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Pros:
Sharp, colorful display
Decent performance
Comfortable keyboard and touchpad
Affordable price
Cons:
Relatively old CPU
Subpar battery life
The CPU gets hot easily.
No fingerprint reader
Main Specs of the Alldocube KBook
OS: Licensed Windows 10 Home
CPU: Intel Core M-6Y30 dual-core CPU(0.9GHz – 2.2GHZ)
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 515
RAM: 8GB LPDDR3 RAM
Screen: 13.5-inch LCD (3000*2000px)
Storage: 512GB M2. SSD
Ports: 2 x USB 3.0 Type A, 1 x USB 3.0 Type-C, 1*3.5mm audio jack
Connectivity: 802.11ac dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0
Camera: 2MP front-facing webcam
Weight: 1.6kg
Size: 312.3 x 238 x 15.4mm (W x D x H)
Battery: 7.6V-5000mAh
Variants, price and availability
If you are constantly bothered by the many variants of a certain model, good news here: the Alldocube KBook comes with only one configuration. The model features a 13.5-inch IPS display at the resolution of 3000*2000px, an Intel Core M-6Y30 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD.
The laptop is priced at $399.00 and you can buy it on Geekbuying, Gearbest and Aliexpress.
Retail Package
The retail package of the KBook doesn’t stray too far from that of other Ultrabooks.
Inside the box you get a KBook laptop, a power adaptor, and a user manual.
The 36W power adaptor is a relatively old one, and it is branded “Thinker”, which is a model released by Alldocube two years ago. I guess they still have some stock left and don’t even bother to rebrand these adaptors.
Design and build
Just like many other non-branded Ultrabooks on the market, the Alldocube KBook looks so much like a MacBook Air-- with its restrained, minimalist design -- that it could be easily mistaken for one. However, you won’t get that shinny Apple logo on the back of the screen cover, instead you will find a small, low-profile Alldocube logo in the corner.
The KBook’s design is actually identical to that of the Alldocube Thinker i35 laptop, which was released more than two years ago. The chassis is made of high-quality magnesium alloy. Open the laptop up and you will come face to face with a 13.5-inch LCD panel, the same as the more celebrated Microsoft Book. Just like the 2017 Macbook Air, the KBook’s screen-to-bezel ratio isn’t impressive at all, especially when compared to the Huawei MateBook 13 and the Microsoft Surface laptop, both of which have super thin bezels.
Above the display there’s a 2 mega-pixel webcam. In terms of image quality, the webcam is pretty basic – I looked like a grainy shadow indoors, and shockingly blanched outside.
Opening the device is quite easy and can be done with one hand. The screen can be opened to about 180 degrees, which is ideal when I am using it on my lap. Despite the smooth hinges, the display hardly wobbles when typing.
At 15,4mm thick, and weighing 1.6kg, the KBook isn't the thinnest or lightest laptop around. The award for the absolute thinnest and lightest Ultrabook goes to the Acer Swift 7, which measures only 8.9mm thick and weighs less than 1KG.
But the KBook is still much thinner than average business laptops such as the HP EliteBook 745. And that added bulk is room for traditional USB-A ports, which are beginning to disappear from ultra-thin laptops.
The Alldocube KBook has two USB 3.0 Type-A ports, a USB3.0 Type-C port, a DC-in input and a 3.5mm audio jack on board. It is nice to see these traditional USB 3.0 ports here, as the two type-C ports on the Huawei Mateook 13 constantly frustrate me when I don’t have any dongle within reach.
Not only can the Type-C port play host to storage and input devices, it can also be used as an additional DC input, as long as you have a PD charger. I tried using my Huawei MateBook 13 charger and the Mate 20 Pro charger with the KBook, both were working like a charm.
There are 4 relatively big rubber feet on the bottom of the device, preventing it from scratches and ensuring that enough space is under the bottom side for heat dissipation.
In summary, the KBook is classy from the outside, and is very well-built, too. Despite the slim design, the device feels quite sturdy and robust in the hands and looks like it will survive some serious turbulence and even occasional falls. The texture of the surface feels nice and comfortable, and ugly mold lines are nowhere to be found.
Keyboard and touchpad
Unlike other laptops, the power button of the KBook is in its keyboard.
Sadly, there is no fingerprint reader on board, if you want some privacy for your KBook, the most convenient option is to enter the 4-digit PIN code every time you unlock the device.
One good thing about those sizeable dimensions of the laptop is the amount of space afforded to the keyboard. This stretches close to the left and right edges, so those isolated keys have plenty of room to breathe. While not being the industry best, the keys offer decent travel and nice tactile feedback, there’s no sponginess at all. I reached my top typing speed almost immediately, and found that I could type on the board for hours without feeling fatigue in my fingers.
The touchpad on the KBook is not as smooth as the one on the HP EliteBook 745 G5, but the added friction only makes the entire experience a little better. Fortunately, there are also a left and a right click buttons hiding in the touchpad, making the mousing experience much better than those without one.
Display
The 13.5-inch IPS screen on the Alldocube KBook is simply breath-taking. It is the same panel used for the Microsoft Surface Book and offers solid color reproduction, amazing contrast and excellent brightness.
3000x2000 pixels on a 13.5-inch screen translates into a pixel density of 268PPI, which gives the KBook the top spot in the list of laptops I have tested (Please don’t mind the Apple iPad Pro 12.9 in the list).
268PPI means that the display offers a ton of detail, enough that I could see the strains and bloodshot of the eye in the picture, and read small names on a faraway chalkboard in some of the movie trailers I played. Browsing webpages on the KBook was also the best experience I have had with a laptop, as text rendering on the screen is fantastic, and it would be pretty difficult to discern individual pixels at any sort of normal distance.
Side by side, the KBook’s display is much sharper, much brighter, much more vibrant, and offers much better viewing angles than the 14-inch 1080P display on the HP Elite 745 G5. Also, the KBook’s 3:2 screen aspect ratio works better than the 16:9 display on the HP EliteBook in browsing web pages, and editing Office documents.
The Huawei MateBook 13’s 2K screen is also very sharp (200PPI), and it even matches the KBook’s panel in terms of brightness and viewing angles. However, colors on the MateBook tend to have a warmer tone to them, while the KBook’s screen offers more natural and realistic color reproduction.
Audio
The Alldocube KBook packs in dual stereo speakers. Sound is fired out of the slender, almost invisible grille on the front side of the hinge. In terms of volume it’s okay. Although no match for the Bang & Olufsen branded speaker in the HP EliteBook 745 G5, these speakers can still make enough sound to fill up a small room easily. However, I would never listen to music or watch action movies on the KBook without a headset or an external speaker. The sound coming from the internal speakers has almost no bass and soundstage, the midrange and treble also sound tinny and thin, and can be easily distorted at the highest volume.
Fortunately, I had no issues with the built-in mic when chatting online. It picked up my voice clearly and cleanly, even in fairly noisy environments.
System & Apps
The laptop runs on licensed Windows 10 Home out of the box, so it is able to run all applications like any other regular Windows PC. Fortunately, there’s no bloatware of any kind, you can easily install apps from Microsoft Store or other third-party sources.
Performance
The Alldocube KBook isn’t an expensive device, and it doesn’t perform like one either. The laptop features 8GB of LPDDR3 RAM, 512GB M2. SSD and mostly importantly, an Intel Core M3-6Y30 processor.
This 6th-generation Intel Core M CPU isn’t comparable with the 8th, 9th or even 10th generation Intel Core i-series processors found in latest mainstream laptops and desktop PCs. As you’ll see in the benchmarks, this computer is no powerhouse. Combining such an old Core M CPU with average-speed SSD storage is more of a recipe for lowering the cost rather than the answer for epic performance. It is ironic that the Thinker i35, which was released by Alldocube 2 years ago, came with a newer and more powerful Core M3-7Y30 CPU. With that said, a Core M CPU is still one of the most powerful solutions that don’t require a fan and the KBook should still be more capable than those Atom and Celeron powered systems.
Benchmarks
In the Cinebench R10 CPU test, the Alldocube KBook scored 4174CB in single-core, 8171CB in multi-core. In the more GPU-focused OpenGL test, it was returned 4583CB.
In the recently released Cinebench R20, the system got a score of 450cb in its CPU test.
The Fritz Chess Benchmark test returned the KBook a score of 3671, which is not impressive at all. Even my Pentium J4205 powered Beelink Gemini J45 scored more points (4131), but the mini PC was set in 1080P.
The PCMark 8 Home and Work Accelerated tests are designed to measure the performance of a system by simulating basic everyday computing tasks. Core-M powered systems normally get around 2200 in the Home Accelerated test, but the KBook only scored 1977, most likely because the 3000*2000px screen resolution was too much of a burden on the processor. In the Work Accelerated test, the KBook scored an admirable 3037, easily beating the Celeron N4100 powered Teclast X4.
Alldocube used a 512GB SSD drive in this machine. It is not as fast as the latest NVMe SSD used for high-end laptops, but still handily beats HHD or eMMc storage found in entry-level computers. In the CrystalDiskMark test, the sequential read and write speeds are respectively 528.2mb/s and 487mb/s. These numbers were not impressive, especially when compared to scores of the lightning fast SSD in the Huawei MateBook 13, but did better the speeds of the SSD in the Teclast X4 and the eMMc in the Chuwi Herobook.
Real Life performance
As can be expected, any task involving intense 3D graphics is undermined by the mediocre performance of the Intel HD Graphics 515 GPU. The KBook struggled to deliver acceptable frame rates in big gaming titles such as the “Assassin's Creed Syndicate” and “Crysis 3”. However, you won’t have problems running even the most demanding games installed from Microsoft Store. I found myself playing the Asphalt 9 Legend for hours at once, the visuals were so nice that I forgot it’s a lightweight version of the game.
You get enough power for average computer tasks like Word processing, spreadsheets and email, and it won't get bogged down if you have a dozen tabs open in Chrome with some other small applications running in the background.
Streaming video and music are no problem either, since I could play all the 4K videos in my mobile drive and even stream 4K YouTube videos in Chrome smoothly.
Heavier apps such as the Adobe Photoshop and Corel Draw also work nicely, but I wouldn't recommend anything more than casual photo and video editing, adding too many layers and filters and you will experience some stutters and delays.
Overall, the KBook offers decent performance and definitely betters those Celeron and Atom-based entry-level 2-in-1s. The Core-M does generate plenty of power here for basic computing tasks. But the laptop is not designed for power users who constantly push their PC to its very limits.
Emissions
System Noise
The KBook’s cooling solution is entirely passive. Accordingly, there are no cooling components that would be able to make any noise. That said, the computer did exhibit minor electrical buzz when accessing the internal storage. These were, however, unnoticeable during everyday use and could only be heard when I intentionally try to pick up the sound with my ears.
Temperature
Since this is a passively cooled device the entire case is used for heat dissipation. CPU temperature was comparatively high when the laptop was running, and even the surface could become quite warm when the KBook was under load, but never to the point that I want to get my hands off it immediately. Fortunately, when idle, the device remained fairly cool.
Battery life
The battery life of an Ultrabook is always an important factor. Having a go-anywhere system is of little value if it only works for a short time away from a power outlet.
Featuring a power-efficient CPU like the Core M-6Y30 may seem to be the right answer for a long battery life, but keeping 8GB memory, 512GB SSD alive and feeding that many pixels on a bright, power-hungry 3K display is still a tall order.
The factory installed battery in the KBook is rated for 7.6V-5000mAh. To figure out how long the KBook’s battery will last, I tested it out with my usual video loop test (1080P, 50% brightness, 50% sound with headphones, and balanced power setting). The result is a disappointing 5 and a half hour. In real life practice, I normally got around 4-4.5 hours of mixed use, that’s less than a full working day for most users. And if you have computing intensive tasks at hand, you probably won’t feel safe without a power outlet by your side.
Another disappointing factor is that if you want to save battery by lowering the screen resolution, you will have to learn to make peace with some black areas on the screen, since there’s no other 3:2 resolution for you to choose besides the defaulted 3000*2000px. Optional resolutions are all in 4:3, 16:10 or 16:9 aspect ratios.
Final Verdict
My overall impression is that the KBook is a visually stunning and generally well-made laptop. The aluminum case is light and sturdy, and its surface textures feel comfortable to hold. I am particularly impressed by the extremely high-resolution display, which is a rarity even in high-end offerings, and adds a lot of value to this low-cost device. Intel’s Core M3-6Y30 CPU is relatively old, but offers enough horsepower for basic everyday computing tasks, and the internal GPU is capable of playing 4K videos smoothly.
But instead of being an all-arounder, the KBook has a couple of major unsatisfying aspects. My top 3 gripes are the lack of a fingerprint reader, the passive cooling solution and the battery life. The need to type in a password to unlock a modern laptop seems way too excessive by today’s standards. Also, the CPU constantly gets hot under load, and hardly lasts through a day without being plugged into a power outlet.
Priced at $399, the KBook is clearly not designed to be the primary machine for graphical/video creativity work or demanding tasks—Alldocube acknowledges this is not really its place—it's still a fine, inexpensive choice for a lean travel companion. Power seekers, though, looking for a primary PC system should continue to look at mainstream Ultrabooks with more powerful CPUs and better battery life.
very well written review, but I don't have any nice feelings about Alldocube since that X slate.
nice design, but I hate the bezels.
leelavie said:
nice design, but I hate the bezels.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is a little on the thick side, but not really too bad.
jupiter2012 said:
It is a little on the thick side, but not really too bad.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
come on! You call that a "little" thick?
Twitch007 said:
come on! You call that a "little" thick?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, that really depends on what u compare it to.
Thanks for the review, Alldocube does produce better quality products compared to Teclast and Chuwi.
GadgetSino said:
Thanks for the review, Alldocube does produce better quality products compared to Teclast and Chuwi.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can't say anything about Chuwi, but I don't even care to test Teclast products.
this should be at the top
jupiter2012 said:
this should be at the top
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, it should. well done with the review, but I am afraid not many people would buy this.
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2-in-1 convertible PCs have been gaining popularity in recent years, with Windows 10 fleshing out those devices with features and functionalities. Users like them because they’re convenient, and PC builders and app developers like them because they represent new opportunities.
As one of the best-known suppliers of affordable tablet computers, Alldocube has released quite a number of 2-in-1s in the past 3 years, including many budget Atom-based convertibles for average consumers and a few Core-M powered ones for the high-end market.
The Shenzhen-based company recently released their all new flagship Windows convertible of 2017: the Alldocube KNote. This new hybrid comes with an 11.6-inch display, an Intel Apollolake N3450 processor, 6GB RAM and a new design, and is set to become a strong contender in the market for mid-range 2-in-1s.
Main Specifications
Brand: Alldocube
Model: KNote
Product type: 2-in-1 tablet
OS: Windows 10 Home
CPU: Intel Celeron N3450
Core: 1.1-2.2GHz, Quad Core
GPU: Intel HD Graphics 500
GPU Frequency: 200MHz - 700MHz
Process Technology: 14nm
Power Consumption: 4W
RAM: 6GB LPDDR3
Storage: 128GB eMMc
External Storage: Micro SD card up to 128GB
Display: 11.6 inch black diamond IPS screen @1920*1080px
Wi-Fi: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac wireless internet (2.4G+5G Dual Band)
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 4.0
Camera: 2.0MP front + 5.0MP rear
Ports: TF card slot*1, Type-C*1, 3.5mm Headphone Jack*1, DC Jack*1
Battery type: 7.6V 4000mAh, Li-ion polymer battery
Charging voltage: DC 12V 2.5A
Dimensions: 289mm x 180mm x 8.6mm
Product weight: 766 g
Package Contents: SurBook tablet*1, USB cable*1, Manual*1, Power adapter*1
Design: a laptop and a tablet at the same time
The Alldocube KNote has a premium look. It doesn’t look like anything Alldocube has released before. In fact, it sort of conjures the image of Samsung Galaxy Book at first glance, with a similar slim build and colors. However, the super high-end Samsung Galaxy Book has a plastic shell, while the KNote has a metallic build.
The front of the KNote is dominated by an 11.6-inch 16:9 display, the bezel is relatively small, but there’s still enough of it for you to rest your fingers on. A front-facing camera is sitting comfortably above the display (in landscape mode).
The rear side of the slate is made of aviation aluminum, and coated in the color of silver. Not only does it look good, it also feels very nice in hands.
The tablet has rounded edges. On the left side you will find a 3.5mm DC jack, a USB Type-C port, a Micro SD card slot which supports cards up to 128GB.
The right side plays host to a 3.5mm headphone jack. The two side-facing speaker grilles are located on the left and right side of the tablet in order to create some stereo effect.
The power button and volume rocker are hosted on the top left side. Strangely, there’s no Windows key on board, you will need to use the touchscreen to return to the Windows desktop.
The Alldocube KNote has a docking mechanism that is similar to the one on the Samsung Galaxy TabPro S and Huawei Matebook, but not entirely identical. The bottom side of the slate plays host to a 5-contact magnetic keyboard port.
With the keyboard cover connected, the KNote will instantly be transformed into a notebook computer.
The build quality of the KNote is extremely nice. The tablet is slim and robust at the same time. Measured at 289mm x 180mm x 8.6mm and weighs 766g, the KNote is pretty portable as a standalone tablet, but with the keyboard attached, it almost weighs as much as a small ultra-book.
We appreciate Alldocube’s valiant mission to get its take on the keyboard cover working for an 11.6-inch tablet, it serves as a keyboard, a kickstand and a protective case at the same time. There’s nothing wrong with the keyboard’s feedback and travel depth – both are quite enjoyable, actually. The touchpad is also very responsive, and its left- and right-click zones at the bottom are set to respond to a comfortable pressure. Also, the keyboard cover’s soft-touch material feels quite comfy to at least rest your palms on, while it offers up little to no flex when bent – a fine sign of sturdiness.
The keyboard cover is flexible when acting as a kickstand, it can be propped up at unlimited number of angles, just like the Surface Pro 4.
The hinge feels pretty robust, and does seem like it’s going to be durable.
However, the keyboard lays completely flat when using the device as a laptop, which isn’t very comfortable.
Still, I personally like the keyboard cover much better than the Surface Pro 3 Type cover. Even though the Type Cover has bigger keys, I just can never get used to the fact that there’s almost no space between those keys. Gernally speaking, the keyboard cover of the KNote is easy to get used to and you can reach your top typing speed with it quickly.
Display and sound: a device perfect for media consumption
The Alldocube KNote sports an 11.6-inch, 16:9 black diamond screen produced by JDI. When the display is off, the front panel of the tablet looks highly integrated, you won’t be able to easily distinguish the screen and the bezel. When the screen is lit up, it is equally gorgeous.
The display of the KNote is incredibly sharp and clear, with decent color saturation and contrast. Everything looks vivid and true to life. It won’t match the Super AMOLED display on the Samsung Galaxy Book and OLED display on Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Yoga, but it is almost as good as an LCD screen could get. The 16:9 aspect ratio is perfect for media consumption, as you can watch most videos in full screen.
The screen is also very bright, we had little problem using it outdoors. And it is not as reflective as the displays we’ve seen on other tablets from Alldocube, you don’t have to worry too much about the glares, even though there are still some.
The built-in speakers of the Alldocube KNote are just mediocre. They are not nowhere near as loud as the built-in speaker on my vivo X20 smartphone, the sound coming from them also lacks details and depth. Even my non-audiophile ears couldn’t really accept them for music and movies. With that said, these speakers are still better than the ones found on the Surface Pro 3.
System and apps: the minimalist approach
The KNote ships with Windows 10 Home and a valid license. Alldocube takes a minimalist approach when it comes to the user interface and applications. There’s not much preinstalled than the regular Windows 10 apps such as Groove Music, Cortana, Skype and Windows 10 Store.
There are quite a number of touchscreen friendly apps in Windows 10 store, you can get things like Hulu and Netflix for TV and movies. There’s also Instagram, Facebook and Twitter for social networking, Spotify for music, and Flipboard for news feeds…. But if you compare Windows 10 Store to the more established Google Play Store and Apple App Store, you will surely be disappointed. Not only is the Windows 10 store outmatched in the number of apps, most apps also fall short to their Android and iOS counterparts in terms of quality. You can also run traditional desktop Windows apps on the KNote. Productivity apps such as Microsoft Office 2016 and nEO iMAGING worked fine on the slate, so did most of the media playback apps. Whatever you can think of, you can find it on Windows. The KNote I received is a retail unit in mainland China, so the Windows it ships with is Windows 10 Home (Simplified Chinese), and I wasn’t able to install other language packs. Units sold overseas may be preinstalled with other versions of Windows 10 Home.
Performance: a portable friend for light tasks
The combination of the Intel Apollolake N3450 processor and Intel integrated graphics produced benchmark scores typical of the Celeron ilk.
In the cross-platform Antutu V6 test, the KNote scored 88,706, ranking behind most flagship Android smartphones.
In PCMark 8 Home Conventional, which measures overall system performance in a variety of tasks, the KNote was returned 1,311, on par with the scores of those Atom-based tablets.
In CineBench R15, which measures hardware and processing performance, the KNote scored 103cb in CPU and 10.76FPS in OpenGL.
The older CineBench R10 reported 1,331 for single-core and 4,162 for multi-core in the CPU rendering test.
In the Geekbench 4 CPU test, the KNote notched 1,376 in single-core and 3,925 in multi-score.
In the Fritz Chess Benchmark, the KNote scored 2,628. The thing that confused me was that the Teclast X3 Plus came with an internal set-up almost identical to the KNote, yet it beat its Alldocube counterpart in almost every benchmark test.
The 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited test mainly measures the GPU performance of a device, and the KNote scored 20,352 in it.
The KNote has 128GB eMMc internal storage, which is definitely no match for the SSD used in high-end ultrabooks in terms of speed, but still scored more points than most HDD in the AS SSD Benchmark test.
You won't be doing video production with it, or using it in your photo studio, but at least it can run Photoshop, which some budget laptops are unable to do. But lightweight tasks such as emails, web surfing, business documents, and media consumption didn’t really challenge the KNote, as it stayed smooth and responsive most of the time. Thanks to the 6GB RAM, the tablet can also handle a fair amount of multi-tasking. You can watch a video and browse through some image-loaded webpages at the same time without hiccups and delays.
As expected for affordable detachable hybrids, 3D gaming isn't a strong suit. When we tested it on both Heaven and Valley at medium detail settings and 1,920*1080 resolution, it turned in rates of a mere 7 and 8 frames per second (fps), respectively, while we consider 30fps the threshold for smooth gameplay. With that said, most games we installed from Windows 10 store did run smoothly, game lovers could still enjoy some light gaming with the KNote.
We expected a long battery life from convertibles, and we couldn’t say we were too satisfied with the KNote, which played our test video for 7 hours, 25 minutes before shutting down (under the settings of 50% brightness, 50% volume through the speakers). Although it still betters an average laptop, it falls short of the Lenovo Miix 320, which turned in a phenomenal 12:26, and the Asus T102HA, which we timed at 14:14.
Cameras and Connectivity
The Alldocube KNote has dual cameras: a 2MP selfie camera on the front and a 5MP main camera on the rear. Both cameras disappoint in terms of image quality, and the rear camera is almost useless as even the lowest end smartphone could take better photos.
There’re dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, G-sensor on board. The Type-C port could be transformed into an Ethernet port, or an HDMI, or a full USB 3.0 Type-A port with different adapters. If the 128GB storage isn’t enough for you, you can double it up with a Micro SD card.
Verdict
Priced at $355 (with keyboard cover included), the Alldocube KNote is not cheap. In fact it is priced higher than the Alldocube Mix Plus, which offers a beefier Core M3-7Y30 processor, a faster SSD and stylus support. However, the KNote has a more modern and interesting design, a bigger and better display, and a better-looking keyboard. It really comes down to what is more important for you when choosing between these two. Personally, I would still recommend the Mix Plus, simply for its ability to run heavier applications, although its 10.6-inch display may be too small for serious productivity tasks sometimes.
We wouldn’t recommend anyone to use the KNote as their only PC, especially for those keen on gaming and creativity work. If you already have a powerhouse PC or laptop, and only need a portable friend for media consumption and some light tasks on business trips, the slate is worth looking at.
Hi,
I'm going to buy Knote and I'd like to buy also a capacitive pen, but I can't find any information about compatibility. Can you help me? Thank you.
DrJops said:
Hi,
I'm going to buy Knote and I'd like to buy also a capacitive pen, but I can't find any information about compatibility. Can you help me? Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any capacitive pen which works with your phone or tablet should work fine with the KNote, but please kind in mind that the KNote's screen isn't sensitive to pressure, so don't expect it to take notes like the Mix Plus does.
driver
hello, i have alldocube knote and a already re install it. when installed, the touch screen and the sound driver doesnt work. can u help me? i need driver hid compliant touch screen and sound card driver.
dbloonk said:
hello, i have alldocube knote and a already re install it. when installed, the touch screen and the sound driver doesnt work. can u help me? i need driver hid compliant touch screen and sound card driver.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
use installed a random windows 10 pack or the rom from Allfocube?
It is clear that the biggest problem of this machine is Windows 10.
jupiter2012 said:
use installed a random windows 10 pack or the rom from Allfocube?
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Click to collapse
i used driver for alldocube knote 5, but doesnt work. i download from officialy website.. i have not tried win10 yet.. i will update if it work. hopefully.. thanks
avensis18 said:
It is clear that the biggest problem of this machine is Windows 10.
so? must i try using win8 on it?
---------- Post added at 02:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:53 PM ----------
jupiter2012 said:
use installed a random windows 10 pack or the rom from Allfocube?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the touch screen work, but not work perfectly. like ghost touch. and sound still didnt work, what must i do now?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also
dbloonk said:
avensis18 said:
It is clear that the biggest problem of this machine is Windows 10.
so? must i try using win8 on it?
---------- Post added at 02:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:53 PM ----------
the touch screen work, but not work perfectly. like ghost touch. and sound still didnt work, what must i do now?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you solve the problem? Im having the same problem and the screen is impossible to use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi everyone,
Just here to leave a link for the Alldocube Knote Drivers:
h t t p s : / / techtablets. com / wpfb-file / cube-knote-drivers-doubledriver-dump-zip /
Hope it helps!
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The good:
Sharp, colorful, and bright display.
Impressive sound quality.
Nice design and build.
MicroSD card support.
18W fast charge.
The bad:
Older, less powerful SoC. than competitions in the same price range.
Poor cameras.
UI not optimized for the 10.5-inch screen.
Verdict:
If you want an inexpensive tablet for media consumption and don’t mind a less well-known brand, the Alldocube X is the slate to go for.
Yes, Android tablet is still a thing in 2019, with major brands such as Samsung, Huawei and ASUS still releasing new slates, and several smaller Chinese brands such as Alldocube, Teclast and Onda still putting on sale more affordable alternatives. Although lagging behind in both popularity and functionality compared to the Apple iPads, some Android tablets do offer better design, better display and sound or generally higher performance-price ratio. The market for these devices is indeed shrinking, but still existent.
The Alldocube X is a metal-bodied slate which offers Android users a premium-looking design, a fantastic 10.5-inch AMOLED display and great sound quality. But does it match the best of the best in the game, let’s find out.
Design
Only available in one color at the moment, the Alldocube X looks neat and elegant. The metallic rear and curved sides give the slate an air of luxury.
The front is dominated by a 10.5-inch Super AMOLED display. Bezels on the left and right are relatively small, but bezels on the above and under are quite big. It won’t win any beauty contest against the more premium new iPad Pro and Samsung Galaxy Tab S4, but is at least on the same level of the Huawei MediaPad M5 Pro. A front-facing camera and a light sensor can be found above the display, the rest of the front looks clean, without any button or branding.
There is a fingerprint reader on the right side of the tablet, which is not the fastest we’ve experienced, but still admirably fast. It certainly doesn’t feel as instant as my Xiaomi Mi 8 or Vivo X20, but it does beat the in-display fingerprint reader on my Huawei Mate 20 Pro.
A USB-C port of USB 3.0 standard is also on the right side. Thankfully, you can still find a 3.5mm audio jack on the slate. Many may argue that almost everyone should own a pair of wireless headphones nowadays, but we do appreciate the option that we can still use our brilliant wired headphones with it to enjoy better sound.
A Micro SD card slot is located on the top side, but to insert a Micro SD card in the tablet you need to use an ejection tool, which is not included in the package that I received, but should be included in the retail package. I used the SIM tool from my Xiaomi Mi8 box and it worked fine.
A power/standby key and a volume rocker sit on the left side of the tablet. Both buttons have decent travel and give the users a tactile feedback.
Speaker grilles are located on the top side of the slate, an unconventional placement for this kind of devices.
The X measures 243.68mm * 173.14mm * 6.9mm, and weighs 495g. It does no fit in our hands as well as those 8-inchers, such as the Xiaomi Mi Pad 4 or the Huawei MediaPad M5 8.4, but it shouldn’t burden our hands too much, thanks to the slim and lightweight build. Despite being so thin, the X feels extraordinarily robust, mainly because of its glass front and aluminum back. The build quality is as good as these top-tier products in the market.
Display
The X sports a gorgeous 10.5-inch display, which is the same found on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4. It is the brightest and most vivid I have ever seen on a tablet. Watching the trailer video, we immediately noticed intense, saturated hues. The 2560 x 1600-pixel display is so sharp that we didn't need to squint to see those very fine details.
According to the colorimeter, the display of the Alldocube X produces an amazing 219 percent of the sRGB gamut. That makes it the most colorful tablet (or laptop) display we've ever seen, obliterating the 118-percent tablet average, as well as the ratings from the Surface Pro 5 (140 percent) and iPad Pro (122 percent).
The display is also super bright, emitting up to 460 nits. That makes for a wide range of viewing angles with colors staying strong at 80 degrees to both the left and right. The X tops the 425-nit category average and the 396-nit Surface Pro. And thanks to the super high-contrast AMOLED panel, the X has even better visibility than the 477-nit iPad Pro, which sports an IPS screen.
Sound
The Alldocube X offers top firing stereo speakers, which produce loud, and full-bodied sound. These built-in speakers can sound a little harsh at the highest volume, and lacks the kind of soundstage produced by the Quad Harman Kardon tuned speakers found on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 and new Huawei MediaPads. Still, they are much better than average and are definitely good enough for YouTube and Tik Tok feeds. For audiophiles, headphones or external speakers are still very much needed for music and action movies.
The X also comes with an AKM AK4376A Hi-Fi DAC, which is rarely found in a tablet. This DAC achieves -107dB THD+N and 125dB SNR, the best performance in the field as a compact DAC with headphone amplifier for portable audio products. It also has an impressive maximum sampling frequency/resolution of PCM 384 kHz/32-bit. Coming from the Xiaomi Mi8, my audiophile ears did notice a significant improvement in overall sound quality when plugging in my Creative Trio IEM. The bass has a lot more punch, the vocals are crisp clear, instrument separation and positioning are as good as some of my earlier DAPs. I even asked a few of my non-audiophile, iPad using friends to try listening to music with the X, all of them actually said that the X sounded a lot better than their iPhones and iPads, although they couldn’t really pinpoint where the differences were. Even the very demanding HiFiMan HE300, which lots of my phones and tablets struggled with driving, works decently with the Alldocube X.
System & UI
The X, at least the international edition, ships with stock Android 8.1 Oreo, with no customization on top, none at all. This is both good news and bad news. The good new is that there won’t be any bloatware, which normally comes with Chinese phones and tablets. The bad news is that this interface is not really tablet-optimized.
You won’t find anything similar to the DeX mode on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S or the desktop-style Remix OS on some other earlier tablets. The stock screen-split function works fine with most applications, but it doesn’t really give you that kind of computing experience the DeX mode offers when there are serious productivity tasks at hand.
Unfortunately, the Android ecosystem is going towards a direction which cares less and less about tablet users. Many of the tablet-optimized apps in Play Store were released years ago and haven’t got any updates in a long time. As a result, most of the apps we tried on the X were just phone apps blown up to fill the 10.5-inch screen, so the user experience on the X won’t really rival it is on an iPad.
Performance
The Alldocube X is powered by a MediaTek MT8176 processor, which has a hexa-core CPU (2 Cores of Cortex-A72 clocked at 2.1GHz and 4 cores of Cortex-A53) and a PowerVR GX6250 GPU clocked at 600 MHz. The funny thing is, this chipset, which was built in 28nm, was actually released in 2016 to rival the Huawei HiSilicon Kirin 950 and Snapdragon 652. Yet now it powers a tablet made for 2019. There is 4GB RAM to take care of multi-tasking. These are definitely not top-of-the-line specs for a tablet, and pale in comparison with the internals of latest smartphones in terms of horsepower.
In the Geekbench 4 CPU test, the X scored 1630 in single core and 3994 in multi-core, which is below the average score of mid-range smartphones, which are normally powered by Snapdragon 660 or 710 processors.
In the Antutu benchmark, however, the X clearly outscored the ASUS Zenpad 3S 10, which uses the same SoC., and the Alldocube X1, probably because of its faster RAM and more efficient Android 8.1 operating system.
The storage of the international edition of the X is 64GB, with a slot for a microSD for expansion. I inserted a 128GB microSD card and it works fine. The local storage is eMMc 5.1, which won’t rival the UFS2.1 storage found in the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 and today’s top smartphones in terms of read/write speed, but it is still quite decent and matches the storage of midrange smartphones and other high-end tablets, as can be seen in the Androbench score.
In the real-world performance, the X is smooth and responsive in general, although it lacks the silky-smoothness found on modern flagship smartphones. There are also some noticeable hiccups in scrolling through homepages and settings, but we believe that’s more due to the animation settings of this tablet. Launching apps is very fast, but could still be slower than my Xiaomi Mi 8 while loading some big applications.
The 4GB of RAM is plenty, though. Even playing a 4K video on YouTube in the chrome browser, loading some image-heavy websites in many other tabs, and playing another local 1080P video simultaneously, the X remains smooth and responsive. The X can also keep apps in memory long enough so that you don’t feel like you’re reloading everything all the time, but when background applications are piling up, there will be noticeable lags and stutters.
When it comes to gaming, the X had no problem with most of the graphic-intense games at highest settings. “World of Warships”, “Shadow Fight 3” and “FIFA Mobile” all ran without a hitch.
But with highly demanding titles such as Asphalt 8, we had to use moderate settings to ensure playability as there were stutters and delays at the highest setting. The sound and visuals the X offers make gaming on it much more fun than it is on an average smartphone.
Video playback works even better. The X scored 872 in Antutu Video Tester benchmark and had no problem decoding all the video clips we played on it. It also has no problem playing all 2K videos in the YouTube app and all 4K YouTube videos in the chrome browser. With a dazzling 2K AMOLED display and impressive sound quality, watching videos on the X is the best experience we have ever had on a tablet.
Simple productivity tasks such as writing an email, editing a photo, splitting a video clip and making small modifications to a document generally work fine. Limited to what the Google Play Store offers, it is impossible to consider serious creative work with the X, or any Android tablet for that matter. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 and Huawei MediaPad M5 both come with a pressure-sensitive pen, and should enable users to do some sketching and take handwriting notes, but not much more. Windows-based devices are still more solid choices for productivity.
Cameras
The X comes with an 8MP front-facing camera and an 8MP main camera, both of which are of F/2.8 aperture, but both are simply just usable.
The images produced by the main camera are not satisfying at all – colors are quite poorly produced, and everything feels a shade too dark and fake.
The camera on the front works okay for video chats when there is good lighting, but it is not the kind of camera you want to take selfies with. Both camera support 720P video recording. However, due to the lack of any obvious form of stabilization, footage looks very shaky. These are definitely not the cameras you want to archive your life with, any entry-level smartphone could do a much better job at that.
Battery
The 8,000mAh Li-Po battery under the hood normally gives us 7 hours of screen time on a full charge. I got on a high-speed train from Guiyang to Chengdu on Feb, 4th, playing two episodes of “I am the Night” and a movie called “Overlord”, with the display brightness set at 50%, 4 hours later, I got off the train with 45% battery left on the X.
The X supports fast charge, and the stock wall charger gives an 18W output, which could fully charge the device (from 0% to 100%) in less than 3 hours. It is a big improvement from previous Allodcube tablets, which normally demanded 5-6 hour for a full charge.
Competition
Priced at $269, the X is not a cheap device. In fact, it is the most expensive Android tablet from Alldocube to date. In the same price range, you can find the Xiaomi Mi Pad 4 Plus (10.1-inch), which comes with an inferior 10.1-inch IPS display, but has a more powerful Snapdragon 660 AIE processor, higher battery capacity, and LTE support. There is also the ASUS ZenPad 3S 10, which is equipped with the same MT8176 processor, but pales in comparison in other dimensions. The Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.5 costs significantly more, but falls behind the X in almost all categories. In addition, the base model of the new Apple iPad released in 2018 costs only $60 more than the Alldocube X, but it offers many more optimized apps which can utilize the tablet screen real estate a lot better, and a much stronger brand presence. And for consumers who focus more on productivity, there are also many Windows-based hybrids under $300 on the market.
Below this price point, there are a bunch of tablets with the similar or even faster SoC. from less well-known Chinese brands such as Chuwi, Teclast and Onda, but none of those slates compares with the X in terms of display, audio, design and build quality.
Verdict
It is very disappointing to see a 2019 tablet powered by a 2016 processor, even the Alldocube X1, which was released last year and costs much less than the X, came with a beefier Mediatek Helio X20 Deca-core processor.
Also, Google Play Store is not really tablet-friendly. As shipments of Android tablet have been on a downward spiral for 15 straight quarters, Google’s very own new Pixel Slate is now running on Chrome OS and foldable phones are still clunky early prototypes, the eco-system for Android slates is only going to get worse for the next couple of years.
Also, given Alldocube’s infamous reputation of stopping upgrading the firmware of their devices after a year since the release, the X will highly likely be stuck with Android Oreo forever. For those who care about firmware upgrade of their devices, the Xiaomi Mi Pad 4 Plus will be a more future-proof choice.
With that said, we do think that the Alldocube X focuses on what’s the most important for an Android slate. When it comes to brilliant displays, the X stands at the top of the mountain with a ton of color and brightness, with very few competitions. If you are looking for a tablet mainly for media consumption, the Alldocube X is an easy recommendation. The only other option which offers the same level of visuals is the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4, but that will cost you $380 more. Of course, it offers more horsepower, more functionalities and productivity with the DeX desktop mode and the S-Pen, but if these are not compelling features for you, the X will almost save you a fortune.
This is my new daily driver tablet now, just becoz of the screen and sound.
Ain't anyone else have this tablet?
jupiter2012 said:
This is my new daily driver tablet now, just becoz of the screen and sound.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine too, most devices with oled screens cost a fortune. So much nicer watching media with perfect blacks rather than the milky IPS LCD displays which always seem to have some level of light bleed.
Vertron said:
Mine too, most devices with oled screens cost a fortune. So much nicer watching media with perfect blacks rather than the milky IPS LCD displays which always seem to have some level of light bleed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I cannot even look at my Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 anymore, even though it has a display which used to be considered top notch.
They promised android 9 update
https://www.facebook.com/alldocube/photos/a.245194862711288/349671052263668/?type=3&theater
Battery is Li-Ion.
Does Netflix HD work on this device?
satokun said:
Does Netflix HD work on this device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, it only has Widevine L3.
Kulid said:
They promised android 9 update
https://www.facebook.com/alldocube/photos/a.245194862711288/349671052263668/?type=3&theater
Battery is Li-Ion.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, really looking forward to the Android 9 update
Vertron said:
No, it only has Widevine L3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's a shame.
jupiter2012 said:
that's a shame.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You'll have to pay a bit more for the Samsung Galaxy Tab S5E if you want Netflix in HD
Vertron said:
You'll have to pay a bit more for the Samsung Galaxy Tab S5E if you want Netflix in HD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesn't the Tab S4 support Widevine L1? The S5E seems to have an even weaker processor compared to the S4.
jupiter2012 said:
Doesn't the Tab S4 support Widevine L1? The S5E seems to have an even weaker processor compared to the S4.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It depends what you want to use it for. The processor on the tab S5E is adequate for browsing and streaming. It is also cheaper, lighter and has a better build than the tab S4. If you need the s pen or want to game then sure get the S4. However the S5 is rumoured to have Snapdragon 855 so it might be worth waiting for as it'll be a couple generations jump from the Snapdragon 835 in the S4.
Vertron said:
It depends what you want to use it for. The processor on the tab S5E is adequate for browsing and streaming. It is also cheaper, lighter and has a better build than the tab S4. If you need the s pen or want to game then sure get the S4. However the S5 is rumoured to have Snapdragon 855 so it might be worth waiting for as it'll be a couple generations jump from the Snapdragon 835 in the S4.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks so much!
通过我的 LYA-AL00 上的 Tapatalk发言
Really hope that there will be Alldocube X 2nd Gen, with a more capable Soc. and refined design.
The send generation Allldocube X will feature a Snapdragon 660 processor.
jupiter2012 said:
The send generation Allldocube X will feature a Snapdragon 660 processor.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is this your guess or do you have evidence / information that the second generation Alldocube X will feature a Snapdragon 660 processor?
And if so, when is the 2nd generation Alldocube X with Snapdragon 660 is going to be released?
Their marketing manager told me they had the plan in April, but no further news afterwards.
通过我的 LYA-AL00 上的 Tapatalk发言
I saw lots of complaints regarding the battery life after a few months, how is it really?
leelavie said:
I saw lots of complaints regarding the battery life after a few months, how is it really?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My unit lasts as long as it did 5 months ago.
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The good
Solid build quality.
IPS display.
USB-C port.
Low price.
The bad
The touchscreen isn’t the most responsive.
Do small Android tablets still have a place in the world? They’re not the trend they once were, and even Samsung — the one company making 7-inch tablets that sell in quantity — has stopped releasing smaller Android slates. The budget-friendly Galaxy Tab A, and the premium Galaxy Tab S6 released in 2019 are both 10.5-inch models. For other companies such as Huawei and Xiaomi, 8-inch is the new threshold for small tablets. It is not hard to see why, as 6.5-inch smartphones are becoming a norm, who still needs a 7-inch tablet?
But Alldocube, a Chinese company known for making budget slates, still has faith in the smallest form of Android tablets. They recently released a super-cheap 7-inch tablet called the iPlay 7T, which comes with a Unisoc SC9832E processor, 2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, 4G and phone functions, Android 9 Pie, AI and a price tag of just $69.99. Who is this tablet marketing towards? Are the specs enough for day-to-day use? Let’s find out in this review.
Specs
Model: Alldocube iPlay 7T
Operating system: Android 9 Pie
Display: 7-inch IPS display (1280*720px)
Screen: 5-point multi-touch screen
Processor: Unisoc SC9832E (Quad 1.4GHz Cortex-A53 CPU, Mali-820MP1 GPU)
RAM: 2GB
ROM: 16GB, expandable with MicroSD card up to 256GB
Wi-Fi: 802.11 b/g/n 2.4GHz
Mobile Network: GSM, WCDMA, FDD-LTE, TDD-LTE
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 4.0
Positioning: GPS
Ports: USB-C port*1, 3.5mm audio jack*1, microSD card slot*1, SIM card slot*2
Battery: 2800mAh Li-Po battery
Size: 190*98*9.9mm
Weight: 224g
Retail Package: iPlay 7T tablet*1, USB-C cable*1, Manual*1, Wall charger*1
Retail Package
iPlay 7T tablet*1, USB-C cable*1, Manual*1, Wall charger*1
Design and Build
As can be expected, the iPlay 7T has a plastic chassis, which doesn’t feel premium. Since it is matte black, the tablet doesn’t look too cheap, either. With relatively small bezels on the left and right sides of the 7-inch display, the screen-to-body ratio of this device is actually quite decent, and you can easily hold it in one hand.
There are a VGA front-facing camera, an earpiece, and multiple sensors sitting above the display.
The power/standby key and the volume rocker are hosted on the right side. Both buttons have decent travel and rebound quickly.
The top side plays host to a USB-C port. I was actually expecting a cheaper Micro USB port on such a budget device, so a Type-C port here is really a pleasant surprise. Well done, Alldocube!
Opening the lid on the back side, you can find a microSD card slot and two SIM card slots.
You can also find a 2MP camera on the rear side of the slate.
Finding a 3.5mm headphone jack on the bottom side of the slate is another nice surprise for me.
The tablet measures 190*98*9.9mm and weighs 224g. The build quality is decent, as the 7T feels quite robust in the hand. There’re no ugly mold lines on the matte black plastic shell, either.
Screen
The 7T sports a 7-inch IPS display at the resolution of 1280*720. With a pixel density of 210 PPI, the screen is not particularly sharp, but it is still not easy to pick out individual pixels in everyday use. The colors are not the most accurate, as light colors tend to look a bit paler than we would have liked, but they are still way better than the colors on an average TN panel. The screen also offers decent brightness and amazing viewing angle, outdoor visibility is also good.
Being 7-inch, the iPlay 7T’s display is still significantly larger than the Huawei Mate 20 Pro’s 6.39-inch screen, although it carries far fewer pixels.
The 16:9 aspect ratio is ideal for watching videos, as most online clips can fill up the whole screen, without leaving black bars. But the 720P screen resolution means you won’t be able to take full advantage of 1080P and 4K videos offered by YouTube or similar platforms.
The touchscreen is not the most responsive. Although every touch still registers, it just doesn’t feel so smooth as the screens on our flagship smartphones.
Audio
The built-in back-firing speaker of the 7T can get very loud. But the sound lacks texture and details, the treble tends to sound extremely harsh at the highest volume. Whenever I am listening to music or watching some serious videos, I need to have the Jabra Elite 65e wireless headphones in my ears.
Software
The iPlay 7T runs stock Android 9.0 Pie out of the box. Preinstalled apps have been kept to the minimum, but you still get a full suite of Google apps, including the must-have Gmail, Play Store, YouTube, Maps, etc.
The tablet also supports OTA upgrade, which is ideal if you hate learning how to flash the firmware.
Performance
The 7T rocks a Unisoc SC9832E processor, which has a quad core CPU (4 Cortex-A53) running at 1.4Hz and Mali-T820MP1 GPU, and uses the 28nm HPC+ process. There’s also 2GB RAM on board to take care of multi-tasking and 16GB internal storage for apps and files. Meizu also uses the same internals for their C9 smartphone, a model that gained a lot of popularity in the Indian market.
As expected, the slate is no benchmark king, as it only scored 63857 in Antutu V7.
The eMMc storage isn’t very fast, either. In the Androbench test, the sequential read and write speeds are respectively 93.51MB/s and 32.84MB/S.
In the real-life use, the tablet is smooth if you don’t stress it too much. We didn’t experience frequent hiccups or delays when watching videos in the YouTube app, liking posts on Facebook and Instagram. But loading too many webpages in Chrome at the same time, or having too many big apps running in the background will result in stutters, delays and slower responses.
The device is also capable of running less demanding 3D games installed from Play Store at acceptable frame rates, but it is clearly not designed for intense gaming, as the less sensitive touchscreen and relatively weak GPU won’t really guarantee you a smooth and enjoyable experience.
Connectivity
The 7T supports 802.11 b/g/n 2.4GHz WiFi, so it won’t pick up 5GHz Wi-Fi hotspots. Wireless connection is generally stable, though. The device also supports 4G mobile networks and full phone functionalities, you can even hold it to your face to make phone calls, thanks to the built-in earpiece. There are also Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS on board whenever you need them.
Cameras
Both cameras on the 7T are sub-par in specs when compared to the lens found on modern budget smartphones. And it’s highly unlikely the slate will ever be someone’s primary camera. The main 2MP camera is capable of scanning QR codes, but the pictures it takes won’t be used as Instagram material, unless you don’t really care about what people think about your page. The front VGA camera can be useful for video-chatting when there’s no phone or laptop within your reach, but you won’t ever want to use it for selfies.
Battery Life
The slate only packs a 2800mAh cell, but still manages to give me around 5 hours of screen time on a full charge, thanks to the lower-resolution display and the less powerful CPU. Foraverage users like myself, it is a two-day tablet. But for intense media consumers, charging the slate on a daily basis is inevitable.
Verdict
There’s not a lot to like about the Alldocube iPlay 7T, it is an entry-level tablet with the most basic specs. But there’s not much to dislike about it, either. At $69.99, this slate offers as much as it could within the budget. It is a nice substitute for media consumption when we want to give our smartphones a rest, the 4G and full phone functionalities will also come in handy in the time of need. However, in a world where almost all phones pack 6-inch plus displays and fast charging, there’s not much room left for a 7-inch tablet, even one with full phone functionalities to fit in.
Jupit3r said:
The good
Solid build quality.
IPS display.
USB-C port.
Low price.
The bad
The touchscreen isn’t the most responsive.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good Review, Sir.
I interesting with this iplay 7t, I wonder what it's sensors ? Could you please screen shoot for it's sensors ?
Does it has hotspot mode ?
Which is the Android version? I mean: is it 32 or 64bit? I plan to use it with DJI Fly App and this app works only on 64bits hardware and OS.
Did you try GPS precision and speed?
How much does it take to fix after booting up the tablet?
I am in search of a not too expensive tablet for my car, at the moment I'm using an old nexus 7 2013 but it takes minutes to fix after boot and it's not precise.
thank you.
Daneell_87 said:
Did you try GPS precision and speed?
How much does it take to fix after booting up the tablet?
I am in search of a not too expensive tablet for my car, at the moment I'm using an old nexus 7 2013 but it takes minutes to fix after boot and it's not precise.
thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not sure the if the GPS could work ideally.
dd230774 said:
Good Review, Sir.
I interesting with this iplay 7t, I wonder what it's sensors ? Could you please screen shoot for it's sensors ?
Does it has hotspot mode ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it has wifi hotspot.
Can you take a picture of the battery? I would like to use this tablet without a battery, with direct power from the power supply. Thanks
tomisoftnr said:
Can you take a picture of the battery? I would like to use this tablet without a battery, with direct power from the power supply. Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
R u asking me to disassemble this device?
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The good:
1. Great build quality.
2. Clear and sharp display.
3. Quad speakers.
4. Solid performance.
5. MicroSD card support.
6. 4G and Phone functions.
The bad:
1. No fingerprint reader.
2. Sub-par battery life and charging speed
3. Slow storage.
After many years of market shrinking, we’ve finally seen a solid 26% increase in shipment of tablets in 2020. Alldocube, a Chinese company well-known for making affordable Android slates, has released quite a number of models last year. The Alldocube iPlay 40 is the latest addition to their lineup, and may very well be the best yet.
Main Specs
Operating system: Android 10.0
Screen: 10.4-inch In-Cell IPS display @2000*1200px
Processor: Unisoc T618
CPU: Octa-Core (4*Cortex [email protected] + 6*Cortex [email protected]), 12nm process
GPU: Mali-G52MP
RAM: 8GB LPDDR4
ROM: 128GB eMMc 5.1 (supports expansion up to 2TB)
Battery: 3.8V/6000mAh Li-Po battery
Cameras: 5MP front / 8MP main
Speakers: Quad speakers
Wi-Fi: 802.11a/b/g/n, 5GHz/2.4GHz dual-band
Mobile networks: 4G (FDD-LTE/TDD-LTE), 3G (TD-SCDMA/WCDMA), 2G (GSM)
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 5.0
Ports: USB-C port, MicroSD card slot, SIM card slot
Buttons: Power/standby key, volume rocker
Size: 248.1*157.86*8.2mm, Weight: 475g
Nice-looking design and great build quality
The Alldocube iPlay 40 looks neat and elegant. The curved sides give the slate an air of luxury. The bezels around the screen are quite small, but enough for us to avoid accidental touches while gripping and holding the tablet. No, it won’t match the amazing designs of the Apple iPad Pro or the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+, but for a budget tablet, it is still very nice. A front-facing camera can be found above the display (in vertical mode), the rest of the front looks clean, and you won’t even find any branding.
The tablet has a back side made of glass fiber, which looks like metal, but feels much smoother in hand.
Apart from the model name, the camera and LED flash besides it are the only distraction. The entire backside of the tablet looks clean, simple and stylish, and gives the tablet a much more premium look than the price tag suggests.
Quad speakers are no longer a luxury only high-end tablets can afford to have. When holding the iPlay 40 horizontally, the left and right side are each home to two speakers. There’s also a Type-C port on the left side of the slate.
The tablet supports 4G, as well as storage expansion. The SIM card tray is able to carry 2 nano SIM cards or the combination of 1 nano SIM card and a MicroSD card.
There are two physical buttons on the top side of the slate: a power/standby key and a volume rocker.
The iPlay 40 measures 2248.1*157.86*8.2mm, and weighs 475g. It does not fit in our hands as well as those 8-inchers do, and you can basically forget about one-handed use, but the device didn’t burden our hands too much, either, thanks to the slim and lightweight build. As thin as it is, the iPlay 40 still feels quite robust, even physically twisting the tablet doesn’t reveal excess movement. The overall build quality of this slate is as good as that of the Lenovo Tab P11, which many consider to be the best budget tablet to date.
One thing that does bother me is the absence of a fingerprint reader, which could have made unlocking the screen a lot easier. Fortunately, the iPlay 40 supports 2D face unlock, which isn’t as secure as fingerprint, but almost as convenient.
Decent screen and sound
The Alldocube iPlay 40 sports a gorgeous 10.4-inch IPS display. Resolution clocks in at 2,000 by 1,200, for 225 pixels per inch. With deep blacks and rich colors, the display is really a joy to look at. Color accuracy is also good, and the screen is bright enough to use in any scenario.
The iPlay 40’s display uses the standard sRGBW matrix, sharpness is good and, while I don’t think color calibration or the screen architecture match the AMOLED display found on Alldocube’s X Neo, or the OLED panel on Lenovo’s Tab P11 Pro, this is still one of the better screens you’ll find on a budget tablet. When compared to the Lenovo Tab P11’s 11-inch LCD panel, the iPlay 40’s screen is much brighter.
The UI also allows users to adjust color temperature of the display to get the best visual experience.
Not just videos and photos look nice. The lightweight nature means it’s also an excellent ebook reader alternative, I changed the background color to a paper-like tone, it didn’t tire my eyes.
As mentioned earlier, the Alldocube iPlay 40 offers 4 side-firing speakers, which can go very loud. Although these built-in speakers can sound a little harsh at the highest volume, and lacks the bass and soundstage produced by the Quad JBL tuned speakers found on the Lenovo Tab P11 Pro. Still, they are much better than similarly priced Android slates and are definitely good enough for YouTube and Tik Tok.
Unfortunately, the iPlay 40 doesn’t come with 3.5mm audio jack like Alldocube’s previous models. You will need to use a USB-C to 3.5mm adapter if you want wired headphones, but who doesn’t own a pair of wireless headphones in this era?
Improved UI
The iPlay 40 runs on Alldocube’s new customized skin on top of Android 10.
Although Alldocube made a huge deal about this new UI in their ads, I personally haven’t found any significant improvement over stock Android besides features such as better-looking icons, gesture controls and smart motions, features we have seen on mainstream tablets for years. With that said, I still think it’s an important step in the right direction.
Unfortunately, the Android ecosystem is going towards a direction which is less and less tablet-friendly. Many of the customized tablet applications in Play Store were released years ago and haven’t been updated for a long time. As a result, most of the apps we tried on the iPlay 40 were just phone apps blown up to fill the 10.4-inch screen, with the majority of them only supporting vertical mode. The ideal solution would be something like Samsung’s Dex Mode or Lenovo’s productivity mode, but Alldocube, as expected, doesn’t offer similar features in their slates.
Solid performance
The Alldocube iPlay 40 is powered by Unisoc’s T618 processor, which has an octa-core CPU (2 Cores of Cortex-A75 clocked at 2.0GHz and 6 cores of Cortex-A55 clocked at 2.0GHz) and ARM’s Mali-G52MP GPU.
This chipset was released in 2020 and built on 12nm process, so it is relatively new, and it offers better performance than MediaTek’s P60 or Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 66X, which are the most commonly used SoC. In budget and midrange tablets. There’s also 8GB LPDDR4 RAM inside the slate to handle multitasking.
The iPlay 40 has easily beaten other budget tablets in Antutu and Geekbench 5. Even the Teclast M40, which is powered by the same Unisoc T618 chipset, scored significantly lower than the iPlay 40 in both tests.
In the GPU-focused 3DMark Slingshot Extreme test, the iPlay 40 was also returned with decent scores.
The storage inside of the iPlay 40 is relatively slow. The Sequential Read speed is only 106.27mb/s in Androbench’s readings, falling behind most other entry-level tablets including Alldocube’s very own iPlay 30, which was released three months ago. But in comparison, Teclast uses even lower-quality storage in both of their M40 and P20HD.
In the real-world use, the Unisoc T618 processor actually offers more than enough horsepower to drive the tablet for the tasks it is intended for. The iPlay 40 is smooth and responsive most of the time, I had no issues watching 4K YouTube videos in Chrome, with many other image-heavy webpages loading at the same time. The slate is also capable of keeping many big applications running in the background, thanks to its whooping 8GB RAM.
However, the iPlay 40 isn’t the best video decoder, as it scored only 827 in Antutu video tester, but for those normal video formats, you always have the choice to use software decoding. I’ve tried many clips and the slate can play all of them smoothly.
Gaming should not be your main reason to buy a tablet. With that said, the iPlay 40 can run most games installed from Play Store without issues. I tried Asphalt 9, PUBG and Arena of Valor, all of them can run smoothly at moderate settings.
Superb connectivity
The iPlay 40 supports dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, 4G and full phone functionalities. It won’t have fancy features like 5G and WiFi-6, but we don’t expect it to.
The 128GB internal storage should be sufficient for most users. For those who need more, the tablet supports a TF card of up to 2TB!
Basic cameras
There are two cameras on the iPlay 40, a front-facing 5MP camera and an 8MP main camera. Those cameras can be useful for unlocking, video-chatting, and scanning QR code, but you won’t want to “archive your life” with them. Even in perfectly-lit conditions, most photos I took with the main camera were either over-exposed or under-exposed, and there wasn’t much life to them. In low light, the photos were simply horrible. In an era when most entry-level smartphones come with dual or triple camera setups, there is really no place for tablet photography.
Subpar battery life and charging speed
The Alldocube iPlay 40 houses a 6000mAh Li-Po battery, smaller than the capacity of most of its peers. Even with a more power-efficient processor, the iPlay 40 still only gives me around 7 hours’ screen time on a full charge.
With display brightness and speaker volume both set at 50%, the iplay 40 lasted 7 hours and 55 minutes in our battery rundown test, where we played a 1080P video on loop.
This iPlay 40 doesn’t support any form of quick charge. The supplied wall charger is rated 10W (5V-2A), a full charge (0%→100%) takes about 4 hours. In comparison, the Lenovo Tab P11 comes with a 20W QC3.0 charger, while the Smasung Galaxy Tab A7 supports 15W charging.
Verdict: an all-around tablet with some minor compromises
The Alldocube iPlay 40 isn’t designed to break any new grounds, but it is an Android tablet which gets a lot of essential things right. It has a sharp and colorful display, which makes it ideral for video streaming, web-browsing and even light gaming. The T618 processor offers more than enough power for everyday tasks. 4G and phone functionalities means the tablet can be a serviceable phone whenever needed.
The absence of a fingerprint reader, slow storage and low battery capacity could all be potential deal breakers for many, but for a tablet priced as low as the iPlay 40, it’s really unfair to ask for perfection. With UFS 2.1 storage, higher quality speakers and much, much better cameras, the Lenovo Tab P11 is still a superior piece of tech in many aspects. But if horsepower is on top of your priorities when choosing a tablet, you won’t get anything better than the iPlay 40 in the same price range.
Nice review, battery life, no audio jack and memory speed are deal breakers for me. They should release something with this design, but the size of iPad Pro, with way bigger battery, faster memories, audio jack, better cameras (at least front one) and a bit faster charging speed, it would have no competition in Android's environment, I'd willingly fork more for those upgrades. Seems they also support a stylus made by alldocube itself which looks pretty good.
Very thorough review! kudos
Great review. Anything known about GPS functionality/ accuracy? Does it have hardware compass?
I would like to use it for navigation on a boat.
Love the IPS display.
Does this tablet also supports 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity - like alldocube iplay 30?. And also support a pressure-sensitive stylus an also has palm-rejection, glove detection, etc. ? Thanks
Hihi, can you redo on the storage speed test? It is a very weird result with writing speed much faster than reading speed. Seems impossible. Thanks.
This looks tempting. I saw a preview review saying it doesn't support HD Netflix/Amazon. I didn't see this mentioned, can the reviewer confirm?
And if so, are there any hacks to get around this?
Bunjit said:
This looks tempting. I saw a preview review saying it doesn't support HD Netflix/Amazon. I didn't see this mentioned, can the reviewer confirm?
And if so, are there any hacks to get around this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No Widevine L1, so no HD content on Netflix and Amazon.
Eugenecctan said:
Hihi, can you redo on the storage speed test? It is a very weird result with writing speed much faster than reading speed. Seems impossible. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've done it multiple times, similar result each time.
yes
d_fens said:
Does this tablet also supports 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity - like alldocube iplay 30?. And also support a pressure-sensitive stylus an also has palm-rejection, glove detection, etc. ? Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
User Without a Name said:
Great review. Anything known about GPS functionality/ accuracy? Does it have hardware compass?
I would like to use it for navigation on a boat.
Love the IPS display.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it does have hardware compass.
Нужен рут !!!
Прошивку для планшета пока не нашел.
I got random rebooting on my unit..anyone experienced the same? Any solution on this?already do factory resetting..
H x H 026 said:
I got random rebooting on my unit..anyone experienced the same? Any solution on this?already do factory resetting..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's hardware problem, suggest returning to the supplier for replacement.
Is there a pressure sensitive stylus available for the iPlay 40? I'm weighing up between the iPlay 30 and the 40 and a pressure sensitive Stylus is a must for what I want to use it for.
Thanks in advance.
H x H 026 said:
I got random rebooting on my unit..anyone experienced the same? Any solution on this?already do factory resetting..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same issue with a Teclast tablet recently, and I suspected a hardware issue too at first. But it was probably a problem with one of the apps i had installed. I suggest a factory reset, test, and install your apps one at a time. Of course if factory reset with no apps installed (DO NOT load any backup before testing! ) doesn't solve those reboots, then use the waranty.
Thanks for the great review. I saw that you answered the question about having the 4,096 levels of pressure on the screen. Were you able to find a stylus to work with this? And about gaming, have any idea if it may run any modern emulator (PSP, Gamecube, Wii, 3DS)? DO you think it fares better than the S6 lite?
H x H 026 said:
I got random rebooting on my unit..anyone experienced the same? Any solution on this?already do factory resetting..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i also experience the same but then it escalates. my unit went into bootloop and i'm unable to hard reset (power+volume up). I appreciate any suggestion that might help.
Could i flash GSI LinageOS Rom on this Device?
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Last year, I was the first person to review the YOGA Duet 7 2021, which was Lenovo’s alternative to the Microsoft Surface Pro lineup. This year, the Duet series 2-in-1 convertibles were moved to a different lineup, Meet the new Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5i! This new model empoys the same form factor of the 2021 YOGA Duet, but its internals have been upgraded to 2022 standard. Lenovo has also adapted some necessary changes to make the new product more affordable.
Design and build
Inside the box I have found an IdeaPad 5i tablet, a magnetic keyboard cover, as well as a 65W portable power adapter. Unlike Microsoft, which always sells the keyboard of their Surface Pro tablets separately, Lenovo chooses to include the keyboard in the retail package of their 2-in-1 convertibles. However, the pressure-sensitive pen is not included in the box, you will have to pay extra if you need it. Fortunately, Lenovo’s pen, which is based on the Wacom technology, is much cheaper than an Apple Pencil. There are also many cheaper 3rd-party pens compatible with this 2-in-1.
The IdeaPad Duet 5i looks a lot smaller than last year’s YOGA Duet 7, since its screen has been trimmed down from 13.3 inches to 12.3 inches, and its bezels are also narrower. The storm grey finish isn’t anything we haven’t seen yet, but still has a lingering charm to it. The rounded edges make it more comfortable to hold for a long period of time, compared to the flat sides and sharper corners of last year’s YOGA Duet 7.
On the front you will find a 5MP camera, which supports Windows Hello facial recognition. In my 2 week’s tests, the recognition rate was very high. But personally, I still prefer fingerprint unlock, which the IdeaPad Duet 5i doesn’t offer.
The slate has two multi-function Type-C ports, both are hosted on the left side. They both support Power Delivery 3.0 up to 65 watts, and video output up to [email protected] Those Type-C ports are obviously no match for the dual Thunderbolt 4 ports on the Surface Pro 8, but for average consumers, it won’t really make much difference. As Thunderbolt certified hubs are extremely expensive, most of us are only using normal USB-C hubs on them. Also, not many people who buy an ultra slim laptop will want to get a bulky external graphics card enclosure.
The 3.5mm headphone jack can be found on the right side, along with the power button and volume rocker. The IdeaPad Duet 5i also comes with dual speakers, which are Dolby Atmos certified.
The 5-pin magenetic keyboard connector is on the bottom side.
The entire system is actively cooled, and we can see lots of vents on the top side.
The kickstand looks very similar to the one on the Microsoft Surface Pro series. It can open up to 150 degrees, making drawing and taking handwritten notes with a stylus more convenient.
The keyboard cover is very thin, but the keys still have decent travel and the right amount of tactile feedback.
The touchpad is quite large for such a small keyboard, so you have plenty of area to use all kinds of gestures. However, the keyboard won’t tilt up for a more comfortable typing angle like the Surface Type Cover does.
The back of the keyboard is fabric, which obviously looks stunning, but can get dirty easily if you are a reckless user. I have been very careful with my Lenovo YOGA Duet 7, so its keyboard is still quite clean after more than a year.
What’s special about the keyboard of the IdeaPad Duet 5i is that it has a battery inside and can connect to the tablet, or any other device via Bluetooth when it’s detached. As a result, the Duet 5i is more versatile than its competitors, and can fit into more scenarios. There are also 3 levels of backlighting, which can be turned on even when the keyboard is separated from the tablet.
Display and sound
The Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5i sports a 12.4-inch IPS panel, with resolution of 2560*1600, and pixel density of 243 PPI. The screen also has 96% DIC-P3 color space, and supports Dolby Vision, so images look vivid and true to life, and movies, especially those with the Dolby Vision codec, have a stunning cinematic appeal to them. Unfortunately, the refresh rate is still only 60Hz, which is disappointing considering that Microsoft has already upgraded the Surface Pro 8 with a 120Hz display.
The brightness of the IdeaPad Duet 5i’s screen can emit up to 450 nits of brightness, making it even visible outdoors.
The capacitive touchscreen is also compatible with Lenovo’s active pen, which supports 4096 levels of pressure. Lenovo didn’t reveal the exact number in regard to how responsive the pen is, so I assume the latency should be more than the Galaxy Pen and Apple Pencil’s 9ms. Still, drawing and writing with the pen still feels instantaneous enough for average consumers like myself.
The IdeaPad Duet 5i houses its speakers on the two sides. Even though these speakers are Dolby Atmos certified, the audio coming from them is still not mind-blowing, even by tablet standards. In terms of volume, they are in many ways comparable with the dual speakers on my Xiaomi 12 Pro smartphone. can be easily blown away by the quad JBL speakers on my Lenovo Xiaoxin Pad Pro 2021 (also known as the Lenovo Tab P11 Pro 2021).
In terms of quality, there is a decent amount of bass, so the Duet 5i doesn’t sound too tinny or flat, and I didn’t really hear any significant distortion while the speakers are set to maximum volume. They are generally okay for YouTube Content and casual gaming in a quiet room, but for music and movies, I am still much more comfortable with headphones and external speakers.
Performance
With tablet/ultrabook convertibles, the balance of portability and performance is always a difficult task for PC manufacturers. We want them to be as fast and able to last a full working day without the power adapter, but we don’t want extra weight and thickness.
The review unit that I received is powered by the 12th-gen Intel Core i7-1255U processor and 8GB of dual-channel LPDDR4x memory, but Lenovo also offers other configurations for consumers to choose. To better understand where the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5i stands in terms of performance, I have run some benchmarking on it and compared the results to its competitors.
On the Geekbench 5.4.1 performance test, the IdeaPad Duet 5i scored in 1,696 single core, 7,463 in multi core, and 18,220 in OpenCL. These numbers are significantly higher than the numbers put up by the top variant of the Microsoft Surface Pro 8, and the Dell Latitude 7320 2-in-1.
In the Cinebench R23 CPU-crunching test, the IdeaPad Duet 5i had the Microsoft Surface Pro 8 beaten again, in both single core and multi-core.
PCMark 10 simulates different real-world productivity and content-creation workflows. We often use it to assess overall system performance for office-centric tasks. The IdeaPad Duet 5i scored 4792 in the standard PCMark 10 test, indicating that it should do well in a variety of heavy productivity tasks.
The SSD inside the IdeaPad Duet 5i has been upgraded to PCIe4.0x4 this year, and it is a standard M.2 2242 unit, which means you can replace it any time you want to. In the CrystalDiskMark performance test, the SSD puts up some respectable numbers.
This slate comes with the Intel Iris Xe EU96 iGPU, which is a significant improvement over Intel UHD graphics and Iris Plus iGPUs from years prior, and could even outperform some entry-level discrete graphics cards. In the graphics-focused 3DMark test, the IdeaPad Duet 5i scored 1412 in Time Spy (Graphics score: 1268), 3658 in Fire Strike (Graphics Score: 4037), and 11574 in Sky Diver (Graphics score: 12027). These results are significantly better than the numbers snatched by last year’s YOGA Duet 7, which features less GPU execution units and single-channel memory. The Microsoft Surface Pro 8 did slightly better than the IdeaPad Duet 5i in all 3DMark subtests, even though it features an older CPU and the exact same iGPU.
Productivity Workflows
Whether it was browsing the web, video chatting with friends or working with Microsoft Office apps, the IdeaPad Duet 5i never buckled during my testing — all programs ran smoothly. The built-in Windows 11 operating system is no doubt a contributing factor to the 2-on-1’s solid performance.
Even 4K video editing, which should be challenging for the ultra-portables, was surprisingly smooth on the IdeaPad Duet 5i. But adding complex layers to a long video footage will take a lot more time on the IdeaPad Duet 5i, than on my workstation PC, which features an Nvidia RTX2060 graphics card.
Video Playback
One area where Intel-based ultrabooks generally do better than AMD-based ultrabooks is video playback. Thanks to the impeccable video codec support of the Intel Iris Xe Graphics iGPU, the IdeaPad Duet 5i could hardware-decode most video formats up to 8K. If you have a collection of high-res movies and shows, you are in for a treat. The tablet form factor and included kickstand simply make it more convenient for media consumption than any ordinary tablet or notebook PC.
Not only was the IdeaPad Duet 5i good at decoding local video, but it was also excellent in streaming videos online, even [email protected] YouTube videos could play smoothly in the Chrome browser.
Gaming
Like all 2-in-1 convertibles, the IdeaPad Duet 5i is ideal for intensive gaming. But if you are willing to run less GPU demanding titles, or switch to lower resolution and quality settings, this slate can give you a smooth ride.
League of Legends averaged 103 fps at 1080P and medium quality settings on the IdeaPad Duet 5i, even in those intensive battle scenes, it remained smooth and perfectly responsive.
Running Genshin Impact at 1920 x 1080 and medium quality settings saw an average of 34 fps, not great, but still playable. I did notice frame drops in some of the more complex scenes, but there were no real delays. After switching the quality settings to the lowest, the frame rate stayed at 60fps.
Noise, heat dissipation and stability
The cooling fan under the hood will spin up when the IdeaPad Duet 5i’s CPU is under heavy workloads, e.g., Windows Update, compiling, rendering, or gaming. The fan itself is quiet, with only the whooshing of air being pushed through the chassis being audible. It's not loud, and there is no whine, but you will hear it. Compared to most Ultrabooks, however, I'd classify the Duet 5i as very quiet. During regular light use like web browsing, email, etc., it's almost completely silent.
The back panel of the slate could get a little hot during gaming and other intensive duties, but never to a point that it became untouchable.
The IdeaPad Duet 5i only scored 80.6% in the 3DMark Fire Strike stress test, but the benchmark requires devices to score more than 97% to pass the test. The report indicated that the CPU frequency was constantly fluctuating from its base clock to the turbo clock during the test. But in real world use, I didn’t notice any big fluctuation, as the laptop stayed fairly responsive in all intensive tasks I threw at it.
Battery life
One of the biggest drawbacks of 2-in-1 convertibles is the battery life, as they generally last shorter than average laptops. The IdeaPad Duet 5i boasts a 50Wh 4-cell battery, which is a significant upgrade from the 42Wh battery. In our standard battery test, we set the brightness of the screen to 50%, kept WiFi and notifications on, and played a 1080P video on loop, the IdeaPad Duet 5i lasted 10 hours and 7 minutes.
In normal day-to-day mixed use, this slate noirmally lasted 6-7 hours after a full charge. But CPU-intensive duties such as video editing, benchmarking and gaming could drain the battery rather quickly.
Fortunately, the 65W portable power adaptor charges the battery quicky, a full charge normally takes aound 2 hours, and you can get a decent amount of refill during a lunch break.
Price and availability
The Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5i was just released in China, under the name of “Xiaoxin Duet 2022”. The Chinese variant, which features an Intel Core i5-1235U, 16GB memory and 512GB SSD, is priced at RMB5,999 ($890).
By the time I finished writing this article, this model hasn’t been publicly released in other regions, and prices are also not revealed. But we can assume the IdeaPad Duet 5i be a lot cheaper than the top variant of the Surface Pro 8, or the upcoming Surface Pro 9.
Verdict
Without nifty features like the 120Hz refresh rate, or Thunderbolt 4 ports, the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5i clearly isn’t trying to be the best convertible in the world, and there are certainly areas where Lenovo could have done better. However, this product does get most of the essential things right. It has a chic and ultra-thin design, a gorgeous 2.5K IPS display, a powerful processor, a fast SSD, and a beautiful backlit keyboard that can even work when detached. If you are planning on getting the best bang-for-the-buck 2-in-1 convertible, this might just be your best bet.
I see there are not enough people caring about this product, but this is my workhorse laptop now.
Hi, thanks for the detailed review. I suppose you have now used this device for a long time, is there anything about it that bothers you?
I am looking to purchase it in a few weeks and I did not find many reviews.
I just bought this based upon your review; thanks for the advice and the hard work creating the posts!
Vydrysek321 said:
Hi, thanks for the detailed review. I suppose you have now used this device for a long time, is there anything about it that bothers you?
I am looking to purchase it in a few weeks and I did not find many reviews.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Everything is working fine on this one.
Vydrysek321 said:
Hi, thanks for the detailed review. I suppose you have now used this device for a long time, is there anything about it that bothers you?
I am looking to purchase it in a few weeks and I did not find many reviews.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I like mine too; its exactly what i wanted for travelling; windows tablet with detachable keyboard...
I like the Keyboard; it feels VERY decent to type on for a table case KB...
it charges fast (but i use a 108w charger brick that i use to charge everything)
it lasts a long time on a charge (ive never ran it all the way dead so far)
I am having a very difficult time finding a stylus/pen that will work with this tablet that doesn't cost $60. I want to try doing some digital art, but I don't want to invest in something if I don't end up maintaining the hobby, you know?
Hello there,
I can't decide between the Ideapad duet 5i (16gb Ram i7) and surface pro 8 (16gb Ram i5).
Wich one would you recommend for 1080p video editing with colour grading and autoCAD?