iBall Compbook i360 review

When launching its CompBook series, iBall targeted the young and extremely budget-conscious audience. Last year, the home-grown consumer electronics company launched what it claimed were the "cheapest Windows laptop(s)" - CompBook Excelance and CompBook Exemplaire.

Design

At first look, iBall CompBook i360 doesn't look cheap, especially because of its Champagne colour. However, a closer look at the device reveals its shortcomings. Just like the Excelance, the iBall CompBook i360 comes with a plastic body which feels a bit substandard. The tawdry keys (non-backlit) and touchpad are the biggest giveaways.

The convertible comes with a matte-finished lid that has the CompBook logo in the centre and iBall branding in the corner. Since the hinges have full 360-degree rotation, the i360 can be used as a tablet as well. However, the hinges are strong enough to prevent the display from wobbling while typing.

Moving on to the connectivity ports, the left side has USB 3.0 (1), mini HDMI (1) and a charging slot. On the right, you'll find 3.5mm audio jack (1), USB 2.0 (1), a microSD card slot, Power button and Keyboard On/Off switch. This switch comes in really handy if you are using the CompBook i360 in tablet mode and want to avoid unnecessary typos.

The CompBook i360 has two speakers placed underneath it, which we believe would've been better placed on the sides. Due to their position, the laptop's audio output gets muffled when it's placed on a flat surface or on one's lap.

CompBook i360's 11.6-inch TFT LCD panel has a 1366x768 pixel resolution. In our testing, the display didn't look very sharp and viewing angles weren't good either. The screen is reflective, but brightness levels are impressive.

With a weight of1.35kg and measuring 29.7x20.6x1.8cm, the iBall CompBook i360 is really easy to carry around.

Performance

iBall CompBook i360 is powered by a 1.84GHz Intel Atom Z8300 quad-core CPU, clubbed with 2GB of DDR3 RAM. The laptop also comes with 32GB of internal storage and accepts microSD cards of up to 64GB in size. It features Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 and has a 10,000mAh battery. During our testing, it became clear that the CompBook i360 is only meant for basic tasks.

The laptop runs Windows 10 out-of-the-box and thankfully, doesn't come with any bloatware. All the standard Windows 10 features like Cortana and Microsoft Edge are included.

Even though web browsing on the CompBook i360 was fine, using Google Chrome with a few open tabs made the device a bit slow. Switching between tabs was not very smooth either.

What's worse is that the laptop heats up quite a bit, both during charging and after being used for an hour or two.

Similar to most budget laptops, the iBall CompBook i360 has a VGA (0.3MP) camera which can click images as well as record videos. The camera is extremely basic, but can be used for video chats.

During our time with it, we found the audio output on the CompBook i360 to be decent. The speakers are fairly loud (even though the sound gets muffled due to their placement) and the multi-touch display works as it should.

Even though iBall claims that the CompBook i360 has a battery life of around 8 hours, the laptop managed to last for about 5-6 hours on a single charge.

As for the benchmarks, the iBall CompBook i360 scored 2,346 and 1,142 on PCMark and 3DMark respectively.

Verdict
Considering it's one of the cheapest Windows 10-powered laptops available in the market right now, the iBall CompBook i360 is surely appealing. The touchscreen only adds to its allure. But the pluses largely end there. The laptop has serious performance and heating issues. It may be cheap, but we don't think there is a point spending that much amount on a device that's likely to give users a tough time even when handling basic tasks.

Source: gadgetsnow