Can you guess the price of this laptop? It has a gorgeous 15.6” Full-HD IPS display, a huge trackpad and a full size keyboard. You would be excused for thinking that this is a Macbook Pro.
This laptop defies expectations and looks nothing like a typical budget
windows laptop. This is MaxBook X15 and it's made from a company called BMAX.
What attracted me to this laptop is its macbook style design and its budget
friendly price. But here is the question: Is it any good? To find that out, I
am going to put this laptop through multiple rounds of gruelling test, Techno
Panda style. By the end of this video you will know if MaxBook X15 is worth
buying. So, let's get started
1 Build-Quality
While looking at MaxBook X15, it's obvious that this laptop is trying to copy Apple’s macbook, but in a good way. What jumps out is the edge to edge large keyboard layout and a huge trackpad, something you will not find in a typical Windows laptop. But don't expect a unibody aluminium design at this price point. MaxBook X15 is made from ABS polycarbonate but BMAX has reinforced the top half of the laptop with an aluminium sheet. This gives the LCD screen more rigidity and feels solid when opening the laptop. It weighs around 3.9 pounds or 1.8 kg which is reasonably light for a large 15.6” laptop.
For the price, I think BMAX has made a well-crafted laptop with aesthetically
pleasing design. My review unit is space Gray in color and it has this
understated professional look. The top lid has a non glossy anodized aluminum
finish which contrasts nicely with the white BMAX logo. Is it just me or does
this logo look like one of those decepticons from the Transformers movie?
There are 4 grippy rubber pads at the bottom of this laptop, and they provide
adequate resistance prohibiting the laptop from sliding or wobbling while
typing. MaxBook X15’s chassis feels very rigid and I didn't experience any
creaking or bending while using the laptop. Overall, I am extremely pleased
with the build quality and aesthetics of this laptop. Most other budget
windows laptop have a boring utilitarian look, so I really appreciate the fact
that MaxBook X15 is bringing some style and pizzazz in this category
2 Keyboard & Trackpad
Keyboard and Trackpad is where this laptop truly shines. MaxBook X15 comes with a full size keyboard including a numeric keypad. The keyboard covers the entire length of the laptop with only 3mm space left on each side. This keyboard design will put far more expensive windows laptops to shame. Its layout looks very similar to a Macbook pro keyboard which is a good thing. Remember Pablo Picasso once said, “good artists borrow but great artists steal”. So I have no problem with Windows laptop makers copying Apple's keyboard layout. There is no backlighting on this keyboard, but the black keycaps nicely contrast with the white lettering making these keys visible in dimly lit rooms. Thanks to its one-piece construction, this keyboard feels solid while typing. I think this keyboard layout is quite thoughtful, for e.g. the commonly used keys including numpad keys are bigger in size while the function keys in the top row are smaller. This allows accommodating a full size keyboard without feeling cramped. The keys provide 1.5mm travel distance and offer an actuation force of 40 grams. This creates a nice tactile feedback for a comfortable typing experience.
It gives a superior springy feedback than Apple’s butterfly keyboard. So, If you are someone who types lots of email, creates word documents, enters data in excel sheets or does software development, you will love this keyboard. Now let's talk about the trackpad which is one of the largest trackpads that I have seen on any windows laptop. This trackpad measures 5 and a half by 4 inches, which translates to a massive 6 and a half inch diagonal length. Even though the trackpad is made from plastic, it feels smooth to touch, thanks to the faux aluminium finish. I didn't experience any wobbling or rattling when using this trackpad. It gave me a satisfying audible click everytime I pressed it. MaxBook X15 comes with windows precision drivers and it supports all windows 10 gestures. This is really important because 2 and 3 fingers gestures work best when you have a large trackpad. And with this humongous 6 and half inch trackpad, you can easily scroll pages, toggle between open apps, switch between virtual desktops, and quickly open windows and minimize to desktop with a swipe of your fingers. I think that if this cheap laptop can deliver such a nice trackpad, there is no excuse for companies like Acer, Asus, Lenovo and HP to ship their laptops with puny little trackpads. Kudos to BMAX for bringing a large high quality trackpad at an affordable price. Now one thing missing from this laptop is the built-in fingerprint sensor. I hate passwords, and I wish BMAX had included a fingerprint sensor.
3 Display
MaxBook X15 comes with a 15.6” Full HD display with a wide viewing angle of
178 degress. Usually display quality is where most of the budget laptops cut
corners. One way laptop makers save money is by using a low resolution cheaper
TN panel screen instead of a high resolution IPS panel. But I am very
impressed with MaxBook X15’s LED backlit IPS panel which pumps out a maximum
brightness of 220 nits. While this is certainly not the brightest screen in
the market, it's bright enough for indoor use. Even in extremely bright lit
areas in my home, I had no trouble reading text and watching pictures and
videos on this laptop. This is a glossy screen which boosts the color
saturation making everything pop out. The text looks crisp and I did not feel
any eye fatigue while working long hours reading and typing word documents on
this screen. The bezels around the screen are relatively narrow giving this
laptop a screen to body ratio of 76.5%. Overall for the price, I think MaxBook
X15 has hit the ball out of the park when it comes to display quality.
4 Hardware
MaxBook X15 is powered by Intel Celeron N4100 CPU. This is a budget CPU coming from the Gemini Lake family of Intel processors. It's a quad core processor built on Intel’s older 14nm process technology. The base clock frequency is 1.1 Ghz and the max turbo frequency is 2.4 Ghz. In Passmark CPU benchmark, this CPU scored 2474 points. So how does it compare with other budget laptop CPUs? Let's compare its performance with the Acer Aspire 5 laptop which is powered by an AMD Ryzen 3 3200u CPU. Compared to Intel Celeron N4100, Ryzen 3 is about 65% faster. But for day to day web surfing, including watching YouTube and Netflix videos in HD, creating documents using google docs, and emailing and perusing social media, MaxBook X15’s performance is more than adequate.
Now lets talk about the graphics performance. This laptop is powered by Intel
UHD 600 GPU which is capable of driving 4K signal via mini HDMI port. This GPU
supports full hardware acceleration of google’s VP9 and h265 codecs which is
important for smooth playback of 4K videos from YouTube and Netflix. Now if
you are wondering whether RAM and SSD can be upgraded on this laptop, I have
some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that RAM is soldered to the
motherboard and cannot be upgraded. But the good news is that BMAX has made it
super easy to upgrade the PCIE NVME SSD. You don't even need to open the back
of the laptop. There is a tiny hatch under the laptop which can be opened by
removing two screws giving you direct access to M.2 2280 Expansion Slot. This
is great news because this laptop ships with only 128GB SSD. I will put links
to compatible SSD in the video description below
Battery & thermals
Since this laptop is powered by an energy efficient 6W TDP CPU, I was
expecting a stellar battery life. But I have been disappointed with the 6
hours of battery life that I am getting during my typical usage. I think this
is largely because of the underwhelming 38Wh battery capacity. Since this
laptop has a large 15.6” screen, BMAX should have put at least a 50Whr
battery. But the good news is that this laptop does not overheat and remains
very quiet, thanks to its fanless design. This makes it a perfect laptop for
comfortably resting it in your laps while surfing, checking out social media
and watching youtube videos. It comes with a 24 Watt universal charger which
supports North America, Europe and India electrical standards. Now if you are
wondering whether your smartphone's USB Type-C cable and charger can be used
to charge this laptop, the answer is NO. There is no USB Type C port on this
laptop which really sucks in 2020. Another negative is that the included 24
Watt charger is not a fast charger, so that means you will have to charge this
laptop overnite to juice it to 100% battery
6 Audio and webcam
Let's talk about the audio. The speakers on this laptop get really loud but
they start rattling at full volume. I would qualify these as above average,
they definitely perform better most budget laptop speakers. Using the included
software, you have the option of applying various audio tweaks to enhance the
audio. This software features a full 10 band graphic equalizer with presets
for typical music genres like pop, rock, club as well as vocal and live
setting. You can also tune the on-board mic to suppress ambient noise coming
from things like an air conditioner or the ceiling fan which is great for
conference calls and Zoom video chats. Talking about video chats, this laptop
comes with a 480p webcam which is only Standard Definition. So if you plan to
use this laptop for making lots of video conference calls, I would recommend
getting an external 1080p USB webcam. I have already reviewed some affordable
webcams here on this channel, and I will drop links to some of my favorite
webcams in the video description below.
7 ports
I like the port selection on MaxBook X15. You get 2 USB 3.0 Gen 1 ports
supporting data transfer speeds up to 5 Gbit/s. You also get a micro-SD card
slot for transferring pictures and data from your phone and camera. There is a
mini HDMI port which can be used to connect this laptop to an external
monitor. MaxBook X15 supports up to 4K resolution, so you can easily pair a 4K
monitor with this laptop to create a nice home office work area setup. You
also get a 3.5mm headphone/microphone jack as well as support for bluetooth
5.0 standard. Now this laptop supports WiFI 802.11ac standard but there is no
WiFi 6 support and the ethernet port is also missing. But for me the most
glaring omission is the lack of USB Type C port. I think in 2020, all laptops
should include at least one USB Type C port. But maybe I am asking too
much.
8 Conclusion
So guys here is the bottom line. At this price you will not find a better laptop than MaxBook X15. The build quality is surprisingly good, the 1080p IPS panel is really nice, you get a full size keyboard and a large trackpad, and most importantly you get 8GB system RAM and a full version of windows 10. Now the quad core Celeron N4100 CPU is not going to break any speed records, but I think it is perfectly adequate for day to day tasks including web surfing, watching videos and creating documents and spreadsheets on google doc. If you are interested in getting this laptop, please check out the links in the video description below. So what do you guys think of MaxBook X15? Please let me know in the comment section below.Purchase Links
👉 Buy BMAX X15
👉 Buy recommended PCIe NVMe SSD upgrades
👉 Buy 1080p webcam
👉 Buy 3TB USB HDD
👉 Buy Active Stylus Pen
👉 Buy M.2 NVME SSD Enclosure Adapter
👉 Macrium reflect free for SSD cloning
Disclosure: Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases