CHUWI launches first $449 Intel Wildcat Lake laptop as a MacBook Neo competitor

In April, Intel announced Wildcat Lake, a new processor series design for budget-friendly, entry-level laptops, a segment where the new MacBook Neo is doing some serious damage to Windows laptops. The lineup comprises six processor models, and one of them, the Core 3 304, powers CHUWI's latest budget-friendly laptop, the CHUWI UniBook.

We recently reviewed one of CHUWI's affordable laptops (the CoreBook Air), which turned out to be a solid device with a very lightweight chassis. The UniBook is not trying to set any records when it comes to weight. Instead, it offers a low price tag, one of Intel's latest chips, a big battery, and a rich set of ports.

The UniBook is a 14-inch Windows 11 laptop with a backlit keyboard, a 53Wh battery, and the Intel Core 3 304 processor with five cores and five threads. Like the MacBook Neo, its main competitor, the CHUWI UniBook, has 8GB of LPDDR5X memory and a 256GB SSD. However, the latter is only PCIe Gen 3, which is quite disappointing. What is not disappointing is the number of ports. There are three USB Type-A, two USB Type-C, a microSD reader, a 3.5 mm audio jack, and an RJ45 for those who prefer wired connectivity.

Thanks to its new low-power processor and a relatively big battery, the UniBook promises good battery life, with up to 20 hours on a single charge. While Wildcat Lake processors could be used in fanless devices, CHUWI equipped the UniBook with a fan for better heat management.

At $449 (or "around $449, as CHUWI puts it in the promo materials), the UniBook indeed looks like a quite interesting budget-friendly laptop and a MacBook Neo alternative, assuming macOS is not an argument for you.