Experience with Wootbooks?

R

Rain King

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Hey folks,

My gaming desktop has finally become too long in the tooth to keep up with modern titles, and I'm strongly considering using this opportunity to buy a gaming laptop. Although upgrading my desktop would be cheaper, the portability of laptops (especially given that I would like to work overseas in the near future) and desire to play games on a TV in the living room (rather than at my desk) have come up often enough to be big draws.

Given how expensive gaming laptops in South Africa are, I've been eyeing Wootware's Wootbooks, which by all accounts seem to have really good price-to-performance ratios, build quality, and customer support. I'm specifically considering this "recertified" model:

[RECERTIFIED] WootBook Ultra III 3060 AMD Ryzen 7 5800H 4.40GHz Boost 8-Core 15.6" (2560x1440) 165Hz IPS NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 6GB GDDR6 Black Laptop - 6 Month Warranty - Wootware

Buy [RECERTIFIED] WootBook Ultra III 3060 AMD Ryzen 7 5800H 4.40GHz Boost 8-Core 15.6" (2560x1440) 165Hz IPS NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 6GB GDDR6 Black Laptop - 6 Month Warranty at Wootware with fast shipping & superb service.
www.wootware.co.za www.wootware.co.za

If possible, I'd like to get some more feedback from people on what their experiences with Wootbooks have been. Are they good, reliable gaming laptops? Also, has anyone had any experience running Linux on them? I'd really like to experiment with it as a potential alternative to Windows on a second SSD, but am worried about incompatibility with features like keyboard lighting, fan controls, etc.

Thanks in advance. :)
 
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No experience with them, but have been eyeing some of the models... but this makes me feel a little more comfortable with at least trying it out:

"We're confident that you'll find the WootBook to be the best option for portable, high-performance computing. If you're not fully satisfied with your WootBook, you may return it to us within 7 days of receiving it for a full refund (less shipping costs).*"

I have also been playing with the idea of getting a Handheld PC with external GPU.
 
I've also been eyeing one of them, but not for gaming.

I dont often use my notebook, but it is an old Skylake i7-6820HQ, so I would like something with more oomph.

This looks really appealing to me - https://www.wootware.co.za/wootbook...-core-16-2560x1600-90hz-ips-black-laptop.html

This seems like a much better deal that the big name i7 U-series notebooks that will cost around the same price.

I assume by the name, it actually does have a metal/aluminium body. Doesn't look bulky. Resolution/aspect ratio and resolution is appealing.
 
madrynn said:
No experience with them, but have been eyeing some of the models... but this makes me feel a little more comfortable with at least trying it out:

"We're confident that you'll find the WootBook to be the best option for portable, high-performance computing. If you're not fully satisfied with your WootBook, you may return it to us within 7 days of receiving it for a full refund (less shipping costs).*"

I have also been playing with the idea of getting a Handheld PC with external GPU.
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Hm, so several of us out there eyeing them, but not yet sure... Their return policy and responsiveness of a sales rep over email on some questions I had do count for a lot.
 
_kabal_ said:
I've also been eyeing one of them, but not for gaming.

I dont often use my notebook, but it is an old Skylake i7-6820HQ, so I would like something with more oomph.

This looks really appealing to me - https://www.wootware.co.za/wootbook...-core-16-2560x1600-90hz-ips-black-laptop.html

This seems like a much better deal that the big name i7 U-series notebooks that will cost around the same price.

I assume by the name, it actually does have a metal/aluminium body. Doesn't look bulky. Resolution/aspect ratio and resolution is appealing.
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Going by price-to-performance alone, Wootware's laptops are a better deal than anything else I've come across. And based on the few reviews I could find online, the Tongfang chassis that Wootware's laptops use is made of a magnesium alloy.
 
My Son has had one for several years and was pretty happy with it. Then he upgraded back to a Desktop. He still has it though...

WootBook Pro 1660 Ti GK5CP6V Intel Core i7-9750H 2.6GHz Hexa Core 15.6" Full HD (1920x1080) IPS 60Hz NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6GB GDDR6 Black Gaming Notebook
Bought in 2019 for R15,375.00
 
While I assume that they are generally better than Mecer efforts.... how is the software\firmware side of support?

A decade of updates or a year or so at best or not at all?
 
I bought a wootbook in March. I am pretty happy with it. It's an absolute unit of a laptop packed with performance I've never experienced before.

In terms of updates (mainly firmware / BIOS), things go a bit pear. If there is a legitimate problem that they are aware of, and Tongfang are aware of them too, then it's quite likely that they are waiting for a BIOS from them and you can mail them to ask them to let you know if and when they can send you the update. While they do have a drivers section to download updates, they don't seem to post BIOS updates there. So this is a bit of a mixed bag. Honestly, if I had to nitpick and fault Wootbooks, this would be my only complaint.

The control center is another story, it is not regularly updated. It seems to be a stock standard tongfang control center. However, the XMG control center can be compatible with your model if you are lucky. I got lucky with mine, but some aspects of it don't really work (specifically the dGPU cycling option).

Everything else (Intel drivers, dGPU drivers, etc) you can get updates from the respective vendors themselves.
 
mr_norris said:
I bought a wootbook in March. I am pretty happy with it. It's an absolute unit of a laptop packed with performance I've never experienced before.

In terms of updates (mainly firmware / BIOS), things go a bit pear. If there is a legitimate problem that they are aware of, and Tongfang are aware of them too, then it's quite likely that they are waiting for a BIOS from them and you can mail them to ask them to let you know if and when they can send you the update. While they do have a drivers section to download updates, they don't seem to post BIOS updates there. So this is a bit of a mixed bag. Honestly, if I had to nitpick and fault Wootbooks, this would be my only complaint.

The control center is another story, it is not regularly updated. It seems to be a stock standard tongfang control center. However, the XMG control center can be compatible with your model if you are lucky. I got lucky with mine, but some aspects of it don't really work (specifically the dGPU cycling option).

Everything else (Intel drivers, dGPU drivers, etc) you can get updates from the respective vendors themselves.
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Hm, how dire is it to not get regular BIOS/firmware updates? (This is a little new to me.) I'm a little concerned what this might mean if I were to run a Linux distribution on the other SSD. I don't want to have to struggle an unreasonable amount to get basic functions working.
 
Rain King said:
Hm, how dire is it to not get regular BIOS/firmware updates? (This is a little new to me.) I'm a little concerned what this might mean if I were to run a Linux distribution on the other SSD. I don't want to have to struggle an unreasonable amount to get basic functions working.
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It can be a disaster actually, like a problem with specific SSD's experiencing crashes because of a southbridge bug for example.
 
Rain King said:
Well, that introduces a whole new concern to the mix, haha.
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IMO this is being made out as a common issue, which I dont think it is?

My anecdotal evidence is that I have never had a hardware incompatibly issue in a notebook, that was fixed by a BIOS update.

If you are a corporate IT department, I probably wouldn't recommend adopting and rolling out Wootbooks, but as an individual, I don't see why not
 
Got the AMD 5800H one with RTX and slapped in 32Gb ram. I absolutely murder all my collegues with office.Used virtulizasion to bypass all the company crapware and I smile all the way.
I does run games but it is not as powerfull as a Gaming PC.
Also when you get into fun gaming the screen also gets a it on the small side . I do connnect it up on my Second 4K monitor when I need some additional service at home.
all and all not a bad laptop for the price. It did eat a 1TB NVME ssd because Mushkin Gen1 drives was not made to fit into laptops.
 
Bought our first wootbook. It's the metal 16 with 13500h 16gb ram and 1TB SSD. Crazy good performance for what you pay. Can't comment on the wootbook gaming laptops but I think they good
 
My brother and father both have wootbooks and are very happy with them. They are pretty good specs for the money. I think they are rebadged Chinese makes but Wootware’s support is excellent.

I don’t much care for the keyboards or trackpads myself but that’s very much a matter of personal taste.
 
I have one as well. Very good value for money.

Only complaint (besides not sure where one would get the drivers in the wild-besides wootware) would be my battery life.
Got a heavy i7 10875 series and it hogs power, the AMD or maybe newer i7 13 series would draw less, so battery life is meh.
 
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Rocco1 said:
I have one as well. Very good value for money.

Only complaint (besides not sure where one would get the drivers in the wild-besides wootware) would be my battery life.
Got a heavy i7 10875 series and it hogs power, the AMD 5 or maybe newer i7 12 series would draw less, so battery life is meh.
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Yes the new 13th gen and possibly 14th gen will use less power
 
Rocco1 said:
I have one as well. Very good value for money.

Only complaint (besides not sure where one would get the drivers in the wild-besides wootware) would be my battery life.
Got a heavy i7 10875 series and it hogs power, the AMD or maybe newer i7 13 series would draw less, so battery life is meh.
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Which drivers does one need to get from Wootware directly?
 
Rain King said:
and desire to play games on a TV in the living room
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Look at steam link/remote.

Have a wootbook with an i7 9750H and and an RTX 2060, works decent, like the fan profile change option for work or gaming, not sure if they still have it.

Suffers from the normal laptop issues of super loud and heat dissipation. Desktop is just better besides portability.

Drivers are not really an issue, did have a problem with a bios update with resume from hibernate, wootware gave me the copy, also replaced the cmos battery, and all sorted. It's traveled through 3 continents, many train rides and flights, build quality is good. They skimp on the mic and Webcam, though Webcam is decent for a laptop since they all generally suck, speakers are okay, rest is really decent.

Up until two or three months ago it had near daily usage as a work (RDP mostly) and gaming device with one 3 month stint of none, for probably 4 years.

Ended up upgrading to PC as needed something stronger for VR, and at this point PC is fine with steam deck for on trains and flights.

If in the market for a laptop in South Africa, would buy again.
 
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