Review: Teamgee H8 Electric Skateboard (The Thinnest Out There)

So I bought a new electric skateboard, the Teamgee H8. I've actually not heard of Teamgee before until a friend mentioned the company to me. I bought this for US $319 and that included global shipping. From time of order, have it shipped from China, to me receiving it was just under a week.

I've been riding electric skateboards since 2017 so in this review I'll make some comparisons to my older e-skateboards.

At the time of this review, Teamgee has five electric skateboards on sale, namely H20T, H20, H5, H9 and H8. I bought the H8 because it was the lightest (5.3kg) and smallest (31-inch/78cm length).

The design is a longboard design vs typical e-skateboard designs with bent tail. The 78cm length is longer compared to the 70cm e-skateboards that I've been riding. The wheels are 90mm (diameter) vs 60-70m wheels I've been using.

The main advantage of a longboard is stability. But this 78cm deck is not significantly more stable than a 70cm deck. The difference in stability may be more obvious when moving at much higher speed but at the maximum speed that I usually go, which is around human sprinting speed, there's no difference in stability.

Smaller e-skateboards actually have advantages. Smaller e-skateboards are lighter, hence easier to carry around. They are also easier to manoeuvre because the front and back wheels are closer together. Imagine driving a small car vs a big truck. It's easier for e-skateboards to do sharp turns.

Teamgee only sells longboard designs.

The deck is made of 10 ply Canadian maple and 1ply fiberglass. It's a stiff board. There's no flex at all. The only suspension will come from the rubber wheels and the cushion grip tape. Overall riding experience is quite smooth.

The main selling point for Teamgee electric skateboards, at least for the lighter models, are the slim profile design. Unlike other electric skateboard which has the bulky battery attached to the bottom of the board, H8 has the battery built into the board. Unless you look close, you may not even recognise this as an electric skateboard.

I read somewhere that this is the heat sink. The power button and charging ports are here. There's an IP54 rating which means this board is protected against solid objects and splashing of water from any angle. It does look quite splash proof to me

There's a rubber cap to protect the charging port from dust and water.

That's the power adapter included. Input 100-240V, 50/60Hz 1.8A, Output 29.4V, 1.5A. Teamgee allows you to select different heads for the plug depending on the country/region.

The tool for adjusting the tightness of the trucks are included.

That's how the back looks like with brand new shiny wheels.The hub motor is on the right.

The trucks are drop through to keep the deck low.

The 90mm rubber wheels are big and good for hard surfaces except off road.

That's the hub motor from the side. In the event that there's no battery life, you can still kick the longboard. The hub motor wheel will free roll although somehow I feel that it doesn't free roll as smoothly as my other e-skateboards that also have hub motors.

The hub motor is 480W and operation is inaudible when there's ambient noise. Sure the torque is not as strong compared to dual hub motors, but with the compromise you get a lighter board. I personally prefer a lighter board compared to stronger torque -- I always kick start my board rather than have the motor turn from stationary position.

The hub motor is also able to go up a gentle slope without noticeably slowing down. If there's dual motor, you won't notice slowing at all but again, it's a torque vs weight thing.

Speaking of battery life, the charging time is 2 hours. And a full battery is supposed to go up to 15km. How far it will go will also depend on the surface and the load (max recommended 75kg) it's carrying.

The battery is smaller compared to other e-skateboards, especially those with batteries attached to the bottom. Smaller batteries mean smaller capacity and lower range. The stated 15km range will be shorter the more the battery is worn down, and there doesn't seem to be anyway to replace the battery.

These included rubber protectors are for the front and back of the longboard. I like to put the tail to the ground before letting the front wheels fall. They do a good job protector the wood.

There are two holes for the screws to go through.

Longboards don't have the bent tail like normal skateboards. So I can't really step on the tail to lift the front up, at least not easily. Stepping on the rubber protector will make it come off easily. If you don't mind the wood at the tail being worn down, you can choose not to use the rubber protector and you'll be able to step on the tail to lift it up.

Conclusion

For the $319 I've paid for the Teamgee H8, I think it's worth the money. This board comes with a 3-month warranty only so let's hope nothing happens outside the first 3 months.

This is the first time I've used a longboard, albeit a shorter longboard, and I've got to say that I prefer an e-skateboard over an e-longboard any day. That doesn't mean that the H8 is not good. The H8 performs as expected. It has reasonable speed, torque and brakes work well. Design looks great. The only thing that I don't like about it would be the weight as it's 5.3kg which is heavier than the other 4kg+ boards that I've been using the last two years. Another thing I don't like is it's not as easy to make tight turns.

The H8 is made to be used on wide spaces. You can certainly use it in a city environment but I recommend shorter boards. And if your environment has lots of slopes, it's best to go for dual hub motors.

I may actually sell off this board as I really do prefer shorter and lighter e-skateboards which are more manouverable.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Solid build quality
+ Design looks good
+ Very slim profile with built in battery
+ 90mm wheels good for general hard surfaces
+ 5.3kg is reasonable weight for a 78cm longboard
+ 480W hub motor has reasonable speed, torque and brake
+ Easy to ride
+ Single hub motor used to keep weight down
- Small battery may wear down fast
- Battery cannot be swapped out
- Can't make tight turns like e-skateboards
- Heavier than e-skateboards

Availability

You can find the Teamgee H8 via these links below, and check out more reviews on Amazon.
Teamgee | Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.es | Amazon.it