Review By Expert: iBall CompBook i360 Review:
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| Review By Expert: iBall Comp Book i360 Review |
Most laptops in this segment use the same basic screens, CPUs and other components, but some Indian companies like iBall aim to raise the bar by offering convertible options. Meet the CompBook i360, a 2-in-1 touchscreen laptop that turns into a tablet - still for less than €196.55. While this sounds very tempting on paper, it's time to put it to the test and see that iBall has solved the problems we face with its previous model.
Review By Expert: iBall CompBook i360: Design:
Laptops in the budget segment are limited when it comes to material quality, and the i360, like most others, is built using plastic. The color of the champagne is not too bad to be seen, but the quality of construction is quite average.
With the lid closed, there isn't much noticeable flex in the body, but the base crackles when written with any pressure and there's a lot of deformation on the screen when the lid is gently pressed. The laptop is also quite thick, 17 mm, and weighs 1.35 kg.
The double hinge mechanism feels sturdy and there is enough torque to hold the screen in place at virtually any angle. Being a convertible, you can turn the screen upside down to use this laptop as a tablet. The physical connectivity is quite decent - you'll get a USB 3.0 port, a USB 2.0 port, a mini HDMI port, a combined 3.5mm headset and microphone port, and a microSD card slot (up to 64GB).
There's no full-size SD card reader here. The power button is located to the right next to a switch to turn off the keyboard when switching to tablet mode. This last function should have been automatic, and having to do this manually feels like a lazy solution.
The screen is an 11.6 inch TFT LCD panel with a resolution of 1366×768 and multi-touch support. The viewing angles are very narrow and the screen is not good with color reproduction. The low resolution also means that the text is remarkably irregular, especially when using the laptop as a tablet. The trackpad is wide and its buttons are easy to press, but the tracking is not very good.
Very often, we ended up randomly minimizing windows when we were trying to move the cursor. The island style keyboard is well positioned and the keystroke path is good, but the keys are too soft, which means typing is not very comfortable. In the box is a charger, a cleaning cloth and, for some reason, a Micro-USB cable.
Review By Expert: iBall CompBook i360: Specifications:
The CompBook i360 is powered by an Intel Atom x5-Z8300 SoC, which is the same chip used in the RDP ThinBook and Notion Ink Able 10 from RDP. It has four CPU cores without Intel HyperThreading, operating at a maximum speed of 1.84 GHz, plus Intel HD Graphics. There is 2GB of DDR3 memory soldered to the motherboard and 32GB of flash memory. The notebook also features Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 and a VGA webcam.
The CompBook i360 comes with Windows 10 Home 32-bit, and only the essential drivers for all the hardware. There are no additional utilities, as larger OEMs tend to pre-install. Apart from some applications and games from the Windows Store store, there is no unwanted software.
Review By Expert: iBall CompBook i360: Performance:
The i360 may be able to perform dual functions, but at the end of the day, you need to remember that you only have entry-level hardware, so you need to manage your expectations. Fortunately, the flash memory used here is decently fast so booting doesn't suffer.
At SiSoft Sandra, we got a physical drive score of 148.7MBps, and at the file system reference point, we measured the sequential read bandwidth at 160MBps and the sequential write bandwidth at 79.6MBps. One good thing about this SoC is that it doesn't need active cooling, so the i360 always runs quietly. The base heats up a bit during loading, but not enough to make it feel too uncomfortable.
Application and gaming performance is weak. Programs take a while to load and sometimes even opening Windows Explorer needs a little waiting. This is also reflected in the benchmark scores, where PCMark only scored 1208,1314 and 1377 points in the Home, Creative and Work suites respectively.
The iBall CompBook i360 is not the most effective tablet when converted, primarily because of its weight and thickness. The 10-finger touch response is decent, but because of the separation between the outer surface and the actual screen, it feels more like using a resistive panel than a capacitive one. In addition, the brightness is quite weak, the viewing angles are poor, and the colors are off. We also don't like the huge bezel around the screen too much.
The i Ball compact Book i360 can handle very high resolution video playback thanks to a dedicated video decoding engine in the SoC, so 4K videos are playable. There are stereo speakers at the bottom that don't lock when in tablet mode. The speakers are quite noisy, but only the higher frequencies are handled well, and the middle and low frequencies are drowned out. The dialogue in videos is not always different.
The Comp Book i360 includes a 10000 mAh battery that lasted 5 hours and 53 minutes in Battery Eater Pro. With regular use, the laptop will easily help you through a full working day and possibly more. The only complaint is that it takes a long time to charge, as the included 12.5W power adapter is not enough.
Review By Expert: Conclusion:
iBall has the right idea here with the i360, but unfortunately its execution needs a rethinking. It is not easy to incorporate this type of functionality into a laptop at this price, which is also a reason why the biggest brands have not followed this concept. At 182.14€, the iBall version of a convertible laptop is not a good product and we think you would be better off with a traditional laptop.
Curiously, iBall offers a model called Flip-X5 with prices 26.21€ higher (but selling for less than a premium than that), which on paper, is the same as the i360 but with a full high definition screen. We can't really comment on its performance since we haven't seen it in person, but at least you would have a much sharper screen with that model.
Battery life is virtually the only factor that redeems the CompBook i360. Plus, this is one of the least expensive Windows 10 machines on the market with a touch screen, which is sure to attract many. However, if you have important computing necessary you should see else where.
Pros:
- Economical 2 in 1 with Windows 10
- Touch screen
- Good battery life
- Slow charge
- Thick and heavy
- Display off
- Spongy keyboard and erratic trackpad
- Weak application performance
Ratings (Envelope 5):
- Design: 3
- Screen: 3
- Performance: 2.5
- Software: 4
- Battery life: 4
- Value for money: 4
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