[Review] Jumper EZBook 3 Pro – The Affordable Ultraportable

Here’s the million dollar question: Can you buy a decent notebook for under RM1,000? Ask that question to me two weeks ago and i’d likely scoff at the idea. Now, it’s an unequivocal yes on account of an interesting offering that we had the pleasure to review recently. Enter the Jumper EZBook 3 Pro.

The Jumper notebook brand lacks a physical presence on our shores though their products can still be acquired via a plethora of online e-tailers. We managed to source our review unit from Chinese e-tailer Gearbest.

When the notebook arrived, it came in a sturdy cardboard box with the EZBook 3 Pro carefully cradled between two thick form-fitted foam cutouts. The only other thing in the box was a cursory instruction manual and a US-style power cable with two flat prongs. This means that you’ll need to get a plug adaptor to make use of it locally.

Unfortunately, the power cable wasn’t as long as we’d like it to be and maxed out at about a meter plus or so which means you’ll have to be fairly close to a plug point.

Take the notebook out from its packaging and you’ll notice that it takes significant design cues from Apple’s MacBook Air in terms of its aesthetics and build. It has a footprint with the approximate dimensions of a sheet of A4 paper though it’s quite a bit heavier at 1.4kg on account of the chassis being hewn from aluminium. This lends it quite a sturdy heft and feel though it remains very portable.

The hinge is plasticky looking but is otherwise quite sturdy

The finish itself is a shiny matte silver and they’ve thoughtfully added removable sheets of protective plastic on the top and bottom to prevent scratches in transit. The outer edges of the top lid are smoothly contoured while the inner edges facing the display and keyboard sport beautiful chamfering, which makes it look quite a bit classier than what its price tag would indicate. The only thing detracting from what is otherwise a premium finish is the somewhat plasticky looking hinge but that is a minor concern at best.

When viewed from the side, the EZBook 3 Pro boasts of a gently tapered silhouette. On the left side, it comes with a microSD card reader, a USB Type C port and a 3.5mm audio jack. The right side comes with a power connector, another USB Type C port and a mini HDMI port.

On the underside of the notebook are a quartet of rubberised feet, a pair of stereo speaker grilles on each side and a series of Philips screws to secure the casing.

Of note is that the notebook also has an M.2 SSD slot accessible via an access port held down by a single screw at the base of the notebook. Prior versions of the EZBook required you to unscrew and remove the entire bottom plate to gain access to the M.2 SSD slot.

The M.2 SSD slot access port prior to the removal of the protective plastic sheeting.

Flip the lid open and you’ll find a chiclet-style keyboard paired with a textured matte black touchpad. Like the rest of the notebook, the finish consists of a matte aluminium which helps to repel fingerprints.

The keyboard itself is a compromise between size and performance and features most of the buttons you’ll need though it lacks a Page Up, Page Down, Print Screen, Home and End key. Another minor quibble is that the power button is also integrated as part of the keyboard in the upper right corner which can result in you inadvertently powering it off by accident if you happen to miss hitting the backspace or F12 key.

The 13.3-inch 1080p IPS panel in the EZBook 3 Pro comes with thin side bezels and has a 2-MP webcam perched on the top. In terms of overall construction, the whole affair is well built, looks sufficiently fetching and has functionally sturdy albeit plasticky looking hinges that fortunately don’t wobble. The fact that all this clocks in at under RM1,000 is quite a feat.

Jumper Ezbook 3 Pro Specifications and Performance

Under the hood, the notebook runs Windows 10 Home on an Intel Celeron N3450 1.1GHz processor paired with Intel HD Graphics 500, 6GB DDR3 RAM and a 64GB eMMC for storage. The Celeron N3450 is based on Intel’s Apollo Lake platform and is designed for entry level notebooks with the ability to turbo boost up to 2.2GHz when needed.  The EZbook 3 Pro also integrates 802.11ac Wifi and Bluetooth connectivity. The aforementioned empty M.2 SSD slot allows you to augment storage and if you’re fairly tech savvy turn it into your primary boot drive for better overall performance.

Initial boot-up of the notebook ran without a hitch and after going through the usual rigmarole, it booted to a clean install of Windows 10 Home bereft of all the usual bloatware festooning branded laptops.

In terms of benchmarks, the EZBook 3 Pro offered decent performance in keeping with its role as an entry level workhorse. In 3DMark Sky Diver, it scored a modest 1,182 points. In Cinebench, it clocked up a CPU score of 165cb and an OpenGL score of 15.81fps.

In PCMark 10, it derived a score of 1,208. In Geekbench 4, it yielded a single core score of 1,409 and a multi-core score of 4,005. Read and write speeds on the internal eMMC storage are pretty decent though in the context of a budget rig it is considered pretty good as things go.

In terms of actual performance in the field, the notebook is easily capable of tackling daily computing tasks. It ran multiple open browser windows in Chrome without undue trouble along with Netflix streaming on the side and it handled several open documents and a spreadsheet in LibreOffice without slowing down.

It’s even capable of a modicum of light gaming and ran King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match smoothly without glitching out. It still falls short of being capable of tackling something demanding like heavy Photoshop work or video editing but for basic computing and paperwork, it did not disappoint.

As there’s no integrated cooling fan, the Jumper EZBook 3 Pro accomplishes this passively through the metal base of the laptop which acts as a heatsink of sorts. Even after four or so hours of constant use streaming videos and gaming, the laptop only reached a mildly warm but still wieldable temperature which makes it a viable option for extended use on your lap.

The 13.3-inch 1080p display on offer did a bang-up job for movies, web browsing and gaming with crisp text, great colours and acceptable blacks along with decent viewing angles. You will need to crank up the brightness when viewing it under direct daylight but it is otherwise very serviceable.

When put through its paces, the notebook’s keyboard did quite well with relatively responsive keys that allow touch typists to maintain an acceptable typing speed. Granted, it’s missing a few essential buttons – Print Screen, Pgdn Down and Pgdn Up among them – but there are workarounds and you can still opt for the oversized direction keys in the lower right.

The location of the power button remains a concern and you’ll need to train your muscle memory to avoid that area or at the least treat it with some amount of caution. It also lacks backlighting so using it in the dark for novices may be a challenge.

Keyboard aside though, the biggest downer on the Jumper EZBook 3 Pro are its speakers which are underwhelming to say the least. While they’re all right for watching a YouTube clip or two in a quiet room they aren’t particularly loud and bass is next to nonexistent which makes using a pair of headphones a necessity if there’s even a modest amount of background noise.

Jumper EzBook 3 Pro battery life, price and conclusion

When subjected to a typical workload, the notebook was able to last a good six or so hours with Wifi on, Google docs, OpenOffice and multiple windows open as well as a few minutes of YouTube and some music streaming in the background. By and large, the battery ought to get you through the better part of a work day though you’ll likely have to keep the charger on your person.

As it stands, the Jumper EzBook 3 Pro offers impressive bang for the buck. For under a thousand ringgit, you get a notebook with excellent build quality, a crisp display and a good keyboard with serviceable performance that is more than sufficient for daily computing tasks.

Granted, there are a few niggles like middling speakers and a wonkily positioned power key but these are decidedly minor quibbles at best that are outweighed by its low asking price of about US$240 (about RM937). Prices do fluctuate based on exchange rates but if you’re fairly lucky or patient, you can score it from Gearbest here when they conduct their flash sales or other discount programmes.

What we liked Easy to upgrade M.2 SSD Bay, excellent metal hewn chassis, great display, responsive keyboard, amazing price tag
What we didn’t Middling speakers, keyboard not backlit, modest processor, power cable a bit short
We say The Jumper EZBook 3 Pro is a gem for mobile workers on a budget. This affordable, well hewn ultraportable punches above its weight class and price tag in both performance and value. Bar a few minor niggles, it’s one of the best budget laptops we’ve ever tested.

Specifications
Price US$239.99 (about RM937)
Display 13.3-inch IPS LCD, 1920 x 1080 pixels
Processor Intel Celeron N3450, 1.1GHz quadcore
Graphics Intel HD Graphics 500
OS Microsoft Windows 10 Home
Memory 6GB DDR3 RAM/ 64GB eMMC w/microSD card + M.2 SSD slot
Battery 4800mAh / 11 hours battery life (quoted)
Size/Weight 315 x 208.5 x 15mm/1.3kg
*Review unit courtesy of Gearbest