CES 2017 | Chuwi announces Hi13 tablet powered by Apollo Lake

Microsoft's Surface Book, a powerful and beautifully crafted laptop/tablet hybrid, may be facing some competition - from China? That seems to be the aim for Chinese-based Chuwi, best known for low-cost and low-powered Windows tablets and 2-in-1s. We first caught a glimpse of a new high-res Windows tablet from the company back in November; this week, Chuwi officially unveiled this device as the Hi13.

The main draw of the Hi13 is undoubtedly its 13.5-inch, 3000 x 2000 display. This is the exact same size and resolution as Microsoft’s Surface Book and is said to cover the same color gamut, have the same contrast ratio, and get just as bright. Because of these similarities, it could be that Chuwi is offering the Hi13 as an alternative to the Surface Book.

However, despite the same screen size and pixel density, the Hi13 is definitely not in the same league as the Surface Book. The Chinese tablet is packing an Intel Celeron N3450 (Apollo Lake) quad-core processor, 4 GB of RAM, and 64 GB of storage. This is terribly underpowered compared to the top-tier Surface Book’s Core i7, Nvidia dedicated graphics, 16 GB of RAM, and 1 TB of NVMe storage. Even an entry level Surface Book (Core i5, 8 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD) would outperform the Hi13 by a wide margin.

Early criticisms question whether or not the Apollo Lake processor and its integrated graphics will be able to power such a high-resolution screen and keep performance smooth. Apollo Lake has seen major improvements from the Cherry Trail processors found in previous Chuwi tablets, but the running a display that pixel-dense is still a tall order.

The Hi13 is also equipped with USB Type-C, dual-band Wifi, and support for a digital pen and detachable keyboard. The tablet is confirmed to run Windows 10, although Chuwi has released versions of their tablets that run Windows and Android in a dual-OS setup in the past.

Chuwi has yet to announce pricing and availability in the United States.

May 15, 2017 update: The Chuwi Hi13 is now on sale for $319 USD through Geekbuying.com. The promotion will supposedly make room for the upcoming Chuwi Lapbook 12.3 scheduled to launch by next month.

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