Chinese computer maker Chuwi first introduced a new 2-in-1 Windows tablet called the SurBook Pro at CES in January, but the company wasn’t actually ready to show off a working product at the time.
Now it’s almost ready to ship. Chuwi brought the tablet to the IFA show in Berlin last week, where the folks at Notebook Italia got a chance to spend some time with it.
Chuwi says the SurBook Pro should go on sale in September or October.
The SurBook Pro basically looks like what you’d get if you took a Microsoft Surface Pro tablet and replaced the Intel Core Kaby Lake processor with a less powerful Intel Celeron Gemini Lake chip.
While Chuwi hasn’t revealed a price for the new tablet yet, it’ll probably be substantially cheaper than a Surface Pro… but it remains to be seen how it will stack up against Microsoft’s new Surface Go tablet which sells for $399 and up.
The Chuwi SurBook Pro features a 12 inch, 2160 x 1440 pixel IPS display with a 3:2 aspect ratio, an Intel Celeron N4100 quad-core Gemini Lake processor, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage.
It has a built-in kickstand and works with a detachable keyboard. There’s also pen support for writing or drawing, and the computer features a USB Type-C port, two USB Type-A ports, stereo front-facing speakers, front and rear cameras, dual-band 802.11n WiFi, and room for an additional SSD if you want to increase the storage capacity.
Oh, and it’s also fanless.
Chuwi also has a new lower-cost model called the SurBook SE which features a 10.1 inch, 1920 x 1200 pixel display, an Intel Atom x5-Z8350 processor, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage. But I’d really steer away from buying any tablet with that aging processor in 2018.
Considering how bad the touchpad and WiFi have been on a number of their products. I’m steering clear. Otherwise, this is probably going to be a competent little device.
Can we get a Windows tablet with LESS than 10 inches of screen space for once?!
I have a 10″ Surface and Lenovo Yoga Tab and am quite dissatisfied with Windows in tablet mode. Whenever I use the keyboard, it obscures the bottom third of the screen so I can’t see where I’m typing. I paid $30 fire Amazon Fire which handles keyboards much better.
That’s odd. Other than the newer CPU and the ability to add an SSD, the SurBook Pro looks like a downgrade from last year’s plain SurBook. It has a smaller screen (12″ vs 12.3″), lower resolution (2160 x 1440 vs 2736 x 1724), less RAM (4G vs 6G) and less storage (64G vs 128G). I wonder if the price will reflect that?
Oh, and it’s also has HUGE bezels.
Just wondering, how do you hold a tablet? Without some kind of bezel some part of your body is blocking part of the screen.
Ignore him… there’s a crowd out there these days unable to think beyond their fanatical bezel bigotry.
I hold my tablet like I want it, this is not my problem. A proper tablet should recognize my holding and ignore my accidental touches without having huge bezels. It’s an unacceptable design flaw IMO.
Apple solved this problem many years ago at the operating system side, and they can also do it if they want.
Just stop ignoring their mistakes people.
Chinese manufacturers are clearly unaware what they are doing, they are just copying Apple and Microsoft devices with all the flaws included.
You can wait and see upcoming Chinese device designs after Apple introduces new bezel-less iPad in this month.