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Chuwi Minibook X
- fancyfredbot 4mo agoI love small laptops but this thing would really benefit from a better processor. It's about 4x slower than the Snapdragon 8 elite, a 2 year old smartphone chip. 16GB ram is cool though.
- necrotic_comp 4mo agoI think the "net" does a lot of heavy lifting for a box like this - e.g. you do all the important work on a remote server, and only do basic maintenance work on the laptop itself.
- jauntywundrkind 4mo agoIt'd be so lovely if these phones & systems could run Linux. Man. Such a pity. PostmarketOS has a small handful of Snapdragon 870, 865 tablets (~5 year old, Cortex-A77). But it feels like it's by hook & by crook. Meanwhile it feels like bootloaders are just getting more and more locked down, making it less interesting whether mainline Linux support developers or not.
- hug 4mo agoI have this laptop, and it is amongst the best laptops I have ever owned, despite being awful in many ways. It has almost completely replaced my use of my M4 Macbook Pro, simply because I always have it with me. That, and it can run Linux. 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 https://github.com/greymouser/minibook-x-tools * 95Hz EDID fix: https://github.com/sonnyp/linux-minibook-x/issues/7#issuecomment-2155682252 https://github.com/sonnyp/linux-minibook-x/issues/7#issuecom...
- barbs 4mo agoDid you also have the screen rotation issue? Curious to know what's causing that.
- drum55 4mo agoThe cause is just that the panel is mounted rotated on the device. It's supposed to be used in a tablet where the top is the short end and the side is the long end, opposite to a laptop.
- hug 4mo agoYes, I did, and the reason is super straightforward: It's a hardware portrait panel, mounted sideways. Getting from zero to a fully working OS was a mild journey, but I'd do it again.
- Rebelgecko 4mo agoSomewhat common with Chuwi and GPD's netbook type devices. IIRC it's because they repurpose tablet screens
- tinmith 4mo agoI agree. The keyboard is fantastic, it is the best smallest keyboard I've ever used. Debian 13 works out of the box and there are no screen rotation issues.
- drum55 4mo agoI miss my Sony Vaio P series which fitted in a similar sort of niche, the cellphone radio made it just by far the best laptop I've ever used. Modern laptops don't seem to have provision for a LTE/5G radio which always confuses me a bit, in this form factor it would be ideal. I'm surprised nobody has cloned this actually, with phone screens being the right aspect ratio it seems obvious. https://www.zdnet.com/a/img/2014/10/03/9f923860-4b47-11e4-b6a0-d4ae52e95e57/zdnet-sony-vaio-p-series.jpg https://www.zdnet.com/a/img/2014/10/03/9f923860-4b47-11e4-b6...
- jauntywundrkind 4mo agoI got Vaio P many years after the fact and it was so neat. Alas, the PowerVR gpu Intel included on many of the chips there is quite quite problematic for anything but basic use. Although it just saw more work recently! https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-GMA500-Driver-In-2026 https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-GMA500-Driver-In-2026 I think it was a year or two latter I got a Chuwi Lapbook 12.3, which was a great machine. Lovely 3:2 screen off the Surface Pro, again a pretty good Intel small-core set-up, decent ram, ok SSD, all so cheap. Great metal case. Lovely machine, at such a great price. https://www.notebookcheck.net/Chuwi-LapBook-12-3-Celeron-2K-IPS-Laptop-Review.258398.0.html https://www.notebookcheck.net/Chuwi-LapBook-12-3-Celeron-2K-...
- drum55 4mo agoI somehow managed to get it working in 2016 with a lot of hackery, I'd still have it as a usable device if the weird little pouch cells it had didn't die, repacking those batteries seemed like enough of a fire hazard I just didn't bother.
- DANmode 4mo agoStuff like this that I’ve really enjoyed has gotten permanent AC or portable power.
- djfergus 4mo agoWow. Have to respect someone spending time on the GMA500. It was terrible when new, I recall Ubuntu being barely able to render desktop without lag. Windows was better but still unpleasant. The vaio p’s odd screen aspect ratio was also a challenge. I’d love to see someone retrofit a modern soc into the vaio p motherboard form factor. There were a few partial efforts on GitHub but seems like Sony’s miniaturisation skills remain undefeated.
- alexrp 4mo agoThe Minibook X is obviously targeted at the netbook form factor in the traditional sense, i.e. small and cheap. If you're like me and appreciate the netbook/UMPC form factors (for travel purposes in my case) but also need better specs to actually get any work done -- and you're willing to fork out a bit more to get that -- I would recommend looking at GPD's Pocket and MicroPC series. I own both a Pocket 4 and MicroPC 2 with Linux on them, and I'm quite satisfied. The only issue I've noticed is the same screen rotation quirk described here, for which the same workarounds apply.
- drum55 4mo agoThe GDP devices are amazing except for the keyboard, which is some fever dream layout I've never been able to understand. https://img.website.xin/contents/sitefiles3601/18006016/images/456568.png https://img.website.xin/contents/sitefiles3601/18006016/imag...
- hug 4mo agoThis is the primary reason the Minibook X won out in my searches: It's the only small device that has a keyboard layout that puts all of the keys in the right spots. They're sometimes an odd size, but when I hit the wrong key due to a sizing constraint, I don't even have to think: Backspace, hit the right key with mildly adjusted positioning. I've tried a few machines with different layouts, and that's never the case - and having to stop and look at the keyboard to find a key interrupts flow in the worst kind of way.
- vadansky 4mo agoI would love something that you can open and it expands/pops out a split keyboard like the Voyager (https://www.zsa.io/voyager https://www.zsa.io/voyager)
- alexrp 4mo agoThat's fair; the keyboard layouts are definitely an acquired taste. Not that I've quite acquired said taste myself... but for devices that I mainly use when traveling, I just don't particularly care that much. It'd probably be more of an issue if I was using one of them as my daily driver - but I still very much prefer my workstation at home for that.
- AnonyMD 4mo agoAre the specifications listed in the article reliable? It's difficult to trust them, considering Chuwi has a history of misrepresenting CPU specifications.
- makeitdouble 4mo agoThe author's benchmarks are listed in the article.
- AnonyMD 4mo agoExcuse me. I trust that.
- whartung 4mo agoDump the desktop. Switch your login shell to emacs and you have an overpowered WritersBook that’ll fit in a coat pocket.
- segphault 4mo agoI bought one of these last year, specifically looking for a modern take on the netbook form factor. I run PopOS on mine and absolutely love the machine. It’s a perfect travel laptop and it has largely replaced the iPad mini that I previously used as my travel companion. I sometimes use it with XReal glasses, which is great. I’ve found that a 35 watt phone charger is sufficient to charge it over USB C, so I don’t even need to carry a laptop-class charging brick. 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.
- bee_rider 4mo agoThe complaints about the keyboard sound more significant than the screen.
- iainmerrick 4mo agoYes, I’d be wary of going anywhere near this for that reason alone. You can’t just say “the keyboard is terrible” but then that you still like it overall -- more detail needed!
- bee_rider 4mo agoYeah, in particular it looks like the complaint was about having to hit the center of the keys exactly, which seems quite bad. I’ll learn a weird layout for a netbook, some compromise is expected to get the small size (side note: I think “unfamiliar layout” issues are over-represented in reviews because they usually describe the reviewer’s experience when they are first getting used to the device, I get used to a layout in the medium term anyway and then it isn’t really a problem anymore (side side note: we should separate out the concepts of unfamiliar and bad layouts, they are different things, the former is overcome over time, the latter gives you repetitive stain injuries over time)). Having the nail the keys in the middle, though, is just a sign of poor keyboard design. That probably won’t be overcome, if anything it is a sign of bad build quality and will probably get worse over time.
- kylec 4mo agoNetbooks aren't dead, they're just called Chromebooks now
- alterom 4mo agoChromebooks aren't netbooks. They're Android tablets with non-removable keyboards. The idea of a netbook was very small, cheap, portable, full-featured computer that you could use like a normal computer. All the ports, your desktop OS, and so on. Chromebooks ain't it, even if they compete in the market segment that made netbooks a success.
- singpolyma3 4mo agoI run my desktop OS on my Chromebook (boring Debian) and use it like a normal computer. All the ports (HDMI, usb) and so.
- queenkjuul 4mo agoBack when Chromebooks and Netbooks were contemporaries, yours was a much harder proposition. I had an awful time getting Linux on my first gen Chromebook
- singpolyma3 4mo agoI've heard that on the new ones they've illegally made it not possible anymore, but haven't experienced direct evidence of that yet. For mine I had to remove a screw from the motherboard but it wasn't that difficult. Not much worse than jumper for boot order in ye olde days
- fragmede 4mo agoThe new procedure is boot without the battery connected to enable writing to flash.
- 4mo ago
- fg137 4mo agoWhat's the problem with 2K 50Hz screen? Too high resolution? Lots of 15.6" Windows laptops come with 1080p screen which is painful to look at.
- nvme0n1p1 4mo ago50Hz is a weird refresh rate. Even back to the 80s (and before?) PCs have been 60Hz at a bare minimum.
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- cheschire 4mo ago50Hz is what European power runs at, as opposed to North American 60Hz. This had some correlation to the analog film frame rates being 25 fps in Europe and nearly 30 fps in America, though I’m not entirely sure what the cause was. Nowadays it’s probably a performance / battery saving “feature” attempt.
- jdub 4mo agoNah, not film rates [1], video: NTSC is 30fps and PAL is 25fps because the cathode ray tube scan rate was built around AC power cycles. When low fps truly Hz. Sorry. [1] generally 24fps because that is culturally what film looks like and people get very weird whenever anyone tries to fuck with it
- toast0 4mo agoI'll allow your joke, but NTSC is 60 fields per second, and PAL is 50. Certainly a large portion of content came from film and in PALworld would be shown as even and odd halves of a frame, or in NTSCland as 3 halves of a frame, then two halves... But actually interlaced content exists too. Each field is independent, there's no frames to speak of. Early video game systems based on NTSC/PAL ran at 60 fps or 50 fps, but ran off-spec signals to always hit the same half of the display lines (odd or even). 4th gen systems (genesis/mega drive and snes/sfc) had a few games that used interlaced output; later systems had many, running PAL@60Hz became a common option too.
- ipkstef 4mo agowhere can i pick one up thats reputable?
- peddling-brink 4mo agoApple. Or, what do you mean by one?
- milgrum 4mo ago[dead]
- a1o 4mo agoI love netbooks and I am curious to get one of these at some point - I can’t justify one right now. 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.
- orangebread 4mo agoThe Crash Override boot up screen tho. HACK THE PLANET!
- jdub 4mo agoAlan Cox had a pre-netbook netbook smaller than a VHS tape at linux.conf.au 2001, and milled about chatting with colleagues and fanboys while his kernel builds scrolled by in the background. Everyone would gawk at the strange little machine. 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").
- paradox460 4mo agoHP used to have extremely small laptops in the early 90s, specifically the omnibook 300 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_OmniBook https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_OmniBook
- 0gs 4mo agodon't forget the Jornadas. i guess those were PocketPC-powered but i def bought one circa 2005 for like $90 and i would do it again right now
- zokier 4mo agoThe HP LX series (95LX, 100LX, 200LX) is one of my favorites. It also fits the description "smaller than VHS casette" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_95LX https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_95LX https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_200LX https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_200LX
- d3Xt3r 4mo agoSpeaking of which, is there ever going to be another IRL linux.conf.au? I really miss those, and the good old LUG meetups. I'm surrounded by Microsoft people at work day in and day out and I'm desperate to reconnect with my kind.
- jdub 4mo agoPerhaps one day... A few things contributed to its demise: less industry money sloshing around for travel and sponsorships, a growing sense that "Linux" didn't represent the entire community, and a pandemic. Which left "Everything Open" launching weaker in every sense. But I don't think Linux or Open Source feel sufficiently radical or inspiring to sustain that kind of community-building (local or global) these days... maybe a "Fuck AI" tech conference. :-D
- Shank 4mo agoI use a GPD Win Max 2 for this purpose (https://fluctlight.net/gpd_win_max_2 https://fluctlight.net/gpd_win_max_2) and while it has its quirks, the performance of a Ryzen APU is significantly better than the Chuwi Minibook X. 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.
- stuxnet79 4mo agoThe GPD devices seem like they've cornered this whole niche in terms of ideal form factor but they are all ridiculously overpriced and that was before RAMpocalypse. I'm actually unsure how they will weather this storm because they are a small company and likely don't have any economies of scale to rely on. I had no idea other vendors like Chuwi were providing netbook like devices. I will be doing more research tonight. Great post by OP!
- dnlzro 4mo agoIt looks like the current iteration of the MiniBook will be discontinued soon; their official stores (on chuwi.com and AliExpress) are not selling them anymore. I've had my eye on this laptop for a while and still haven't bit the bullet, so I really hope it's not going away.
- Wowfunhappy 4mo ago> Keyboard is terrible – it only registers keystrokes when you hit the exact center of each key. 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.
- tinmith 4mo agoI have a Chuwi Minibook X and the keyboard is amazing. Its the best smallest keyboard available anywhere, I can type on it just as easily as my other larger laptops. I think there must have been something wrong with the reviewer's hardware, mine works great.
- hk1337 4mo agoIt looks nice but I feel like a bear riding a tiny unicycle using these kinds of computers.
- winter_blue 4mo agoUsed laptops are such a good deal that you could something high quality in excellent condition for so little that I almost can't justify buying something like this. Like used Dell XPS laptops are ridiculously cheap and they're amazing for the used price. Or really buy any laptop rated highly by Dave2D or other reviewers that's 4 to 5 years old.
- kopirgan 4mo agoAbsolutely. Any 2-3 gen old ThinkPad or Elitebook will outlast this and perform lot better. I bought a tablet from this brand few years back. Screen edges were non responsive to touch within months.
- teravor 4mo agomy chuwi tablet had the eMMC suddenly die, it disappeared from the point of view of any software, kernel or uefi. the brand is trash.
- antonkochubey 4mo agoIf it was running Windows - no wonder, Windows is horrible at constantly writing … something to disk, and eMMC's are not high endurance devices. The flash itself had nothing to do with Chuwi and was most likely manufactured by either SanDisk or Kingston, it would have failed likewise in ASUS/Lenovo/whoever else made those crap Intel Atom + 4 GB RAM + 64 GB eMMC devices.
- teravor 4mo agoit was running linux and it died within the first few months of barely any use. i don't know what vendor the eMMC came from but they chose it.
- vachina 4mo agoWhat decent secondhand thing can you find at $350. It is being thrown away in the first place for a reason.
- dxxvi 4mo agoThat $350 price tag is good for that configuration. Not sure how fast the USB-c ports are. It should have an HDMI 2.0/2.1 port. Mini PC's with the N150 CPU support 2 4k@60Hz monitors.
- mikeweiss 4mo agoBummer that it has a fan
- wolvoleo 4mo ago> Keyboard is terrible – it only registers keystrokes when you hit the exact center of each key. 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.
- nosrepa 4mo agoI'll take my gpd pocket 4 over this for sure, though funnily enough it has essentially the same screen problem.
- dnlzro 4mo agoI wish there were more laptops with a similar form factor. I was looking forward to the MacBook Neo before it was officially announced; I thought it was going to be more like an upgraded MacBook 12", but it ended up being more like a downgraded MacBook Air 13". Nobody likes small things anymore :(
- Rebelgecko 4mo agoI have an original Chuwi Minibook and would not recommend buying from them unless you're willing to treat the hardware as disposable. Their support is REALLY bad, warranty is useless (cheaper to buy replacement parts yourself on AliExpress) and the hardware has some baffling cost cutting decisions- I replaced the included jet turbine with a much quieter fan for a couple bucks, but most people won't want to solder their own harness to replicate this mod.
- avadodin 4mo agoThey make great deals but if you can afford the 4x cost competition, I would recommend doing that instead. I'd rather not have to underclock the RAM and be careful in which order I plug my USB hubs in order for the system to be stable even if I still end up with great performance.
- supz 4mo agoWhy must he say Hackers is a classic film. It was a pivotal part of my life. I'm not even that old
- someotherperson 4mo agoThe time difference between today and Hackers is the same as when the film was released and the year 1964. That's the year films like Dr. Strangelove, Goldfinger and A Fistful of Dollars was released. You (we) are old :)
- meyum33 4mo agoI have a Chuwi Lark Box from a few years ago. The volume less than my fist, it's great for doing occasional Windows stuff.
- echoangle 4mo agoWould the rotated panel mean that any screen tearing is vertical or is the screen update order also changed when the screen rotation is changed in the settings?
- montroser 4mo agoThis is my daily driver laptop. It's pretty good for what it is. Runs Linux perfectly, not trying to be especially too fast, very nice pixel density, all metal case, sturdy build. Battery life is not the best. Beautifully compact.
- oybng 4mo agoWhat I wouldn't give for this machine with a thinkpad keyboard
- thelastgallon 4mo agoThis vs Dells new XPS 13? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48351808 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48351808
- williadc 4mo agoI bought a Chuwi Lapbook[0] for my wife a few years ago. It was great at first, but got unusably slow running Windows within ~1.5 years. I got her a new laptop and put Linux on the Chuwi. It worked fine for checking email and light browsing. The touchpad had strange sensitivity and seemed to be hard-coded so that scroll worked the opposite of my preference. It was tolerable until the keys stopped responding to my typing. I found that if I pushed really hard in the center of the key, it would sometimes register, but required firmer pressing. Ctrl and Shift stopped working altogether after awhile. The problem crept up from the bottom-right side of the keyboard, and I eventually gave up on it at the end of last year. [0]: https://techtablets.com/chuwi-lapbook-14-1/review/ https://techtablets.com/chuwi-lapbook-14-1/review/
- asb 4mo agoHere's my notes on the device from last year with various setup tips https://muxup.com/2025q2/chuwi-minibook-x-n150 https://muxup.com/2025q2/chuwi-minibook-x-n150 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.
- NathanielK 4mo agoTragic that with a modern efficiency oriented SoC it still has such dissapointing battery life. Expected an improvement over X series thinkpads. At least it can charge off a powerbank, but that's pretty standard now.
- justnoice 4mo ago[dead]
- ggm 4mo agoZimablade chose the same 12v/2a power. It's in the original spec for usb-c pd negotiation. Client side (device) sets the current draw. Weird take to not use the supplied psu.
- Elfener 4mo agoPretty sure a power supply that just puts out 12V on USB-C without any negotiation is not in spec and should be illegal. As the article mentioned, it would damage anything that wasn't expecting 12V, like most things that take 5V USB power.
- jocelyner 4mo ago[dead]
- mvkel 4mo agoSounds like the netbooks of 2008: bad in every way, but hey, it's small?
- LAC-Tech 4mo ago[flagged]
- hellcow 4mo agoI travel with strict luggage limits (both size and weight) and hike all day. Removing weight absolutely helps.
- LAC-Tech 4mo agoThe differenxe between a "heavy" and "light" laptop is about 250 grams, or the weight of a single apple. If you can hike all day there is no way you are weak enough for this to even register.
- LtWorf 4mo agoYou most certainly aren't familiar with heavy laptops.
- B1FF_PSUVM 4mo agoNow you've made me think of the Mac Portable, aka Boat Anchor. ("Am I chopped liver?!" yells the shade of the Osborne 1)
- LAC-Tech 4mo agoI managed to get myself to the point where I could do two slow, deep, controlled pushups in one session. Hence I have genuinely never even noticed, cared, or paid attention to how much a laptop weighs.
- matthewn 4mo agoI got one of these a couple of years ago, put Linux on it, and was pleased as punch: https://www.mahnamahna.net/blog/linux-chuwi-minibook-x/ https://www.mahnamahna.net/blog/linux-chuwi-minibook-x/ 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.
- iainmerrick 4mo agoVery different reports of the keyboard in this thread. Are there different builds of this or something? Or is it just a very polarising keyboard?
- cestith 4mo agoIt’s possible at this price point that it’s a normally decent keyboard but with horrible quality control.
- onli 4mo agoWith those brands it's quite possible they changed it later without listing that anywhere. Same for the Linux support, which they also specifically not provide officially (and there is a developer post somewhere that they dont ever test on Linux). Made me not buy this when I searched for a travel notebook last year.
- ndsipa_pomu 4mo agoI've got the N150 model, dual booting Ubuntu and Windows (very rarely use Windows to be honest though). I hadn't noticed any issues with the keyboard either, though the touchpad can do strange things at times, so I usually plug in a mouse. Also, I think the screen is really nice too.
- wzdd 4mo agoI have one of these and run Debian 13 on it. I love it. Having only two USB ports is annoying and I ended up buying a relatively expensive PD Thunderbolt hub, and there are some compromises that come with the territory (middling battery life, trackpad certainly isn't Macbook-quality). In general, though, it's great and it feels fun in way that I haven't felt about laptops in a long while. 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.
- cientifico 4mo agoAlso got it last year. 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
- aumlhyuzdnv 4mo ago[dead]
- rcarmo 4mo agoI love mine: https://taoofmac.com/space/reviews/2025/05/15/2230 https://taoofmac.com/space/reviews/2025/05/15/2230 - I run Silverblue with niri and Noctalia Shell and it is very zippy, besides being able to drive huge external monitors.
- gupti 4mo agoGlad to still see options for small portable laptops on the market, but nothing out there has drawn me away from the 2015 11" MacBook Air. Good keyboard and trackpad, and single core speed is comparable to the newer (albeit lower TDP) Minibook. It's enough for everyday use, and the fan allows for better sustained performance (though it's rarely needed). 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.
- Forgeties79 4mo agoA 2011 mb air weighs almost half a pound more than this and is slightly larger. Also you are forced to run on 1) MacOS (which I like but is a limitation for many) and 2) since it’s unsupported will have many (especially modern) apps and such not work. I love my 2016 MBpro. Can still render edit and render 4K video, pulls solid work. But it’s limited. Can’t even download Final Cut on it anymore because Apple won’t let me pull the latest supported version of the app. Luckily resolve does.
- gupti 4mo agoApple hasn't provided a security update in years, let alone a proper MacOS release. But just about any modern amd64 Linux distro works out of the box on these machines. With a few small tweaks battery life is decent as well. As for size and dimensions, the difference is under 200 grams, with the MBA being smaller than the 2009-ish era netbooks the blog post compares the Minibook to. Everything is a matter of trade offs.
- Forgeties79 4mo agoI have run Linux mint on my MB pro, and yeah it worked pretty decently, but I would hardly call it turnkey
- lexicality 4mo agoI have one of these. It's an awful piece of shit and I love it. 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.
- bartread 4mo ago> It's an awful piece of shit and I love it. I think, realistically, the issues the author describes - particularly with the keyboard and trackpad - would drive me up the wall for any kind of serious use. But then, if you're travelling on holiday, do you really want serious use? I like your rationale of taking something that's bad enough that you won't want to use it but you have something if you really need it even if it didn't quite work out that way for you. And, apart from theft, and depending on where I'm travelling, maybe a cheap device that I don't mind the authorities rifling through the storage of wouldn't be such a bad thing. Like I don't necessarily want $RANDOM_CUSTOMS_PERSON_IN_SOME_COUNTRY to have access to my bank statements, account details, or to get into my social media accounts, or whatever. And it would be nice not to have to worry about any of that stuff if the machine did get stolen (sure, the drive on my main laptop is encrypted, but physical access is always a massive force multiplier when trying to gain access to a system or its contents).
- spankibalt 4mo ago> "I think, realistically, the issues the author describes - particularly with the keyboard and trackpad - would drive me up the wall for any kind of serious use." Me too. But the tray table compatibility resonates. I had hoped someone would build a modern netbook as a detachable focused on productivity and light gaming (say, Steamdeck class), maintainability and (modular) expandability; a modern road warrior that's also a nice hobbyist machine that stands some abuse. Framework was/is positioned to put something out, but they decided to release the F-12 instead.
- 0xEF 4mo ago
- LtWorf 4mo agoI have a couple of x86 tablets from Chuwi where I run Debian with plasma-mobile. 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.
- DR_MING 4mo agoThis is how I feel about Emacs. The appeal isn't necessarily the end result. It's the process of tinkering, learning, and gradually making the tool your own.
- nathell 4mo agoSimilar vibes as my GPD Micro PC: https://blog.danieljanus.pl/i-love-my-gpd-micro-pc/ https://blog.danieljanus.pl/i-love-my-gpd-micro-pc/
- jagermo 4mo agoI loved the Netbook class; the MSI Wind was such a fun device that you could take everywhere. Decent battery, good screen and fantastic keyboard.
- Dathuil 4mo agoI just unpacked my eee PC from college after a move. 8gb of RAM and can barely run a very stripped down version of windows 7. Just the thought of writing my final year project on that little machine again is giving me RSI. I'll stick with my 13" MBP going forward. Netbooks served a purpose but I'm not sure they make much sense anymore
- cout 4mo agoI feel the same way. I had a eee and later a Samsung netbook, but eventually ordinary laptops got light enough that a netbook is now just a laptop with a smaller screen. I'll always have a soft spot for them, but I doubt I'll use one again as a daily driver.
- uyzstvqs 4mo ago> 8gb of RAM and can barely run a very stripped down version of windows 7 Not sure what you're doing, but Win7 itself uses 1 GB of RAM or less. Even just 2 GB of total system RAM was enough for basic usage, like document editing and single-tab web browsing.
- NoWayDude1 4mo agoI think OP actually meant the size of SSD. Eee PCs shipped with SSDs of up to 8GB.
- wink 4mo agoI think they don't make sense if you don't care about the screen size - but nothing in that size really existed around 2010 iirc. iPad? OK, if you don't want a laptop and can live with it. Android tablets? worse. 11" - 13" can already be too large, maybe not for you. Chromebooks - would be the 1:1 replacement if they weren't usually 12" or more The price. Sure, inflation and all but I paid 300 for my eeePC, new.
- pounceandmiss 4mo ago[dead]
- vee-kay 4mo ago[dead]
- voidUpdate 4mo ago> "Netbooks are dead" 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
- ptaffs 4mo agomy battered linux-running eeepc900a and I would agree. They also take some standard parts to upgrade SSD or WiFi modules (Mini Pcie).
- chromadon 4mo agoI feel like this is another “Framework 12 vs Neo” type of deal. I can get a used MacBook Air M1 for £250 which beats the Minibook in every regard and it can run Linux.
- bogantech 4mo agoCan it use an external display under Linux?
- Tepix 4mo agoIt's much bigger and heavier. I hope Apple will bring back a 11" notebook one day.
- Tade0 4mo agoIs weight such a concern in this day and age? I have a 14" MBP M4 lying around unused, but yesterday picked it up to have my daughter watch her evening cartoons and at 1.6kg it struck me how light it was. The Zephyrus G14 that's also collecting dust and weights essentially the same also felt handy (just can't ever start from 0% battery powered via PD). Neither fits in the palm of one's hand, but how often is that a problem really?
- Tepix 4mo agoIf you carry your notebook around every workday, it makes a big difference. If you're on a long journey, it's even more of an issue.
- ginko 4mo agoI have the first GPD Pocket which I used when traveling for a while (it's now fairly outdated and always had some annoying quirks but that's another story). It weighs 480g. The great thing with that is that you can just drop it in your bag and basically forget it's there while walking/traveling around. This is definitely not the case with my 1.23kg Macbook Air.
- einpoklum 4mo agoIt's not particularly cheap. There are cheaper 14.1" laptops which are probably better-built, with a more responsive keyboard etc. Not sure why the poster chose this one.
- edent 4mo agoSnap! The US only keyboard is a bit of a pain, and the trackpad sometimes glitches, but when travelling light this is excellent. https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/05/gadget-review-chuwi-minibook-x-n150-linux/ https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/05/gadget-review-chuwi-miniboo...
- puzzlingcaptcha 4mo agoStarlite Mk IV is my favourite "netbook" successor. 0.9 kg, 11.6 1080p IPS display and Linux-first, with coreboot. Unfortunately it is a couple years old by now and you can feel that (Intel N5030 and 8GB of RAM). Sadly the company changed the form factor of Mk V to a detachable but if you can live with that it's also an option.
- znpy 4mo agoi was seriously considering one of these about one year ago, but i was not 100% convinced and I ended up deciding to wait and see what else would came out (mostly driven by the rumors about a cheap macbook). 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).
- Cockbrand 4mo agoSeems like this discussion creates a lot of interest in the Minibook X - researching the device on Google shows lower prices than on the actual pages behind the search results, so they must have become higher very recently.
- theodric 4mo ago> 16 GB RAM – LPDDR5-6400 – soldered [crying cat emoji] 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/intel-processor-n150-6m-cache-up-to-3-60-ghz/specifications.html https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/241636/...
- poisonborz 4mo agoCould someone please recommend a small, lightweight 2in1 style x86 laptop? Weight should be way under 1000g/2.2p. Best guess until now was some used Surface model, but those seem to be of really random quality and have overheating issues.
- 0xEF 4mo agoThe Surface Book or whatever is going to be your best option because you want the 2-in-1 features. We had a few at my job before I switched to an XPS 13 since I never used it as a tablet and it was a weighty thing to have in my bag. Didn't hate using it like a laptop, though. Unfortunately, the price tag is also going to reflect the branding, so it won't be cheap. Same thing with a Lenovo Yoga or X13. That kind of functionality with good hardware is almost always going be pricy, I guess. Can I ask why you want 2-in-1? I've personally never found the convert-to-tablet useful, and I have to imagine only visual artists might. I bought a nice case with a keyboard for my iPad Mini thinking I'd use it as a tiny laptop on the go, but in all honesty, I forgot the keyboard existed until I started typing this. Not knocking your needs, just curious what kind of user those are for since I am obviously not the market
- poisonborz 4mo ago2in1s make a laptop immensely more versatile and useful: - Tent mode is a much better to watch movies on or play games (via controller) - In tent mode you can position a keyboard how you like, and you can put a secondary screen more how you would on a proper desktop. This way you can create a comfortable full desktop work environment on every desk. I wouldn't even care much about the touchscreen otherwise, although it's a nice way to read articles on a train.
- 0xEF 4mo agoDidn't really think about tenting it, thanks for explaining. I don't game or watch much media beyond the occasional how-to on YouTube, so the usefulness was lost on me. Appreciate the perspective, since I frequently get asked "which computer should I buy for X" IRL because I'm the local crufty computer guy, I guess.
- manakov_dev 4mo agoI'm owner of this laptop - great device for home bed/couch use and traveling, which is easy to take and feels not risky in terms of potential damage or lost. 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.
- Tade0 4mo ago> Frequency can be easily overclocked from 50 to 80Hz, making the manufacturer's decision quite odd. 99% it was done to extend battery life. It's probably in the order of 5%, but most likely not the only such decision.
- LeonM 4mo agoFor on-the-go compute I am using a 2017 12-inch Macbook (AS1534). This is a lesser known model, it was simply called "12 inch MacBook" (not air or pro) [0]. 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 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12-inch_MacBook
- nicbou 4mo agoI had this laptop and I loved it, but it was underpowered even for basic web development by 2023. It struggled to play YouTube videos in the background while I worked. I really wish they brought back this format with the modern M processors. On the other hand, my M2 Macbook Air is around 300 grams heavier, but I don't need to carry a power adapter most of the time, and the device is much better in every conceivable way.
- red_hare 4mo agoI have one of these. Basically dead with modern MacOS but runs Linux Mint XFCE really well.
- czhu12 4mo agoI feel like what I really want is a phone that can do this. I've been trying to figure out a reasonable workflow with a tiny mouse, an expandable keyboard, and a phone with termius (SSH Client) + a remote devserver. It's so close, the only issue is the screen is a tad bit too small to get anything real done other than ad hoc vibe coding.
- d3Xt3r 4mo ago[dead]
- ikurei 4mo agoI have one, and I love it! I don't use it as much as I thought I would, but it brings joy everytime. If you have a need for an extremely portable, not very powerful device on your life, this might be it. 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.
- egorfine 4mo agoI have a GPD Mini, the very first preproduction one. 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.
- hexagonwin 4mo agomaybe try a linux distro like tinycore or porteus? it puts the rootfs in ram so things run insanely fast, and sync changes to disk before shutdown
- egorfine 4mo agoIt's got 8GB ram. Not sure whether that will help. Also some support from distribution is needed, because the screen is rotated as well, fan needs software support, etc
- hexagonwin 4mo agohardware support is provided by the linux kernel, it should be fine. if there's issues one could just switch kernels.. 8gb is plenty. i've ran tinycore on machines with 512MB or less
- bArray 4mo ago> Keyboard is terrible – it only registers keystrokes when you hit the exact center of each key. 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.
- flossly 4mo agoFor that price, I'd get an old, second hand, Thinkpad X1 carbon with a new battery.
- AbuAssar 4mo agoWhy did they use x86_64 in the article instead of AMD64?
- ChrisRR 4mo agoIt doesn't matter. They're the same thing Generally x86_64 is more commonly used
- boutell 4mo agoHow about the Panasonic Let's Note? Still made, although not for the American market. A little thicker so that it can have an adequate battery and be small at the same time. I love it, but I didn't know it existed until my recent trip to Japan, and I didn't come across quite the right used machine before coming home.
- boutell 4mo agoMe: I want this 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
- treysu 4mo agoI think the MacBook Neo has really made it hard for companies to compete. This would have been exciting a few years ago, but now it just feels overpriced. But I love love it can run Linux and is more open.
- ChrisRR 4mo agoI disagree, it's cheap for an apple laptop but the chuwi is still half the price for double the RAM and storage
- desireco42 4mo agoIf you used Neo you would see that while it is decent laptop, it is not nearly as small as 12" should be, clacky touch pad and overall a slab of metal that can easily be dented like any macbook. It is good as Macbook Air just cheap, but it isn't nearly as portable as something Minibook X should represent. Old Apple 12" plastic one if you remember would be more perfect for such use case if it would be recreated.
- JansjoFromIkea 4mo agocontemplated getting one of these a while back opted for an m3-8100Y Surface Go 2 instead because they were far easier to find and much cheaper. Managed to find one for £70 with the keyboard. Nowhere near as powerful as the Minibook X but does the job for when I'm not carrying my Macbook Air around with me. If the Surface Go 4 had a 16gb RAM option I'd've jumped at it. 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.
- aa-jv 4mo agoI have a 1netbook with the same form factor and capabilities - I absolutely love the foldable screen which turns it into a tablet device - but it is really a problem to use as a tablet device while gripping it, because naturally that grip will press buttons on the keyboard. 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) ..
- b3lvedere 4mo agoI dunno. I never got the hang of what the hell to do with a netbook or netbook likes. I have old Surface 3 tablets, Lenovo Yogo, small HP, Acer and other notebooks. 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.
- neoromantique 4mo agoI use mine as semi-disposable device I wouldn't be afraid to lose or get stolen, it is mostly thin client for my bigger devices (over ssh and rarely vnc), encrypted disk and when lid closes it automatically shuts off, so it's a perfect device to always carry including in shadier areas when traveling.
- bityard 4mo agoTo get around the crappy display/keyboard/touchpad issue, one could also buy a used x86 Chromebook and install Linux on it and get very nearly the same (or better) experience.
- neoromantique 4mo agoI'm missing netbooks so much, there's just no decent 10" laptops on the market anymore. 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.
- daneel_w 4mo agoThe article immediately makes me think of my PineBook Pro. Blinded by its $300 price tag and "Arm Inside(tm)", I jumped the gun at the second batch in early 2021. The display panel is shit. The keyboard is shit. The trackpad is shit. The webcam is shit. The speaker output is shit. The various hardware bugs are shit. The overall performance is shit. But, finally, after many years of changes and back-and-forth with the Linux kernel, the SoC and platform is finally-well supported, and it gets the simple jobs done.
- cestith 4mo agoI’ve heard the keyboards were hit and miss, from shit to halfway decent. I got one I consider halfway decent. It’s pretty good, really, for what the Pinebook and Pinebook Pro were meant to be. I’ve never tried the webcam. The rest of the parts are pretty bad compared to most laptops, but for a super early ARM-powered laptop at its price point I’m still glad to have this little curiosity.
- justindotdev 4mo agoused of one these and its terrible. out of all the laptops i have used this one has by far the worst build quality. the hinge is just horrible and snaps in half after a few months of use. 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.
- ramon156 4mo agoGot no clue about the benches, but I love the design. Very cartoon-ey
- cbdevidal 4mo agoCrash Override boot screen made me genuinely LOL. Nice touch. https://photos.tylercipriani.com/2026-05-31_chuwi-boot-smol.mp4 https://photos.tylercipriani.com/2026-05-31_chuwi-boot-smol....
- onesingleblast 4mo ago[dead]
- leke 4mo agoWatch out guys, Chinese manufacturer CHUWI was found to be involved in a mislabeling scandal that involved its CoreBook X and CoreBook Plus laptops. The company advertised these laptops as having the AMD Ryzen 5 7430U CPU, but in reality, they used the older Ryzen 5 5500U CPU.
- hombre_fatal 4mo agoMan, I bought a 10" atom Toshiba netbook in 2010 when I found out I was accepted to study abroad. It had 2gb memory and came with Windows XP (even though Vista was the latest). 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.
- leke 4mo agoSo where can you buy one of these mythical notebooks for 350€$!?!? Every time I try to search, it's either unavailable or 100s€$ over the original price?
- danabrams 4mo agoI have one. I got it so I could have something small to slip in a small bag for when my toddler went to a playground. The thing that makes it's unusable is the trackpad. A better trackpad and I would think this was fine and great for the size.
- gopher2000 4mo agoA bad trackpad really renders any laptop useless IMO.
- benjaminoakes 4mo agoI have a Chuwi Minibook X N100, 12GB LPDDR5 RAM, and a 512GB NVMe drive. Got it for about $200, new. I asked for a Linux discount since I had no desire for Win11, and they obliged! It's not my only machine: I got it to keep in my backpack at all times and it works well for that. At 2 lbs with laptop and tablet modes, I'm pretty happy! Just wrote a bunch of heavy-ish Ruby code on it and it kept up quite well. There's room for great lower end hardware, but I'm not sure if it'll be any good running Windows.
- benjaminoakes 4mo agoThis has some good improvements but they're not quite reliable enough yet: https://github.com/petitstrawberry/minibook-support https://github.com/petitstrawberry/minibook-support Awesome speaker improvements too: https://forum.chuwi.com/t/minibook-x-improve-speakers-on-linux-using-impulse-response-magic/54172 https://forum.chuwi.com/t/minibook-x-improve-speakers-on-lin... https://codeberg.org/diamondburned/minibook-impulse https://codeberg.org/diamondburned/minibook-impulse
- rldjbpin 4mo agoin the spirit of having low-stakes, cheap devices to experiment on, stuff like this really motivates me to impulse buy an old thinkpad to coreboot all the way. while the weight and dimensions may not be quite as attractive, there is a lot going for the rest. or just go for an old m series macbook air at this rate. you only miss out on upgradable storage and a kneecapped linux experience
- LandenLove 4mo agoI have one of these. It's a fun little laptop. My biggest complaint is that it has noticeable coil whine when running under high load.