Cube Thinker i35 Notebook review

Cube Thinker provides a very similar laptop with a slightly less powerful Core M3-7y30 processor, this laptop presents some serious competition to the new Kaby Lake Xiaomi Air 12, which starts at a relatively pricey $830USD for lesser specifications.

Cube Thinker i35 Notebook Specifications:
Display 13.5” 3000×2000 IPS LCD with Surface Digitizer
Processor Intel Core M3-7y30 Kaby Lake
RAM 8GB
ROM 256GB SSD
Operating System Windows 10
Camera 2MP Front
Battery 5,000mAh 7.6V
Weight 1680g
Dimensions 312 x 238 x 15.4 mm

Cube Thinker i35 Design & Appearance

Cube Thinker i35 Notebook is among a few Chinese notebooks that are forged from metal. In comparison with them, Thinker i35 built quality is amazing.

The notebook is relatively thin and is classified in the 13-inch notebook category. As it molds from aluminum alloy that’s why it’s a bit heavy. Here are the dimensions of the laptop shown below:

The only logo we see on the laptop is on the top left rear of the lid. Cube has kept Thinker plain and simple.

On the top near the keyboard, we find the three tradition white status LEDs.

The finishing at the edges is excellent and it appears that the chassis has undergone CNC process (common for smartphones and not mentioned by manufacturer).

The lid of the laptop can be rotated up to 170 degrees but not completely 180 degrees and 360 degrees. It’s also tight, so you can’t open the lid with only one hand.

Cube Thinker Keyboard & Trackpad

The keyboard on the Cube is not backlit and is plastic as well. The typing experience is definitely passable, it requires an above average amount of force to actuate each key and it springs back quite readily also. The power button is located just above the backspace key, and unlike other laptops, the power button requires the same amount of force to actuate as regular keys,resulting in the laptop sleeping when you wanted to delete a word. Other than that, I don’t think anyone will find fault with the keyboard, but neither will anyone rave about it either.

The trackpad is not bad, single finger accuracy is great, and multi finger gestures are enabled as well. However, two finger scrolling is not as smooth as I would like, it’s definitely still useable, but it falls far behind the Macbook and XPS13, and fairly behind the Xiaomi Air 12. I hope this can be improved with software, but for now let’s assume that this is the best its going to get. The fingerprint sensor in the top left doesn’t get in the way much and is very accurate and fast as well.

Cube Thinker Screen & Display

Now comes the selling point of the notebook, which is its marvelous 3K, 13.5-inch screen. To be honest, it’s one of the best notebooks screens not only in China but around the world as well. Plus, the display is capacitive supporting 10 points touch at the same time.

However, S-Pen is also featured on the touch panel. But I still didn’t get the idea of introducing an S-Pen on the panel which doesn’t rotate completely to 360 degrees.

Cube Thinker Hardware & Performance

Under the hood of Cube Thinker i35 Notebook, we have the latest Intel Kaby Lake (Gen 7) M3 processor (Intel Core m3-7Y30) featuring dual cores which run at a maximum frequency of 2.6GHz. This is where Cube Thinker crushes its rival ‘Xiaomi Air.’ You see, Xiaomi Air has an older generation of m3 processor (Gen 6) whereas Thinker i35 features the latest generation. But that’s not all. The notebook takes the lead in every aspect which comes under the hardware section.

The CPU is accompanied by 8GB LPDDR3 RAM (twice than Xiaomi Air) and 256GB SSD. I wished that the RAM should have been LPDDR4, but it’s okay as it’s a productive laptop.

Cube Thinker Connectivity & Ports

Starting with the wired connectivity, we have a 3.5mm audio jack and a USB 3.0 port on the right side.

Meanwhile, on the left side, the DC jack, a standard USB 3.0 port, Status LED and last but not the least is the USB Type-C port. So, the addition of USB 3.1 Type-C port is something we see new in Cube Notebooks. The Type-C port is super fast and can provide data transfer as well as power backup to the laptop.

However, the thin size of the notebook limits the user to rely on these few ports. Sadly, the Micro-SD slot, as well as the HDMI port, is absent.

Cube Thinker Speakers & Microphone

At the top left and right sides of the notebook near the lid, dual speakers are situated. The sound generated from the speakers is satisfactory. It’s loud, crispy but doesn’t have much bass in it. The manufacturer hasn’t provided details about the speakers.

Moreover, at the top of the screen, dual microphone have also been provided which surrounds the 720p 2.0MP webcam. The result of the webcam is good but not the best as there are 1080p cam laptops as well. But, only a few features dual microphones which have a way better pick of voice than the single microphone.

Cube Thinker OS & Battery

As the Thinker i35 comes from China, that’s why it runs on an activated Windows 10. Sadly, the whole Windows is in a single language which is Chinese. You need to upgrade to the Windows 10 Pro or Home to install the English language pack. Otherwise, you won’t understand a thing until or unless you know Chinese. Moreover, you need to install a few drivers as well. To make it easy for you, most sellers have already done the hard work for you, and now the notebook comes with the multi-language Windows 10 Home.

Although we have an energy efficient processor as well as SSD, the display and brightness consume a lot of power. Also, the battery has a limited capacity of only 5,000 mAh. Still, it’s surprising that the notebook runs for maximum 6 hours (standby 8 – 10 hrs according to manufacturer) under light use such as Web Browsing at medium brightness.

Verdict:

Cube Thinker i35 is a perfect replacement for Xiaomi Air as well as Macbook Air. If you are not concerned with the battery as well as old traditional ports, Thinker i35 is your best choice for business and productivity notebook.

Source from: http://www.cube-tablet.com/news/cube-thinker-i35-notebook-review/