RDP ThinBook 1430 Review: An ultra-portable and stylish, yet very affordable laptop
For the last few years, Hyderabad-based computer manufacturer RDP has been launching products that don’t aim to compete with the high-end laptops or desktops from major brands such as Dell, Acer, etc. Instead, they have launched products for those who expect the necessary caveats that go along with a modern laptop in a price range that most people would consider budget-friendly.
The RDP ThinBook 1430 is a laptop intended for those who want a lightweight option but also come with features that can be useful for connecting to peripherals such as a USB 3.0 hard drive, televisions via the HDMI port and portable speakers or a headphone.
RDP markets the ThinBook 1430 as an option for 'people on the go' who need to perform tasks such as MS Office, get around with their social networking, surf the web and play media content in a slim, portable and stylish package.
Let’s take a look and see if the RDP ThinBook is a viable option or if you should give it a miss.
Design and Build Quality:
RDP may not be a brand name that is known across the world. However, in India, the name holds a significant amount of weight as they release budget-friendly laptops which not only look great but also perform admirably well.
As the name suggests, the RDP ThinBook 1430 is a significantly thin laptop that features a big 14-inch display. One would be hard-pressed to find such a slim laptop with this display size in a package that’s built with a high-quality plastic. Bear in mind, that though the plastic used here is of a good quality, the laptop is extremely slim. But when lifted by a bottom corner, with the screen open, the plastic tends to bend a bit, which is normal. This caused some amount of concern as we were worried that the plastic would suddenly snap. However, after using it for some days as well as repeatedly lifting it up at the corners, the RDP ThinBook held true and no threat to damage was noticed.
An interesting element of the design is the extremely thin bezels along the sides of the screen. This adds to the sleek design features used here. The bezels at the top and bottom of the display could be a tad bit slimmer, but we aren’t complaining. Overall, the laptop does resemble the looks and close dimensions of the Apple MacBook Air, albeit with a plastic body.
The keyboard used here is a full-size Chiclet-style keyboard. It's great that RDP has employed this option instead of the sculpted keys as it has a larger surface area and thereby significantly reduces the chances of accidental typos by tapping on wrong keys. Probably the only thing that we did not like about the keyboard was the Power button being placed just above the Backspace key. While typing, there are high chances that one could actually hit the power button and no one would like this especially when they are in the midst of a document.
RDP has employed a multi-touch trackpad that responds to Windows 10 gestures. The touchpad was found to be a bit sluggish, especially the right-click option. However, this can be ignored.
I/O ports found here are pretty standard and nothing exceptional to write home about. It comes with ports for a USB 3.0, a USB 2.0, a mini HDMI, and a 3.5mm headphone jack along with a microSD card slot that can be used to expand the internal storage. Lastly, a 5V charger to keep the laptop juiced up is remarkable as it is similarly sized to a mobile charger, making it easy to tote around. Sadly, the charger has a standard round jack, which does not allow for plugging in a power bank for charging on the go. A micro USB port for the charger would have hugely helped.
One thing we were not to fond of was the hinge used by RDP in the ThinBook 1430. Whenever the screen was opened and placed back down on a table, there was a significant amount of wobble. Probably the weight balancing could have been paid attention to.
Lastly, the entire laptop is dressed with a metallic grey finish, along with an RDP branding. Since the internal parts are non-movable, and the processor being an Intel Atom, there is no need for cooling fans. Hence, the laptop does not feature any heat vents, and with a flash storage built-in (no hard drives here), the entire laptop is a silent and power efficient workstation.
Display:
The screen is a 14.1-inch 720p HD LCD display panel. It can be described as average at best. Sure the RDP ThinBook 1430 gets the job done but viewing angles are definitely below average. If you are sitting dead centre in front of the screen, this will be your best bet to have a good viewing experience. It's good if one looks at it from a privacy angle, but if you are sharing a movie with a friend or two, they will be disappointed.
Look closely at the screen and you will also notice text to be a bit jagged —all thanks to the 720p resolution. But you cannot expect a higher resolution at this cost. Colour reproduction, however, is good and no over saturation was noticed. The laptop is beneficial for those who would like to view images, watch movies or do simple text work.
During media consumption like watching movies or YouTube, colours were natural allowing a smooth video experience too. Multimedia experience has no complaints from us.
Performance:
This laptop comes preloaded with Windows 10. The fact that this software comes preinstalled shows that RDP is aiming to provide the best possible solution in a budget system.
To start off, the notebook boots up really quickly — credits go to the speedy flash storage. This is always a great feature when you are out and about and quickly need to access some content. RDP employs an Intel Atom quad-core processor clocked at 1.44GHz with a burst frequency of 1.92GHz paired with 2GB of RAM. The brand has used an integrated Intel HD graphics card here which takes care of day-to-day activities. We do not recommend playing medium-heavy PC games on this laptop as it will not hold up. Playing moderate and casual games that do not require any much graphics should be fine. Apps such as Adobe Photoshop will put a massive strain on the laptop — we would not even recommend something similar here.
As mentioned earlier, RDP has provided a 32GB storage drive for the operating system and basic file and app storage. Read and write speeds are well above average and you should be seeing a faster PC experience as compared to older netbooks with a similar configuration and sporting conventional hard disk drives. However, the internal storage is a puny 32GB, which is filled by the operating system and a few applications, and the user is left with just 5GB to 8GB of space for his work/files. But since portable storage and USB flash drives are cheaper than before, plugging in an external storage for your data is the best option. You could also access them from a cloud storage if tagging around a portable hard drive is tedious for you.
This laptop fares commendably well in day-to-day tasks like MS Office, MS Paint, streaming videos, playing music and general Internet surfing. This is what this laptop is actually about and should be treated as such. Do not expect more from this baby.
As mentioned earlier too, an irritating problem we noticed was with the trackpad. The number of accidental clicks was pretty frequent and typing documents on word processing tools turned out a bit cumbersome at times. The cursor worked intermittently well at most times, but the cursor also did keep jumping all over the screen making it difficult to select anything. Probably a driver update ahead could fix this issue.
The two tiny down-firing speakers are pretty loud — while watching movies, they performed as expected. Though the speakers are reasonably loud, they are not the best sounding ones. Sounds were distorted at higher volumes. But this was expected as the cost for better speakers could increase the cost, or an increase in speaker size would only impact the slim profile.
A VGA camera is featured on the display but has a lot of lag. It is good enough to carry out casual video calls using other conventional apps.
Battery:
The battery life of the laptop is great. A single charge can get you more than 8 and a half hours of usage. While using it as our primary device we noticed that the battery died in about 7 hours with continuous screen-on time. However, this is completely subjective and will differ from user to user and how he/she uses it. What makes the battery last longer is the use of power-efficient hardware, that does not heat up and require fans. Using a flash storage instead of a hard drive also adds to the battery life.
Verdict:
The RDP ThinBook 1430 is priced at Rs 11,900 and it makes a very good entry-level laptop. It is designed for those who want a good-looking notebook that’s highly portable and just gets the job done. The laptop sports a good build quality, a decent display in size and performance and a remarkable battery life.
The RDP 1430 is best for those who need an ultra-portable computer to work with basic documentation, web research, and a Windows operating system platform. It's best aimed for those who are on a frequent travel for business and need a very basic laptop for daily important tasks such as emails, documents, printing, or presentations, apart from being a great multimedia device for entertainment on the go. All one would need is a healthy external USB storage that needs to be tagged along.
We recommend this laptop for those who are looking at opting for a highly-portable laptop with a large display or those who are looking for a starter PC on an ultra-budget price.
Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.
