Display, Audio and Imaging

The display is where the humble Chuwi Hi8 shines. It’s an IPS panel in 1920x1200 (16:10), and it looks damn good for such a cheap device. Viewing angles are excellent and colour reproduction is good. With 1920x1200 on a small 8-inch panel, you end up with about 280ppi, which is actually more than you get on a 9.7-inch 2048x1536 panel.

The tablet also features an ambient light sensor, which is often missing in cheap Chinese tablets. This is a good idea because it has a 4000mAh battery.

Our only problem with the display has nothing to do with the hardware. Windows is still not that good on high-resolution displays, so in many situations text is too small. This is true of 9.7-inch 2048x1536 tablets, 24-inch 4K monitors and so on. We can’t blame a small Chinese outfit for Redmond’s failings, but things could have been better in Windows. Luckily, Android does not suffer from such foibles and small, high-resolution screens are put to good use by Google’s mobile OS.

Audio quality is average. The rear firing speaker is easily muffled when the tablet is sitting on your desk, but this is not a phone, so that doesn’t matter. The good news? You can’t cover the speaker while playing games or watching the occasional YouTube video.

In terms of imaging, the Chuwi Hi8 simply doesn’t have what it takes to keep up with modern smartphones or tablets. The rear camera is a 2-megapixel unit and results are poor. Still, few people use rear cameras on their tablets anyway. The front facing camera is a VGA (0.3-megapixel) unit, and it’s just not good for video calls. It’s a pity really – the company ended up with two subpar cameras on an otherwise good tablet. We feel consumers would have been better off with a 2-megapixel front camera and no camera at the back.