Winbook X530 (X series/model)

Construction: Field Testing So, How Does It Work in the Real World?

Charger - The charger for the X notebook (65W) is small in size compared to the chargers of most other notebooks. If you are familiar with the traditional ultraportable, however, the charger size may be considered a bit large. The only thing we don't like about this charger design is that it doesn't provide a way to tie up extra cabling on the AC side of the power brick.

Display - The X notebook from Winbook only comes with one display option: 12.1" WXGA glare type LCD (native 1280 x 800).

This notebook is clearly a multimedia focused notebook, as its display and design (specifically multimedia mode) scream "multimedia." It goes without saying that a 12.1" wide aspect ratio display comes with the down side of making any notebook more immobile than something with a 12.1" non-wide aspect ratio display.

With 8 display settings, the display has a fairly wide range from bright to dim. At its brightest setting (8), it is one of the brighter displays we have seen, size and glare effect notwithstanding. This is a good display, suited for the best in terms of viewing experiences. The dimmest setting (1) isn't too dark for us to use in a dark room but it is a bit too dark for us to be comfortable with. If you need to dial down the brightness setting, we recommend using level 2. We should note that the battery and AC settings do not share the same brightness levels (the battery is skewed lower).

Fan - The fan was on the majority of the time we were using the notebook. In general the notebook is quiet, aside from the almost inaudible whirl of the fan, which comes on intermittently. Just sitting in a normal typing posture should allow you to hear the CPU fan. Its volume varies from absolutely quiet to louder than a desktop system. If you are watching a movie and the fan stays at max speed, it gets a bit distracting.

Generally, the notebook's fan only went to max speed once while we were working with CPU intensive apps. If you are just going through your daily computer routine: email, word processing, browsing, etc., the fan will come on intermittently when needed then drop back down to low speed and eventually shut off completely. In this case it is just a fairly audible whirl.

When we were watching a two hour Divx encoded movie (35% CPU load max), we noticed the fan only went to mid-high speed 6 or 7 times for about 20 seconds each within a 10 minute period. When we were doing Divx encoding, the fan went to max speed a number of times. You can definitely tell the difference between mid, mid-high, and max speed. Max speed is louder than some desktop systems.

Heat - After about five plus hours of straight use, the notebook was still relatively cool to the touch. The only places that got warm were where the access panels are situated. The top of the keyboard got just slightly warm.

Compared to other ultraportable notebooks in the heat department, the X notebook is about average. Since X models vary in their CPU configuration, other models may run hotter or cooler. Our X530 used a 1.6GHz Pentium-M 735 and ran cool enough that you should be able to hold your hand over the CPU spot without flinching. In your lap, the heat shouldn't make you uncomfortable, so long as you aren't running the CPU at full load.