Chuwi Hi10 Windows Tablet review

It is hard to believe that the Chuwi Hi10 is available at this price. On paper, this is a killer device capable of rivalling more expensive models. But some might balk at the thought of buying a device without the kind of aftersales services you'd expect from say, Amazon or Currys. If it fails, you'd be left with what is essentially an expensive door stopper.

We liked

The value for money of the Chuwi Hi10 is, we dare say, exceptional. There are some products that come close to it, but the combination of a Cherry Trail CPU, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage and a full HD display is an extremely potent spec.

We disliked

The engineers could have done a better job with the speaker location and the cameras (rear and front) could have been improved (although we understand that would have upped the asking price).

Final verdict

The Chuwi Hi10 is a great product, but a great product doesn't guarantee a great user experience. You can't buy it from the UK – it is only available from foreign websites. It can take weeks before you get the item you ordered.

There is a small but real chance of being hit by the taxman which would add another £30 to the cost of the item – some sellers do ship from EU warehouses which means that they are VAT inclusive. Also, if the item stops working, the only way to recoup your costs would be to send it back to the vendor at your own expense.

The tablet did play up once during the review period, with the display going berserk, although restarting it solved the issue – that just goes to show that things can go wrong sometimes.

Sadly, there's hardly any affordable Windows tablets available in the UK that can compete with the Hi10. The Microsoft Surface 3 tablet is probably its closest competitor. It costs over £400 (around $580, AU$800) and comes with half the system memory, but it does have a slightly more powerful CPU, Windows 10 Pro, Office 365 Personal, a better camera and a different set of connectors.