodix one, so i would look into that manufacturer drivers
Battery life?
Enough for a long film at the moment, but I'd expect it to reduce
Honestly your main issue with using a phone or tablet in place of this laptop is that you are using an apple device. Android device use a standard file manager and can copy just fine from usb or even microsd for android device that have microsd slot. You can even find pda like android with a usb keyboard attached.
I have an Android phone
small tablet with a cover that has a keyboard and a windows 365 subscription if you absolutely need to have windows.
this is, something that would have been cool back in the era of netbooks. that era is long gone.
I'm not sure virtual windows would work that well for the copying and backup tasks I described
I have a nice HP Chromebook tablet with a keyboard cover, and the crazy part for me is that the tablet is so much heavier than the keyboard. It works on a table top, but if it's on anything that's not completely flat, it falls over unless I grab it.
I've also got one of these 7-inch laptops, and they're much more stable on my leg, or on a tilted surface.
But what can I say. I still have an Acer Aspire One netbook. 😉
Thinking what to get for my Dyslexia note taking and running chemistry software for my bio chem degree, the GDP or whatever pocket 3 looks great but 500 is too much for me, this video will judge if I get this mini laptop or not, thought id give you a comment early in the video so I am not rude and help peoples channels grow but dyslexia and add means I usually forget.
Hope its worth getting
Thanks for watching! Note there are newer versions I think now with USB C charging
Can it run voicemod?
I think these mini laptops would be great as a Chromebook OS.
I tried this with a onemix 7 inch… but the problem was the battery only lasts 3 hours and the processor is borderline useless. 7 inch on windows is hard to use. An iPad mini with 256gb would be far better and more usable
If the ipad or android tablets handled file management and external drives better, then I'd have a solution!
@@cameralabs iPad isn’t perfect… but better than windows 10 on an underpowered mini pc
Surface go 3 seems to be the entire point of that.
This is great. More of these please. I have an M1 iPad Pro that I try to use for work (as a network engineer so it's a different field) and find that I have to pair it with a raspberry pi (nano or 4) to get round some limitations imposed by iPad OS. The GPD pocket mentioned in various comments is very interesting for my use case.
The hardware in my iPad will definitely be more capable but the design goal of sandboxing everything (including me from the hardware) means that mobile operating systems will struggle at anything for which a specific workflow and pipeline have not been specifically developed. I think DEX is an example of possibly the best mobile multitasking workflow but had to be specifically designed and I don't know if anything outside Samsung can use it.
Looks Cool
Lovely! ❤
I'd wager the Surface Go 2 is probably the best mainstream mini device. And even that is pretty rough to use with your Adobe cloud products. This, to be honest, Gordon, looks barely worth $100 let alone $200! Each to their own though.
I must check out the surfaces, but do they do one this small or light?
@@cameralabs without holding this version in the hand I can't confirm but the 'Go' would certainly run it very close
Ive Been Looking At This,Do You Feel It Would Work With Astrophotography In The Field,No Guiding,And Have Plenty Of Power Supply..Thank You And Great Video..Clear Skies🙏🏻❤️🔭✨🌏
Good question - I used to do a bit of astro stuff so I know what you mean. Do you want it to power a camera, a guider and or something else? What would you be using it for? It'll work like any Windows laptop, but obviously the battery is your limiting factor - it's not huge and the cold won't help.
@@cameralabs,Running A Camera,Either In Firecap,Icap,,And Be Able To Use Something Like Registax,DSS,Just Some Basic,Short,Under A Min Expo,Probably Under 30 Sec,I Could Add Memory,Just Something Easier To Deal With With Out,Instead Of Lugging My 14” Around,lol..But Its Old And Running Windows 7,So This Little Thing Couldnt Be Much Worse,lol..Cheers
@@PafMedic as you know, the processor isn't that quick in this machine BUT you saw me doing some RAW adjustments on a 26 Megapixel file, and it was workable. I'd say it's worth a shot, it will do what you want, but it may be slow and the battery won't last long. But ultimately it's still the smallest and lightest and cheapest laptop I could find that ran Windows 11 and had full connectivity, so i'd say give it a shot. Let me know how you get on!
@@cameralabs ,I Dont Need It To Be Fast,Ive Got All The Time God Will Allow Me😂But Here Is The One I Ordered Today,Not Exactly The Same,I Went For The 960GB On The SSD Card..I Think This Ones A Little Better..Copied From My Order,ZWYING 【Win 11/MS 2019office】 All Metal 7.0 inch Touch Screen Ultra-Light Mini Laptop High-Speed CPU J4105 DDR4 12G RAM/960GB SSD High-Performance Notebook Computer (960GB SSD)..Now I Did Pay $359 For It Tho,It Gets Here Next Wed..Ascom Will Be 1st😂
@@cameralabs,Hi There..3 Months Later..I Havent Had A Lot Of Skies,But Did Capture The Meteor Shower With My Zwo385Mc All Sky,I Was Rather Impressed,Not Worried About Power,Have Plenty Of That,And My Car Itself As Well.But Its Doing Better Than My Sony Vio Still Running Windows 7😂😂😂It Does The Trick,But Stacking Takes Forever,It Is Still Nice To Use For Post Processing,So I Dont Have To Load Up The Smaller One,Just Some Capturing Apps,Im Thinking Trying To Run The Asiair,And Remotely..Not Gonna do You Much Justice,But I Just Use It Solely For Astro,So Far…I Like It..Clear Skies..
What about Linux?
Didn't I mention Linux in the video?
All these people who think they know better than the user who says the solution he is using is the best for his needs.
The internet will never change 😂
Also, these machines are first rate for the use case. Just keep an eye on the battery as some units have been known to swell their packs over time. Not dangerous, but not ideal.
Thankyou, exactly! All the people saying mobile OS haven't tried it for big file transfer and external drives!
nice want more of this content of small full windows pc's
Glad you enjoyed it!
I make die with an iPad mini a usb hub and a small 1TB ssd.
But yeah. It’s not nearly as good as a real notebook. As an amateur I can make due though
I love the iPad, but I always struggle with the OS
@@cameralabs Yeah I need a USB Hub and a App like FE Explorer, just to copy the data from my SD Card to my SSD (for some reason apples native „files“ moves data extremely slowly)
And even then I haven’t found a process to make image culling fast.
Apple seems to have a problem with file management. Otherwise the iPad is brilliant.
Great review of a peculiar little machine! I could see it used for at least a handful of niches. My choice in this area is the MBA 11 inch, a monster still after many years of oblivion =)) They come around for a good price these days. Weight is 1kg, a bit more than you're looking for. Make a field use review in the future?!? /All the Best
I love the Air, but the 13 is a bit too big for my travel requirements. Wish they made a new 11 with their latest manufacturing
Need.usb charging
I agree
@@cameralabs I'm tossing up between mechazer mini laptop or the chewi. Haha 10inch. But bit more expensive around 350/500$ mark
Is thia windows 11? Is it proper operating system? @@cameralabs
I used a net-book for years, mine is buried now in a closet. Before I got a Mac laptop. Used the net-book for website proofing copy proofing with a Lenovo laptop - side by side.
Won’t buy from Alibaba…
This looks good. Real good. So good, my wallet hand is twitching. But... that keyboard. Urgh.
I would happily go for an 8 inch, or 9 inch version, IF the extra size went into a keyboard with a more standard layout. That would make the screen bigger, too - which wouldn't hurt.
Someone mentioned to me there was a new one that's a bit bigger with USB C charging too, but I've not checked it out yet.
@@cameralabs My google-fu plus Ali Express diving found a few 8 inch models, but the reviews still complain about the keyboard.
Like you said in your review, needing to carry a keyboard kind of defeats the purpose.
Btw, yes more reviews like this ✅
That thing is just silly in my opinion.
It is quite silly BUT is still the best suited for my particular requirements
Such mini laptops (called "netbooks" back in the day) are obsolete today. iPads and Android tablets have more screen real estate, better screen quality and are faster.
But they can't run windows apps)
Please watch the video where I explain why iOS and Android are not suitable for what I personally need.
¿Can i use Netbeans and many other full desktop applications on an iPad or Android tablet without having to rely on emulators and compatibility layers or having to modify an whole kernel and jailbreak to install another operating system with less than 10% rate of success?
Sometimes the "obsolete" is the best option for a few people. It's great to have chinese corps making cheap devices like these.
Great video Gordon. Maybe we’re at a threshold of accepting Chinese devices such as this.
I'd happily pay more for some more luxurious option, but it doesn't exist!
Redicules. Use an iPad
I have tried many times. You can't reliably copy 10s of GB of photos back and forth on a mobile OS, and the apps aren't as good as full desktop versions. I talk about all of this in the video.
iPad with storage will be more expensive but will work much better