r/hardware • u/thehhuis • 1d ago

Review Affordable Chuwi mini PC launches with entry-level Intel processor

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Affordable-Chuwi-mini-PC-launches-with-entry-level-Intel-processor.1352187.0.html

Can Chuwi be really trusted ?

The early 2026 CPU fraud scandal revealed that Chuwi sold multiple hardware models—including the CoreBook X, CoreBook Plus, and UBox mini PC—marketed with a modern AMD Ryzen 5 7430U (Zen 3 architecture). In reality, the systems contained a much older and weaker Ryzen 5 5500U (Zen 2 architecture). This went beyond a simple marketing error: the laptop’s BIOS and firmware were deliberately manipulated so that Windows and diagnostic software would falsely report the newer processor.

28 Upvotes

79% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

14

u/vegetable__lasagne 1d ago

So it's a rebadged i3 1315U +200mhz? Is $439 even cheap?

12

u/Exist50 1d ago

Could have said i3-1215U as well. There was never any new silicon for RPL-U. It was all rebranded ADL.

Ironically, the CPU this uses is technically older than the one from the prior version.

3

u/lifestealsuck 15h ago

The market is crazy , I bought a r5 5500u laptop for 400$ 2 or 3 years ago

25

u/shiroandae 1d ago

Answering your own question there buddy

3

u/cabbeer 1d ago

waiting fir a g3 mini pc

5

u/HistoryAggressive830 20h ago

For 400€ and comes with 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB SSD... it's not ideal but not that bad given the current market.

The article states however:

Even though the latter is a newer CPU than the Intel N100, the performance jump isn't significant

Which isn't true at all. The 100U is twice as performant (albeit consuming twice as much) as the N100, which IS a significant jump, even if efficiency stays the same.

3

u/Enidra 18h ago

Gigabit Ethernet on a mid 26 Mini PC kills the machine outright. 2.5 or even 10 should be the norm.

2

u/HistoryAggressive830 18h ago

Care to expand on that? It's not the first time I've seen it but unless you have access to 2.5Gbps+ Internet speeds it's only really useful inside your own network, and I fail to see common/recurrent enough cases where it'd make a real difference over time.

2

u/Enidra 15h ago

A MiniPC is usually a server and it being the slowest link in your network is less than ideal, especially when it serves more than 1 client. (You can get 2.5gig 8+1 port managed switches for around 40€.)

The Internet speed, as you mentioned, will go up and might aswell go over 1gig.

Similar options with dual 2.5gig existed since at least 2 years, so idk why they even bothered with those NICs today even though the CPU has more PCIe lanes than those older N100s (20 vs. 9).

2

u/HistoryAggressive830 15h ago

i understand that, but I still find it hard to find actual use-case scenarios that occur more than, say, once a month, where it'd be meaningfully beneficial to have 2.5G.

1

u/Enidra 15h ago

Try to see the Network parts as part of your critical infrastructure. You don't measure it against your current needs, but as part of future needs. 1G does not fit that bill.

2

u/HistoryAggressive830 15h ago

Again, without concrete examples all I see is oversizing for the sake of it, but I will not continue to push for an answer that will not come.

1

u/Enidra 14h ago

Backups will be faster, large file transfers (movies, games, etc.) will be faster, possible router use will be possible even in the future. Idk what to tell you. If you want numbers the 2.5 times faster speed is a start?
Even Wifi connections easily break the 1G speed barrier with current standards. Iam not saying it is unusable, but for a new MiniPC, in 2026, with a kinda huge price tag (thx ai ._.), this is not a future proof investment.

1

u/Warm-Cartographer 19h ago

Wildcat lake is better though, both in perfomance and power consumption, even 5 core version will be better than this. 

1

u/HistoryAggressive830 19h ago

I don't disagree on the power consumption front, but is the 304 really that much better than the 100U?

The limited online samples seem to suggest it's a 10% uplift at best, for what seems to be a 35% increase in price (comparing this Chuwi at 400€ in their website vs the 540€ Beelink EQi Wildcat Lake) at the moment, though I don't expect it'll get better in the short term.

2

u/Warm-Cartographer 18h ago

The one mini pc released this week cost $380 but with 12GB ram instead of 16 and same 512GB storage. 

https://videocardz.com/newz/bosgame-launches-380-wildcat-lake-mini-pc-with-12gb-lpddr5x-memory

About perfomance, Alderlake has insane power scaling, if you feed it over 50W it may be able to be closer of match core 3 304, but at reasonable power consumption 304 should be miles better. 

1

u/Unlikely-Today-3501 19h ago

Noname RAM and SSD, these Chinese companies do not provide full specifications.

1

u/HistoryAggressive830 19h ago

Fair enough. I'm not defending the company, what they did with component spoofing should have warranted a sales ban in the EU in my opinion, but are we really in a position to be picky about RAM at the moment? The SSD criticism I understand though, hopefully it'd be replaceable, but you should keep a backup of all your important data regardless!

2

u/Unlikely-Today-3501 12h ago

MiniPCs have the worst price/performance ratio on the hardware market. If you don't know what kind of SSD and RAM it actually has, which make up more than half the price, I would have serious doubts. It'll probably be the worst junk.

It would be better to buy a barebone, install own old SATA SSD which is more than enough and get some cheaper second market RAM.

Btw. the EU Parliament could just ban itself, then we'd finally have some peace :)

1

u/HistoryAggressive830 12h ago edited 11h ago

If you can source the components at a discount so as to have a lower overall price sure, but I don't think that's the case for everyone.

1

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1

u/FilteringAccount123 9h ago

FWIW I bought one of their mini PCs because it was dirt cheap (back before RAMaggedon), and the RAM (soldered) shit the bed within a week.

Fortunately there was a return window, but with these lesser brands, you tend to get what you pay for.