MicroXperts MXP U400-04 Ultrabook Review. Re-load


    Another ultrabook from a Russian manufacturer. Immediately I will make a remark that the platform itself is produced in Taiwanese factories, and in Russia, assembly to the finished product and pre-sale preparation and testing are underway. MicroXperts has already hit the market with a platform from Lengda, and here is the second coming. The model is called MicroXperts U400-04 and is based on the Pegatron B14Y - a 14-inch base from one of the leaders in the ODM industry.
    Unfortunately, I received a pre-production copy in OEM packaging for testing, the retail version is to be seen already on the shelves of Yulmart cybermarkets. Therefore, I will manage without photographs of the package and other delights of the story about cardboard and plastic accessories. Right to the point, closer to the hardware. As you can see from the title photo, the ultrabook has a black and silver color and a very thoroughbred exterior. In all respects, it meets the requirements that Intel places on devices called Ultrabook.
    I’ll talk a little about the platform manufacturer. Pegatron has long been successful in the market. It was originally a subsidiary of ASUStek, but after the restructuring of the industry giant, Pegatron gained almost complete independence. It is widely known about close cooperation with ASRock, which manufactures its products at Pegatron facilities. In addition, in retail you can find motherboards, monoblocks, nettops and platforms for assembling laptops under the Pegatron brand. Even the beloved Apple does not only manufacture its devices at Foxconn factories, but also places a part on Pegatron, which even caused a small scandal. Pruflinks can easily be found on the Internet, the essence of the matter was the choice of either Pegatron producing Zenbook for ASUS, or iPhone for Apple. However, this is lyrics, we continue the conversation about the platform.

    Complying with all Intel requirements, the manufacturer refused to use an optical drive, as this would not have allowed the device to be made up to 18 mm thick. On the sides are connectors for peripheral devices and a power adapter. Left: VGA video output (in my purely personal opinion not needed already), Kensington lock slot, Ethernet port, HDMI port and one USB 3.0 connector. On the right are: a combined audio jack, SD / SDHC card reader, USB 2.0, USB 3.0 and a connector for connecting a power adapter.




    The power button is located to the right separately from the main keyboard, many find this location very convenient. The blue backlight of the button is an indicator of the power on, there are no other light indicators on the ultrabook, there is neither an LED responsible for charging indication, nor an indicator of hard drive activity. A controversial decision, most users are accustomed to determine the state of charge precisely by the LED.

    The touchpad is large enough, rough to the touch. The surface is not recessed relative to the keyboard. The part closest to the user is divided into two buttons, between which there is a blue LED that lights up when the ultrabook is turned on.




    The MicroXperts U400-04 keyboard is comfortable, but not without flaws. First, the merits: full-sized cursor keys, “island” type of keyboard, quiet and smooth key travel, different colors of Latin letters and Cyrillic letters. One minus - a little walking at hand when working surface.

    Under the keyboard are a few screws that hold the bottom cover, which frankly is inconvenient, but only for those who like to disassemble the devices that got to them. An ordinary user will not get into disassembling an ultrabook, which means that he will not face difficulties. By the way, I note that unlike many devices, MicroXperts U400-04 is almost devoid of stickers and labels. Only the Intel Core i5 logo is minimalistic and commendable.

    The bottom cover of the ultrabook is solid and plastic. A few vents and a sticker with the serial number of the platform - that’s the whole poor set of jewelry.

    But having unscrewed nine screws from below and seven under the keyboard, you can get to unearthly riches and the fabulous beauty of the insides.

    The battery capacity declared by the manufacturer is 3320 mAh, the supply voltage is 14.8 V. Not the highest performance, but let's wait for performance tests before judging the battery life.

    RAM is typed by one SO-DIMM DDR3-1333 module with a capacity of 4 gigabytes of production Kingston.

    Good news for fans of the upgrade: two slots for RAM are divorced on the platform. At the same time, the maximum amount of supported memory is 16 gigabytes, that is, an experienced user will be able to independently increase the amount of memory by adding a second module or replacing it with a more capacious one.

    The Atheros AR5BWB225 Wireless Module supports 802.11 b / g / n and Bluetooth 3.0. The wired network interface is represented by a Realtek RTL8111 microcircuit.

    Under the heat pipe, the heart of the ultrabook is hidden - the Intel Core i5-3317U processor.

    Heat outside the MicroXperts U400-04 case is removed by a tangential type fan, in other words, a turbine directed to the rear panel. Air intake is carried out through the openings on the bottom panel, so be careful not to put the ultrabook on a soft surface so as not to block the air access to the cooling system.

    The Crucial SSD is 128 gigabytes, which is enough for most users. External hard drives and network storage have not been canceled yet.

    There is a place for installing a drive with mSATA interface on the board. This makes it possible to use a hybrid storage system, that is, a classic 2.5 "hard drive and an SSD drive. The cost of such a solution will be lower than only a solid state drive, and the amount of data will increase significantly.

    Now about the stuffing in detail. Intel Core i5 3317U processor with a frequency of 1.7 GHz is the basis of the MicroXperts ultrabook.

    Information about the motherboard: Intel HM77 chipset is a common thing for ultrabooks.

    General screenshot of the HWInfo64 program The


    RAM runs at 1333 MHz with timings of 9-9-9-24-1T in single-channel mode. mouth ovke second module turns on two-channel memory mode.

    The SPD of the RAM module confirms what has already been seen in the photograph - manufacturer Kingston.

    The graphics adapter is integrated into the processor. The Intel Core i5 3317U uses the Intel HD Graphics 4000.

    Information about the solid state drive. Again, nothing surprising, the data matches what was seen inside. Already after taking the screenshot, I noticed that the E9 attribute responsible for disk wear is not visible, but given that the SSD is completely new and turned on only 7 times, I think there is no doubt that the resource is 100%.

    The drive is based on the Marvell 88SS9174 controller - a widespread option for many SSDs. The memory was produced by Micron using a 25-nm process technology.

    Now for the tests. Since the Windows 8 operating system is installed on the ultrabook, it is not possible to compare the built-in test with an analogue from Windows 7, but this screenshot will be useful for future tests. The weakest point in the opinion of the famous OS is the graphics core.
    MocroXperts U400-04
    The RAM test does not show the maximum performance due to a single-channel solution, but the possibility of expanding the memory in the future, IMHO is more useful.

    The read / write speed test of a solid-state drive shows the strengths of the Marvel controller when reading and not the highest write speed, which is associated with a small SSD. The same drive, but 256 gigabytes will write data faster. At the same time, it is worth noting that work is significantly faster than with a conventional hard or hybrid system.

      A comprehensive performance test of PC Mark 7 shows good results, this is due to new video coding technologies in third-generation Intel Core processors and a fast solid state drive.

    The utility for power management not only allows you to select the operating mode, but also shows the current power consumption of the ultrabook.

    MicroXperts U400-04 has a better temperature regime than many competitors. The maximum processor temperature as a result of tests was 69 degrees.

    And here is the battery life test. Despite the small capacity, the ultrabook turned out to be quite tenacious. The result of just over 3 hours under synthetic load allows you to expect 5-6 hours of work in real time with office applications.


    What's in the balance: the device is quite solid, not without features and shortcomings, but with advantages and a democratic price. The version that I tested will cost about 24,000 in the retail network, which with these characteristics is pretty good. Of course, as an alternative to the top-end ASUS ZenBook or, especially, the Apple MacBook Air, you cannot consider the MicroXperts U400-04, but you can compete with Acer and Lenovo. Another very important feature is the warranty period of 3 years, even large vendors do not give such terms for their products, and the ability to safely service the device is important for many consumers.

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