Review of the iBall CompBook Netizen 4G Windows Laptop

4G and 3G USB dongles are fairly prevalent, and you'll frequently see individuals using them in cafés or in automobiles to perform business outside. Those without dongles can link their cellphones through cable or Bluetooth. There's no reason not to, especially with the cost of cellular data dropping in recent years. All of this makes us wish we could simply insert a SIM card into our laptops and be immediately and permanently connected to the internet.

Still, laptop makers in India aren't adding cellular connectivity as a feature to their computers, not even on luxury Ultrabooks where cost isn't a concern, ports are vanishing, and mobility is important. Qualcomm has touted cellular data as a major value proposition for ARM-powered Windows laptops, but the market has yet to respond. Some manufacturers only provide cellular data to business clients that purchase in large quantities. In reality, a sizable market is underserved and unhappy.

To our surprise, this opportunity is being pursued by iBall, an Indian inexpensive devices and accessories firm, rather than a large worldwide corporation. The new iBall CompBook Netizen is officially priced at a little under Rs. 25,000, yet it is offered at ShopClues for just Rs. 16,990.

The CompBook Netizen is being marketed as India's first "always-connected PC." This is the exact moniker under which Microsoft, Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm employ ultraportable PCs that boot up fast and can run for many days on a single battery. Let's take a look at everything iBall has to offer and whether it's the best laptop for business and pleasure on the road.

iBall CompBook Netizen design

We've tested a number of iBall CompBook models ranging in price from Rs. 14,000 to Rs. 22,000, and they're all almost comparable in terms of design and material quality. The new CompBook Netizen makes little changes. It's comprised of a shiny grey plastic with a speckled pattern on top and bottom. It doesn't appear cheap from a distance, but it clearly feels cheap when you use it. The metal logo on the lid, which looks nicer than the screen printing used in the past, is one upgrade we noted.

With a thickness of 24mm and a weight of 1.32kg, the CompBook Netizen is a thin and lightweight device. Because the low-power Intel Celeron CPU may operate without a fan, there are no vents. The body isn't particularly sturdy, and both the top and bottom flex readily with minimal pressure exerted. The hinge is strong, and opening and closing this laptop will require two hands.

We were pleased to find relatively small plastic borders surrounding the 14-inch screen, but the lid flexes a lot, and the display warps when bent even slightly. The screen protector on our review device seemed to be glossy plastic, however, it was loose around the edges and corners. As we used this laptop for many days, a few unpleasant air pockets formed even in the center of the screen.

In the sea of grey plastic around it, iBall's characteristic red 'i' key is a distraction, and we wish the firm would abandon this small oddity. The island-style keyboard is otherwise well-designed, with Fn-key combinations on the right working as a virtual number pad. The only issue here is the power button in the corner, which is easy to click by accident when attempting to use the Backspace key. There is no delay or resistance to prevent you from mistakenly putting the CompBook Netizen to sleep.

The power input, one USB 3.0 connector, and a Mini-HDMI 1.4a video output are all located on the left. On the right, there are two USB 2.0 connections, an Ethernet port, a 3.5mm headphones and mic combo socket, and a microSD card slot. A webcam is located above the screen, although its resolution is just 640x480 pixels. Two microphones located directly above the keyboard guarantee stereo audio recording.

This laptop's underside is actually rather fascinating. There are two flaps, each held in place by a single screw. You may add your own 2.5-inch SATA storage device to the bigger of the two. As with the CompBook Premio v2.0 and CompBook Marvel 6, a small kit with the necessary screws and brackets for a 2.5-inch hard drive or SSD is included in the box. A printed pamphlet cautions us that we cannot install an operating system and boot from this drive, and that USB devices may no longer operate correctly due to the added burden on the device's battery when a drive is inserted.

This time, though, we're more interested in the second, much smaller flap. This is where you will insert your SIM card. We were astonished to see that the slot takes a Mini-SIM, which most people regard as a full-sized SIM. These were common prior to the introduction of Micro- and Nano-SIMs, but we haven't seen this standard in use in years. If you're using a brand new SIM, you'll need to utilize an adapter or just not remove it from its surrounding plastic. Still, this isn't ideal because an adaptor might easily seize on the slot's springy contact pins.

Surprisingly, there's a label under this flap stating the presence of a microSD card slot, yet there isn't one. It appears that iBall employed a prefabricated receptacle intended for another reason. Before adding a SIM card, ensure sure the laptop is turned off. Otherwise, the card will not be acknowledged.

The iBall CompBook Netizen's build quality and general feel aren't outstanding, but for Rs. 16,990, we don't mind so much.

iBall CompBook Netizen specifications and features 

The Intel Celeron N3350 processor is as basic as a CPU can get these days. It's a little out of date, as it's built on the 2016 Atom-class Apollo Lake platform. It has two cores but no Hyper-Threading and operates at 1.1GHz with a boost speed of up to 2.4GHz. It also includes a rudimentary Intel HD Graphics 500 integrated GPU, which is significantly too weak for gaming but fully supports H.265 and VP9 video.

The 14-inch screen features a full-HD 1920x1080 resolution, which is a welcome surprise. This is a significant improvement over previous iBall CompBook models' 1366x768 resolution. The viewing angles aren't horrible, but the colours are a little bland, and we noted some inconsistent backlight bleed at high brightness levels.

You get 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage integrated. You can add up to 128GB of storage through the microSD card port, and there's also the aforementioned SATA bay if you choose to utilise it. In addition to 4G, there is Wi-Fi 802.11n and Bluetooth 4.0 for wireless communication. The battery has a capacity of 37Wh and comes with a simple wall-wart converter.

The CompBook Netizen comes with Windows 10 Home and no bundled applications other than a cellular modem configuration shortcut. This is significant because iBall has employed an unusual mix of hardware and software to provide 4G connectivity. Although Windows 10 supports cellular modems and allows you to setup them like any other network connection, iBall has employed some type of internally connected USB adaptor that appears as a virtual Ethernet connection.

You cannot access the standard Windows 10 Settings panel. Instead, the desktop shortcut navigates to http://192.168.0.1, which is an internal setup page. You must sign in using the default password ("admin"), which is printed on a very little pamphlet that comes with the box. This is the sole way to verify the strength, type, and condition of your signal.

You may (and should) modify the default password, select whether to fall back to 3G or 2G networks, establish data limitations by volume or time, and manually setup an APN (Access Point Name). You may also send and receive SMS messages and manage your SIM's phone book, but no cellular voice capabilities were apparent.

iBall CompBook Netizen performance and usage 

Let's start with the cellular data capability, which is undoubtedly the primary reason anyone would purchase this laptop. Despite several efforts and reboots, our iBall CompBook Netizen review unit initially could not identify SIM cards from two distinct service providers. However, everything functioned well the next day. We were instantly online, thanks to a strong 4G connection.

Fortunately, you don't have to sign in to the browser-based utility every time you need to connect to the internet. There is no Windows system tray icon that indicates whether you are or are not connected, or the strength of your signal. You'll also have to manually enable and cancel the cellular connection, as it remains active alongside whatever Wi-Fi network you're connected to because Windows treats it as a wired network connection.

Even when you're within range of your chosen home or office network, 4G remains active, and it's hard to determine whether it's being utilised in the background. If you have a low daily or monthly data limit, you may choose to disable the virtual Ethernet adapter or manually switch off the cellular connection using the Netizen software.

Having said that, cellular data connectivity performed admirably. We utilised the CompBook Netizen in a windowless office, on an open balcony, and in various places across the home, and the Netizen utility's status indicator only occasionally showed 3G or EDGE rather than 4G. We began to take cellular service for granted, just as we automatically expect our phones to function properly. There is no need to wait, configure, or worry about dongles. The CompBook Netizen is a success in that regard.

However, this is still a low-end budget notebook, and overall performance was disappointing. Windows 10 starts up quickly but is slow. We saw occasional temporary freezes and unpleasant stutters while trying to accomplish something as simple as clicking the browser's address bar to write a URL with more than five or six tabs open in Microsoft Edge. Opening a basic JPEG picture saved on the device's internal storage sometimes took several seconds. We were OK as long as we kept to the fundamentals.

Benchmark tests show how ineffective the Intel Celeron CPU is. In CineBench R15's single-core and multi-core tests, we received just 44 and 81 points, respectively. POVRay's internal benchmark took 18 minutes and 18 seconds to render. We received 1,056 points from PCMark 10. A 3.24GB folder of various files took 41 minutes and 2 seconds to compress, while a 1.3GB AVI film took 13 minutes and 16 seconds to encode to H.265.

As 3DMark demonstrated with just 311 points in the basic Fire Strike scenario, gaming is entirely out of the question. We tested the Unigine Valley simulation at 1280x720 with all quality settings at their lowest and still only obtained 9.1 frames per second. Finally, we ran CrystalDiskMark to see how fast the embedded storage is, and we received sequential read and write rates of 148.9MBps and 121.1MBps, respectively, with random read and write speeds of 23.02MBps and 13.13MBps.

The keys on the keyboard are neither excessively stiff or shallow. Although the arrow keys are a touch tight, overall typing comfort is fairly decent. In terms of comfort and sensitivity, we also considered the trackpad to be sufficient. With its full-HD resolution, the screen proved to be one of the CompBook Netizen's features. The videos were clear, and the text was easy to understand. However, the speakers are simply dreadful; the sound is screechy and tinny, with no depth or richness. You'd be better off ignoring the 480p webcam altogether.

One of the pillars of Intel, Qualcomm, and Microsoft's always-connected PCs is battery life. In the rigorous Battery Eater Pro test, the iBall CompBook Netizen lasted 4 hours and 16 minutes. We did able to go through 12 hours of use and had approximately 20% left over, but we kept things light with simply basic Web browsing and a little video streaming.

Verdict 

iBall definitely sees a market opportunity, and always-on cellular connectivity has the potential to be a game changer for businessmen and regular travellers alike. The way iBall has patched together hardware and software for cellular connectivity is an amazing demonstration of inventiveness — or jugaad, as we call it in India — but it doesn't make for a particularly polished end-user experience.

At Rs. 14,299, the CompBook Marvel 6 featured the same Celeron CPU and gave about the same level of performance, so the inclusion of cellular connectivity, a bigger screen, and twice the storage for only Rs. 3,000 more is a fantastic value.

If you want a super-cheap laptop and need to be online frequently, you might be ready to put up with Bluetooth tethering or an external dongle to save money, but if this price works out for you, it will mean one less thing to carry around and perhaps lose.

Because of the overall performance of the CompBook Netizen, not everyone will want to or be able to utilise this laptop to complete their task. Unfortunately, even if you're prepared to pay more for a more powerful and sophisticated laptop, you won't find many alternatives with built-in 4G. With data subscriptions more accessible than ever, the CompBook Netizen might be a very appealing option for many individuals, and we hope that large businesses take notice.