Review: Chuwi Freebook N100 (2024)

Review unit provided by Chuwi

The Chuwi Freebook N100 is a 13.5-inch touchscreen convertible non-gaming laptop that comes with the Intel N100 4-core processor, 12GB RAM and 512GB SSD storage. There’s also an Intel i3-1215U version which is more expensive.

The price is USD 369 which may or may not include free shipping depending on your location. AliExpress does provide free shipping.

Specifications

• Colour: Space gray
• Material: Aluminum
• Processor: Intel Celeron N100
• Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics for 12th Gen Intel Processors
• Storage: 512 GB NVMe SSD (474 GB usable)
• RAM: 12 GB LPDDR5
• Display panel: IPS
• Display: 13.5 inch, 2256 x 1504, 200 PPI, 3:2 aspect ratio, 60Hz
• Camera: 1MP
• Battery: 38Wh (7.6V/5000MA)
• Charging: 24W (12V2A) DC
• Dimensions: 301.4 x 267.35 x 17.2(H) mm
• Weight: 1.36kg
• Ports: 3x USB-C, 3.5mm audio jack
• Keyboard backlit: Yes
• OS: Windows 11 Home

Bottom line

The price of the Chuwi Freebook N100 is just 37% of the Surface Laptop 7 (2024) I reviewed recently. In terms of value for money for a non-gaming laptop, the Chuwi laptop wins hands down even after considering the limitations. The price point is just too good.

For general non-gaming usage, the Chuwi Freebook N100 with its 12GB RAM and Intel N100 processor provides smooth performance, even with multi-tasking. This laptop looks good and has surprising solid build quality from its mostly metal body, good typing experience, bright and vibrant 3:2 display and smooth overall performance even with multi-tasking.

Downsides would include the 5-hour battery life, reflective display, one of the three USB-C ports only has USB 2 transfer speeds, touchpad clicking experience is not ideal, audio sounds hollow and even at lowest brightness the display is still quite bright.

This laptop is much better than I expected for a budget laptop, and this is something I can recommend quite easily for simple computing needs.

Design

The laptop has a clean and simple design that looks good. The only colour available is dark gray.

The top and back are made with metal would resist flex and the keyboard deck looks like metal but feels like plastic but still really solid. I accidentally hit my window frame with the LCD lid and the paint came off from my window frame but nothing happened to the laptop.

At the USD 369, I was expecting plastic to be used for the laptop body so having metal is a huge bonus because it’s going to withstand wear and tear so much better.

The USB-C port on the left side only has USB 2 transfer speed so that’s clearly a downside.

The two USB-C ports on the right side support video output and charging. The power button requires a press and hold to power on.

Keyboard typing experience is better than expected for a budget laptop. The keys have good spring, feedback and even backlight. There’s no Function key lock so to use the shortcuts you always have to hold down the Fn key.

There are two speakers just above the function keys and two more speakers below the laptop. Audio sounds hollow which is not unexpected.

Touchpad is big and has left and right click areas which are kinda small. Cursor tracking works fine but the clicking experience is not ideal, especially click and drag. It’s probably best to use a Bluetooth mouse instead.

Display

The display uses a 13.5 inch IPS panel with 2256 x 1504 resolution at 60Hz. The PPI is 200 PPI so the visuals actually look pretty sharp. The 3:2 aspect ratio is great for work because given the fixed width, you get more vertical height.

I measured colour support for 100% sRGB, 71% NTSC, 76% AdobeRGB and 77% P3. Maximum brightness is 400 nits and 0% brightness is 189 nits.

Two downsides of the display is it’s very reflective and minimum brightness is still too bright. It’s so weird that this laptop display cannot go dimmer but hey, a brighter laptop is better than a dimmer laptop anyday.

I don’t actually use the touchscreen but it’s there if you need it.

The laptop can be used in tent mode or tablet mode thanks to the convertible design. Tent mode is nice for watching videos without the keyboard in front, and the touchscreen is more useful here.

Tablet mode works fine I guess, but this is a 1.36kg tablet.

The 1MP camera has lousy image quality which is not surprising. There’s no face or fingerprint unlock with this laptop.

The Chuwi H7 pen is able to write on the tablet, but drawing performance is not good. Interestingly, the same pen works better on this laptop than on the Chuwi Hi10 Max.

Performance

Overall performance with the Intel N100 processor, 12GB RAM and 512GB is smooth and lag-free with multi-tasking. Sure if you’re using heavy apps that require more RAM and processing power, you can certainly stress the laptop, but for general purpose usage such as web browsing, watching videos the performance is breezy.

This is not a gaming laptop and gaming performance is poor. Even playing simple 3D games at 480P won’t provide the ideal experience.

The laptop can wake from sleep instantly. If the laptop sleeps for too long, it would shut down by itself. I’m always caught out by that wishing that it could just never shut down but if you use the Terminal command “powercfg -h off” to disable hibernation permanently, the laptop battery would drain substantially during sleep which is worse than spending those extra seconds to power on the laptop.

OS

The laptop comes with Windows 11 Home OS that has not been activated. I used phone activation and managed to get the OS activated.

When you call Microsoft, just press 1 four times to go through the automated call and they will ask for some code which you can find from the laptop settings, and they will give you the activation code to enter, and done. The process takes time but is straightforward enough.

Windows 11 runs well on this laptop.

Battery life

Battery life is around 5 hours at 0% brightness which is around 189 nits. The battery life is not the best but it’s still acceptable when you consider the price.

Conclusion

This is a surprisingly good laptop for the price. And given the budget price point there has to be some downsides, compromises or limitations but those are really minor issues. The main thing here is this laptop looks good and provides satisfactory performance for non-gaming or processor-intensive work.

This is a better laptop than the USD 249 Chuwi GemiBook XPro that I reviewed in 2023 with Intel N100, 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD storage. The Chuwi Freebook N100 has a sharper, brighter and more colour accurate display, more RAM, USB-C that supports charging and a better quality keyboard. Those better features are definitely worth the extra money.

In terms of value of money, this laptop is easily 5 out of 5 stars. But if you’re talking about technical performance and features, obviously this laptop is not perfect but you already know that from the price point. The question is can you live with those compromises?

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Sharp, vibrant, bright display
+ 3:2 aspect ratio is good for work
+ Decent performance for non-gaming work
+ Beautiful design with solid metal build quality
+ Typing experience is good
+ 3x USB-C ports
+ Backlit keyboard
+ Tent mode is good for watching videos
+ 12GB RAM and 512GB storage (474GB usable)
+ Fans don't rev up with normal usage
+ No bloatware
+ Excellent value for money
- Windows not activated
- No face or fingerprint unlock
- Minimum brightness is still too bright
- Very reflective display
- Touchpad is difficult to use
- Audio sounds slightly hollow
- One USB-C port only has USB-2 speeds
- 5 hour battery life

Availability

The Chuwi Freebook N100 is available from Chuwi online store, Amazon US and AliExpress.