CHUWI CoreBook Air Plus 16 laptop review – Part 1: Specs, unboxing, teardown, and first boot

It’s been a while since we’ve tested a laptop, but CHUWI sent us their latest CoreBook AirPlay 16 laptop for review. It’s powered by a mid-range AMD Ryzen 5 6600H hexa-core processor, paired with 16GB of LPDDR5 and a 512GB NVMe SSD, and features a 16-inch display with 1920 × 1200 resolution.

I’ll start the CoreBook Air Plus 16 review by listing the specifications, going through an unboxing and a teardown to check out the hardware, and finally boot it to the pre-installed Windows 11 Pro. We’ll then test it in more detail with Windows 11 Pro and Ubuntu 24.04 or 26.04 (Snapshot 4) in the next parts of the review.

CHUWI CoreBook Air Plus 16 specifications

• SoC – AMD Ryzen 5 6600H
  • CPU – 6-core/12-thread Zen 3+ “Rembrandt” processor at up to 3.3 GHz / 4.5GHz (Turbo)
  • GPU – AMD Radeon 660M clocked at up to 1,900 MHz with support for DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.6, and OpenCL 2.2
  • NPU – None (AI-free), since it was announced in January 2022
  • TDP – 45 Watts
• System Memory – 16GB LPDDR5
• Storage – 512 GB NVMe SSD
• Display – 16-inch monitor with 1920×1200 resolution (16:10 aspect ratio)
• Video Output – HDMI 2.1 port (TMDS)
• Audio
  • Built-in stereo speaker and microphone
  • 3.5mm audio jack
• Camera – 2MP webcam
• Wireless – Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2
• USB
  • 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C ports (full-featured)
  • 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port
  • 1x USB 2.0 Type-C port (data only)
• User input – Full-size backlit QWERTY keyboard
• Power
  • 20V/3.25A (65W) USB-C PD charger
  • Battery – 60Wh battery
• Dimensions – 355.5 x 249 x 16.3 mm
• Weight – 1,350 grams
• Model: CWI654

The laptop comes pre-loaded with Windows 11 Pro. We’ve never received an AMD Ryzen 5 6600H, but we did test a few other AMD Ryzen 6000 systems, including the GEEKOM A6 mini PC powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 6800H SoC and the GEEKOM AS 6 mini PC with a Ryzen 9 6900HX CPU. The Ryzen 6000 series was announced in 2022, so don’t expect amazing performance. The CHUWI CoreBook Air Plus 16 laptop is an affordable, mid-range laptop that should be suitable for web browsing, office work, light gaming, and streaming video.

Unboxing

I received the laptop in its retail package with a sticker on the back with the key specifications: CoreBook Air Plus (CWI654) with a 16-inch 1920×1200 display, Wi-Fi 6, AMD Ryzen 5 6600H CPU, 16GB memory, and 512GB storage.

Accessories include the DVE DSA-65PDQ switching adapter with 5V/3A, 9V/3A, 12V/3A, 15V/3A, 20V/3.25V output through USB Type-C port, a power coder (EU), a multilingual user manual (very basic), a product inspection report, a warranty card, and a “certificate of conformity”.

Let’s now look at the laptop itself.

It comes with a standard QWERTY keyboard layout.

The left side features a full-size HDMI port, and two USB Type-C ports…

… while the right side comes with another USB-C port, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a USB 3.2 Type-A port. It would have been extra nice if the USB-C ports’ speed was indicated, as we can’t differentiate between the 10 Gbps and 480 Mbps ports until we test them ourselves.

There’s also a camera cover switch, but it’s quite small and not quite as easy to use as the one on the ASUS Vivobook 16 I use as my daily driver. It’s just a minor complaint.

CoreBook Air Plus 16 teardown

Let’s do the teardown. First, we notice there’s no small cover to replace the M.2 SSD, so if you want to change it for a repair or upgrade, you’ll need to remove the full cover. I had to loosen ten screws and rely on metal and plastic tools to remove the cover. One of the screw is covered by a sticker reading “QC passed”, so hopefully it doesn’t void the warranty if you try to open it for maintenance.

We can find the two speakers on the bottom left and right, a 60.1Wh battery, an active cooling solution for the Ruzen CPU, and the mainboard itself.

Let’s have a closer look at the mainboard itself, codenamed “SU_ARN25C_MB_V20”. It’s fitted with a 512GB Netac G932C M.2 880 PCIe Gen3 x4 SSD, four 4GB BIWIN BWMZJX32P8A-32G LPDDR5 chips soldered on the board for a total of 16GB of RAM, an ITE IT5570E-128 embedded controller, and a RealTek RMC RTS5453H USB Power Delivery (PD) controller chip.

I could not read the marking on the wireless module, and so I had to remove the plastic cover. It’s a WF-R52V-ESA1 WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 wireless module manufactured by Sichuan Ailink Technology Co., Ltd. Note that it’s soldered on the mainboard, and it’s not easily replaceable. For most people, it won’t be an issue, but it could potentially have been one for Linux users. However, the Windows Device Manager shows it’s a RealTek RTL8852BE design, so I’m confident it will work just fine in Ubuntu.

First boot to Windows 11 Pro

Let’s reassemble the laptop and boot it up to Windows 11 Pro by pressing the power button. I was greeted by the usual Windows 11 setup wizard.

As a side note, the 16-inch model of the CoreBook Air Plus reviewed here also supports Windows Hello, while the 14-inch model does not. However, I’m not a big fan of sharing biometric data (fingerprints, face…) unless I have no choice, so I’ll skip.

I had no problem completing the wizard. I was a little surprised I was never asked to log in with a Microsoft account to complete the initial setup, since I thought it was now required. It’s a nice development if it’s now indeed the standard procedure. I was not asked to configure WiFi either, so I did that afterwards, and had no issues connecting to the Internet once done.

I’ll now upgrade Windows 11, before testing the laptop’s features and performance in detail in the second part of the review, and installing and testing Ubuntu in a dual-boot configuration for the last part.

I’d like to thank CHUWI for sending the CoreBook Air 16 laptop for review. It’s now up for pre-order for $547.23 on the Chuwi website after applying the coupon code CNXAirPlus for a 13% discount. Shipping will begin on February 20, 2026. CHUWI also manages Amazon and AliExpress stores, but the new CoreBook Air family is not listed there as of February 12, 2026.

Continue reading:

1. CHUWI CoreBook Air Plus 16 review – Part 2: An AMD Ryzen 5 6600H-powered, mid-range laptop tested with Windows 11 Pro
2. CHUWI CoreBook Air Plus 16 review – Part 3: Ubuntu 25.10 on a mid-range AMD Ryzen 5 6600H laptop

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