Just bought a JOI 12 last weekend. Had a few days to play with it. I can do a more detailed review if needed but this is a clone of the CUBE i9 tablet so there are already plenty of online resources available.

Bought From : SNS Kiosk at AEON
Price : 1599 Retail (I had a lot of AEON vouchers which I redeemed so I paid less than that.)

Spec:

Core M 6Y30
4GB RAM
128 SSD
12" 1920 x 1200 Full HD screen
USB 3 Type A, USB 3.1 Type C, mSD Slot, 3.5 Combo Headphone jack, DC power port, 2 speakers
10,000mah battery - about 7 hours of light use
Comes with Keyboard flip cover
Comes in Box - Only Charger 12V-2.5A.

The tablet is a direct clone from the same OEM that makes the CUBE i9, with identical spec for spec other than the branding print and the packaging. There are quite a few available reviews on the CUBE i9 so you can easily do a search for a detailed video review.


Build Quality
Build quality is not the best, but it is built well enough. No uneven panel gaps and material quality is decent, Fit and finish gets a 7/10. The back is full metal alloy save for the antenna strip on top of the tablet. The 2 position kickstand is metal and has metal hinges. The kickstand edges are sharp and will dig into your thigh.
The included keyboard is however a step from from the likes of the Surface Pro 4. The keys are a bit rattly and small sized (they could have made the keys bigger considering they had an abundance of space on the left and right of the keyboard), and the touch pad is a little small but it works reasonably well and supports gestures. Given the fact the keyboard comes free, one will likely not be to buggered up on the keyboard quality.

Had no issues with the full size USB 3.0 Type A powering up a USB 3 external hard drive. Not yet purchased a Type C Hub so not able to test video out.


Issues
Had one case of Phantom touch/Start menu. Tablet sorted itself out after a few reboots and disabling auto rotation lock.
Camera not working properly (Very slow, exposure wrong - probably driver issue after Windows update, will sort it out later)


Pro
Core m3 CPU - much faster then the Cherry Trail Atom X5 8350 and the Apollo Lake N3450 used in other tablet in the same class
128GB SSD instead of eMMC. SSD is upgradable
Can charge with USB Type C. (works with Powerbank, but needs a high output powerbank, my Xiaomi 20k Gen2 QC 18W barely keeps it juiced up when running)
Reasonable build quality
Good value for money (especially since they had dropped the price from 1799 to 1599 recently.
Local support and warranty - SNS


Cons
Heavy - With Keyboard, Total weight (without charger) is 1330g, the Tablet itself is 970g without the keyboard. This is only 150g lighter than my full fat 14" Dell Latitude E7470 Ultrabook.
Stand can only be set at 2 positions
Screen is not as bright as expected. Ok for indoor use, slight problem with outdoor
Wireless N only (would be good if got dual band A/C)
No gorilla glass for panel
Styling a little dated
No included Type C Hub (have to buy separate if need HDMI out)
No active stylus included or supported
6y30 is being replaced with the 7y30, which offers quite a performance jump.


Conclusion
If you need a small, lightweight carry along Tablet, you might be better served by a 10" or 11" Cherry Trail X5 8350. Those will be smaller and quite a bit lighter for portability. Those will also be more easier to charge from a powerbank, a concern if you are using it for travel or on the road. However the Core m3 cpu gives it enough horsepower to chug through typical office apps and light image editing tasks that would bog down the Cherry Trails. Think of this as a convertible light duty ultrabook instead. Given that it comes with a Core m3 and includes the keyboard, this is a significant value preposition, considering the Core m3 Surface Pro cost twice the price (and the keyboard is OPTIONAL)!

This post has been edited by jaycee1: Jan 8 2018, 11:37 AM

I don't have a N3450 device to test, but you can probably look up the video reviews of the Chuwi Surbook (using a N3450) and the Cube i9/Joi 12 (using the core m3) and make your own conclusions.




Honestly, i don't think the difference is that big in real world experiences, since these tablets are only/mostly used for light tasks. But considering you get the core m3 at x8350 and N3450 prices, I am not complaining.

Edit : Just noticed from your signature you have an N3450 powered Chuwi Hi13. How much did you pay for it?

This post has been edited by jaycee1: Jan 22 2018, 12:15 PM

Did look at a few options from Chuwi, one of them the Surbook and the Hi13. Also similar ones from Teclast and Onda.

But the CUBE i9/Joi 12 seem to tick the most boxes, especially with local warranty and not having to deal with unknown overseas sellers. I find the resolution completely servicable, if not lacking in outdoor brightness, and certaily appreciate the quicker 128GB SSD, especially when dealing with larger file sizes.

the 4Gb Ram is a bit lacking, especially if doing some light mobile photoshop the m3 is capable off. It is something I have to work around. I previously had a Asus T100 Transformer with 2Gb of RAM and managed decently.



The camera issue sorted itself out after some driver updates, but still get some very rare incidence of phantom start menu activation.


Now shopping for a aftermarket Type-C charger so I only need to take a single charger for all my devices, and a Type-C PD Powerbank that can charge 30W/40W through Type C. My Xiaomi 20k QC3 18W takes a whole night to charge the tablet up with it powered off. I suspect its not charging at anywhere near its 18W output. The Anker ones look promissing but expensive as heck.

They do make "surface" type tables, but it will stretch your definition of budget. They will be"budget" if compared to a Surface Tablet.

It would be very rare to find Cherry Trail CPUs with more than 4Gb of ram here. For some reason they don't bring them in. You can find Cherry Trail or Apollo lake chinese tablets with 6gb from the likes of Chuwi, Teclast, Onda, CUBE and the likes in China, and for really cheap. But no one is shipping/bring them in.


As far as I know. But I remembered that Teclast may also have a local official store on Lazada and they may handle the warranty issues locally.