MAIBENBEN Laptops from Lazada

[a1v1n_]

Hi, I have experience with Meibenben. Not a positive one though.

I first came across this brand in Singapore. The price was ridiculously cheap. USD$300 plus. I thought I had found treasure.

I recently bought 2 laptops from meibenben in April 2020. The laptops were bought in Singapore, through the website Lazada. Lazada is an online platform, just like ebay.

Here is my experience:

When I first tried to install microsoft office, it could not be installed. I had to contact Microsoft office, and their technicians were kind enough to help me install the software remotely on my laptop.

Then, the next thing happened.

Put simply, one of the keyboards after a few months, it did not work. One of the letter keys just automatically appear and type itself non stop. It was as though that letter had sunk in and could not surface itself. i had to press the power button twice at times, in order for the laptop to work to be turned on.

I tried looking up their repair centre online but I couldn’t find any info.

Then I proceeded to a repair shop. Basically they said that spare parts for this brand were hard to find and warned against buying this brand.

To sum up, I had to buy an external keyboard and use this keyboard via bluetooth on the laptop, in order to be able to do work.

I managed to contact their Lazada counterparts.
(fyi, their address and contact can’t be found in internet).

Finally, the Lazada counterpart did give me their contact.
Btw, their office contact is actually a mobile phone no!

They did pick up the call. However, they sounded unprofessional. The impression given was, they weren’t expecting calls from their customers.

Along the way, their Lazada counterpart replied and gave me their contact in Singapore.

It appears the repair centre did not have all the necessary spare parts to carry out a repair. Their reply back to their customers were long.

So there you have it.

Recently i bought an Acer. The repair centre was readily available when I called them over the phone.

Lesson learnt: Don’t be greedy over cheap things! When purchasing technology products that cost more, it’s better to invest in a brand that has a repair centre, and a certain level of reputation. We all don’t want our laptops to breakdown. However, we need to prepare for worst case scenarios.

Hope this info serves as a warning.

Hanz.

Sigh. I encountered the same issue.

Send a message via the Lazada app and was told to get a external keyboard instead. They didn't even bother trying to ask me to get it serviced, as they shared that they did not have spare parts due to the COVID-19 situation.

In case anyone encountered the same, I used this method to disable the keyboard and survived with onscreen keyboard for awhile, until I got my Bluetooth keyboard connected.

https://appuals.com/disable-laptops-keyboard-windows-10/

 

[donut88]

Don't buy cheap electronic stuff, especially laptops, hp, cameras, etc because we use such items for work, play and data storage.

We cannot afford for it to crash with no local support. It will be v disruptive. Data wipe out is all gone. Suck thumb?

Penny wise, pound foolish

 

[Phen8210]

Don't buy cheap electronic stuff, especially laptops, hp, cameras, etc because we use such items for work, play and data storage.

We cannot afford for it to crash with no local support. It will be v disruptive. Data wipe out is all gone. Suck thumb?

Penny wise, pound foolish

yea.. bought some of the oem stuff from the A brand and it didn't go so well.

 

[a1v1n_]

Don't buy cheap electronic stuff, especially laptops, hp, cameras, etc because we use such items for work, play and data storage.

We cannot afford for it to crash with no local support. It will be v disruptive. Data wipe out is all gone. Suck thumb?

Penny wise, pound foolish

I was lucky that it was for basic use and I didn't store much on it.

 

[watzup_ken]

Sigh. I encountered the same issue.

Send a message via the Lazada app and was told to get a external keyboard instead. They didn't even bother trying to ask me to get it serviced, as they shared that they did not have spare parts due to the COVID-19 situation.

In case anyone encountered the same, I used this method to disable the keyboard and survived with onscreen keyboard for awhile, until I got my Bluetooth keyboard connected.

https://appuals.com/disable-laptops-keyboard-windows-10/

You should ask them if they will be footing the bill for the new external keyboard especially if the item is within that 1 year warranty. Every company out there is impacted by COVID, not just them. So to brush away a service request for this reason is not a satisfactory response to me. I think the issue is more like the keyboard problem will resurface after some time because of the lacking build quality. I feel this is case where it is possible to go to CASE to ask for a refund if they cannot fulfil the after sales service that they promised.

 

[a1v1n_]

Unlucky for me, the issue came 3 months after warranty was over.

 

[Longtimenoc]

Unlucky for me, the issue came 3 months after warranty was over.

Hi, care to PM me that phone number? Mine was bought last November and died last week. I looked up the MaiBenBen website and it was stated that the service centre was in "Ecotech@Sunview", no door address. No phone number.

Many thanks!

 

[jamwithyou]

Don't buy cheap electronic stuff, especially laptops, hp, cameras, etc because we use such items for work, play and data storage.

We cannot afford for it to crash with no local support. It will be v disruptive. Data wipe out is all gone. Suck thumb?

Penny wise, pound foolish

I agree, I didn't know how to check if legitimate or not before and accidentally bought a malfunctioning ram for my pc

 

[yusoffb01]

I agree, I didn't know how to check if legitimate or not before and accidentally bought a malfunctioning ram for my pc

if you buy from lzd or shopee you can refund

 

[jamwithyou]

if you buy from lzd or shopee you can refund

Yup, but it was from quite a while ago already

 

[yusoffb01]

Installed windows 11 Pro on maibenben 2500U. Im surprised the pro version is activated out of the box

Can run android apps

 

[Honeydewz]

Worth buying their gaming laptop?

 

[SROFFY]

Installed windows 11 Pro on maibenben 2500U. Im surprised the pro version is activated out of the box

Can run android apps

Is this the Mini PC24?

 

[yusoffb01]

Is this the Mini PC24?

 

[cochran]

how u install windows 11 on amd 2500u? 2500u have tpm?

 

[watzup_ken]

Worth buying their gaming laptop?

Looking at some of the user experience here, I think it is not recommended. The Mini PC is not that expensive, so I was ok to take a risk. Fortunately, the Mini PC is working well for me, and I've been using it for around 5 to 6 months now.

If you are shelling out more than 1K for a laptop, I think best to go with reputable brands like Lenovo. You save a few hundred bucks from Maibenben, but the after sales support is bare minimal if any.

 

[coolad74]

for enthusiasts who is good with coding and tinkering can go this route… gives satisfaction too … for the average user is a no no…

I had a hobbyist fren who repaired an old mi book with I-5 and crank it up to perform better then an i-7 … he reapply solder paste, change out the fans, play with the bios and use intel xtu do undervolting and stuff and even upgraded the SSD all under $250 (incidentally the previous owner brought to a repair shop which wants $280 to change out the fan and heatsink)

 

[watzup_ken]

for enthusiasts who is good with coding and tinkering can go this route… gives satisfaction too … for the average user is a no no…

I had a hobbyist fren who repaired an old mi book with I-5 and crank it up to perform better then an i-7 … he reapply solder paste, change out the fans, play with the bios and use intel xtu do undervolting and stuff and even upgraded the SSD all under $250 (incidentally the previous owner brought to a repair shop which wants $280 to change out the fan and heatsink)

I don't know man. There is not much to tinker with for this system. Since I bought it, I've basically just added a spare DDR4 4GB into the system to make it 12GB. Then I took out the WD Blue 256GB SSD out and sold it, then replaced it with my own 1TB. I've reapplied thermal compound as it was running very hot under some load. As to the heatsink and fan, I rather leave it stock because the fan is not terribly noisy until the SOC heats up to 90 degrees. The APU being an ultra low power variant, does not run very hot in most cases even without air-conditioning. I've used a similar APU in a Lenovo Thinkpad and it ran alright with a very simple 1 heat pipe to a tiny heatsink cooling solution. The cooling solution on this Maibenben MiniPC is at least 5 to 6 times bigger in terms of surface area, even though it is lacking any heat pipe. So no complains about it.

And as an update, mine is still working well. So I think I would avoid any laptop/ keyboard from Maibenben since it tends to fail prematurely. People thinking of buying should also have the mindset that you are potentially parting with your money with little to no after sales service.

 

[yusoffb01]

My old 2500U can be used for 16h running a game without any crashes.

I bought another 2500U. I think qc is bad. It will blue screen or hang within 10-20minutes of playing. I think those who buy may not know they have a lemon if they dont play games.

Seems like solid green screen crash while gaming is common for amd apu which have issue

Another thing is realtek lan and the m2 wifi does not work if no nvme is used (ie sata is added for boot drive). This is weird since the lan and m2 wifi works when BOTH nvme drive and sata drive is used.