Xiaomi has caused a huge controversy in the press after the announcement of its new laptop, which, according to the plan of its creators, should outshine Apple's popular Macbook Air. Recall that the latter has become famous as the most balanced and stylish device in recent years.
It should be admitted that the performance of the new Xiaomi Notebook Air 13.3 is not much inferior to its primary competitor. Thus, Xiaomi engineers have developed a not traditionally powerful computer with incompatible form factor. This article provides an overview of the Xiaomi Notebook Air 13.3 laptop, examines its main characteristics, as well as advantages and disadvantages compared to similar models.
Content
Technical characteristics
- Display: 13.3 ″, IPS, Full HD-resolution
- Processor: Core i5-7200U Dual Core - 2.5 to 3.1 GHz
- RAM: 8GB DDR4
- Video chip: discrete GeForce MX150
- Internal storage - SSD 256 GB
- Wireless modules - Wi-Fi 802.11a / b / g / n / ac, Bluetooth 4.1
- Audio: 2 speakers
- Windows 10. Home Basic
- Optional: 1.0 MP webcam
- Battery: 7.4V / 5400mAh, Li-ion
- Dimensions: 30.90 x 21.10 x 1.48 cm
Appearance and dimensions
As noted, Chinese Xiaomi Notebook Air 13.3 laptop almost completely copied the appearance of the MacBook Air. True, it was not without some improvements. In our case, the result of the upgrade was reduced dimensions. Weighing only 1.31 kg and 14.8 mm thin, it fits perfectly into the role of "laptop for work".
The housing is a thin aluminum plate with a durable coating. The hinges are quite tight, but despite this and the protective magnets above the display, the laptop can be easily opened and closed with one hand. A well-assembled Xiaomi Notebook Air 13.3 does not make strange sounds, does not creak or play. It is important to note that not all manufacturers can please with the presence of models with an all-metal case and a stylish look.
Screen
Many analysts were not very warm about the presence of a 13.3-inch display, and even with full Full HD. In fact, such equipment allows you to use the resources of the video card at the maximum level. In addition to the performance gain, there is also an increase in autonomy.
Around the display, you can clearly see a small insert made of matte plastic, which stands out brightly against the background of the aluminum body. The frame is quite narrow, so the display appears to be wider than the manufacturer claims.
The screen of the refined laptop Xiaomi Notebook Air 13.3 has excellent viewing angles, the picture is practically not distorted in any position of the laptop. I was pleasantly pleased with the stock of brightness, the image will be legible in any light, even direct sunlight will not spoil the color rendering. In general, the Xiaomi Notebook Air 13.3 produces a fairly high-quality image, which practically does not differ from what fans of Retina displays would like to see.
Keyboard
Besides the display, there is another striking resemblance to Apple's rival - the keyboard and touchpad. The keys are easy to press and the power reserve is small, so this unit is ideal for “working conditions”. The buttons themselves are made of a strange material - budget plastic, which will eventually lose its former appearance. The only drawback that I would like not to see for such money is the backlighting of the keys is not adjustable.
As for the touch panel, there are no complaints here. The touchpad works smoothly, the cursor on the screen responds perfectly to all commands. The panel is quite pleasant to the touch.
Sound
Based on the reviews for the laptop, the sound quality is a little lame. External speakers are located on the bottom of the case. The rubber feet are not high, which makes the distance from the protective grill to the table surface very small. As a result, the output sound is distorted, and users will never be able to appreciate the full power of the audio system used. By the way, this unit is equipped with an AKG sound system. However, with such a design, the proprietary sound can only be deducted from the documentation for the laptop.
Performance
Under the body of this device, an average performance iron is collected, namely a Core i5 with two processing cores. You can squeeze out a fairly high frequency from each, especially when working in overclocking mode. The numbers are pretty good, but it's important to remember that this is not a supercomputer used by advanced gamers. Speaking of gaming, this instance is equipped with a GeForce MX150 video card with 2 GB working memory. This is far from a gaming video card, however, the presence of discrete graphics in such a thin case is good news. Unfortunately, such a powerful video accelerator has an extremely negative effect on the autonomy of the device. It is impossible to disable the GeForce and continue working on the native Intel HD graphics due to a bug in the factory drivers. The manufacturers have promised to solve this problem.
In general, this provision is more than enough to play an old shooter or watch a movie. It only remains to get used to the small screen. Video performance, smooth due to the existing 8 gigabytes of problems with freezing, you definitely will not have, part of the work is taken over by the discrete video card.
The cooling system is perfect. Temperature tests have shown that even at maximum loads, the microcircuits do not overheat and continue to maintain stable performance.
The most unpleasant thing that the Xiaomi Notebook Air 13.3 laptop could inherit from Mabook is the charger socket. The battery can only be charged via the USB interface located on the side. Two additional USB 3.0 ports and an HDMI interface are located nearby.
Autonomous work
The rechargeable battery at 5400 mAh is capable of working without recharging for 9-9.5 hours. Of course, with maximum utilization of the laptop's power, this figure will drop significantly.
So, according to the characteristics of the Xiaomi Notebook Air 13.3 laptop, there are a number of pros and cons:
Advantages:
- stylish design
- high performance for mid-range tasks
- first-class screen performance
- light weight and small size of the laptop
- excellent build quality
Nondelivery:
- slightly ill-considered speaker layout
- USB is used as a charging interface
- rough button material
Conclusion
On this note, the laptop review comes to its logical conclusion. Omitting some flaws, we can safely say that we have a well-modified "little brother" of the Macbook Air. In terms of price-performance ratio, the Notebook Air 13.3 will fully justify the money spent. True, you will have to face some design abolitions, in particular, the use of USB as a DC port. Oddly enough, but the creators tried to release a model as similar as possible to the MacBook, however, several times cheaper.
