If you’re on a budget and looking for a very capable and portable entry-level notebook then you might want to look at the Neo Basic B11W. It features an 11.6-inch HD display, Intel celeron CPU, 2GB RAM, metallic build, Windows 8.1 OS, and an affordable price tag. Read our full review below to find out if it’s worth the money.
Design and Construction
When we first got our hands on the B11W, we immediately liked its overall build and design. Notebooks with affordable price tags normally come with plastic builds and uninspired design, but it is certainly not the case with the B11W. Although still totally made of plastic, it comes with metallic finishes to give it a close-to-premium look and feel.
The B11W also comes with plenty of ports. On the left you’ll see the Kensington security lock slot, VGA display port, HDMI port, USB 3.0, and the mic and headset jacks. On the right is the DC power jack, Ethernet port, SD card reader, and two USB 2.0 ports.
Open the lid and you’ll see the 11.6-inch display and the glossy plastic bezel, 1 megapixel HD webcam, the chiclet keys, power button, and the touchpad. Take a look underneath and you’ll find the four rubber nubs, and a couple of speaker grills and heat vents.
On hand, the B11W is light and easy to lug around. It also features a relatively slim body so it won’t take much space inside a bag. The keyboard is also decent with nicely-spaced keys. However, it feels plastic-y and flimsy — like it will easily come off if you lift it with your fingernail.
Touchpad performance is also okay but the real estate is a bit limited and not smooth enough. On the bright side, the space on the sides provide your palms with enough room to rest on so it doesn’t feel cramped when typing.
Display and Multimedia
The B11W comes with an 11.6-inch display with a resolution of 1366 x 768 or equal to 135ppi. It’s not exactly high-resolution but is enough for a display of this size. It has decent viewing angles and good colors. However, it doesn’t have touch screen which makes the Metro UI a bit cumbersome to navigate.
Given its ample display size, the B11W also makes a good portable multimedia device. It can easily play your favorite high-res videos. However, the speakers leave a lot to be desired as it lacks in loudness and sounds hollow. So if you’re planning to watch movies on-the-go an external speaker or headphones are still recommended for a better listening experience.
Software and Performance
Running the software side is Microsoft’s Windows 8.1 OS 64-bit. We expect it to come with free Microsoft Office Home & Student 2013 unfortunately it does not. As for its storage, the B11W is equipped with a 500GB HDD with 458GB left for the user.
Powering the device is an Intel Celeron N2830 2.16GHz Dual-Core CPU coupled with 2GB DDR3 RAM and Intel HD Graphics. Performance is good when it comes to basic tasks such as Internet surfing, Multimedia, and MS Office. There are times that it feels sluggish and we get the “Not Responding” notification in some folders and applications. It happens rarely but it is annoying when it does.
We tested its gaming capabilities using Call of Duty 4 – Modern Warfare and it was able to play the game in its lowest graphic settings. There are occasional lags but it’s good to know that the B11W can put up with such games.
Battery Life
We placed the B11W through our routine battery test which involves putting the device in Airplane Mode, setting brightness and volume to 50%, and playing a Full HD movie on loop with headset plugged in. The result is 3 hours worth of playback which is below average.
Conclusion
The Neo Basic B11W is an affordable yet very capable notebook that doesn’t look cheap. It features a slim build, a nice metallic finish, complete set of ports, and very decent performance that is also enough for light gaming. On the downside, there are times that it is sluggish, has weak speakers, and a short battery life. But for Php12,999 we still consider it a good deal.
Neo Basic B11W specs:
11.6″ HD (1366 x 768) display
2.16GHz Intel Celeron N2830 Dual-Core CPU, 1MB Cache
Intel HD Graphics
2GB DDR3 1066 MHz
500GB HDD
1MP HD Webcam
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.0
(x1) USB 3.0 Port,(x2) USB 2.0 Port
HDMI Port
Multi-in-1 Card Reader
VGA Port
Mic & Headphone jack
3-Cell Li-Ion 24WH (3.5 hours)
Microsoft Windows 8.1
292.4 x 210.5 x 22.7 mm
1.3 kg
SRP: Php12,999
What we liked about it:
* Slim and nice-looking build
* Good display
* Wide-range of ports available
* Can handle light gaming
* Affordable price
What we didn’t like:
* No backlit keyboard
* Flimsy keyboard keys
* Sluggish at times
* Short battery life
* Weak speakers
* Not so smooth touchpad
do you sell Neo Basic B11W battery and charger??? i want to replace my old battery and charger
Is it recommend for my neo notebook to upgrade to windows 10?
For b11w what is the size of its jack plug for charger.tia
In my opinion, the casing or housing of the notebook is not that durable and it is easily scratch so you need to be careful when you are using it. Well i still liked because at less than 12K i bought a good to use for thesis notebook . though i dont think i can use it for heavy gaming. It is good for students. I dont think they need high end laptops anyway in studying. It is ok for web browsing and watching online video. I agree with you the speakers are not that good.
pa Help naman po ako, how to recover my netbook? magchacharge sana ako ng cp ko sa netbook. pagsaksak ko nag automatic shutdown po at d na mag open, need daw po ng internal o external command, operable program or batch file,what should i do?
my cousin bought neo laptop last 2005 at dinala nya sa Canada kasi yun ang pinakamura that time. nasira lang sya 2012 na, so nasa pag gamit lang din yan siguro.
Bumili ako ng neo netbook basic nun pang august 2010 until now gumagana parin yung netbook pero tinanggal ko na yung battery kc di na rin gumana sa tagal na rin cguro ng product. Gonna buy this product kc tested ko na ng almost 5 1/2 years. Affordable yet durable. Madali cyang masira pag ang user e malakas pumindot ng keyboard. Peace.
i Bought Neo laptop about 2 years ago for school purposes, studyante eh kailangan na. hanggang ngayon buo pa. can even play skyrim(77 active mods) in lowest settings medyo lag sa una lagay ka lng ng ulg plugins ok na. nagkaproblem lang ako sa battery after 2 years nasira ko na.(everyday gamit ko nung college ako madalas pa
overnight gamit pag rush projects). may isa pa pla. nauubusan ako ng ram pag nageedit ng photos pag video naman walang galawan pagnagsasave ako ala kami pansinan. hehe.
for me dipende nalang siguro sa item na makukuha nyo. pero good ako sa nabili ko.
(sarap magbasa ng comment sa taas. haha)
Actually I have Neo laptop the basic series notebook at nagsisisi ako na binili ko yun kasi nag hahang siya tapos kapag nag play ka ng movies/video ang panget ng audio at graphics sayang lang kaya nagswitch na lang ako sa acer
thanx for the thread, it really helped me a lot guys with your discussions, a conclusion poped-up that solved my problem again thanx specially to ewanlangha