When was your company founded?
The Echips brand was launched in 2019. Moreover, the company was created, so to speak, not in response to the current situation – as many did in 2022. When Western brands left the Russian market, some craftsmen began to bring cheap laptops from China and sell them under Russian brands, without thinking about the end consumer.
We, on the other hand, did everything without haste and with a clear understanding of what we wanted to achieve in the end. And now our team creates reliable and functional laptops, adapted specifically for Russia. Their design is like that of market leaders, and some of the components are much better.
What is the adaptation of your products specifically for Russia?
After the start of the Special Military Operation and the imposition of sanctions, all major laptop manufacturers officially left Russia, including Lenovo, HP, Dell, Acer, Asus, and Apple. Today, computers of these brands can be bought in Russia, but they will be:
- Devices imported unofficially – that is, without a Russian keyboard and official warranty. Plus, these will be computers of unknown origin. Used, refurbished, or even stolen devices may be offered under the guise of new ones.
- Laptops manufactured for the markets of poor countries in Asia and Africa. These are inexpensive computers with a lower level of quality and reliability. That is, they will be called Dell or Asus, but their quality will be completely different.
- Devices imported through parallel imports. They are of good quality, but without a normal warranty and technical support. And the price will be about 30% higher than expected.
Laptops of Chinese brands are also supplied to Russia, but this is like buying a pig in a poke – a pure lottery.
We offer a completely ready-made solution. An absolutely new, reliable, and functional computer that is not inferior in characteristics to the devices of top brands that have left Russia.
So, Echips laptops are the same laptops as top American and Taiwanese brands. The devices are manufactured at the same factories in China. Plus, we have top-class A-Grade components, a fully licensed Windows, and a Russian keyboard. In addition, our laptops have shockproof cases made of aviation aluminum – practically indestructible. There are also matte anti-glare screens that allow you to work in the sun. This option is usually found in business laptops priced from 100 thousand rubles.
Plus, Echips laptops have a silicone keyboard cover – it's not scary to spill water on the computer. The warranty on Echips laptops is up to 3 years. And also our severe Chelyabinsk service.
What is the defect rate of Echips laptops?
The defect rate of Echips is at the level of 1-2%. For little-known Chinese companies, the defect rate can reach 10% or 20%. The key to the low defect rate of Echips is cooperation with the same reputable and proven Chinese factories that produce computers for Lenovo, HP, and Acer. Our specialists select basic models exclusively at these factories. Moreover, they take not all models in a row, but only those in which there are no unsuccessful and unacceptable technical solutions. By the way, computer masters with an average experience of 20 years choose. Defects in computers and in general any things are absolutely normal.
What is the target audience for Echips laptops?
Our laptops are primarily intended for people with an average income, children, teenagers, students, the elderly, and representatives of small and medium-sized businesses. We do not compete with super-advanced gaming computers. Not yet. But we keep our brand and are among the leaders in our segment.
How does your service respond to the fact that a client's laptop is broken?
As quickly as possible. If an Echips laptop suddenly breaks down during the warranty period, our courier arrives and picks it up. And most importantly – it issues exactly the same replacement for the time! Very convenient – you don't need to fuss and look for a replacement computer yourself.
How long does it take you to repair a laptop?
A faulty laptop is repaired for a maximum of 7-10 days. Moreover, 10 days is the maximum. In some cases, the repair takes only a couple of hours. Our Chelyabinsk engineers know their business.
What regions does your company focus on?
Absolutely all of Russia – we deliver laptops to all regions of our large country. By the way, we recently opened service centers in Moscow and St. Petersburg. And this is important because most of our laptop buyers are from there.
In the next six months, we plan to open service centers in all other million-plus cities in Russia. Even if our clients live outside these million-plus cities, laptops will reach Echips service centers faster than now. And the repair itself will be reduced to a couple of days.
What is the warranty period for your laptops?
The warranty on Chelyabinsk laptops is up to 3 years. Although today the warranty on most top-brand laptops does not exceed 2 years.
You have sold more than 100,000 laptops in 2022-2023. What are your plans for 2024?
At the end of 2019, we sold only 200 laptops per month. And by the end of 2023, sales had grown to almost 10,000 laptops per month. The plans for 2024 are to further increase this figure.
What is the price/quality ratio of your laptops?
In Echips laptops, we use A-Grade components – that is, the best, the top ones. The same as in the devices of top global brands. Laptops of top foreign brands with the same components and characteristics cost from 60,000 rubles. The average price of Echips laptops is 30,000 rubles.
For what reasons do you discontinue your laptops?
There are several reasons for this. We are a young company that is still looking for its ideal line of laptops. Sometimes I am not satisfied with the model due to the low quality at the output or the high percentage of defects, such devices cannot be released to the market. Sometimes there is too low demand for laptop characteristics. And given the poor turnover, the position simply becomes unprofitable.
How many models are currently in production and how many models are you preparing to release to the Russian market?
We currently have 8 laptop models. There are 4 new models in production.
Which vendors' processors do you use in your laptops?
So far, we only use Intel processors, but this year we also plan to try several models based on AMD processors.
What disks do you use in your laptops?
All Echips laptops have only removable drives, which is very important. Having a laptop with a 128 GB SSD, the user can at any time buy a 256 GB, 512 GB, or even larger drive. And then install it at home instead of the 128 GB drive.
If the SSD starts to fail, say, after 8-10 years of laptop use, you can simply replace the drive. You can't do that with the same MacBook.
Another important nuance: most budget laptops up to 25 thousand rubles use not SSD, but soldered flash memory of the eMMC standard – like cheap phones. So, eMMC is several times slower and several times less reliable than SSD. SSD is also a flash memory solution, but, without going into details, it is much more technological, faster, modern, and reliable. All Echips laptops, even the cheapest ones for 18,990 rubles, have SSDs, not eMMC.
In November 2023, the Chelyabinsk brand Echips introduced the new HOT ultrabook with an Intel Core i3-1025G1 processor. What are the features of this processor?
This is a custom 4-core Intel Core i3-1025G1 processor. Previously, Intel released them only for Apple MacBook Air. This processor is 30% more powerful than the usual 2-core Core i3-1005G1, which is usually used in laptops priced up to 35,000 rubles. It turns out that our Echips HOT ultrabook works a third faster than its fellow competitors with similar figures on the price tags.
The Intel Core i3-1025G1 processor is even more powerful than a number of chips from the older Core i5 line. And they are put in laptops priced from 45,000 rubles.
How do you assess the upgrade capabilities of your laptops?
Very high. Let's go back to the same SSD in our laptops. Most Echips models have a slot for installing a second drive. You can buy a laptop with 128 GB and stick a drive of at least 1 TB into the second slot.
What operating systems are installed on your laptops?
Windows 10 and Windows 11, and only licensed versions. And this is an important detail. Because today, installing an unlicensed Windows on a Chinese laptop from AliExpress costs an average of 5,000 rubles for an ordinary computer master. In addition, a licensed Windows is reliable and productive: fast system loading, smooth task execution, and lower energy consumption. And all technical issues with the official Windows are helped to be resolved by Echips technical support.
With a pirated version of Windows, you take all the risks yourself. It's like driving a car with fake insurance or without it at all. You seem to have saved money, but in the end you can lose even more.
Which distributors does your company work with?
Echips works directly with networks and marketplaces.
Where can I buy your laptops?
Echips laptops can be found on the shelves of major federal retailers: DNS, M.Video, Eldorado, and Citylink. I would like to note that the federals are extremely reluctant to put on the shelf something that has a dubious level of quality or terrible service. After all, they will have to answer for all this in the first place.
Our laptops are also sold on Yandex.Market and OZON. The reviews on all platforms are only positive. By the way, according to the results of last year, we entered the TOP-3 laptop sellers on OZON. If anything, there are more than a thousand sellers in this category in total.
Kamil, what prompted you to create your own company?
A wealth of experience in the computer field and confidence that it will be possible to create computers that are accessible to most people. And most importantly – reliable and functional. Plus, with official warranty service. Now I can say with confidence that Echips laptops fully meet these requirements.
What education did you receive and what experience did you have by the time you created a new company?
I am a professional programmer. In 2011, I graduated from the Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science of Chelyabinsk State University. Even during my studies, since 2006, I worked part-time as a master for setting up and repairing computers and computer equipment – routers, printers, and so on. Even then, I began to accumulate experience and roughly understand what the right laptops should be like.
In 2008, I launched my first near-computer business. It was one of the largest laptop repair services in Chelyabinsk. Now it has transformed into the official Echips service with all the knowledge, experience, and deep engineering understanding of laptops. Today, the service employs 5 engineers with an average experience of 20 years.
In just 15 years of work, my service and repair company has carried out about 10 thousand laptop repairs. This is a huge experience! In the process of repair work, we thoroughly studied the architecture and internal layout of computers. As a result, a very clear understanding appeared of how a non-disposable, reliable, high-quality computer should be designed and manufactured. That is, in the process of repair work, we learned:
- how laptops are arranged inside, which elements are made reliably and for a long time, and which ones often break;
- which components and how reliable they are, where and how to get them cheaply;
- laptops of which brands and designs break down the least often;
- which laptop to choose at a Chinese factory so that it is not painful and shameful later.
This is on the one hand. On the other hand, I had another business in my time. Since 2011, I have been supplying spare parts and components for computers to Russia. At some point, I left this business, but the connections remained. I know all the loopholes, addresses, and passwords: which office in Asia you can buy good SSDs from, which one you can buy screens from, and which suppliers you should not contact at all.
As a result, all this led me to the creation of Echips.
How did you assemble the team of your company?
I took reliable and proven engineers with whom I had worked before. These are true professionals in their field. The average experience of many of them is more than 20 years. So believe me, we know computers.
How many employees are there in your company now?
Today, we have 15 people in our team.