Chuwi Minibook X: the netbook we deserve - Tyler Cipriani

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Netbooks are dead, but the Chuwi Minibook X scratches the same<br>itch.

The Minibook X is a 10.5″ x86_64 sub-ultrabook with 16GB RAM, a 512GB<br>NVMe drive, and only one majorly annyoing Linux quirk.

I needed a knock-around laptop, so I bought myself a Minibook for my<br>birthday last year. The more I tote it around, the more fun I’m having<br>with this ridiculous little computer.

Chuwi Minibook X

Quick specs

Much like the netbooks of yore, the Minibook is a budget machine. But<br>it’s 2026, so even budget machines pack more oomph than I need from a<br>utility laptop.

CPU 4-core/4-thread 3.6GHz Intel N150 Twin Lake

16 GB RAM – LPDDR5-6400 – soldered 😿

512GB NVMe – upgradable

10.51” IPS 2K 16:10 screen

28.88Wh Li-Ion battery

Weight: 911g

Ports: 2×USB-C (1×PD charging)

Cost: $350

Chuwi Minibook Guts

One oddity is that the Minibook comes bundled with a 12V/2A USB-C<br>charger. I chucked the charger; I worried I’d fry some 5V SoC someday.<br>The Minibook works fine with a PD charger.

Minibook X using a PD Charger at 20V

I’d assume the 12V charger was a cost-saving choice, but it also<br>creates some weird possibilities for DC/off-grid setups.

Linux and weirdness: sideways panels and kernel parameters

Charlie Stross, a favorite SciFi author, talks up the Chuwi Minibook X on Mastodon

The fediverse told me that Minibook runs Linux “boringly well,” which<br>was almost true.

I tried Debian, then jumped to NixOS for kicks.

What works:

Camera/Microphone/Speakers

Touchscreen

Sleep/Suspend

Hibernate

Keyboard backlight

USB-C HDMI

Bluetooth (non-free blobs – Intel)

Wi-Fi 6 (non-free blobs – Intel)

But on first boot, the screen orientation is 270° clockwise:

Linux setup screen rotated 270°.

The Chuwi’s screen is a panel from a cheap tablet; the screen<br>rotation issue is a hardware problem (the screen is mounted sideways).<br>To fix the screen’s rotation, I had to tweak screen orientation at every<br>software layer. Fixing this problem was a journey:

Bootloader – Switched from systemd-boot to<br>grub, carrying some unmerged<br>GRUB rotation patches on top.

Initrd – Tell the Intel display driver about the panel orientation<br>via a kernel parameter, and force the Intel driver to load in the<br>initramfs. On NixOS:<br>boot.kernelParams = ["video=DSI-1:panel_orientation=right_side_up"];<br>and boot.initrd.kernelModules = ["i915"]; (see Kernel docs<br>for modedb default<br>video mode support)

Desktop environment – For X11, good ole<br>xrandr --output DSI-1 --rotate right. Wayland picked this<br>up from the DRM connector. This one was easy.

Framebuffer – Ensure all TTYs have the proper orientation by adding<br>fbcon=rotate:1 to kernel parameters<br>boot.kernelParams = ["fbcon=rotate:1"]; (see Kernel docs<br>for framebuffer<br>console boot options)

Behold, the final result in all its glory:

Non-rotated system boot. Zero Cool's bootscreen courtesy of mainframed/Hackers-Plymouth

Size, weight, and build

This computer is mind-bogglingly small. The build is sturdy and<br>totable; it’ll hold up to a backpack jostling.

Chuwi Minibook X with "banana" for scale

The laptop’s case is MacBook-esque: aluminum and good-looking. The<br>MacBook Air’s dimensions dwarf the Chuwi’s, but the two laptops are<br>about the same thickness.

Chuwi Minibook X alongside the Macbook Air

Chuwi Minibook atop the Macbook Air

A notebook that weighs more than a kilo is simply not a good<br>thing

– Linus<br>Torvalds

The Minibook weighs in just shy of a kilo at 912 grams.

My Minibook X weighs 912g

Perf, thermals, and power

tl;dr: you get what you pay for. But battery life and cooling are<br>better than I’d have guessed.

The Minibook X was never going to compile the Linux kernel in record<br>time. But the performance matches the specs, it stays cool, and it has<br>enough battery life to run a movie marathon.

Numbers:

Geekbench6 (a fun side-quest to get running on NixOS), better than I<br>expected.

Single-core: 1295

Multi-core: 3332

Wi-Fi 6 speed: 424 Mbps, more than enough to stream a 4K movie.

Power

Idle: 3.8W

During benchmark: ~15W

Battery: When I left the 1995 classic film “Hackers” looping in VLC,<br>the battery lasted about 6 hours.

Heat: Running stress-ng for 10 minutes, the hottest part<br>of the laptop chassis remained below 90°F (32°C):

Thermal camera view of Chuwi Minibook X running stress-ng

What I dislike

There’s so much to dislike about this laptop:

Screen is terrible – 2K? 50Hz refresh rate? Why!?

Keyboard is terrible – it only registers keystrokes when you hit the<br>exact center of each key.

Touchpad is terrible – It’s a diving board-style, without physical<br>buttons.

Sound is meh – I can hear the tinny laptop speaker fine, but it’s<br>underwhelming. I’ve never tried tweaking it in Pipewire, though; it’s<br>possible it could be better.

But “terrible” is in comparison to the nicest modern laptops in<br>existence. Everything I listed here works fine. I’m honestly blown away<br>when I tune my expectations to the...