The 750 yuan NEC antique notebook subverted my perception of 'foreign garbage'

I bought a foreign junk laptop on Xianyu.

Oh, isn’t this opening a bit abrupt? Let me turn back time a little, and go back to this year... around April.

In April this year, Huawei’s new MateBook The magnesium alloy body controls the thickness of the body to 13.5mm, and the weight of the whole machine is only 980 grams. It is said to usher in a "new era of 100 grams" of high-performance notebooks.

This is not over yet. Some time ago, a well-known digital blogger on Weibo @digital. Chat Station broke the news that he personally touched Honor's upcoming ultra-thin notebook in advance. It is said that this product may be named MagicBook Air 14. The body weight is thinner and lighter than Huawei's new MateBook X Pro at 980g. It also has more than 30 items. The exclusive new patent has set a new record for single product patents in the AI ​​PC industry

(Photo source: Weibo)

So, after being exiled from the all-in-one laptop for two and a half years, it was just like this. The product positioning of ultra-thin and light notebooks has once again entered the mainstream market.

How can I put it this way? If you have read my article, you should know that Xiaolei is a typical Windows handheld machine, 2-in-1 device and UMPC. I am a fan of Windows Base and am involved in all kinds of strange Windows Base products. So as soon as the news about these two products came out, my colleagues around me immediately encouraged me to buy one, and some even said "Buy this, take your hands on it." People who can just take out all that pile of garbage."

After looking at the results, the starting price of the Ultra 7 version of this thing is 11,199 yuan, and the starting price of the Ultra 9 version is 14,999 yuan. This is obviously prepared for business elites, not like me. Ordinary people can afford it.

Tsk, if I can’t afford a new one, why can’t I buy an old one for fun? Ultra-thin laptops are indeed not a new concept. Japanese and Korean manufacturers obsessed with body weight have already tried various ways to reduce weight in their small markets. As time goes by, no matter what. What is the effect of the finished product? Most of them have traveled across the ocean to this mysterious land and are active in the secondary market under the name of "Foreign Junk Notebooks"

After I reviewed it several times on Xianyu. After an exhaustive search, I finally bought a NEC VK23TG for 750 yuan.

And this is the starting point of today’s story

Appearance: Exquisite, but cheap

Although it was released eight years ago. But the design of NEC VK23TG is very modern

In order to reduce the weight as much as possible, this product uses an all-magnesium aluminum alloy body. The entire ABCD side is covered with magnesium aluminum alloy, and only the screen frame on the B side is. Plastic.

Due to traveling across the ocean, the surface of the NEC VK23TGD in my hand has obvious scratches, but the overall look is still quite good, even among the new thin and light notebooks in 2024. It’s not outdated, it’s a pretty advanced design concept.

(Photo source: Photographed by Lei Technology)

The first thing I felt when I started using it was that it is very light. How could there be such a light notebook.

The body of this product is based on all-magnesium aluminum alloy, making the weight of this product reach an astonishing 773g, and the thickness of the body is only 16.9mm, which is about the weight of two small bottles of mineral water, or even It is lighter than many new large-screen Android tablets launched this year.

(Photo source: Photographed by Lei Technology)

With such a weight, there will be no problem even if it is carried in a shoulder bag for a long time, but when I hold it, I don’t know Why does it feel cheap?

Then let’s open the laptop. NEC VK23TG is equipped with a 13.3-inch IPS screen with a resolution of 1920*1080. It is naturally a good thing to support up to ten-point touch, but there is no specific color gamut and color accuracy. Parameter information, the screen brightness can be said to be insufficient visible to the naked eye, and it is still far from a clear and transparent visual experience.

(Photo source: Photographed by Lei Technology)

Turning to the C side, the keyboard feel is naturally a part that cannot be ignored.

As a notebook that focuses on portability, the NEC VK23TG’s keyboard feels light and responsive at best, but has almost no typing feel at all. The layout of the original Japanese keyboard is somewhat different from the keyboards we commonly use. It takes getting used to it before you can do touch typing.

(Photo source: Photographed by Lei Technology)

Finally, let’s look at the interface configuration. Based on the fine tradition of Japanese manufacturers, NEC VK23TG has an extremely rich interface. On the left are the power interface, heat dissipation port, The power button and volume adjustment button are on the right side. On the right side are the SDXC slot, 2*USB 3.0 interfaces, HDMI interface and anti-theft lock hole. The richness of this interface configuration is far beyond that of ordinary thin and light notebooks, let alone ultra-thin and light notebooks, and can fully meet the needs of daily use.

(Photo source: Photographed by Lei Technology)

Performance: It’s enough, just fine

Next, let’s talk about performance.

NEC VK23TG is equipped with i5-6200U processor, which is a mobile processor released in 2015. It is built with 14nm and has two cores and four threads. The basic frequency is 2.3GHz and the maximum turbo frequency can be reached 2.8GHz, TDP is 15W.

In the CPU-Z test, the single-threaded score of this i5-6200U processor was 281.6 points, and the multi-threaded score was 763.4 points, which is almost exactly the same as the i3-10100Y on the Microsoft Surface Go3.

(Source: Lei Technology)

In terms of core display, it is equipped with HD520 core display, with a 3DMark FireStrike score of 932 points, a TimeSpy score of 328 points, and this year's thin and light notebook core display. The performance difference is more than ten times, so don't expect it in terms of gaming, but it is more than enough for video decoding and some light graphics processing.

(Source: Lei Technology)

In the latest version of Master Lu, the NEC VK23TG has a comprehensive performance score of 367885 points, which is still high for a thin and light notebook from eight years ago. It's pretty good, and it should be fine whether you're working on documents, browsing the web, or doing some basic multimedia editing.

(Source: Lei Technology)

In terms of memory, the onboard memory of NEC VK23TG is 4GB+4GB dual-channel LPDDR3, with a frequency of 1867Mhz. Using AIDA64 for memory cache testing, the measured read speed was 26539MB/s and the latency was 90.4ns. The read and write speed is indeed very slow, and the memory latency performance is okay.

(Photo source: Lei Technology)

In terms of storage, the product we have is equipped with a 256GB unknown SSD, with a measured read speed of 1622MB/s and a write speed of 901MB/ s, the performance is no different from that of cheap SATA SSD. It can only be said that it is at least better than the performance of Surface Go series.

(Source: Lei Technology)

Laptop mode: a fairly comfortable light office experience

I have to say that when I unfolded the NEC VK23TG, I simply put it When I put it on the table of a street convenience store, I suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of pleasure in my brain.

The size of the NEC VK23TG allows it to be basically integrated into a variety of relatively random and narrow office environments, whether it is a table in a coffee shop, a dining table in a convenience store, or even a conference site without a table, it seems that it can be used Easily accommodate this product.

It is a product that actively dissipates heat. It will feel a little hot when placed on your thighs.

(Photo source: Photographed by Lei Technology)

In actual use, although the absolute performance of NEC VK23TG is not outstanding, it can basically maintain good performance in my daily workflow Performance, including opening QQ, opening WeChat, editing Word documents, and viewing multiple information pages at the same time.

From this point of view, this light office scenario is indeed the ideal working environment for this product.

Of course, as long as the workload is slightly increased, such as opening Photoshop to perform simple processing on the product photos that need to be used in the article, such as dimming, cropping, etc., the limitations of this old processor and 8GB RAM will soon become apparent. , the picture editing is not very laggy, but the whole process from opening the picture to exporting the picture is so slow that it makes people a little anxious.

(Photo source: Photographed by Lei Technology)

As for the feel of the keyboard, I personally feel that it is quite comfortable to type on once you get used to it.

After talking about the good parts of the experience, let’s look at the shortcomings.

First of all, this screen. When working outside, the sun often shines on my desktop. The screen brightness of NEC VK23TG is seriously insufficient in this environment. I have to adjust my seat from time to time, trying to find a place to avoid reflections. the best angle.

The second issue is the battery life. The NEC VK23TG in my hand is equipped with a 30Wh battery, with a battery health of 79.2%, that is, the actual battery capacity is 24Wh, which is comparable to the Surface Go series. The continuous office time is about two and a half days. Hours are really not enough.

Tablet experience: Watch movies without lag, and play light games

Flip the keyboard to the back, this is the tablet mode of the 2-in-1 device.

In this mode, this product can basically be regarded as a 13-inch Windows tablet. The body weight of 730 grams makes it about the same weight as the bare machine of the Matebook E series and Surface digital series when including the keyboard. It is the unequal touch screen that makes it look a little awkward.

(Photo source: Photographed by Lei Technology)

The NEC VK23TG I have does not meet the minimum requirements for upgrading to the Win11 system, so the machine is still equipped with the Win10 system and can be used under the latest system. The "tablet mode" has been cancelled.

In tablet mode, all applications on the desktop will become dynamic tiles. When you open an application, it will open in full-screen mode by default, and it will also provide users with simple gesture operations.

As a user who has used no less than two-digit Windows portable devices, I personally feel that the dynamic tile desktop is actually more suitable for touch-screen devices than the Win11 solution. Tiles placed on the desktop can simplify user operations, and larger Icons can also effectively reduce the rate of false touches. It can only be said that Microsoft has always been unable to organically integrate the advantages of the system. It is reasonable for Indians' programming skills to be questioned.

(Photo source: Photographed by Lei Technology)

I focused on testing some light games in tablet mode, including "Slay the Spire", "Joker Card", "Nadir", "King of Ouroboros", etc., using the touch screen It is still very suitable to play this kind of card Roguelike or traditional Roguelike on the screen. There are also some two-dimensional games suitable for touch operation, which can also run very well.

Oh, by the way, the keyboard on the back will not be disabled after folding over, which is a big drawback.

Put the keyboard behind the screen, this is the tent mode of the 2-in-1 device. In this mode, you can regard the NEC VK23TG as a tablet computer with its own stand. You can place it on the kitchen console, the coffee table in the living room, or even on the bathroom sink. It is the most suitable for watching movies. a pattern.

(Photo source: Photographed by Lei Technology)

But the external sound quality is simply disaster level. I don’t know if it’s because of its age, but the NEC VK23TG amplifier I have has a “tri-band equalizer”, and the sounds are all mixed together. Every time I play music, it feels like I’m listening to an echo from the abyss. In terms of audio-visual experience, it is probably not as good as a $100 Android tablet.

Of course, this machine is only worth 750 yuan, so it’s really not too picky.

Summary: A foreign junk 2-in-1 thin and light notebook with outstanding cost performance

For NEC VK23TG, whether it is the lightweight body, fine workmanship, or relatively easy-to-use keyboard, it is impressive, and The shortcomings in external sound, performance and battery life are basically foreseeable flaws of foreign junk products at this price. Considering that a Surface Go 2 with a keyboard cover costs 1,300 yuan, you can get it for less than half the price. This product actually seems to be quite cost-effective.

If you don’t mind the appearance of foreign junk thin and light notebooks, but just want to get a two-in-one thin and light notebook to use as a tablet for watching movies, occasionally doing office work, and taking notes, then the NEC VK23TG does have enough usability, and may even More suitable for ordinary people than Surface.

(Photo source: Lei Technology)

It should be noted that based on a set of design modules using old ideas, this product has at least three different core specifications.

Currently, the most common version on Xianyu is the i5-6200U version I bought. There are five versions to choose from: 4+64G, 4+128GB, 8+128GB, 8+256GB and 16+256GB. Consider it The memory cannot be replaced or upgraded independently. Personally, it is recommended to choose the version starting with 8GB of storage. As for the i5-7200U, i7-7500U or i5-8250U online, due to heat dissipation, the performance cannot actually make a difference, so there is no need to add money. Go choose.

Finally, the NEC VersaPro UltraLite series to which this product belongs has actually been updated in the Japanese market. The latest product even uses a 12th generation Core processor while maintaining a body weight of 700g. The experience is definitely different from the foreign garbage in our hands.

It’s just the price...there’s a huge difference.

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