Eve V review: my new favorite Windows 10 convertible tablet

It’s been quite a while since the last time I did a review! Managing WindowsReport.com and its daily operations is quite a task, but it feels great to get back to writing, at least once in a while.

I’ve always been a huge fan of small companies and the values they believe in, so talking about the Eve V was a no-brainer. Touted as the first-ever crowd-developed computer by Eve-Tech, this 2-in-1 detachable convertible, is, at least in my opinion, the best alternative to the Microsoft Surface.

Hell, considering at what’s inside, you could even say it’s better!

Unwrapping

Right from the beginning, I was surprised to see how well-protected the device was, which shows how much Eve-Tech values our feedback. I just hope yours will reach you just as safe. Cheers to to guys who made up that logo, it reminded me of “V for Vendetta”. And the whole “We beliEVE” wording is quite nice, well done.

This shows that the company knows that it’s not just about how good a product is but also about how you interact with it, how you wait for it to be shipped, how you explore the world with it… Yeah, it reminded me of Apple!

I tear up the white wrapper and in front of me appears a beautiful black box with an incredibly silky touch. So smooth, so nice and there you have the motto:

developed by one thousand minds

My first impressions are that this is a company truly built around the community. No wonder why they have a dedicated website to interacting with customers. I just have to wonder – if they grow bigger, will this attitude remain the same? I truly hope so.

After seeing once again how much they value all those who contributed,  I’m ready to see what’s inside.

The contents

That cold feeling when you take it in your hands and the beautiful dark blue-ish color. The device doesn’t seem heavy but nor light, I’d say it has medium weight when you take it into your hands. But when you look at what’s inside, it’s actually a miracle they managed to keep it at this weight (around 1.2kgs).

The keyboard is incredibly smooth to use, but in my opinion, it is subject to being quickly worn out. I’ll be updating this in 1 month or 2 with my impressions.

For me it was also the first time when I had completed the set up of a new Windows device, being assisted by Cortana. And I can definitely say I liked it, it was much more interactive.

Also, it was the first time using a Windows Hello-compatible device, so setting up a fingerprint protection also felt nice. The initial setup was surprisingly fast. The version that I reviewed was the i7 one, so I can honestly say it is super fast. At least for what I had to do with it, anyway.

Make sure to buy the right adapter, by the way, because it doesn’t come with one. So, to recap, inside you get also the keyboard and pen (included in the price!), a power adapter, USB-C Chord. It also comes with Windows 10 Home Edition pre-installed.

They keyboard

After using the Eve V for a couple of hours, I can say that I fell in love again with writing on a detachable keyword, touching the screen – all those things that come with small screens. At my work place I have a bigger laptop with a Bluetooth keyboard, so that my screen won’t be too close to my eyes.

The keyboard also comes with an integrated battery, so it has life on its own. But the really cute part about it is that it comes with 7 different backlight colors, and during the night it is really cool. Eve Tech claims to have used the highest quality materials such as trackpad with gorilla glass surface and Alcantara fabric.

Display

But after using the Eve V, I’ll definitely make it my #1 choice when it comes to doing casual work, checking emails, replying quickly and what not. That 12.3 inch IGZO LCD screen is just perfect for this. It also comes with a 2880×1920 resolution, a 1:1500 contrast ratio and 100% RGB. I also enjoyed the fact that I didn’t have to mess around with any calibration or other annoying things – the device was ready to go.

Also the guys at Eve Tech boast that

the display of every V is individually calibrated with colorimeter at the factory floor by our quality guys to match the sRGB
standard. We are the only company doing this on mass scale!

And yes, I can attest that the display does indeed feel very warm and easy to use, leaving aside all the technicalities.

Audio

While audio wasn’t amazing or super clear when played at loud volume, I was still impressed. And I guess that’s thanks to the Quad speakers with a 1W dedicated headphone jack along with the Audio Jack Amplifier by Texas Instruments.

Also, Cortana can hear me very well every time I say something, and I guess that’s thanks to the 2 noise cancelling microphones present on the Eve V.

Gaming

I downloaded World of Tanks Blitz from the Windows Store and everything went incredibly smooth. I guess it can run many other more capable games, as it comes with enough processing power – i7 : Intel 7th Gen Core i7-7Y75 and 16 GB LPDDR3 RAM.

Of course, you won’t get the same with less powerful models and let’s not forget that it has integrated graphics. So, as a conclusion, it’s good as long as you don’t expect to be playing on it the newest AAA games.

Connectivity, battery

The device comes with enough ports so that you could connect even more accessories than the Pen. You get the following:

• 2x USB-A 3.0
• 1x USB-C 3.0
• 1x Thunderbolt 3 USB-C
• 1x 3.5mm audio
• 1x Micro SDXC reader

My first impression was that the battery is quite capable. Since we’re talking about a crowd-funded computer, this too was an aspect that the community had a big say in.

It seems consumers didn’t mind an extra mm of thickness to the device, to fit a bigger battery inside. And if you ask me, that was a wise decision, indeed. Here are the main features:

• 48Wh battery!
• Very power-efficient components such as Core Y CPU, IGZO display and low power PCIe storage

This enables the Eve V to get max boost and endurance to the battery. Besides this, it seems that future firmware upgrade will allow to achieve even more battery performance.

Overall performance

The fact that the device comes with 0% bloatware is super amazing, and saves you from having to install other stuff to remove unwanted software. And besides all the specs and technical details, there is a real mission behind this product and a careful attention to the product itself:

With Eve our only aim is to create high quality devices at affordable price. By having techies crowd-develop them. We start from a clean slate. Instead of cheaping out on components to achieve affordable pricing, we changed the way the Vs are manufactured and sold to the people. Each V is sold exclusively online, directly to the users without any middle men involved, and manufactured on demand.

Each time a person places an order to our online store, we place an individual order directly to the factory, and once ready, we ship it directly to the user.
Quality is our highest priority. Each V takes around a month to be produced, have the quality checked, color calibrated and finally shipped to the end user. Zero inventory stocking and absence of middle men allow us to have such competitive pricing.

All in all, this device manages to solve many of the issues for those always on the go – it’s not as big as a laptop nor as small as a phone. Thus, for those who are involved in working with a computer and moving a lot, this is a great choice.

A flash sale will start on December 4th on Eve’s official website, and if you’re on the lookout for a  “Surface Pro killer”, let me say that you’ve found it. Oh, and you save a nice $860 if you buy the top version, when compared to the Surface Pro 2017.

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We will be organizing a giveway very soon on WindowsReport.com, so you’ll have the chance to win a super-awesome Eve V, so stay tuned!

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