ALLDOCUBE i7Book
ALLDOCUBE, probably is the computer brand that is most similar to Xiaomi. Their products are generally super affordable with excellent cost performance. As their latest Ultrabook product in 2020, i7Book is no exception.
For most students and business people, an Ultrabook with a fashion look and great convenience would be the first choice to meet their essential uses. The i7Book was definitely born for the segments. More importantly, it’s one of the few models with the most powerful hardware in its price range (US$499.99).
Design
Despite the cheap selling price, the design of ALLDOCUBE i7Book did remind us of those expensive high-end Ultrabooks. The i7Book body (32.20 x 21.20 x 1.59 cm) is so compact with a great 14.1-inch IPS display with a FullHD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, but only leaves thin bezels of 5mm.
It’s made with a magnesium and aluminum alloy frame, which delivers a pleasant sense of great solidity as we touched the metal shell with a matt gray finish. Another delightful design is the full-size keyboard. As a most-frequently-used component, the matt-finish keyboard manages to return good typing feedback and a proper strock for such a light Ultrabook. Thinking of the compact body of the i7Book, the keys are relatively large and well-located. The original layout is US type, and if you order an i7Book from Banggood, a free keyboard sticker package including 9-language stickers will be sent to you after ordering.
However, over the trackpad, operations are not as pleasant as we have on the keyboard. Although it looks great and well-designed with good size, the physical tap may need users to press hard but delivers no surprising feedback. But as used for common productivity, the operating system still provides precise pointing and fast response.
For excellent audio performance, the i7Book is equipped with dual-symmetrical speakers. The stereo sounds great with a proper listening volume. For watching TV series or YouTube videos, the excellent reproduced highs and mids remarkably enhanced immersion. But the bass is a bit left behind especially for music play.
Display & Camera
Look back to the display. The screen to body ratio is up to 90%, which it’s more common for those expensive Ultrabook rather than an affordable one. The 14.1-inch screen with matte finish supports a great viewing angle of 178°. And the peak brightness also supports users to have a good visual experience.
Above the display, there is a 2MP front camera for videoconferencing. The image quality shot by the camera is not so satisfying, but there is no problem to use it for video calls. And a related user-friendly design is the physical switch nearby the camera. users can push it to the left to block the camera, which could be better to protect individual privacy.
Rich interfaces
The i7Book has a wide array of ports or extended options. On the left side, there are 1 USB 3.0 port, 1 USB-c port, an HDMI output, and the power jack; on the right side, it’s another 2 USB 3.0 ports, a 3.5mm audio jack, and one more TF storage slot.
The i7Book was equipped with 8GB of DDR4 memory and a 256GB SSD storage. In addition, on the back of the notebook, you can find another SSD slot (M.2 2280, SAT3.0, and PCI-E SSD) for up to 1TB extended storage.
Performance
The i7Book includes an Intel i7-6660U processor, which is a chip manufactured in 14nm. It works at a base frequency of 2.4GHz but can reach the maximum speed of 3.4GHz, incorporates an Intel UHD Graphics 540 GPU. The chipset is basically the reason why it stands out from most competing notebooks. But as an Ultrabook targeted at official and basic productivity operations, it’s not for main-stream gaming. We run the PCMark 10 benchmark on the i7Book. The results showed that the i7Book is absolutely sufficient to deal well with heavy productivity operations in business and entertainment and even can handle some digital content creations like photo editing or simple video editing.
It’s not an excellent choice for mainstream gaming as it only equips an integrated graphics, Graphics 540. But playing light games on the i7Book is not a bad idea: it even smoothly run CS: GO under 720P resolution.
Battery
The i7Book has a built-in 4500mAh battery (51.3Whr), which lasted over 5 hours for high-performance entertainment use. And under the power-saving mode, the notebook even lasted over 9 hours for general official works. In addition, the included power adapter supports up to 57W fast charging, which can give a full charge within 1.5 hours. And the Type-C port also supports PD fast charging. So, during traveling, you could only carry a smartphone PD charger with a cable to support charging for both your notebook and smartphone. If you are a person who travels a lot, you must have been experienced the pain that multiple cables with heavy chargers occupy your luggage.
Conclusion
From the perspective of fine design and attractive pricing, the ALLDOCUBE i7Book is definitely one of the best choices in its price range. Although the CPU used is just a Sixth-generation Intel i7, the performance is still sufficient to meet the needs of most targeted users. if you are looking for a traveling Ultrabook with excellent battery life but probably won’t pay much on it, the i7Book is strongly recommended.
