I bought it because I was going on holiday and didn't want to take a real laptop both in case it got stolen and to dissuade me from using it. I ended up using it more than I would have a normal laptop because it's so small and easily carried.

My current use case is for my commute into the office, it easily fits on the microscopic train tables and doesn't add much weight to my bag. Highly recommended.

Or really buy any laptop rated highly by Dave2D or other reviewers that's 4 to 5 years old.

The screen isn't terrible. Frequency can be easily overclocked from 50 to 80Hz, making the manufacturer's decision quite odd. Good brightness, and after calibration, the colors are even somewhat normal.

In my case, the keyboard works reliably and isn't annoying, although it does take a little getting used to due to the smaller key size.

Only one thing that frustrates me - they cost-cutted on the battery controller. The OS only receives information about the battery voltage, without details on consumption/cycles/Ah. The consumption is hard-coded, which means the battery life estimate is never nearly accurate.

And yeah, terible touchpad but it's not that bad when you have touchscreen.

I will note that I also had the screen rotation issue described in the post, but it was easy to solve at the desktop environment level in COSMIC. I didn’t bother dealing with it elsewhere because I honestly don’t mind if the grub menu is sideways.

https://www.zdnet.com/a/img/2014/10/03/9f923860-4b47-11e4-b6...

I agree with the complaint about the trackpad, but the keyboard has been just fine for me. Just a bit small, of course. I also find the screen perfectly acceptable for what I use this thing for: youtube, taking notes, writing emails, small bouts of coding and ssh'ing into servers.

My main complaint is related to battery management. May be it's becaused I'm used to Macbooks, but it drives me nuts to go pick the Minibook up and find that it has no power, because I haven't used it in a couple of days and I put it to sleep. I haven't measured, but the power use on sleep is noticeable, and I suspect the leakage while hibernating might be significant too.

I don't really like the laptop form factor. Laptops are the perfect solution for only one use case: using them on your lap. On a table, I'd rather have the computer be just a tablet, to add a bluetooth keyboard and mouse. At my desk, with bigger screens, I'd like the computer to disappear into a small puck or box, like a Mac Mini. With the Minibook, being so small, the form factor makes sense again. It's so portable, so easy to take with me to a coffee shop or on a trip, it's worth it.

A tablet with a keyboard might be a more practical solution, although generally more expensive, but I appreciate that my Minibook runs Linux so well, so I don't have to even think about Apple or Google telling me how to use my computer.

[0]: https://techtablets.com/chuwi-lapbook-14-1/review/

I can't say I agree with the author's assessment of the keyboard in this submission. I find it more pleasant to use than the other laptops I have access to.

I'll stick with my 13" MBP going forward. Netbooks served a purpose but I'm not sure they make much sense anymore

My main pain point is RAM (even with zram), but considering the MacBook Neo was just launched with the same amount I don't think I'll need to stop using it unless it finally decides to kick the bucket. A lot of laptops like the Minibook are better on paper but the build quality isn't there.

It has the aluminium body, it is ridiculously thin (3,5mm thinnest point, 13mm thickest point, feet included), it weighs just 920 gram. It charges via USB-C. It has a very good 2304 × 1440 (16∶10) IPS "retina" screen.

I run mine with MacOS/Linux dual boot, I charge it using my phone charger. It keep it in my go-bag at all times. I never have to worry being without it.

What to love:

- Super small, yet very sturdy.

- Can be found for relatively cheap (I paid €300 for mine 2 years ago)

- Really nice screen.

- Keyboard size is really good, though travel is obviously minimal with such a thin laptop.

- Plenty of battery life (and new batteries still available at Mac store last time I asked)

- upgraded model has 1.4Ghz dual core i5, 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD, which is still more than enough for on-the-go use.

What not to love:

- Has only 1 I/O port (USB-C), which is also used for charging.

- No longer receives MacOS updates, if you find a 2017 production model you get updates up to MacOS 13.

- Linux support is not great. The WiFi/Bluetooth chip (BCM15700A2) is not fully supported in Linux, WiFi works but Bluetooth doesn't. Audio via headphone jack works, but speakers don't. There are some experimental patches to get BT and speakers somewhat working, but it's not great.

If you can find it, get a late production model (2017) with the 1.4Ghz CPU upgrade, it will have 16gb RAM instead of 8gb (earlier models) and receive MacOS updates up to MacOS 13.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12-inch_MacBook

There's room for great lower end hardware, but I'm not sure if it'll be any good running Windows.

Also me: just a month ago I bought a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse for my phone because they are completely sufficient for the work emergency use case along with the termux app

It's actually the keyboard that surprises me the most: I think it's really good (and I consider myself a bit of a keyboard snob). I've never had any issue like the author describes, of having to strike keys just-so.

I can get a used MacBook Air M1 for £250 which beats the Minibook in every regard and it can run Linux.

I had to close everything on the OS just to watch a youtube video at <720p without stuttering. I ended up putting Debian on it which lead to me learning Linux and Ruby on Rails, and booting the dev server (rails server) would take minutes on a hello world.

When I got my first job out of uni, they gave me a Macbook Air, and it was so fast that I felt bad thinking about how much time I wasted waiting for things to happen on that netbook.

17 years later, in my late 30s, I don't think I could go back to such a small screen. But it was cool doing real work on something so small.

All have this "not enough" vibe to me. They are cute, but have no performance and no purpose my iPhone can't fullfil. Maybe because i never work on documents, sheets or listings while i'm commuting or traveling. I do work on those when at work or at home, on a ProBook. But never while on the road or something. I do refurbish old HP ProBooks whenever i can get my hands on them (or Dell, Lenovo equivalent) by putting in more ram and more capacity nvme. Sometimes even upgrading the wifi board. This works for me. ProBooks are nice. Not that heavy, pretty upgradable (except CPU/GPU) and full size keyboards. It's amazing what people sometimes throw away.

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/05/gadget-review-chuwi-miniboo...

16GB ram is cool though.

I think my desire for this kind of product is something lighter, but this set of notes on the Chuwi feels like the compromises GPD gives you but with less power.

https://photos.tylercipriani.com/2026-05-31_chuwi-boot-smol....

Lots of 15.6" Windows laptops come with 1080p screen which is painful to look at.

As others have noted the company has done some pretty shady things with some of their other products, and I would not really expect a warranty, so this isn't really a recommendation. But my personal experience after ~six months of use has been good.

Stock Ubuntu runs just fine since about 24.04 or 23.10 (do not remember). Keyboard is fine. Trackpoint instead of a cheap trackpad which is great. Touch screen.

And incredibly mind-bogglingly slow eMMC storage. Like, makes it impossible to use.

So as cute as it is, I haven't found any use for it for the last ~10 years that I own it. Maybe I have used it for emergency ssh from the mountain hike once or twice.

I used to play with omarchy. It is good enough for a lot of use cases. For powerful work I just connect to remote session.

Perfect for planes in economy

It was Japanese, naturally.

At linux.conf.au 2007 we chose a smaller conference bag, designed to carry your electrical accessories and nick-knacks... it turned out to be the perfect size for the new EeePC (and later the MacBook Air 11").

I'm a big believer in cheap, small, low-power laptops. For simple tasks, you don't need that much compute.†

But you can't skimp on the keyboard! Especially because, one of the big advantages of a low-power laptop should be for writing!

------

† Okay, Electron exists... you shouldn't need all that compute.

I don't share the complaints of the OP about the keyboard or the screen, though. The keyboard is fine, I can hit about 110WPM on it, slower than my regular pace, but enough that there's no dramas. The layout is great: Occasionally there's keys that are too small (looking at you, apostrophe) but everything is at least in the right spot, which is way more important.

The 2K display at 10" is high enough DPI that everything is totally crisp, and you can unlock ~95Hz (bad for video, good for everything else) with a bit of a tweak. You can also smash a byte into the EC at the correct offset and access the full unrestricted BIOS -- mostly to crank the RAM up to 4800MT/s.

I'm running vanilla Arch with Niri and Noctalia, and it's a dream. It's my primary dev machine, used in combination with a remote server with a tonne more grunt. If it broke tomorrow, I'd buy another - and I wouldn't do that with my macbook.

To the OP:

* Accelerometer support, EC-byte-bashing to get BIOS unlock: https://github.com/greymouser/minibook-x-tools

* 95Hz EDID fix: https://github.com/sonnyp/linux-minibook-x/issues/7#issuecom...

Have had a couple of Chuwi devices in the past, they're always a painful mix of really impressive with baffling cost cutting measures so I'm a bit wary of spending more than £50 on one.

i also removed windows and installed omarchy and one of the speakers does not work. :( and no its not a skill issue. tried every solution and nothing works. check reddit for the user reviews on literally every product from this brand. you'll understand my frustration.

Every time I try to search, it's either unavailable or 100s€$ over the original price?

The appeal isn't necessarily the end result. It's the process of tinkering, learning, and gradually making the tool your own.

Not if you buy an eeepc off ebay and put a light linux on it, then they're as good as always. Love me a good netbook

So, unusable for blind typing.

920g for a 10" is also crazy much. LG make 14" laptops under a kg.

I want something like the Sony Z4 tablet. About 600g with keyboard dock. Thin, waterproof (not the keyboard), days of standby, 4G supported, the keyboard was excellent.

If it would be possible to run a current version of Android on it, it would be perfect.

No need to cry:

1. Per ark[1], "Max Memory Size (dependent on memory type) 16 GB" - you wouldn't be doing much with modular RAM, anyway

2. Swapping BGA package RAM actually isn't THAT hard. If you invest a few hundred monetary units now in a hot air station, some flux, a few relevant stencils, some solder paste and/or appropriately sized balls, fine tweezers, and (for extra credit) a €£$60 AliExpress LCD microscope, you never have to cry again when the laptop you prefer has soldered RAM, a soldered M.2 1216 SMT Wi-Fi module, a flaky USB-C charge port (ThinkPad plague), etc. Guess how many Raspberries Pi 4 I've upgraded to 8GB RAM!

[1] https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/241636/...

I do have my ASUS EEEPC 701 4G Surf still working. I think it is 18 years old at this point? It is rocking Antix, in its 3.6 GB hard drive. It broke the S key in the keyboard last night and I ordered a replacement.

I use it as writer deck and to ssh to my server and raspberry pi from the sofa.

It is built in a very resistant way? Survived my kid so far.

Client side (device) sets the current draw. Weird take to not use the supplied psu.

I wish laptop manufacturers would pay more attention to this. I'm stuck using older laptops because modern laptops can't reliably pick up keystrokes.

I got myself a 150$ N150 chromebook, yoinked a Linux on it and using that, despite the terrible screen and build quality, but at least it is disposable.

Does the Chuwi Minibook X have sensors that minimize this 'bug'? I've been looking for a way to disable the keys on tablet mode, but can't really seem to get it right (Ubuntu Studio) ..

Battery life is crap, on the new one the webcams aren't supported by linux because they aren't v4l.

With plasma-mobile there is no need to mess with configuration about the orientation since it just flips the screen the way I'm holding it.

I contributed a couple of patches to KDE to improve the experience on touch devices but overall there is lots of applications that already work fine on a touchscreen. Alligator, kasts, a few kdegames, angelfish.

I ended up buying the macbook neo and frankly i think i made the right choice.

of course the macbook does not run gnu/linux (for better or for worse).