T-Bao X8S Laptop Review – Low Cost Apollo Lake Option!

T-Bao/Civiltop is a fairly new laptop manufacturer known for a couple of laptops here and there, but they are an ODM with prior laptop experience. They have released what seems like a decent price proposition, $280USD for a 15.6” Apollo Lake laptop. Well its good when you don’t consider the discounts off the myriad other Apollo Lake laptops, but we’ll talk about that later.

T-Bao X8S Review

The Apollo Lake laptop market is now filled with many options for you to choose from, ranging from great but expensive (read the Chuwi Lapbook Air) to cheap and good (Chuwi Lapbook 14.1, Jumper EZBook 3 Pro). However, these laptops are almost exclusively 14” and smaller, with next to no options in the 15.6” range. Enter T-Bao’s X8S, a low cost option for those who want a nice, big screen.

T-Bao’s low cost option

T-Bao X8S Specifications

Processor	Intel Apollo Lake N3450
Display	15.6″ 1920×1080 Glossy LCD Display
RAM	6GB
Storage	64GB eMMC
Operating System	Windows 10
Cameras	5MP Camera
Battery	8,000mAh
Physical Dimensions	32.80 x 22.00 x 1.80 cm, 1.9 kg

Big thanks to Gearbest for providing this review unit.

T-Bao X8S Hardware

The body is made of hard, glossy plastic with a rough texture that is not unlikeable. The laptop tapers from back to front and the size of the laptop is incredibly small for a 15.6” screen. In fact, its very close to the XPS15 which also has razor sharp bezels, meaning that the total footprint of this laptop is indeed impressive. Clocking in at 1.9kg, the X8S feels fairly heavy.We also have ports galore, two full size USB 2.0 ports and one USB 3.0 port as well as a microSD card slot for expansion. We have a micro HDMI port as well, but I wish this was a full size HDMI port instead. There sure is room to spare on the sides for full size HDMI ports AND more USB ports, maybe even a USB-C or Microusb port also.

The hinge on the laptop is fairly stiff, requiring both hands to open it up. Surrounding the screen are razor thin bezels, giving the screen an illusion of floating. The keyboard here is fairly average, each keycap is made of plastic, and it has adequate travel.

The trackpad is large, fairly accurate, and multi-finger gestures work fairly well.

Flex city

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T-Bao X8S Display

We have a 15.6” IPS LCD with a full HD 1920×1080 resolution, and the display is quite a pleasure to look at. Its not the brightest of displays, topping out at around 250 nits, but it displays some decent colours, decently saturated, and fairly good whites, but not as deep blacks. All in all, a good screen that will do the job, just not in direct, strong sunlight.

T-Bao X8S Audio

The speakers are average in pretty much all respects, first the volume is average, it doesn’t get too loud and does get drowned out if there is constant, loud noise. Audio quality is also average, its good enough for your basic use, average clarity, average treble, however bass never gets deep or booming enough.

T-Bao X8S Battery

Battery life on the laptop is fairly characteristic for Apollo Lake laptops, it falls in line with other laptops in terms of minutes per mAh. However, it only has an 8000mAh battery, and combine that with a large 15.6” screen and battery life is below average. I get between 5-6 hours of screen on time using Chrome, and a bit more than that using Edge. Charging up the laptop takes about 2 hours.

Below average battery life

T-Bao X8S Software & Performance

We have windows 10 activated and we have a fairly responsive eMMC drive which in turn makes the laptop one of the more responsive Apollo lake laptops. the 6gb of ram is good for multitasking, but the bottleneck is still the Apollo lake. gaming wise it can play some basic games, but anything intense you got to bump down to 720p for 30fps.

T-Bao X8S Connectivity

In terms of connectivity, there is no dual band WIFI but the reception and speed of the normal WIFI is actually pretty decent, Bluetooth works well, and the ports are capable of pretty fast transfer speeds.

T-Bao X8S Verdict

This laptop isn’t perfect, its biggest failing would be the build quality. A large 15.6” laptop made of plastic is bound to have a lot of flex, and this one does. It does have below average battery life due to its large screen and slightly inadequate battery, but the rest of the laptop is decent. The T-Bao X8S can be had for $280USD if you can’t find it on sale and at that price, there are better options, like the smaller Jumper EZBook 3 Pros which regularly can be found for $250 and below. However, this laptop was recently released and its already on sale for $209 at Geekbuying which makes it an absolute steal of a deal, especially for a 15.6” laptop which is rare these days.

Great value when discounted

T-Bao X8S Gallery