You put your face down from this notebook - KUU LeBook Pro test
It is impossible for them to put this together.
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Introductory
This is going to be a weird article. It will be weird because I wrote it once, in October 2021. And now the manufacturer asked me to write it again. Of course there is a good reason for the request!
What happened was that at KUU, an increasingly well-known notebook maker, they decided to take a breather after the many entry-level machines, skip the middle class, and create a real high-end machine. Well, it was more or less successful, but the few things that ruined the overall picture less, ugly.
KUU is a Finnish word meaning moon in Hungarian
The notebook itself did well, but there were three shortcomings that were confusing. One is that the keyboard became a bit floating so you couldn’t type on it properly. The other is that the cooling of the proci was disturbingly loud. The third is that the built-in speakers were disturbingly quiet.
I'm not saying that it wasn't a bad buy either, because it was still 100 forints less than its direct competitor, Microsoft Surface, but I sign that if you spend 250 forints on a notebook, you want it not to be so confusing. " mistakes".
Well, what happened was that a representative of the company contacted me and said: Listen Zoltán, we fixed the bugs in the machine, I will send it, test it again, then send it back to us quickly so that someone else can try it.
I wasn't happy about it either, since the machine hasn't changed much (albeit in significant things). The same exterior, almost the same knowledge, so I can’t write much new about it. On the other hand, I knew in advance that if the bugs were really fixed, I would be very sad when I had to send them back.
So, this article will be largely the same as the previous one, highlighting the changes, of course.
WHAT IS A SURFACE, WHAT IS A LEBOOK Pro?
According to the official technical term, these are 2 in 1 machines. This practically means that we get a tablet running Windows and a notebook at the same time. So the difference between a traditional tablet and a 2 in 1 machine will be the keyboard externally, but there is one more thing, perhaps more importantly, the hardware.
This is because these machines, although they look like a tablet, are essentially home to a complete notebook behind the display. Plus, it’s not a weak notebook because Microsoft Surface typically uses Intel Core i5 or Core i7 processors, while the KUU LeBook Pro runs on an Intel Core i7 processor.
So in short.
The 2-in-1 machines are high-performance tablets with the same capabilities as notebooks, for which the manufacturer (Microsoft only makes a keyboard).
After sales services:
- Lifelong technical support
- You can return the goods without giving a reason within 30 days of receipt.
- A one-year free refund is provided for machine failures caused by non-human factors
- We provide spare parts and repair video free of charge;
- If customers are unable to repair, they can return the machine to an authorized service center;
- If it still cannot be repaired, KUU will provide a new machine for free
PAPER FORM
In this chapter, we get to know the machine, the hardware, and of course the exterior!
EXTERNAL
An essential part of the KUU LeBook Pro, which is where the hardware resides, is just 9,5 millimeters thick, accommodating 205 x 288 millimeters and weighing just 859 grams (+300 grams on the keyboard). Everything from the motherboard to the processor to the display should fit in this thickness and in this housing. This is real engineering feat not just for the LeBook Pro, but for all similar machines.
According to the manufacturer's description, the Surface and LeBook Pro don't seem to be any different, but that's just the appearance. The Chinese manufacturer claims that the best CNC casting process they use in the industry is a much better solution than Microsoft’s metal stamping process. I don’t want to be an arbitrator on this issue, my knowledge is not enough to make a decision.
The fact that the LeBook Pro’s housing looks terribly hard, stiff, hand-pressed has no sign of bending, as if the whole thing is a block. In addition to the controversy, the assembly is first-class, the materials, the design, and the way the connectors sit in the metal housing show that we are facing a high-end machine here.
Of course, the machine housing is made of metal in all its flavors, there is no place for plastic here. The workmanship is eye-catching from the last small speaker grille to the hinged back hinge.
With regard to the exterior, there are a few more things worth talking about!
One is that the bottom half of the back cover can be folded out, so this serves as a support for the machine when used as a notebook. The folding angle can be a maximum of ~ 140-150 degrees, which means that you can use the display at any angle, from almost completely horizontal to fully vertical.
Holding the machine in hand, we find a speaker grille and two USB Type-C ports on the front left. There is a grid along the top edge, here the warm air leaves the machine, towards the left corner is the power button. On the right is a 3,5 jack, a volume control, and at the bottom is the grille of the other member of the stereo speaker pair.
There’s one more thing on this page, but it doesn’t show here you can attach the stylus that came with the machine. A magnet was used for this, which is a convenient solution.
The bottom edge is left, but here’s nothing more than enough to fix the keyboard, and of course the keyboard connector.
KEYBOARD
The keyboard of the machine is also made of Alcantara material from Italy, which is often used in luxury goods and sports cars. Its advantages are durability and easy cleaning, soft touch and unique texture.
Interestingly, while Alcantara is the material on the cover and sides of the buttons on the Surface, the cover on the KUU LeBook Pro is a bit rubbery. I don’t know if it’s better or worse, I think it’s a matter of taste and habit.
The keyboard has an American layout, which is a disadvantage, but as far as I know, there is no Hungarian layout available for Microsoft Surface, so anyone looking for a machine of this category must be satisfied with it.
Significantly, despite the ultra-slim design, the keyboard has been correctly backlit. A point of good strength, neither too much nor too little, adds a lot to the sense of quality.
The size of the touchpad is right in my opinion. We can't find clickable buttons on it, but they are there in their usual place. The advantage of the design is that the part above the buttons is also touch-sensitive, so we can control the mouse pointer from a larger area. Here, if I have to do something with the click of a mouse button, which sometimes clicks but has no effect on the display.
As I wrote, at Microsoft the keyboard is optional, so we can buy a machine without it. If my memories don't cheat, the price of the extra keyboard starts at around 50 forints. In the case of the KUU LeBook Pro, on the other hand, the keyboard is part of the package, and in the box you can even find a stylus (that is, a pencil) to scribble on the screen. This pen can isolate 4096 pressure levels anyway, so it can even be used for graphic work.
What is also worth highlighting in the case of the keyboard is its thickness - or rather thinness - because the keyboard is also the “case” of the machine. Because of this, it is barely a few millimeters thick. The other important thing is that there are physical contacts between the keyboard and the machine, so there is no delay between typing and the text on the screen, and there is no need to mess with the Bluetooth setting.
DISPLAY
To be able to scribble on the screen, you obviously need the screen to be touch sensitive, this is the default for a tablet. However, it is nowhere near that this touch-sensitive 12,6-inch IPS display has a resolution of no less than 2160 x 1440 pixels, or 2,5K. The display is not in resolution, but in size it surpasses Microsoft Surface, which has 2736 x 1824 pixels on a 12,3-inch screen.
Regarding the display, what we can still know is that the image refresh rate is 60 Hz, and the viewing angle is the usual for IPS panels, which is extremely wide, 178 degrees. The sRGB color space coverage is approx. 90 percent, slightly below 70 percent for AdobeRGB.
HARDWARE
The soul of the machine can come, that is, the processor. In this respect, the KUU LeBook Pro is closer to the previous Surface 6 series, not the newer Surface 7. This is reflected in the fact that the Core i7 processor in it still belongs to the 8xxx family, not to this year's 11xxx. This, of course, doesn’t detract much from his knowledge, as the Core i7 two years ago is also a strong proci, especially if you need to run a tablet.
But anyway. The performance of such a processor is enough for everything. You can crop video, edit pictures, or even play games. Of course, the latter is somewhat hampered by the fact that the graphics controller is the Intel HD Graphics 620.
So, the machine is powered by the Intel Core i7-8550U, which has 4 physical cores that can execute instructions on two threads each, for a total of eight threads at a time. The clock speed of the cores varies between 1,8 and 4 GHz depending on the load. As this is a U-marked proci, we know that it is designed for low-power, specifically portable machines, so the heat output is also low (max TDP 15 watts). However, perhaps because of the very thin engine housing, we also get active cooling in the machine.
There is enough storage and memory, the former 16 and the latter 512 GB. The 16GB DDR4 (16MB, 384-10-10-10, dual-channel) is already standard, especially with one such processor, but the M.28's 2GB SSD is by no means the usual size. In the case of Surface, 512 GB is only available in the top price range, which typically means half a million forints.
I note here that the new machine has 16 GB of memory, but last year it was only 8 GB, so this is a step forward
OTHER SKILLS
I have already touched the connectors on the outside. I still have a comment on these. On the one hand, the welcome to get a USB Type-C connector is the future. I would like to highlight and give a huge red dot for the fact that, according to the description, these connectors are full-fledged, which means that not only can we charge through them, but we can also use them to connect an external monitor, for example.
However, I miss the traditional USB a bit, I think one of these could have accessed the machine. Especially because there is no memory card reader. I can only rate this with a black dot. But, if we no longer have a memory card reader, we could plug in at least one conventional flash drive. Even if we had a USB A connector.
We also have two-channel Wifi and Bluetooth for wireless connection. We also get cameras, backwards from a 8- forward to a 5 megapixel.
Another very good thing by the end. A fingerprint reader was also well hidden on the machine. Understand hiding is that the power button on the top edge is the fingerprint reader, so if you enter your fingerprint, it will be recognized by the machine at power-on and will be enabled without a password, PIN, or other ID.
SOFTWARE
The machine is running Windows 10 Pro, of course a legal, activatable copy. There are two very important things I need to highlight about the operating system. One is that we often find all sorts of crap-installed systems on Chinese machines, and we can often find that changing the language, for example, is not smooth either.
Well, with the KUU LeBook Pro, there will be no problem with this, Windows is completely factory default. So much so that once it detects where we are geographically, it already switches the system to Hungarian. So no magic, you don't have to download the Hungarian language, everything goes as it was invented at Microsoft.
The other important thing is that the machine is capable of running Windows 11. Of course, I also checked this with the Compatibility Wizard, and this program also said that it could come in 11. That is, since the machine is running legal Windows 10, the upgrade to Windows 11 will be free.
Experiences
Let’s start with the general stuff, which is that the machine is not only visual premium, but also usable. It feels quite strange to work with a tablet that can be compared to a desktop. It's just enough for everything.
Obviously, it won’t trigger a million-built graphics machine or a multi-million-dollar Apple machine, but I really can’t say anything that wouldn’t be enough anyway. I tried it directly, I cut a short 4K video with it (it didn't have many effects in it), I processed raw, uncompressed images on it. These were perfectly working things.
Needless to say, everyday tasks like browsing, Facebook, office programs aren’t even for him.
Now the question may come, have the errors really been fixed?
Well, the most disturbing sound was the cooling, it essentially tamed unnoticed. In practice, this means that if you turn on you only hear a small soft whine, nothing more. This is a big red dot!
They improved a lot on the sound, but maybe that’s where a little extra, I mean volume plus, would have fit. For the benefit of the machine, there is no longer a problem with quality. Obviously not a Hi-Fi stuff, but it would be unrealistic to expect this from a tablet. Let’s just say it sounds nice, but it could be louder.
However, the keyboard has become perfect. They have improved on several things. Not only has it stopped floating, you can even choose to have the keyboard lying completely horizontal on the tabletop or tilted slightly toward us. This is accomplished by inserting an extra magnetic strip into this keyboard so that it can be glued not only to the bottom of the machine but also to the bottom of the front panel. On the other hand, they have also changed the design of the “hinge” so that it no longer lifts the machine side of the keyboard, it doesn’t float.
So the thing is, the bugs have been fixed to 90 percent! That’s a big word, since the machine was a dream (if your voice didn’t bother us), but now it’s really flawless. In this state, it will compete with the products of any premium manufacturer.
The end result is therefore two big red dots in the error correction field and a smaller one that is less red.
So in its current state, the KUU LeBook Pro can completely replace a notebook. So typing is already pleasant, the sensitivity and hardness of the keys are good. Sure, the buttons are smaller than a 15-inch notebook, but that’s because of the size.
The display was already good on last year’s model. The resolution was perfect, the brightness was enough for me too, so in my opinion it can't even touch the front of the house here.
As I wrote the hardware is enough for everything. Of course, this Intel Core i7 is not as compatible as a desktop i7 processor, because not only performance but also long battery life is important for laptops. At the same time, that is, the muscle strength that was packed into the LeBook Pro is ferocious.
Memory and storage are perfect again, as the speed and capacity of 16GB of DDR4 memory is up to the challenge of today. The speed and capacity of the SSD storage is enough and fast, and with 512 GB of space, we'll have a good time.
In its current state, with last year’s bug fixes, this machine is already doing a perfectly good job and say 90 percent multimedia. I calculated the 10 percent minus because of the volume because the picture quality and sound quality are perfectly adequate anyway.
So the point is, the LeBook Pro has become essentially a flawless piece, so I don’t see any more annoying bugs that could be an obstacle to getting it.
Summary
For me, the KUU LeBook Pro is no longer as huge a novelty as it was the first time last year. The most important question, as you can read, was not whether the machine was good or bad, but whether the three annoying mistakes were fixed. It worked!
I have also read (seen) on the net opinions that are quite depressing about my predecessor, and I have to give some truth to them. I still hold that the price difference between the Microsoft Surface and the first version of the LeBook has almost made the three problems acceptable. In fact, if you buy a new notebook for a quarter of a million forints, you won't look at how much cheaper it is than the Surface. The annoying bugs for 250 are even more annoying.
So the patch fit the KUU LeBook because it became perfect, so it became Pro. It’s so perfect now that I have a hard time understanding any common sense reason why someone buys Microsoft Surface much more expensive than this.
If you like the machine, you can order it from Amazon right now, but I hope it will show up in other online stores soon.
