★★★★★ The price-point of this model puts it neck to neck with the Chromebook models out there, only with the power of Windows 10. So much better! We find that the Chrome OS is boring and lacks anything beyond the experience that could be considered a small step up from a basic tablet.What makes it worth talking about is that 8GB of RAM is a perfect starting point for Windows 10 and plenty enough if you decided to go with Linux instead (stay away from the 4GB solutions out there as you'll eventually find yourself disappointed with their performance). This is a great option for users at home looking to get onto the web, check their mail, stream their favorite shows, or even play some games in the cloud (just not installed games that require a solid video card and high-end hardware). It would also work great in the corporate world as well for a general workstation.The drive inside is indeed M.2, however, it is SATA and not PCIe (and they do mention this). Not much of a surprise given the price of everything, and absolutely necessary to remain modern in today's evolving industry of PCs. Especially if you are looking for a thin-profile laptop like this while hoping that it actually works.Sadly, there aren't any USB-C ports to play with but you do at least get two USB 3.0 ports. We are so tired of PC manufacturers sneaking USB 2.0 ports into modern designs to this very day. You can see this in our review of theirs. For this one, they are both USB 3.0, so that's a plus. You also get a mini HDMI out (but no cable, so you're on your own there), a headset jack, and a microSD slot.The touchpad is huge and responsive with a multi-point touch. It works quite well and the size is good if you use drawing/photo software.The screen looks great. It isn't the best screen we have come across or anything, but it is crisp and clear for the price point and does it a lot of justice. It is not a touch-screen *(in case there is any confusion or question of this). Part of the page had mentioned this clearly in a form of a typo. As long as they fix that, it shouldn't reflect the quality of the actual product.Once you make it through the Windows setup screen and you land into the desktop, you may notice (we did) that the installed Google Chrome browser is in Chinese. You can change this or reinstall Chrome to fix this. Everything else seems to be fine. Honestly, we couldn't dock it any points for that. It is a laptop developed by a Chinese company that's trying to break out to the rest of the world. Baby-steps.Again, when it comes to gaming, this is an entry-level laptop that kills at being an entry-level laptop, but it isn't a high-end laptop that is going to kill at gaming for directly installed games. There is no embedded Nvidia chipset or anything. However, it should do just fine with cloud-hosted gaming since most of the resources are being spent within the cloud, allowing most any PC to be able to take part.All-in-all, we really like this laptop for an entry-level solution for those that don't need a lot of power, yet still want something that is powerful enough to actually work. We have come across many 4GB solutions within this price range, and all of them didn't fare so well by us score-wise. This one hits the nail right on the head and marches forward as you'd expect. A very nice surprise and competes well within its range.**If you have found our review helpful, please vote it as helpful below so we know. This helps us to provide quality feedback in the future.

★★★★★ Your browser does not support HTML5 video.  I’ve been handed the task to recommend inexpensive laptops that can be used by children in the family for distant learning. After considering the budget, flexibility, features, upgradability, form factor, and ease of use, I decided to buy this BMAX MaxBook X13A. It is just right for our needs.The package is surprisingly well thought off, securely packed with minimal branding. Inside the box is just the laptop, a power supply with interchangeable sockets, and user manual. This laptop is very light, something that reminds me of the MacBook Air. It feels good to carry and has a premium feel in it. The chassis is a combination of aluminum and plastic with a unibody design. I love that there is an access door for easy M.2 (2242) SSD upgrade, I was able to upgrade the drive for just around 5 minutes. There is no option to upgrade the RAM, just onboard memory without any extra slots. So, the 4GB memory is just barebone to get you going for casual office tasks and online browsing. Be aware that at first boot, Windows will apply a lot of major updates, it will take a while to finish these major updates and I suggest to just let it finish to avoid frustration. Once the updates are all done, the computer feels quick and snappy. I installed a free Office Suite (LibreOffice) and it works surprisingly fast. Other apps like GIMP (photo editor), Inkscape, Dia, and Darktable all worked smoothly. Although Google Chrome works fine, I suggest using other browsers like Microsoft Edge or Firefox to avoid having issues with lack of memory.I removed the entire bottom cover to check out the hardware (warning: this will void the warranty). Under the hood has a 34.96Wh battery, which should be enough to last around 6 hours on a dual core cpu. It also has a massive heatsink for passive cooling, so this means the bottom may get a little hot (which is normal for passive cooling). I wish there was an extra memory slot for upgradability, but there is none.I will not bore you with benchmarks and numbers, but rather a real day to day experience. For Office applications, this laptop performs very well. It can handle multi-tasking with 2 to 3 office apps open without any problem. The screen is also perfect for media consumption. It is non-reflective which is great to watch movies on different angles, no glare or light reflections. The keyboard has a nice tactile feedback and very enjoyable to type on. I like that the touchpad is a little large and smooth to use, no need to bring an external mouse. The speakers and mic are ok, not great, but good enough to hear what you need to hear. Using a Bluetooth headset will definitely make a big difference. I have also installed Linux (LinuxMint) on this laptop just prior to writing this review. All hardware were detected fine, and definitely performs more snappy than Windows.Overall, I am very impressed with this laptop, it has a premium feel and performs very well on casual office tasks. I strongly recommend using Linux on this laptop for a more robust performance. If you are looking for a budget laptop to accomplish casual tasks, this laptop is a very great option. Highly recommended.

★★★★★ Your browser does not support HTML5 video.  This laptop is very sleek and solid as well as being able to handle all the tasks I put it through. The 8 Gigs of ram and SSD Hard drive handled my Video editing software no problem as well game emulation and some newer games off app store. If you are looking for a laptop under $300 this thing is really worth every penny at least so far for me. Photoshop looks and runs great on this machine. For viewing the Internet and streaming it works great the laptop also has quiet fans and does not seem to get very hot even while running several large programs at same time. Make sure you do all the windows updates upon arrival but after that this thing is running amazing. The keyboard feels great it is sturdy and easy to type on. Sometimes these thin laptops have flimsy keyboards but this feels great along with the track pad. The packaging is also very nice giving a great unboxing experience. The storage is expandable with just a slot accessed on back of unit which you may want to upgrade if using this for video editing and stuff like that cause after operating system you will be left with 80gig of storage. There is also a micro SD card slot so you could also always use that for more storage as well. It can output HDMI into a monitor or TV if you wanna use it like a media center also. I was overall very impressed with this product I review alot of products and this one exceeded my expectations.

★★★★★ Your browser does not support HTML5 video.  I’ve been handed the task to recommend inexpensive laptops that can be used by children in the family for distant learning. After considering the budget, flexibility, features, upgradability, form factor, and ease of use, I decided to buy this BMAX MaxBook X13A. It is just right for our needs.The package is surprisingly well thought off, securely packed with minimal branding. Inside the box is just the laptop, a power supply with interchangeable sockets, and user manual. This laptop is very light, something that reminds me of the MacBook Air. It feels good to carry and has a premium feel in it. The chassis is a combination of aluminum and plastic with a unibody design. I love that there is an access door for easy M.2 (2242) SSD upgrade, I was able to upgrade the drive for just around 5 minutes. There is no option to upgrade the RAM, just onboard memory without any extra slots. So, the 4GB memory is just barebone to get you going for casual office tasks and online browsing. Be aware that at first boot, Windows will apply a lot of major updates, it will take a while to finish these major updates and I suggest to just let it finish to avoid frustration. Once the updates are all done, the computer feels quick and snappy. I installed a free Office Suite (LibreOffice) and it works surprisingly fast. Other apps like GIMP (photo editor), Inkscape, Dia, and Darktable all worked smoothly. Although Google Chrome works fine, I suggest using other browsers like Microsoft Edge or Firefox to avoid having issues with lack of memory.I removed the entire bottom cover to check out the hardware (warning: this will void the warranty). Under the hood has a 34.96Wh battery, which should be enough to last around 6 hours on a dual core cpu. It also has a massive heatsink for passive cooling, so this means the bottom may get a little hot (which is normal for passive cooling). I wish there was an extra memory slot for upgradability, but there is none.I will not bore you with benchmarks and numbers, but rather a real day to day experience. For Office applications, this laptop performs very well. It can handle multi-tasking with 2 to 3 office apps open without any problem. The screen is also perfect for media consumption. It is non-reflective which is great to watch movies on different angles, no glare or light reflections. The keyboard has a nice tactile feedback and very enjoyable to type on. I like that the touchpad is a little large and smooth to use, no need to bring an external mouse. The speakers and mic are ok, not great, but good enough to hear what you need to hear. Using a Bluetooth headset will definitely make a big difference. I have also installed Linux (LinuxMint) on this laptop just prior to writing this review. All hardware were detected fine, and definitely performs more snappy than Windows.Overall, I am very impressed with this laptop, it has a premium feel and performs very well on casual office tasks. I strongly recommend using Linux on this laptop for a more robust performance. If you are looking for a budget laptop to accomplish casual tasks, this laptop is a very great option. Highly recommended.

★★★★★ Your browser does not support HTML5 video.  This laptop is very sleek and solid as well as being able to handle all the tasks I put it through. The 8 Gigs of ram and SSD Hard drive handled my Video editing software no problem as well game emulation and some newer games off app store. If you are looking for a laptop under $300 this thing is really worth every penny at least so far for me. Photoshop looks and runs great on this machine. For viewing the Internet and streaming it works great the laptop also has quiet fans and does not seem to get very hot even while running several large programs at same time. Make sure you do all the windows updates upon arrival but after that this thing is running amazing. The keyboard feels great it is sturdy and easy to type on. Sometimes these thin laptops have flimsy keyboards but this feels great along with the track pad. The packaging is also very nice giving a great unboxing experience. The storage is expandable with just a slot accessed on back of unit which you may want to upgrade if using this for video editing and stuff like that cause after operating system you will be left with 80gig of storage. There is also a micro SD card slot so you could also always use that for more storage as well. It can output HDMI into a monitor or TV if you wanna use it like a media center also. I was overall very impressed with this product I review alot of products and this one exceeded my expectations.

★☆☆☆☆ This is an absolutely worthless piece of trash. Do not buy it under any circumstances. Getting this POS out of the box, I hit ESC on startup to enter BIOS -- so far so good. Disable secure boot, disable fast boot -- fine. Set to boot from my UEFI Lubuntu 16.04 LTS thumb drive to install a real OS -- no boot. Reset to setup mode, try again -- no boot.Done. This is a garbage piece of crap. Cannot install a real OS, therefore cannot be used for any purpose except as a doorstop. Would give it zero stars if it were possible. Returning for refund.P.S.: After much research, the problem is that the people who built this POS laptop decided to use a 32-bit American Megatrends BIOS for a 64-bit system, presumably to save money. So no 64-bit bootloader on a USB will work. The only solution is to go full insane geek mode and perform major surgery on one's boot disk, coercing it to operate with some 32-bit bootloader to load a 64-bit OS. Like I said before -- stay away from this Frankenstein Monster POS.