Select Page

We tried it - KUU XBook, a cheap notebook for telecommuting and learning

We tried it - KUU XBook, a cheap notebook for telecommuting and learningScore 91%Score 91%

You want to look more than you can, but unnecessarily, because it’s well worth the price anyway.

We tried it - KUU XBook, a cheap notebook for telecommuting and learning


 

KUU XBook - Introduction

The first of the KUU notebooks arrived in the middle of summer, and I liked it so much that I quickly ordered another variety of it as well. It also made sense, and it didn’t, because the hardware was essentially the same as the previous piece, but it got a much more serious look based on the pictures.

Tried it - KUU XBook, cheap notebook for telecommuting and learning 1

Not that the KUU K2 looked so bad, it was just a tiny oriental (let’s be honest, Chinese) punch in the design. However, the XBook has been given a completely different look, one that it can handle in any market in the world.

But it is not enough to look better, even a strong 10 thousand forints cheaper, even though the K2 could be taken for less than a hundred thousand forints.

The point is, the KUU XBook has made you curious, and now you’ll find out if it has lived up to my hopes.


 

Packaging and exterior

The XBook couldn’t deny that the KUU K2’s little brother, the packaging, is essentially the same. Inside the cardboard, it peaks in the same black shock-absorbing foam, wrapped in a silk-looking bag. Of course, this has as much to do with silk as Donald Trump has to algebra.

Tried it - KUU XBook, cheap notebook for telecommuting and learning 2

However, all the savings can already be discovered here, but we Hungarians will not be sad about it. A stack of keyboard stickers was added to the K2, for all kinds of languages, among which Hungarian, of course, could not be found. That is, we will not miss these stickers, Chinese colleagues can smear them on their hair as well.

I would note that in the store, we can read this in the description: We provide the appropriate network adapter and the keyboard sticker corresponding to the order address for the machine. If you have a special request, please contact us when making a purchase. I noticed this late, I didn’t get in touch, and I didn’t get a sticker automatically either.

Tried it - KUU XBook, cheap notebook for telecommuting and learning 3

Well, the outside is much more important than the packaging. The cover is square, dynamic, looks particularly good. The material, no matter how much you want to look like metal, is plastic. At the same time, this stiffness of the house is only felt in a way, so either the plastic is very good or the design of the cover is done well, the point is that you don’t feel like you are falling apart in your hands.

Tried it - KUU XBook, cheap notebook for telecommuting and learning 4

If we open the display we will find more interesting things. The first thing you notice is how spacious the keyboard is, wall-to-wall, so the keys are big, hard to type. The second is the touchpad, which has become quite large compared to the machine, which is not a problem, on the contrary, it is comfortable to use.

Above the keyboard, below the display, we find a designer grille that just looks like a speaker grille, not really. The speakers were located on the right and left, at the bottom of the machine.

Tried it - KUU XBook, cheap notebook for telecommuting and learning 5

This is not a terrible mistake, it would only be that the KUU XBook would be on its four elongated pads in use. From this you can already guess that it is not on them. By opening the lid, thanks to an ingenious solution, the edge of the lid opens under the machine and lifts the back from the table. There are also pads on this rear edge on which the structure can rest.

Tried it - KUU XBook, cheap notebook for telecommuting and learning 6

Although it belongs to the hardware, I will reveal that this solution does not play an important role due to the cooling of the machine, not the speakers. Because the KUU XBook has got passive cooling, which means it really works completely silently!

Tried it - KUU XBook, cheap notebook for telecommuting and learning 7

I haven't talked about the connectors yet. I wouldn't have complained about it a year ago, but now a little, the machine doesn't have a USB Type-C connector, just a standard USB port, a standard USB 3.0 port. This is suspected that 99 percent of users will not have any problems, just techbubs like me.

Tried it - KUU XBook, cheap notebook for telecommuting and learning 8

In addition to the two USB 3.0 ports, there’s a jack for the headset, an HDMI if you want to put the image on an external display, a card reader (well, that’s really useful), and finally a charger connector.


 

Hardware

In terms of paper form, this is a good little machine. It features one of Intel’s new ultra-low-power Celeron processors for easier identification, the Intel Celeron 4115, with a maximum clock speed of 2,5 GHz. Graphics tasks are performed by an Intel HD Graphics 600 GPU integrated in the processor. For fast operation, we get no less than 8 GB of memory and, depending on the configuration, 256 or 512 GB of SSD storage.

Tried it - KUU XBook, cheap notebook for telecommuting and learning 9

In connection with the latter, it should not be forgotten that, thanks to heaven, the mass storage was not soldered to the motherboard, but an M.2 standard card was inserted into the machine, which of course can be replaced or expanded. I know it doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it does on these cheap machines.

We have largely gone beyond the hardware, with the display, battery and, although not really hardware, the software installed on the machine being left out of the essentials.

So, the machine’s display is a 14,1-inch diagonal IPS panel with a resolution of FHD, i.e. 1920 x 1080 pixels.

The battery has a capacity of 5000 mAh, which doesn’t seem like much, but as I wrote above, the machine’s processor is ultra low power. This means that we can expect a battery life of roughly 5 hours. This obviously depends on a lot of things, the brightness of the display, what programs we use.

Tried it - KUU XBook, cheap notebook for telecommuting and learning 10

So, for sure, for sure, I also looked at how long the uptime could be and got to the next one. I charged the battery to 100 percent and launched a YouTube video with a wifi connection in full screen, full brightness, at roughly half the volume. The battery charge drops to 63 percent in 74 minutes, which means we get a tight 4 hours this way.

That is, let’s say there will be a little more for watching a movie if we don’t use Wi-Fi and in normal use, i.e. for example internet browsing. word processing, etc. may be 5 hours as promised at the factory, especially if the brightness of the display is lowered.

Tried it - KUU XBook, cheap notebook for telecommuting and learning 11

Operating System. Also surprised by the previous KUU machine, we don’t get the Windows 10 Home version for the machine, but the more expensive Pro. Home, as its name suggests, has been invented for home use, something I don’t like so much. The software wants to be smarter than me in everything, and that’s not sympathetic.

The Pro version can already be used in an enterprise environment, for example it can be placed under a domain, we can have a say in when to install the updates, there are a bunch of other things that are important for administrators, I won't bore you with them, because I feel that I spent a lot of time managing my life.

Tried it - KUU XBook, cheap notebook for telecommuting and learning 12

Before I forget, after turning on, the language of Windows was Hungarian, so no one has to bother with that either.

And, which I still haven't talked about. There is Wi-Fi, two channels. I would bet on n standards because if it were ac, it would have been written out. Not bad for n either, so I don't understand why blushing. Interesting, but the specification does not mention the Bluetooth connection, even though it is in the machine, I tried it, it can be turned on, it works.


 

Use and experience

Since for me it's about. the thousandth similar machine in my hand, I can't write many new ones. Because, on the other hand, you may be reading my first such article, I am still writing.

Tried it - KUU XBook, cheap notebook for telecommuting and learning 13

The bottom line is this: The machine's processor is the most powerful of the ultra-low-power pieces. The good news, the bad news, is that the XBook isn’t going to be a powerhouse yet.

Many, many years ago, if someone wanted to upgrade their computer for little money, I told him not to buy a new processor, a new motherboard, buy a little memory and an SSD storage, at least enough to fit the operating system with the frills. You will see a miracle!

Tried it - KUU XBook, cheap notebook for telecommuting and learning 14

Well, whoever buys the XBook, or any of its peers, will truly see a miracle. Despite the relatively weak processor, Windows literally loads in a matter of seconds, programs start and stop, and the machine splits! So what makes a processor weak?

Tried it - KUU XBook, cheap notebook for telecommuting and learning 15

The speed at which programs load does not depend on processor performance, except for some applications that require a more powerful machine (such as image manipulation, video editing, security camera software, etc.). Respectively, but only in a very small part.

The point in this case is the amount of memory to which the programs are loaded as a buffer and the speed of the mass storage from which the running software is stored in the memory. If these two components are fast, there is a good chance that programs will load or Windows will start fast.

Tried it - KUU XBook, cheap notebook for telecommuting and learning 16

The machine has almost enjoyable sound and is among the best in its category. In the promotional material, of course, I see that High-quality Speaker, which is, to put it mildly, an exaggeration, simply sounds good, fair.

What do the above mean in practice?

It means the KUU XBook is perfect for everyday tasks. Networking, emailing, watching YouTube videos, searching for recipes, spinning on Facebook is absolutely good.

Tried it - KUU XBook, cheap notebook for telecommuting and learning 17

What’s more, I’ll go further, they’re good for work in some ways, because they run Microsoft Office without error, and if we’re not fussy and enough for us to even install an older Photoshop on them, we won’t get bogged down in anything happening in the program.

Tried it - KUU XBook, cheap notebook for telecommuting and learning 18

What these machines aren’t good for is running programs that require more serious graphics or computing power. Don’t want to cut video, run a 3G design program, edit billion-pixel RAW images in Photoshop, so nothing that basically takes a notebook that costs three to four times that much.

Tried it - KUU XBook, cheap notebook for telecommuting and learning 19

I can’t report too many peculiarities about the XBs themselves beyond doing their thing. The image, the display is very good, the brightness is perfect, the image is contrasting, as it should be with an IPS panel.

The performance of the processor and the machine, discussed above, makes no sense to run test programs on it, it is not figured out anyway.

Tried it - KUU XBook, cheap notebook for telecommuting and learning 20

I really like the keyboard backlight. I mean, I don’t like the lighting, but the fact that both strength levels give usable light, the stronger one rivals directly the keyboard lighting of my Xiaomi notebook. It's really stabbing!


 

Conclusion

So what’s my summary of the KUU XBook in summary? First, what I also described in the opening sentence, that is, he wants to look more than what. This is not good and unnecessary.

It’s not a problem that the machine is bad, weak, or ugly, they’re simply unnecessarily made to appear, they make claims in the advertising material that don’t stand their ground. I stress this is a feature of this price range. For that much money, no manufacturer will give you insanely long uptime, top quality speakers, or a magnesium die-cast housing. It just doesn’t fit into the budget.

Tried it - KUU XBook, cheap notebook for telecommuting and learning 21

So, in its category it is a very good machine, in many ways it beats the expectations of the one higher category as well. I’m thinking here, for example, that even on more expensive machines, we can run densely on an HD display instead of 1080p FHD, get single-channel Wi-Fi instead of dual-channel, and 64 or 128 GB of storage instead of 256 or 512 GB of storage.

To the question of whether it is worth the price, the answer is a resounding yes. Or half-yes, because the price of the 256 GB version is 80 forints. True, the 512 SSD isn't much for 90 forints (just look around at what you get for that much money in the market), but I wouldn't buy this machine category with 200 GB of storage, because it's redundant. Of course, if you know you’re swallowing storage space and you’ll need 512, don’t think about it, because later expansion will cost more than if you buy the big one right away.

Tried it - KUU XBook, cheap notebook for telecommuting and learning 22

So, I think the KUU XBook with a 256 GB SSD is a very good buy for 80 thousand forints, in addition, it can now be ordered from a Spanish warehouse, free of customs and VAT, according to the dealer, the delivery time is only 3-5 working days. Use the coupon codes provided to make the purchase!

If you liked the machine, click on the links below to add it to your cart:

MONTH XBook 256 GB - Coupon code: L5375993C5627000 - 80 HUF

MONTH XBook 512 GB - Coupon code: I5375A1339DEB001 - 90 HUF

 

More notebook tests on our site

 

.

Evaluation

91%

Evaluation The KUU XBook definitely represents the cheaper category among notebooks, and this can be felt even when taken in hand. So, where can we get a notebook with an FHD display with a 80 GB SSD for 256 HUF from the upper category? Well, nowhere!

External
95%
Hardware
90%
Cover material
70%
abilities
100%
Price
100%

About the Author

s3nki

Owner of the HOC.hu website. He is the author of hundreds of articles and thousands of news. In addition to various online interfaces, he has written for Chip Magazine and also for the PC Guru. For a time, he ran his own PC shop, working for years as a store manager, service manager, system administrator in addition to journalism.