CHUWI Corebook Plus 16" Gray 2025

The CHUWI CoreBook Plus is a 499 USD 16-inch laptop with great ports and a big battery, but the gaming claims are nonsense. Our gaming score of 18.9 out of 100 is one of the worst we've seen. The 4th percentile reliability score is the real concern. Buy it for basic productivity on a budget, not for gaming or as your only machine.

The AMD Ryzen 5 processor here is a 6-core, 12-thread chip that handles everyday work fine. Browsing, documents, video calls, light photo editing, all doable. The integrated Radeon Graphics with 2GB of shared memory is where things fall apart for anything demanding. Our gaming score of 18.9 out of 100 puts it near the bottom of the charts. You can play older titles or indie games at low settings, but modern AAA games will struggle. The 16GB of DDR4 RAM is solid for multitasking, and the 512GB SSD keeps boot times snappy. Just don't expect this thing to replace a console or a proper gaming laptop.

Stacked against the Apple MacBook Air M4, the CHUWI gets destroyed on performance, build quality, and reliability. The MacBook costs more but it's a completely different class of machine. The MSI Prestige and ASUS Zenbook also outclass it on CPU and screen quality. Where the CoreBook Plus actually wins is ports and price. The Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 7 is the closest real competitor here, and it offers better reliability and a more honest spec sheet for a similar price. If you need a big screen and lots of ports on a budget, the CHUWI makes a case. If you need a laptop that will last, the ThinkPad is the safer bet.

At 499 USD, the CoreBook Plus is cheap for what you get on paper. A 16-inch screen, 16GB of RAM, 512GB SSD, and that port selection would cost you way more from a mainstream brand. But value isn't just about specs. The reliability score in the 4th percentile is a red flag. If this thing dies in a year, you're not saving money. For a secondary machine or a student on a tight budget who needs a big screen for writing and research, it's tempting. For a primary work machine, the risk is harder to swallow.

The CHUWI CoreBook Plus is a 16-inch budget laptop that tries to punch above its weight. You get a big 1920x1200 IPS display, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, a 512GB NVMe SSD, and a 74Wh battery for around 499 USD. That's a lot of hardware for the money, and the port selection is genuinely impressive for this price bracket.

But there's a catch. The marketing copy screams "gaming laptop" and claims it beats an i7-1355U, but our data tells a different story. The CPU lands in the 43rd percentile and gaming performance sits at a rough 18.9 out of 100. This is not a gaming machine. It's a big-screen productivity laptop with a misleading label.

Skip this if you need a reliable primary machine. The 4th percentile reliability score is a serious warning sign, and you don't want your only laptop dying mid-semester or mid-project. Gamers should absolutely look elsewhere, the gaming performance is near the bottom of our database. And if you need strong CPU performance for video editing or heavy multitasking, the 43rd percentile CPU score will frustrate you. Spend a bit more on a ThinkPad or a used MacBook Air instead.

The CHUWI CoreBook Plus is for someone who needs a big screen, lots of ports, and doesn't want to spend much. Students, casual users, or anyone who mostly lives in a browser will find it serviceable. The 74Wh battery and 16-inch display make it decent for writing, streaming, and light office work. Just ignore the gaming marketing entirely. If you want to play games, buy something else. If you want a cheap big-screen laptop and you're willing to roll the dice on reliability, this is an option.