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First impressions of the Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air

By Koh Wanzi - on 15 Oct 2016, 11:45am

First impressions of the Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air

Note: This article was first published on October 4, 2016.

Image Source: Xiaomi

Note: The findings below are compiled from a write-up done by HWZ forum user Audiology93.

When it comes to ultrabooks, there’s practically an undisputed consensus as to what consumers want today. Thin, light, and with a sleek minimalistic finish (and perhaps a not-so-vague resemblance to a MacBook), the current generation of ultrabooks will leave you scrambling to differentiate between them.

That said, the Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air has garnered considerable attention in recent months, not least because it is Xiaomi’s first foray into the crowded notebook space. Xiaomi already makes everything from rice cookers to air purifiers (not to mention very good phones), so there’s naturally a lot of excitement around whether it will manage to deliver a solid product at its traditionally attractive price points.

HWZ forum user Audiology93 managed to get his hands on the 12.5-inch version of the notebook (there’s a more powerful 13.3-inch model as well), and we’ve compiled his initial impressions here.

For starters, the 12.5-inch Mi Notebook Air is more compact than its more common 13.3-inch rivals on the market. The bezels are also markedly thinner than those on the ZenBook UX305UA.

The display sports a glossy finish, which Audiology93 preferred over the matte display on the ASUS ZenBook UX305UA. While matte displays are generally more readable with bright overhead lighting, colors do still tend to be more vibrant on glossy displays.

Image Source: Audiology93

It’s worth noting that while the Mi Notebook Air is equipped with an Intel Core m3 processor, the ZenBook UX305UA actually comes with a more powerful Intel Core i5-6200U processor. That said, there was apparently not much difference in speed when it came to opening programs like Microsoft Edge, PowerPoint, or Word.

Image Source: Xiaomi

The 128GB Samsung M.2 SSD also held up fairly well against the 256GB Micron M600 drive on the ASUS notebook. In fact, it looked even faster in certain respects. In CrystalDiskMark, the Xiaomi notebook posted sequential read and write speeds of 423MB/s and 403.8MB/s respectively, compared to 429.7MB/s and 327.2MB/s for the ASUS laptop.

The speakers on the Mi Notebook Air were also reportedly quite loud and decent-sounding. Battery life was similarly robust, with the laptop only going down to 72 per cent after three hours of use in class. Furthermore, it seems that the trackpad was a standout point as well, with Audiology93 highlighting just how smooth it felt.  

Image Source: Audiology93

Overall, our forum user thought that the Mi Notebook Air was a fairly capable machine for entertainment and productivity use cases. While Xiaomi hasn’t officially brought the notebook to Singapore yet, you can find it on Lazada for S$999 with the English version of Windows 10 Pro installed. There’s also a S$799 version that comes with a Chinese version of the OS, but you’ll unfortunately have to purchase a second Windows license just to switch to English.

Source: Audiology93

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