Posted by Mumbai: This review of the Primebook Wifi laptop would help young students and their parents to decide whether they should purchase a small size affordable Andriod-based computing device or not.
Last year, a Delhi-based tech manufacturing company, Floydwiz Technologies launched its Primebook Wifi laptop in the Indian market intending to offer a desktop experience with productivity on an Andriod device.
This made-in-India, Primebook Wifi laptop has a display of 11.6 inches. It runs on an Andriod-based custom-built operating system PrimeOS backed with a Mediatek MT8183 octa-core processor that generates processing performance of up to 2GHz.
RAM, Storage and Ports
The device runs on 4GB LPDDR4 RAM and 64 GB eMMC storage that can expand up to 512 GB via a microSD card. The device has WiFi and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity, plus one micro HDMI and two USB Type-A ports.
Besides, it has the latest USB Type C port to charge an in-built 4,000mAh battery that can easily last up to five hours to support browsing and work-related activities. However, battery performance may easily vary or reduce based on different usage like multimedia, video streaming and gaming.
Device Form Factor
Primebook Wifi laptop has a 19.3mm thickness that makes its external look a bit slim and compact, in a black-coloured matt finish. This compact and slim chassis of the device has helped to keep its weight light just around 1.065 kg, making it easy to hold and carry in one hand.
Display and Keyboard
The 11.6 inches full HD IPS LCD panel (1366×768 pixel resolution) of this device, offers a 16.9 aspect ratio viewing experience. Also, it has a standard QWERTY keyboard and trackpad, which is big enough for a very comfortable and smooth overall typing or working experience.
This device, unlike most laptops available in the market which comes with half-cut keys to support two functions, actually has sufficient space in between each of the full-size keys. making typing easy and quick.
Keymapping Feature
Also, it has a keymapping feature for customisation of keys and touchpad that offers better control and movement on the screen. More so, along with the QWERTY keyboard, this device comes with customised Andriod keys such as the back button, zoom-in/out button, screen-shot (PrtSc) button, browser (Prime browser) button and home button and other multi-media buttons.
Interestingly, it has a decent built-in front-facing 2MP (720 pixels) camera placed on the top-mid position of the display bezel to support video calls. It has two small speakers embedded onto its lower surface facing the ground. These speakers are basic, decent and loud enough to support and play audio and video files, video calls, movies and games.
For Learning and not Gaming
However, the gaming experience may not be so good on this device depending on the nature of the game and its hardware and software requirements. Since it is not a dedicated gaming laptop, playing mid or high-level games on this device is not easy, particularly with using different keys for controls.
Hence, the keymapping feature comes in very handy here to assign keys for various controls, while playing different games. But one needs to keep in mind, that this device is for learning and not gaming.
Fan-less Body Design
While most laptops have a heat sink and fan-based vents to manage heat dissipation and internal cooling, Primebook Wifi laptop has a fan-less body design with no visible vents.
Windows-like interface and user experience, Software applications
Although Primebook Wifi is purely an Android 11 operating system (OS) based device running on custom-built PrimeOS, it does offer a Windows-like interface and user experience.
It has a very unique proprietary app store that provides easy access to productivity software and other tools such as Microsoft Office ( MS Word, MS PowerPoint, MS Excel), WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger for audio/video communications. Besides, it has access to many education and learning-related Andriod-based applications.
Basically, through the Microsoft 365 app for Android, the device provides access to the Andriod version of Microsoft Office applications in desktop format and not mobile. Despite, having a small form factor, the device is powerful enough to support multiple application access and easy switching from one to another.
Interestingly, the Primebook Wifi laptop comes without bloatware to ensure that storage space is not consumed since it is a small-form factor-based body design.
In addition, this Andriod-based laptop has its own Prime browser that can access websites in desktop mode and not mobile. Since it is primarily designed for students, this device can support the MDM (mobile device management) feature for parental controls.
Rating
In terms of the overall rating of this Primebook Wifi laptop, I would give 4.5 stars out of 5 stars for making an affordable, worthy and purposeful computing device to serve young students and learners.
This device designed with a focus on school students is available for Rs11,990. It is the best affordable device for young learners, who are getting introduced to a computing device for the first time. Although it does lack many features and functions available on other expensive laptops in the market, the Primebook Wifi laptop does serve its purpose very well.
Given the affordability, features and functions, the Primebook Wifi laptop stands out as the best education-purpose Andriod-based laptop available today in India.
