Over the years, tablets have become a lot more affordable. For around PHP 25,000 or less, you can already own an Android tablet with more than decent specs. You could even get a new basic iPad for that price.
But here’s the thing, most if not all of those run on Android. Back in the day, there were also Windows tablets. They’re no longer as popular now, but they seem to be gaining traction once more.
The problem with Windows tablets though, is that they’re usually expensive. But what if there was a Windows tablet for around the same price of PHP 25,000? Well, now there is.
Meet the Chuwi Hi10 Max. The brand is relatively new in the market, but this thing is a very affordable Windows tablet. Of course, you might have your doubts about the quality and performance, and trust me, I did too at first. It comes with a bunch of free accessories like a keyboard, stylus, and stand, which is nice. However, it’s not perfect, far from it. But if you want to know more, I suggest you read on.
Design and Construction
In terms of design, at first glance, you wouldn’t think the Chuwi Hi10 Max is a Windows tablet. It looks like any other Android tablet on the market with the camera in the upper left corner of the back panel. The only tell-tale sign would be the Windows logo at the rear.
The brand didn’t cheap out on the materials either. The back panel is made out of metal, giving it a nice look and premium feel. But because of that, it is quite heavy. The tablet alone without the keyboard already weighs 780g. It’s quite big too and not to mention relatively thick, measuring 9mm.
I don’t mind the thickness though, since you get several i/o ports in exchange for the added girth. You get a single USB-A 3.0 port on the right side along with a 3.5mm audio port, and on the left, you have two USB-C ports and a mini HDMI port.
I did wish Chuwi moved one of them to the right to make it more flexible, but that’s pretty much it. Aside from that, the volume rocker and power button are located at the top.
Initially, I had a hard time using the stand included since it wouldn’t stand properly because the bottom portion constantly came off. But after checking the Chuwi website, I realized that the upper part near the camera island, is the one that needed to fold. It’s not the most ergonomic way of doing things nor is it flexible, but at least now it works.
The unit we have of the Chuwi Hi10 Max comes with a stylus and a keyboard too. There’s nothing to write home about the keyboard. In fact, it’s not the most accurate when we tried out a typing test using it.
Interestingly, it’s not connected via Bluetooth either. So, unfortunately, you can’t use or type with the keyboard disconnected. The trackpad is decent and helps if you’re too lazy to use the touchsceren, but you have to find the sweet spot for the right click.
As for the stylus, it’s decent at best. Unfortunately for those who love to draw or sketch, you might have a hard time using it. It does have pressure sensitivity, but it’s not the most accurate. It has an especially difficult time when trying to be light on the stylus as you can see some skipping on the line. But when fully pressed, it does work, but the results aren’t clean either. If you have the chance, I would recommend using a proper drawing tablet or something like an XP Pen or a Wacom Pen tablet instead.
While there is a magnet on the stylus, weirdly it doesn’t stick to the edges of tablet itself. Instead, it sticks on the back, at the bottom portion of the case. Fortunately there is a space for you to place the stylus.
Overall though, the build quality of the Chuwi Hi10 Max tablet itself is great, but I can’t say the same for its supporting. There’s no mention of IP rating though so it’s best to protect it from the elements when you’re using it.
Display and Multimedia
So, the Chuwi Hi10 Max has a great build, but what really surprised me about it is the display. On paper, it’s decent – a 12.96-inch display with an IPS LCD panel. However, it looks great and the colors are nice, and it’s likely due to the 3K resolution. The borders are relatively thin on the sides too, giving you more viewing pleasure. Despite having only 60Hz refresh rate, the animation is smooth too.
I tried editing some photos on the tablet, and the colors are relatively accurate and vivid for an IPS panel. The blacks aren’t as deep, but that’s to be expected. The viewing angles aren’t great, and the pre-installed screen protector doesn’t help. But I managed to enjoy watching movies and videos on the tablet when I brought it around instead of my usual laptop. The viewing angles aren’t that great except when you’re directly in front of the screen.
One of the downsides of the screen is that it only has 300 nits of brightness, which makes it hard to use outdoors especially when it’s very sunny. Some might say that the 60Hz is also a downside, especially for gamers. However, you really won’t be playing games on this tablet if I’m honest, and I’ll explain more about it later on.
Another weak point of the Hi10 Max is the speakers. It comes with dual-stereo speakers, but they aren’t loud, even at max volume, and the quality isn’t great either. I tried watching some videos, and I had a hard time listening to music or hearing what’s happening on the screen. Even when listening to music, it sounds muddy and lacks clarity.
Thankfully, there is a 3.5mm audio port which you will end up using if you want to watch movies, animes, or series here. Alternatively, you can also pair your favorite Bluetooth earphones, or better yet, pair it to a speaker so everyone can hear.
It’s not perfect, but for the price the display is great. I wish Chuwi did better on the speakers though since a phone speaker sounds a lot louder than what it currently has now.
Cameras
As mentioned before, you do have cameras on the Chuwi Hi10 Max. You get an 8MP rear camera to take photos and a 5MP front camera for selfies or use during meetings.
Honestly, there’s nothing to write home about the camera on the Hi10 Max; it is a relatively cheap tablet after all. You’re better off taking photos using your phone camera, and you’ll get results that are almost 10 to 20 times better than the one on this tablet. It is decent for taking documents though, I’ll give it that.
For the front camera, it’s decent enough for taking video calls. The quality does drop a lot when there’s not a lot of light, but it’s more than adequate if you’re using it for meetings. It’s definitely not for streaming.
Considering the quality, it’s not worth the time and effort to use a heavy tablet for capturing content. But hey, you do you. You can also check out some photos we were able to take using the tablet below.
OS, Apps, and UI
What makes this tablet great is the fact that it runs on Windows 11 Home. There’s also no bloatware like antivirus software and the like, so you have a clean slate to start with. And since this is a Windows OS, you can effectively install any Windows app you want. Well, that’s assuming the processor can handle it.
There’s not much to say about the OS, since it’s very much a Windows operating system. It’s smooth too even though the chipset isn’t the most powerful.
But since there are no other apps installed, you will have to install everything yourself. Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator, you name it will have to come from you. The only app where you can draw is paint.
Still, for the price you shouldn’t expect anything more.
Performance and Benchmarks
In the performance department, that’s where the Chuwi Hi10 Max lacks a lot. Under the hood, it only runs a 12th-gen Intel N100 chipset with 3.4Ghz clock speeds. For those unfamiliar, the N100 chipset from Intel does not have any performance cores – it’s all efficiency cores. Essentially, it’s made for work.
There’s no dedicated GPU, not even an Intel Arc unit. But, it does have 12GB of fast LPDDR5 RAM and 512GB of internal storage, which are more than adequate.
For your usual everyday tasks like writing emails, doing documents, and even watching videos or streams, it’s more than adequate. It can even run Photoshop, Lightroom, and Illustrator smoothly, which is a great bonus.
But if you want to play games, don’t even bother. Out of curiosity, I installed Genshin Impact to see how the Hi10 Max would perform. While it does load up the game and run, that’s about it. Even on the lowest settings, you have very bad lag and there is severe framerate drops just opening the menu of the game.
The only work around I found to get the game to run smoothly was to play it in windowed mode on 1920×1080 resolution. But even then, it’s not the smoothest. The moment you run into enemies or cast skills, it will suffer framerate drops.
Then again considering this is an N100 chipset, you shouldn’t expect gaming performance to be good. For productivity or light Photoshop or photo editing work, it gets the job done.
If you’re interested, we’ve also run our usual benchmarks and you can check out the scores below.
Battery and Connectivity
The battery life of the Chuwi Hi10 Max isn’t the strongest out there either. It runs a 36.48Wh battery pack or in phone terms, that’s around 4800mAh according to Chuwi.
Based on my usage, it can last up to 3 and a half hours continuously before you need to find a charger. For reference, I used this mainly to transfer files from my camera, write up some reviews, including this one, and more. I also didn’t turn on battery saver mode, and set the power mode to balanced.
It should last a lot longer if you switch things up to best power efficiency mode and turn on battery saver mode early. But as we always say, battery life is dependent on the user. If you’re going to be watching movies or drawing stuff on Photoshop, then it will drain faster considering the battery is lighting up a 3K display.
When you do need to recharge, it’s very easy to do so. You can use the provided charger which is a USB-C cable to a 12 volt DC charger. But you can also use other USB-C cables and power bricks laying around as long as they have high wattage output.
Conclusion
Overall, I must say that the Chuwi Hi10 Max is a decent tablet. For the price of PHP 25,990, you get a Windows tablet that comes with a keyboard, stylus, and even the stand already. Since it runs on Windows, you can also think of it like a laptop as well.
But therein lies the problem. As a tablet, it’s not the best since there are others out there better for drawing and has more power. The upside is that it has a beautiful 3K display and it runs on Windows.
And as a laptop, it isn’t that great either. The keyboard and trackpad aren’t smooth, and battery life could be better. It also can’t run any games properly, so it’s mainly something for productivity purposes. You can do some creative productivity, but I would recommend using a proper laptop or computer to do so.
Nonetheless, the Chuwi Hi10 Max is a decent product for something you could consider a 2-in-1 Windows laptop/tablet. But it doesn’t really excel in either one of those aspects. Still, if you want something like then why not try it out. It’s not that expensive anyway.
What do you think of the Chuwi Hi10 Max so far though? Is it something you’d consider if you can’t decide between a laptop or a tablet? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
What we liked:
* Beautiful 3K display
* Runs on Windows 11 smoothly
What we didn’t like:
* Can’t run games
* Battery life isn’t that long
* Stylus isn’t good for drawing
