Chuwi Lapbook 12.3 offers a Retina display on a budget

There is no shortage of affordable laptops aiming for consumers with more constrained budgets. Computing devices of that kind usually come with compromises, and one of the first to go, aside from the processor, is the display. More often than not, "cheap" laptops mean Full HD, sometimes even just HD, displays. Chuwi wants to be different, or at least that's the goal. While price details have yet to be released, the Chuwi Lapbook 12.3 is unabashedly mid-range but still manages so squeeze in a 2736x1824 "Retina" display.

You have to give props to Apple for coining a term that has now become a sort of standard for high-resolution displays. The term "retina", in a nutshell, simply refers to a display with a pixel density of 300 ppi or higher. Some OEMs, however, have been more "generous" with that number. For example, the Chuwi Lapbook 12.3 has, as the name so plainly states, a 12.3-inch screen. With a resolution of 2736x1824, that means it has a pixel density of 267 ppi. While not exactly Apple's definition of Retina, the Chuwi does come close to one other hi-res, premium device: the Microsoft Surface Pro 4.

The rest of the Lapbook's specs are less sensational but are nonetheless decent. The 6 GB of RAM, for example, will definitely help in multi-tasking. The Intel Celeron N3450 is going to blow no one out of the water, but it is still going to perform well for basic computing tasks. The bottleneck, however, might be the 64 GB of storage which, while not only small, is also of the lower eMMC kind.

The Chuwi Lapbook 12.3 is obviously not marketed at users with demanding computing needs, but not everyone will be like that. There will be those who will settle for something decent, if the price is right. Especially if you dangle a "retina screen" in front of them. Price details will be revealed at launch, which takes place at the end of the month. But given this is Chuwi, it would be shocking if this cost a fortune.