In addition to the Chinese smartphones inspired by the design of the major brands most suited to the western market, even in the increasingly emerging sector of tablets and convertibles, we are beginning to see solutions similar to some products of large companies.
Among these, in today's review we're going to try the PIPO W9S, a netbook characterized by a design strongly inspired by the MacBook Air Apple but with a price and much lower technical specifications.
Il PIPO W9S, and is available at 173 € from China at the store tinydeal.
PIPO W9S: netbook with Intel Atom and design inspired by Macbook Air, our proof!
Packaging and accessories
The sales package is made of white cardboard and it is really very simple, in fact it provides a simple cover of hard cardboard with some information on both the front and back. Inside we find, in addition to the device, the special power supply with Chinese plug and a output of 2.5 A to 5 Volt, the appropriate adapter for European sockets and the classic DC connector, followed by a small guarantee certificate and a user manual in Chinese and English.
The equipment, therefore, proved to be basic, limiting itself to the minimum necessary for the use of the product.
Specifications
The technical specifications of the device are far from the device from which it is inspired (MacBook Air), since they provide an entry-level processor of the range Intel Atom Cherry Trail, more specifically the model X5 Z8300, based on four cores X86 supported by 2 MB of cache and made with a production process 14 nanometers. The base operating frequency is of 1.44 GHz, but is able to go as far as 1.84 GHz on one core during the most demanding loads. The integrated GPU is theIntel HD Graphics di eighth generation and can count on 12 calculation unit operating at a frequency between i 200 and the 500 MHz.
Support for ai 64-bit, DirectX 11.2 and to memories Single-Channel RAM LPDDR3 until 4 GB. The installed memory is of type eMMC and has one 64GB capacity, while RAM amounts to 4 GB. The display is a 14.1 inch TF, with resolution HD di 1366 x 768 pixels, while the installed battery has a capacity of approx 10000 mAh. The weight of the device is of 1480 grams, while the dimensions are of 35.1 x 23.3cm, for one thickness of 2 centimeters.
The device is characterized by one two 2.0 Full-Size USB ports, a micro SD card slot to 128 GB, a video output mini-HDMI and the classic audio jack from 3.5 millimeters. Present then the connector of DC power supply, a front webcam from 0.3 Mega-pixels, WiFi 802.11 b / g / n and the Bluetooth 4.0. Finally, we find the latest operating system Windows 10 home Microsoft.
Design and construction
Although apparently the construction may seem more than valid, in practice, after just a few hours of use, it emerges all the inexpensiveness of the product, especially in the adopted plastics, which tend to scratch and to easily scratch. The plastic used is really cheap in all its parts, and at several points I have noticed the bending of the body also large, a sign of how the assembly and the structure are not the best.
The design is clearly inspired by the MacBook Air, even if going to compare the two products emerge different differences in the body, especially in the back.
On the other hand, the keyboard is acceptable, although it tends to bend at some point, allowing a more than good typing, even if very far from the one returned by the MacBook Air and many other medium-low end products. Obviously the backlight is missing.
At the front of the product we find the logo of Windows 10 ed Intel, while in the back one we find four excellent rubber feet and on both sides i two system speakers.
Opening the lid, we find the display from 14.1 inch TF and, at the top, the webcam from 0.3 Mega-pixel. The opening angle of the lid is really wide near the 180 °.
Moving to the bottom, we find the keyboard and the touchpad, which despite the similarity is not comparable to that of Apple, given that there are many gestures (limited to only two touches) and that the sensitivity is very much reduced. In addition, the two keys are really very hard and often it is difficult to use the touchpad optimally by pressing the keys without using the other hand.
Turning to the profiles, on the back side we find the WiFi antenna cover, on the right one micro SD slot, audio jack and a 2.0 USB port, while on the left one the power connector, one 2.0 USB port and an exit mini-HDMI.
Overall theergonomics and portability, thanks to the not too high diagonal and the excellent size it turned out to be more than good, also considering the lower I think KG 1.5, aligned to the other products of this category.
Going to disassemble the device shows the whole cost of the product, since we can immediately notice the low quality of the assembly and the positioning of the components.
First of all, it lacks a real heatsink that, despite the fanless nature chipset, would certainly have contributed to better processor thermal management.
Remarkable the amount of unused space that the company could have used to install an even larger battery. Excellent, however, the installation of the WiFi antenna in the back of the product.
Display
Il TF panel installed has a diagonal of 14.1 inches with HD resolution di 1366 x 766 pixels, an acceptable value but far from the retina display of the MacBook. It goes without saying that the quality and the final yield is not in the least comparable to the medium / high-end panels of the market, however, the solution adopted manages to do its job adequately, guaranteeing a more than acceptable color rendering. Too bad only for the very limited viewing angles, also given the nature of the panel, while the brightness turned out to be more than acceptable, even if poco suitable for outdoor use, given the not too high value of nits reached from the display.
Obviously, being a netbook, a digitizer is missing from the display, making it impossible to use it as a touch screen tablet.
Performances
The processor Intel Atom Cherry Trail X5 Z8300 manages to guarantee some good performance thanks also to the 4 GB of RAM, which allow us to obtain performances comparable to the current ones SoC mobile mid-range. However, the use indicated for this type of product is limited to the classic productivity and Office applications, in addition to web browsing and some light games on the Microsoft home store.
The performance offered by the chipset, as already mentioned in other reviews, are well below those offered by the solutions of the family Intel Core that we find on the classic notebooks, accomplices the contained frequencies, the completely different architecture and the low-power nature of the SoC, intended for tablets and low-end products of this type, thus characterized by fanless dissipation systems.
Consumption is really low, often less than 2 / 3 Watt, which, combined with a good battery, allow you to easily reach a working day of autonomy.
The system always performed quite well in practical use and I rarely noticed jitters, except when opening several programs simultaneously or with heavy applications running in the background.
Good performance offered by the eMMC memory installed, which manages to guarantee adequate speeds but which remains far from the most models performers di eMMC 5.0, especially in writing. Unfortunately an 3.0 USB port is missing although they are supported by the processor.
I 4 GB of RAM they have proved to be very useful and are able to guarantee a good usability of the system even with some program running in back-ground. It happened to me, in fact, to get safely to use too 3 GB of RAM, while I was hardly able to exceed this value, a sign of how the amount of memory installed is more than enough to guarantee an excellent multitasking experience for the user.
Moving to the graphic department, the XNUMXth Generation Intel GPU manages to guarantee a significant performance boost compared to the last generation, certainly accomplices the 12 calculation unit operating at a frequency between i 200 and the 500 MHz.
Going to try some games from the Microsoft store, including Asphalt 8 Airborne, we note how the gameplay turned out to be quite fluid with a medium-high graphic detail, thus managing to guarantee good playability, at least limited to the games on the Microsoft Store, since it is very difficult to run titles with important graphics 3D.
Temperature
THEIntel Atom Z8300 it is a solution that does not require any active dissipation system and which, as seen in the paragraph relating to construction quality, is able to function correctly without dissipation systems. Disassembling the device I immediately noticed the absence of a heatsink in contact with the chipset, a choice that in practical use brings the temperatures recorded to values close to or higher than 50°C.
During the use of some intensive stress test applications, the operating frequency hardly tends to drop, until later poco more than half an hour of testing, passing by 1.6 GHz to 1.4 GHz on all 4 cores, sign of how there is a slight phenomenon of Thermal throttling.
In fact, the processor temperatures have reached a peak maximum of 85 ° C, very close to the limit temperature TJMAX of 90 ° C.
On the other hand, the temperatures of the body are very good, which did not reach high values, given that, after various intensive stress tests, in the hottest point I recorded values of 32.3°C on the left side of the keyboard and 30.4 ° C degrees on the left back.
Autonomy and connectivity
The cell installed by 10000 mAh he manages to secure one excellent autonomy, variable depending on the workload and therefore the type of use.
With a classic netbook use, ie web browsing and light editing of documents, I was able to easily reach the 7 hours and a half of autonomy with brightness at 50%, while with more demanding workloads such as watching streaming video, gaming or editing demanding documents, autonomy will drop to 6 scarce hours, a value however more than good and acceptable.
Regarding the connectivity, the device is equipped only with the Wi-Fi b / g / n, therefore the last AC standard is missing. Finally present, the Bluetooth 4.0 and an exit mini-HDMI for connecting the device to external diagrams also in 4K.
Multimedia
Going to reproduce the various test samples, I was able to easily view almost all the videos based on the main codecs, including those in Full HD e 4K both with codecs H264 and H265, which are reproduced in a very fluid and without problems. Only videos in 4K a 60 FPS and 10-bit they reported some fluidity and lag problem, maybe due to the player not really up to the GPU and not powerful enough.
Going to the webcam, it has a resolution of 0.3 Mega-pixel, a value that limits the video recording in VGA format of 640 x 480 pixels, a low value even for use in video call.
As far as audio reproduction is concerned, the speakers have only a sufficient volume level, as well as the audio quality, which has been shown to be medium level, especially at high volume, where the two speakers tend to distort. Good but low, instead the volume in the headphones.
Software
On the software front we find Windows 10 completely clean and free of pre-installed Chinese software. The default language is English, but Windows 10 it can also be translated into Italian by installing the appropriate language pack.
Unlike other solutions based on this hardware, we find only Windows 10, a choice that allows you to have around 45 GB of memory on 64 GB at the first start, a space more than enough for the installation of the main software applications.
The operating system is the classic OS that we have already seen on other tablets, and does not present any kind of customization.
Needless to say, you can install almost all PC software applications, also considering the presence of a 64-bit version of the installed operating system.
Conclusions
Il PIPO W9S it has proved to be a valid device from the point of view of performance and autonomy, while the quality of the materials and the assembly leave much to be desired, given the ease with which the body tends to get scratched.
La hardware platform adopted is balanced and well managed despite there being a slight phenomenon of Thermal throttling with the most exorbitant and lasting applications.
Autonomy is very good, which will allow you to easily cover a day of continuous use. On the other hand, the display is just enough, which sins for the bad viewing angles and for maximum brightness not really very high.
The design inspired by the MacBook Air incorporates excellent aesthetic lines, revised in a much cheaper context and with less valuable materials.
Il PIPO W9S, and is available at 173 € from China at the store tinydeal.
