The day Xiaomi officially unveils its first-ever laptop has arrived: launched alongside the Redmi Pro in China is the Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air. Evidently, the laptop’s name is inspired by the MacBook Air, but unlike the latter, the Mi Notebook Air packs some respectable specifications.
For one, the Mi Notebook Air has a higher resolution 13.3-inch Full HD display over the MacBook Air; the former also has a smaller footprint by 11%, thanks to the 5.59mm bezel of the laptop. Other than that, the Mi Notebook Air’s display is protected by a glass that measures 7.0 on the Mohs scale – this scale is used to measure the scratch resistance of various materials.
Xiaomi has built a reputation for manufacturing high-quality, premium devices, so it’s not surprising to see that the Mi Notebook Air has an all-metal construction. Despite this, the laptop still only tips the scale at 1.28kg; this is plenty impressive. As for connectivity, the Mi Notebook Air has two USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI port, a 3.5mm audio jack, as well as a USB Type-C port, which is used to charge the laptop.
Arguably one of the most important parts of a laptop is its keyboard, and the Mi Notebook Air appears to be promising in this aspect: it features a full-size backlit keyboard with 1.3mm of key travel. According to Xiaomi, this key travel is the limit for such a thin laptop. The Mi Notebook Air also has a sizeable trackpad, which is always good to see.
In the performance department, the Mi Notebook Air does not disappoint. It is packed with Intel’s sixth-generation Core i5-6200U processor paired with 8GB of DDR4 RAM, a generous 256GB PCIe SSD, as well as an Nvidia GeForce 940MX graphics card with GDDR5 memory – while this GPU isn’t exactly top-of-the-line, it is more than capable at running games such as Dota 2 and League of Legends effectively. Interestingly enough, the Mi NoteBook Air also has a free SATA SSD slot, which gives users the ability to add their own SSD.
If you’re looking at something even more compact, you’ll be happy to know that Xiaomi also has a 12.5-inch variant of the Mi Notebook Air. Boasting a quoted battery life of 11.5 hours (the 13.3-inch model has 9.5 hours of battery life instead), this variant is definitely aimed at those who value battery life over performance.
Other specifications of the 12.5-inch Mi NoteBook Air include a 12.5-inch 1080p display, an Intel Core m3 processor paired with 4GB of RAM, 128GB of SATA SSD storage, as well as an all-metal design, much like its bigger – and more powerful – counterpart. It also weighs only 1.07kg.
These Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air Windows 10 laptops are certainly interesting, and their retail prices even more so. The more powerful 13.3-inch model will go for only 4,999 Chinese yuan (about RM3,055), while the smaller, more power-efficient variant retails at 3,499 yuan (approximately RM2,140). The Mi NoteBook Air will be available for purchase in China on 2 August 2016.
