Chuwi HiPad Max Review: Lots of RAM, Storage, LTE & GPS

Can the HiPad Max also convince in real-life use or does it only score with a good-sounding spec sheet?

Low-budget tablets from China often look above average on paper in terms of the price-value ratio, but often lack important features like the possibility of HD streaming or a decent battery life in practice. We were all the more curious to see whether Chuwi would succeed in crowning a new low-budget king with its HiPad Max at a low price of currently around 240 USD. We will find out what the 10.36-inch tablet has to offer and which weaknesses it has in our detailed review. This much in advance: If you are looking for an inexpensive entertainment tablet for everyday use, you should continue to read now.

Design & Build Quality

Visually and haptically, the HiPad Max makes a good impression. It has a 10.36-inch display, weighs 440g and is 8mm thin. The tablet is available in a dark gray shade and looks chic. The back of the device feels rough, is made of aluminum alloy and is pleasantly resistant to fingerprints.

It has a 5 MP camera in the center at the front (assuming landscape mode) and an 8 MP camera at the back. Overall, the tablet looks rather inconspicuous, but it convinces with a pleasant feel and a timeless design. Sure, it does not feel as high-end as a premium tablet, but you can hardly ask for more in terms of build quality for a price of around 240 Dollars.

Read: The Best Tablets Under 400 Dollars

The Cameras

Now let’s put our money where our mouth is: The cameras of the HiPad Max are not good and are at most suitable for snapshots and occasional video calls. The device offers a 5 MP front camera and an 8 MP AF rear camera. Fortunately, the microphone quality is relatively good, so the tablet is quite suitable for video calls despite the low picture quality. You should be aware that pretty much every current smartphone and also most tablets deliver better photos and videos than the HiPad Max.

Display & Speakers

The display of the CHUWI HiPad Max is 10.36 inches, offers 60 Hz and a resolution of 2000 x 1200 pixels. It’s great that it’s a laminated display. Even Apple does without a laminated screen on its iPad 10.

It offers a relatively low pixel density of 225 ppi, which is sufficient considering the price and the size of the display. The screen is also sufficiently bright at 400 nits, although we always welcome more screen brightness for viewing the tablet outdoors, of course. However, this is not a problem indoors or outdoors in the shade.

We are somewhat disappointed by the tablet’s low viewing angle stability. If you do not look straight ahead at the device, the picture gets noticeably darker and lower in contrast. The color and contrast values of the CHUWI HiPad Max are okay. As expected, the IPS panel is not a high-flyer, but it is good enough for watching movies, surfing the web or occasionally gaming.

Speaking of watching movies – the HiPad Max has Widevine Level 1 on board and thus offers the option of streaming Netflix, YouTube and the like in HD. This is a clear advantage over other low-budget devices from the Far East that only support a lower resolution.

The tablet has two speaker slots at the top and bottom edges. The sound is relatively one-dimensional and flat. When the volume of the CHUWI HiPad Max is increased too much, the trebles overdrive and the sound becomes very tinny. This problem is noticeable from about 70 percent volume.

Overall, we are rather disappointed by the sound quality of the speakers. However, the sound is good enough to occasionally watch videos on YouTube. However, we recommend using headphones for a better entertainment experience. Since the device does not have a 3.5 mm jack, you will have to connect them to the HiPad Max via Bluetooth or USB-C.

Hardware & Performance

The tablet’s hardware is impressive with the good Snapdragon 680 8-core processor with up to 2.4 GHz clock speed, which is pretty snappy and efficient thanks to the 6nm manufacturing process. The Adreno 610 GPU is responsible for the graphics.

It is very nice that the HiPad Max is equipped with 8 GB of LPDDR RAM. This ensures that apps do not close so quickly in the background. Furthermore, the tablet offers 128 GB of storage capacity, which can be expanded by up to 512 GB via microSD card. Furthermore, the device has dual 4G LTE, dual sim, 2.4G/5G WIFI, GPS and Bluetooth 5.0 on board.

The tablet achieved 375 points in the single-core and 1498 points in the multi-core test in the Geekbench 5 test.

A direct competitor of the HiPad Max is, for example, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite 2022, which is a bit more powerful with 561 points in single-core and 1747 points in multi-core. 

The Samsung Galaxy Tab A8, on the other hand, is on a slightly weaker level than the HiPad Max with 366 points in single-core and 1300 points in multi-core.

The HiPad Max achieved a total score of 450 in the 3D Mark Wild Life benchmark.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 achieved 713 points. 

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite 2022 is considerably faster than the Chuwi tablet – it achieved a total score of 1049 points, which is more than twice as high.

The HiPad Max only achieved 124 points in the Wild Life Extreme Test. Here, too, the Chuwi tablet has to admit defeat to the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 (181 points) and the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite 2022 (315 points).

Our practical test confirms the measured results. Especially on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite 2022, gaming feels noticeably smoother compared to the HiPad Max. Furthermore, higher graphics settings are available on the Samsung than on the Chuwi HiPad Max. 

However, Chuwi’s tablet handles moderate tasks like Netflix, surfing or gaming with medium to low settings wonderfully.
Simple multitasking is also possible on the device. Nevertheless, the HiPad Max is obviously not a workhorse for computing-intensive tasks. Ambitious gamers or creatives who want to use their tablet for 4k video editing or image processing of high-resolution RAW pictures better look around for more powerful alternatives.

Even if the hardware does not pull out any trees, the tablet is good enough to smoothly play games like Apex Legends or PUGB Mobile in low settings.

PUGB Mobile runs smoothly in the lowest graphics setting “smooth”. If you set the graphics to “balanced”, the gameplay is already less smooth. Textures also load visibly. This means that trees or the ground in front of you only gradually take shape. This creates a not very immersive gameplay. Higher graphics settings than “balanced” are not available on the Chuwi HiPad Max. The game honestly does not look very pretty on the aforementioned graphics settings. You can play PUGB Mobile on the tablet, but you will not really enjoy it due to the weak graphics.

Apex Legends can be played smoothly in the graphics quality “soft” and frame rate “normal”. The setting “normal” is also playable and no serious frame rate drops can be felt. All settings beyond that are not selectable. However, the game doesn’t really look good on the available graphics settings either.

Read: The Best Tablets For Gamers Tested

The operating system itself runs stably. However, everything seems a bit more rounded or faster in the aforementioned Samsung competition.

It is also worth mentioning that a matching keyboard with touchpad is available for the HiPad Max. However, we could not test this at the moment.

Software: Android 12

Android 12 is preinstalled on the CHUWI HiPad Max. It’s unclear whether or how many updates the device will receive. The nice thing is that the tablet comes with pure Android. There is no annoying third-party software on the HiPad Max. Only the Google suite and some system apps are pre-installed.

Battery Life

The HiPad Max has a 7,000 mAh battery, which doesn’t provide particularly good battery runtime. 

In our battery test, the CHUWI HiPad Max achieved a runtime of six hours. For this, we ran an HD YouTube video in an endless loop at maximum brightness.

It is also worth mentioning that the tablet only supports 10W slow charging. However, we find this bearable in view of the price.

On a positive note, the HiPad Max has relatively low power consumption in standby mode.

Chuwi HiPad Max: Final Verdict

For around 200 Euros, the Chuwi HiPad Max is a clear recommendation. With the solid Snapdragon 680 8-core processor combined with 8 GB RAM and 128 GB storage capacity, the tablet offers a nice overall package and sufficient performance considering the price. Even LTE and GPS are included and, thankfully, Widevine Level 1, which enables video streaming in HD.

The display is laminated and sufficiently sharp and bright. However, the viewing angle stability in particular could be better. However, we were not convinced by the speakers, which overdrive at high volumes. We also do not know if or how many updates there will be for the HiPad Max.

However, the tablet is very suitable as an entertainment tablet for enjoying Netflix and the like, surfing the web and occasionally gaming.

Let’s take a look at the competition.

The Galaxy Tab A8 is already available at under 200 Dollars. However, we only get 32 GB of storage and only 3G RAM here. The version with 64 GB storage capacity is available for a bit more. Furthermore, we only get the Wi-Fi variant for this price and not LTE like in the Chuwi tablet. The resolution of the Galaxy Tab A8’s display is a tad lower at 1920 x 1200 pixels compared to the HiPad Max’s 2000 x 1200 pixels. Otherwise, the screens are very similar in terms of color and contrast values as well as the general picture quality. In return, the speakers of the Samsung tablet sound better than those of the Chuwi competitor. Overall, we would still go for the HiPad Max due to the better overall package.

If you want more computing power, a better display, and better speakers, we recommend the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite 2022 Edition.