Lets Talk About: VOYO VBook V3 Windows 10 Ultrabook

If an ultrabook is on your shopping list, and you're in the market for some good deals, be ready to spend at least several hundred dollars to buy a model built by a famous manufacturer such as Dell or HP. But on the other hand, if you're on a tight budget, and you're willing to give Chinese products a chance, you've certainly come across the VOYO VBook V3 ultrabook. 
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Although it bears a name that could easily trick you into believing that it's a device manufactured by VAIO - and that's an honest mistake. The manufacturer is actually VOYO, a company whose purpose is to build products that are similar in look, feel, build quality, and performance to those coming from world-renowned brands.

But there must be one big difference between the devices produced by VOYO and those from other companies, and that's the price.

The VBook V3 Windows 10 ultrabook is a device that's entirely built on this approach, and just by looking at the spec sheet, you realize that whoever designed this laptop has the know-how to work for a bigger company as well.

BUILD QUALITY AND DESIGN 

Let's say this from the very beginning: if you think that the first impression counts, then you'll be very impressed with this ultrabook.

The VOYO VBook V3 is thin, offers a nice sensation to the touch, and doesn't share that typical cheap feel that you might be used to if you've previously owned some other Chinese gadgets. The VOYO VBook V3 boasts a premium finish, and you certainly won't be disappointed when seeing it for the first time.

The device has dimensions that can easily rival those of other, more expensive ultrabooks: 33.00 x 22.00 x 1.60 cm / 12.99 x 8.66 x 0.63 in. There's just one issue, though. The laptop feels rather heavy, and although VOYO claims that it tips the scales at 1.5 kilos, you won't trust this figure when holding it in hand. Partly responsible for this is the 10,000 mAh battery, but you can't build a laptop without a large battery these days anymore because nobody would buy it.

We'll let you know if this pays off when it comes to battery life in the section below, so head over to the Hardware category for more information.

Overall, however, the VOYO VBook V3 isn't the typical Chinese laptop that you'd buy with one hundred dollars, but a nicely crafted device that you won't feel embarrassed to use in a room full of people. Truth be told, there's a lot of plastic, but it's not exactly the cheap sensation you'd normally expect from a Chinese product built by a company only a few people heard of.

HARDWARE AND PERFORMANCE 

On paper, the VBook V3 seems to be quite a decent laptop with average specs that should allow the majority of apps and programs to run without forcing you to wait and stare at the screen during loading times.

In reality, however, things are a little bit different, and you should read the sections below to find out more about the actual capabilities of this device. It's worth mentioning that we didn't perform any benchmarks, as we focused more on the experience the average Joe gets when using the laptop.

Display and graphics card 

The VBook V3 is a convertible laptop that can double as a tablet and that comes with a 13.3-inch screen. It features a capacitive IPS display with support for 10 points and a Full HD resolution (1920x1080 pixels).

The mere fact that it can be used as a tablet as well certainly makes it appealing to a big number of users, especially given Windows 10's touch capabilities, so let's just focus on this for a bit.

Although you can simply touch the screen while you use the laptop in the traditional form factor, to truly unleash its touch potential, you need to flip the screen. The device feels sturdy when doing this, but we've received a completely new review sample, so it might become a little bit flimsy after 1,000 uses.

The touchscreen is quite responsive, but don't expect the same performance you'd get from a Surface tablet, for instance. It's fast enough to let you navigate your system, browse the web and similar activities where speed isn't a critical thing. The pen is handy when it comes to small buttons, writing, and drawing, but we'll talk about in its dedicated chapter below.

The display offers decent performance, but what you pay is what you get, and this is the first place where you'll see the price impact. 

The graphics card is the 8th generation Intel HD Graphics, which supports DirectX 11.2 and is quite a decent choice for simple activities such as watching videos or playing Solitaire. While it can even play 4K videos - with a huge impact on battery life and unexpectedly long loading time - you shouldn’t even think about playing games because most new titles suffer from terrible performance.

In CSGO, for instance, you won't get past an average of 25 FPS with all settings to low quality, or 11 FPS with all video details set to the highest level and a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels. The same for GTA V, where the average performance is 10 FPS in 1024x768 pixels resolution.

CPU, RAM, and storage 

The VOYO VBook V3 is powered by an Intel Cherry Trail Z8300 quad-core processor running at 1.44 GHz in normal mode and at 1.84 GHz in Turbo. The ultrabook is also equipped with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage on a 2.5-inch SATA HDD.

While the mix should be enough for the typical activities we've mentioned above, it's certainly not enough for more demanding tasks, such as video editing or playing games launched in the last couple of years.

In terms of performance, the CPU really struggles to run Windows 10 smoothly, and you'll notice that from the second you boot to the desktop. To deal with this, we switched Windows 10 settings to performance mode, but even so, the operating system still runs unbelievably slow. Opening more than two tabs in Microsoft Edge makes the laptop completely unusable while multitasking is a nightmare, especially if running more demanding apps.

Although we've seen Windows 10 running more smoothly on similar configurations, the VOYO ultrabook really has a hard time providing a decent experience, so don't even think of using this laptop for heavy tasks. It's good for the average Joe who doesn't mind waiting a few seconds for a new tab to open, but it's certainly frustrating for those whose top priority is productivity.

A lighter operating system, such as Linux Mint or Windows 7, would probably run a bit faster, but this still doesn't change the fact that the VBook V3 struggles even with the most basic tasks.

Furthermore, it gets hot quite easily, and when charging, using the top right part of the keyboard isn't the most comfortable thing to do. Using a cooling stand could help, but on a desk, it's not the kind of thing you'd want to use on a hot summer day.

Keyboard, touchpad, and pen 

The keyboard and the touchpads are probably the lowest-quality parts of the entire laptop, and it's nearly painful to type more than just a few words every once in a while.

First and foremost, although the keyboard is rather silent, some keys need to be pressed harder than you'd expect in order to work properly, and the space button is the best example. To insert a space in your text, the space bar needs to be pressed exactly in the middle, otherwise, it simply won't work. Pressing the space bar on its side edges has no result, and it happened several times during our tests to write words with no space between them.

The same story with the touchpad. It lacks accuracy, and whenever you use it, the mouse cursor simply dances on the screen, so don't be too surprised if you accidentally click something that you weren't supposed to. 

And then, it's the pen. The stylus needs to be recharged separately via microUSB and uses Bluetooth to connect to the laptop. There's no advanced functionality, as is the case with the Surface, so it's more of a standard pen with no adjustable tip that has the same role as a finger, only that it provides a little bit more precision for drawing and writing.

Battery 

As mentioned above, the VOYO ultrabook comes with a 10,000 mAh battery that should offer you decent autonomy in both laptop and tablet modes.

After thoroughly testing its capabilities, we discovered that it provides between 3 and 3 and a half hours of video playback in 1080p resolution, 2 hours of gaming for more demanding titles that are supported by the graphics processor and the CPU, and 4 and a half hours of browsing.

This isn't really impressive, but it's good performance, given how little you have to pay for the device, so most customers will probably be pleased with these battery life specs.

Recharging takes approximately 4 hours, and this isn't the best news, and we experienced some issues during the process, which stopped at 95 percent. There was no protection setting - as is the case with the original VAIO, for instance, which, for protection reasons, charges the battery only up to 80 percent, so there might be a problem with the battery on our review unit.

Other features

Just like the other Chinese electronics, the VOYO ultrabook comes with all the features you'd expect and whatnot, including the essentials, but also a few extras.

For example, the laptop features two 2-megapixel cameras, but it's worth knowing that Windows Hello is not supported, so you won't be able to use biometric authentication on it. There's no fingerprint reader either, and the small LEDs that are placed below the case are actually the typical Caps Lock/Scroll Lock lights.

Additionally, VOYO installed the typical connectivity option package, including Bluetooth (which is actually used for the pen), Wi-Fi, microHDMI, plus a 3.5mm headphone jack. There's also a TF card slot if you want to expand capacity, as well as 2 USB ports, one 2.0 and another one 3.0.

And last but not least, the device boasts a SIM slot as well, so you can enjoy data connectivity on the go should you want to browse the web while traveling.

To put it simply, the VOYO VBook V3 is a Chinese ultrabook that looks good, but that's pretty much all about it. It feels rather slow most of the time, and it can't cope with multitasking when more demanding tasks are involved.

Unfortunately, what you pay is what you get, and for this small price, the hardware side leaves a lot to be desired.

Although on paper the CPU and RAM, the storage capacity, and the convertible ultrabook form factor that allows it to double as a tablet look incredibly compelling, the VOYO device can hardly be considered a rival to products manufactured by renowned companies such as HP, Dell, or Lenovo. Their cheapest products do come with low build quality, but in most of the cases, they provide decent performance, so you get better value for the money.

The VOYO V3, on the other hand, is an excellent choice for those who are only now taking the first step in the computing world or for those who don't have too big expectations from a PC. Even if it gets hot and runs slow, it can do basic stuff such as web browsing and video playback. Why not give it a try am sure as the saying going ''A try will convince you.