Posted by matsar
- Yesterday at 14:22:11
They have been doing this for quite a while. And they're still at it: I bought my Corebook X during Black Friday 2025 (which was supposedly delayed due to manufacturing schedule problems, so it should have been brand new, according to them) and sure enough, I got a 5500U instead of the advertised 7430U. I bought it gladly still, even though I'd read many Reddit posts talking about this secret switch, because I judged it was still definitely worth it: I paid 347 USD + 55 USD shipping fees + 20 USD tax fees = 422 USD (I used a discount code I got from YouTube on top of the Black Friday discount).
I could find no other 13in 1440p 3:2 aspect ratio laptop near this price point. I love this screen. The color accuracy is decent too (99% sRGB, nothing to write home about, but still better than many of the competing displays at that price, most of which are that garbage TN with horrible viewing angles and color accuracy). The laptop is light, feels sturdy, has a nice form factor, has an incredible screen and performs reasonably enough. The sound is pretty good, the webcam is bad quality but will do in a pinch, the trackpad is huge (perhaps too big? palm rejection is sometimes an issue) and the keyboard is good enough. I enjoy using it, especially for its form factor. It's so compact.
It was really stupid of them to risk their reputation by performing this switcheroo. Most people would've still bought it if they'd mentioned the 5500U. Moreover, the people who care about such a difference in processor are precisely the kind of people that would be able to find out they'd lied. It was a bad strategic move.
Another interesting tidbit regarding this laptop: both my girlfriend and I got one; she got hers a couple of months before I got mine. Her screen is glossy (the units on YouTube reviews I've watched were too), while mine came with an antireflective coating. Otherwise, they seem to be completely identical. But it's so strange.
Taking a look at the screen specs with HWiNFO, both screens were made by Chi Mei, but hers has 2019 as manufacturing date and mine is from 2021 (while both laptops were bought in 2025). Before buying, I had read that people online suspected that Chuwi managed to have such a great screen on such a cheap laptop because they've bought used panels, or panels that were part of batches that didn't pass the quality control whichever OEM imposed on the screen manufacturer (Chi Mei), but were deemed good enough to resell at a lower price to Chinese OEMs.
So yeah, those kinds of shortcuts explain why the laptop is so cheap. Who knows what other corners they've cut that we haven't found out about. I've read reports on the internet that older Corebook X models had trouble with the hinges breaking after a year of use, or the battery bulging after 6 months. In the past, Chuwi was notorious for one incident whereby a sizable percentage of the thousands of tablets they'd sold to a Japanese prefecture to give to students started showing battery swelling issues. I think the director of the board of education ended up resigning over the scandal. So their quality control is definitely not the best.
Still, I don't regret my purchase at all, both my girlfriend and I use our Corebook X daily and are entirely content with the product (especially, the price we paid for it). We don't expect the laptops to last more than a couple of years, but by then we expect to be in a better financial position to be able to buy a more trusted brand. And if not, we might buy Chuwi again; scummy practices, bad quality control and all. Because the laptop is miles ahead anything else we could've bought for that money where we live. It totally fulfills our needs.
It was stupid of them to lie, there's a market for this device even if they announced the downgrade to a 5500U. And we get it, RAM prices went through the roof, if they didn't want to jack up their prices too much the CPU downgrade was needed. They should've just been honest about it. Moral of the story is: as a consumer, do your research before buying cheap Chinese clones. I did and took an informed decision (and a calculated risk). People who buy expecting it to be the same experience as buying the more "trusted" brands will get disappointed. There's a reason the products are so cheap.
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