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ThinBook (1430)
Hyderabad-based RDP recently launched its first consumer laptop. It is named ThinBook (1430) and is priced at Rs 9,999. On paper, this laptop seems to be a great option, but its performance will only be able to run during the review.
Today, you will find many laptops in the budget of less than Rs 15,000, which can be used for internet and some small work. If you need a second computer at home, these can prove to be good options.
Most of these laptops follow a fixed pattern in terms of specification. The main difference is in design. Displays are typically 11.6 inches, although 14-inch models are also available. However, till now there was not a single 14 inch Windows 10 laptop for less than Rs 10,000.
Hyderabad-based company RDP recently launched its first consumer laptop. It is named ThinBook (1430) and is priced at Rs 9,999. The specifications of the laptop are of this segment only, although it comes with a 14.1-inch display. This is a great hardware feature in terms of productivity. On paper, this laptop seems to be a great option, but its performance will only be able to run during the review.
RDP Thinbook Design and Build
The RDP ThinBook plays the role of a low-priced laptop. This does not mean that the product is cheaper than elsewhere. The truth is that according to the budget, the company has done a good job on its build. The plastic fitting and finish is good. For this reason the device is strengthened. Its dimensions are the same as Ultrabooks. The thickest part is 20 millimeters and weighs about 1.4 kg.
The 14.1-inch display is 1366x768 pixels resolution. Its color reproduction is fine. Due to glossy panel many times you will have to face reflections which can be annoying. Vertical viewing angles are bad, but horizontal viewing angles are not so bad. The display part does not seem very strong. The display starts shaking even after touching it a bit. If you use this laptop during a drive in a car, there may be a problem of moving the screen repeatedly. Brightness is fine. However, the keyboard does not have a shortcut for brightness control.
Talking about connectivity, it has USB 3.0, USB 2.0, mini-HDMI, headphone socket, microSD card slot and a charger socket. MicroSD card slots are a good thing, but we wanted the company to offer a full-size SD card slot. The lower panel has a suitable place in the handheld portion and also has a trackpad. By the way, the tracking performance is not good anywhere, because the surface is not smooth. Buttons with trackpad do not press easily, they have to be pressed with more pressure to use.
Suitable space is given between the chiclet buttons, but the keyboard area has some degree of rotation. You will realize this during typing. We realized that its keys are not suitable for typing. On the upper part of the keyboard, you will see LED status for power, caps lock and number lock. After this, two holes are provided for the microphone.
Stereo speakers are given at the bottom and output at the bottom. The lower part is completely sealed and there is no hole to throw air out. The lid of the Thinbook turns backwards by 180 degrees. The laptop comes with a 12.5 watt power adapter which is only slightly larger than the charger that comes with a common smartphone.
RDP Thinbook Specification and Feature
RDP has used the capable Intel Atom X5-Z8300 chipset in this laptop. We also saw this processor in Notion Ink Abel 10. This quad-core chip typically runs at a clock speed of 1.4 GHz and is also capable of achieving a speed of 1.8 GHz if needed. It is built on such fabrication process that it does not require cooling.
Like other laptops in this segment, you will get 2 GB RAM, 32 GB EMMC flash storage, Wi-Fi B / G / N and Bluetooth 4.0. It will be possible to increase inbuilt storage up to 128 GB via microSD card. This laptop also has a VGA webcam, which is of very average quality.
The ThinkBook runs on 32-bit Windows 10. By the way, the company is selling the DOS version of this laptop for Rs 8,999. No useless apps are already installed in this laptop. You will only find apps that come with Windows in common.
RDP thinkbook performance
The common performance of Windows can be called satisfactory, not spectacular at all. Many times even the basic work like resizing and moving windows on the screen slowed down the system. The unit that we got for the review said that it was working in a strange way. For example, the start menu and search box often stopped working on their own. We had no choice but to reboot the system. Many times the connection between a USB port and a hard drive was lost while copying a file.
On the other hand, the system started extremely fast. You pressed the power button and in a few seconds the laptop appeared at your service.
Weak performance also appears in the benchmark results. Different test scores were highly average.
The trackpad will make you nervous at times. Because the cursor starts jumping on the screen at times, especially when you use the left mouse button or drag to select something. The display is not bad for watching videos from anywhere. However, the text seems to be very sticky amongst themselves, which is not good for reading.
The speaker makes decent sound, but the audio quality is below average. At high volumes, the sound becomes very sharp and thin. Apart from this, the speaker on the right side in our review unit was getting more voice from the left side. For this reason the experience of hearing the voice was a bit strange.
The RDP claims an 8-hour battery life with the ThinBook, which is possible. In the battery test of PC Mark 8, the battery lasted for 7 hours 57 minutes, which is around the claim.
Our decision
The Rs 9,999 RDP ThinBook gives you the experience of a laptop with a large display at a cheap price. It is a value for money product. However, a number of compromises have been made in the product. But the truth is that it is not a bad product on the first try. Build and finish is good. The device is quite thin and light. The display is fine. You will be able to enjoy 4K media playback and can also do small tasks simultaneously.
RDP plans to launch a powerful variant of ThinBook. In the coming time, the company will work to make its laptop in India itself, which is likely to reduce the price. We expect the shortcomings of this model to be overcome in future versions. For example, we would like a better trackpad because sometimes we don't have a mouse. Apart from this, internal flash storage should have better reading and writing speed. This will affect the performance of Windows.
It is clear that the RDP ThinBook has increased competition in this segment. We expect more companies to be launched in this segment. If the purpose of making this product is kept in mind, then we think that ThinBook has a lot of potential and it can prove to be a great option for the user who wants to buy a cheap PC.
The merits
- Slim design and good build quality
- Economical
- Good battery life
- Equipped with windows 10
- Good display for video playback
Drawbacks
- Weak read / write speed
- Improvement in trackpad and keyboard
- Drawbacks in windows performance
Rating (5 in)
- Design: 3.5
- Display: 3.5
- Performance: 2.5
- Software: 4
- Value for Money: 4
- Average: 3.5
