Xiaomi Mi Air 13.3in Notebook Review | Hacker News Reader

Xiaomi Mi Air 13.3in Notebook Review

notebookcheck.net

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Reading this on mine right now!

The good:

- Cheap as anything!

- Internal build quality seems decent.

- Decent screen for the money.

- Keyboard is nice.

- Touchpad is better than most Dell, HP etc... laptops I've tried, not as nice as a Macbook though.

- Runs well, very snappy, I boot to to my linux (Solus) desktop in about 2.5 seconds on average with full disk encryption (excluding me entering the password).

- Very standard hardware, Intel everything pretty much except the additional nvidia graphics card I'm yet to get working in Linux

The bad:

- The aluminium used compared to say the base model Macbook is crap, the slightest thing and it scratches / gets dirty.

- You cant upgrade the RAM.

- It's heavy, it's a lot thicker than the Macbook.

- Two annoying linux problems (regardless of distro, kernel):

1. Switching between integrated intel graphics to nvidia is a pain in the ass, even with bumblebee it's awful.

2. Wifi, looks like it doesn't work, but it does! Just keep enabling it in network-manager it'll take like 5-10 times and then it'll be on and fine.

Otherwise everything in linux such as sound, nvme, trim, etc... all works perfectly.

2. Wifi, looks like it doesn't work, but it does! Just keep enabling it in network-manager it'll take like 5-10 times and then it'll be on and fine.

I would say that's a show stopper, especially since the machine does not come with an ethernet port.

not really, you just click the button 5 or so times after first boot and it works.

usb-c hubs and ethernet adapters are everywhere and all 3 of mine work perfectly.

If anything, the annoying as !@#$$ nvidia optimus switching that I still haven't got working on ANY distro is a show stopper / waste.

I was wondering how the touchpad/keyboard compares to the mac?

The reviewer said it works great in comparison to many other Windows touchpads, just wondering how it stacks against mac

The keyboard is the best laptop keyboard I've typed on OTHER than a Macbook Pro / Macbook (I like both the high and low profile keys in different ways) which I think still are the best I've used.

The touchpad is SO much better than most windows laptop touchpads, even smooth movement, good 'finger texture' (never thought I'd say that!) in linux current with the new libinput replacing the synaptics driver two finger right click only works on touching the pad with two fingers, not with clicking the pad with two fingers, but I haven't looked at it as it doesn't bother me at all.

Thank you for sharing.

Oh, no problems, thanks for saying thanks! If you have any questions feel free to ask and when I notice my comments I'll reply.

Looks interesting. I have a Dell Latitude E6320 (my second one because they're great). Here are the features that are cool in my opinion:

* SIM card slot for 3G (remove battery to place and forget).

* Magnesium & aluminum.

* Very good plastics for keyboard (short travel for digits, springy, dense, slightly concave).

* 180° opening (you can set it flat, very practical).

* HDD removable without opening the case. 4 small screws and the HDD is free, you just have to pull it to disconnect. Very useful. You just plug it back and screw.

* DVD drive removable without screws. You just press a mechanism and pull the drive from the laptop.

* SD reader.

* Ability to pop out the keyboard without opening the case, for cleaning.

* Hardware switch to kill wireless card (because turning it off and back on again is just one of those things you'll still have in flying cars).

* Can install a 'double battery' instead of the normal one.

* It's 13.3". This size is great. It's not a 12", which I find small and it's not a 14" which I find big (my laptop goes with me everywhere in all positions).

I find these features very desirable, hence my reluctance to buy other laptops (can't use Lenovo / Dell Inspiron / HP Pavillion to save my life.). I haven't checked their XPS series yet.

I find the business machines in today's market far above any consumer devices including the MacBook (Pro) in durability, reliability, expandability, etc.

I have a ThinkPad and haven't found the need to switch to something with a poor quality hinge (e.g. MBP), poor quality keyboard (in my opinion almost everything except a ThinkPad), poor expandability (again almost every non-business machine), etc.

People who work in auto shops love the ThinkPad to the point it's probably the only model they buy. It's the AK-47 of laptops.

It apears there's little dogfooding in products, whether laptops or cars. Design flaws that just nag you right from the first use that make you wonder if people who work at laptop or car manufacturers use laptops and drive cars.

Curiously, can I run Linux/*nix on it?

That's what I want to know as well. It's kind of a non-starter for me if it doesn't run Ubuntu.

Someone on reddit says he runs W10/Elementary in dualboot and it works fine:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Xiaomi/comments/58y3d9/i_have_the_m...

On reddit they say it almost works ok:

https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/53s477/xiaomi_mi_not...

In China, this about half the price of a Macbook Air and a third the price of a Macbook Pro (or something like that - correct me.) Definitely a good deal.

Where did you see that. The only price I saw was 867 euro which is much more than I was expecting for something like this. Aren't Macbook Airs about 800 euro?

It's 4999RMB on JD and Taobao, which is 737USD or 677EUR.

What about warranty , where is a good place to buy with a reliable warranty , for someone out of china?

In China. I'm comparing what it would cost to buy this versus a Macbook, in China.

> Aren't Macbook Airs about 800 euro?

we wish... the cheapest Macbook air is 999€ -> http://www.apple.com/es/macbook-air/

The MacBook Air on Apple's site includes taxes/VAT. The Xiaomi Mi Air's price of €867 doesn't include that (or even shipping). Given that a MacBook Air has nearly €200 in VAT alone, the MacBook Air is "about €800" (specifically €825 in Spain, exclusive of VAT). There also might be other fees given that the Irish price of a MacBook Air is €29 more than the Spanish.

It's hard to compare the price of a MacBook Air with VAT and with regulatory compliance taken care of to a Mi Air without those.

I think it's a little more fair to compare it to buying a US-sourced MacBook Air which starts at €826 and the 13" can be had for €918 (exclusive of VAT and shipping). That's the same ballpark as €867 for a Mi Air and the MacBook is going to have an EU Declaration of Conformity. Once we're talking about importing a laptop from China, we might as well compare it to a laptop imported from the US when talking about price.

Heck, import it from the UK. In the UK, the MacBook Air is €842 for the 11" and €1,011 for the 13" inclusive of VAT (and since the UK is still in the EU, you can move it to Spain legally without paying VAT). If we assume €175 of VAT on the Mi Air, that makes the Mi Air €1,042 which is slightly more than a 13" MacBook Air.

For those that say that the Mi Air has more RAM or a newer processor, I'm guessing Apple is going to rectify that on Thursday and that makes a more apt comparison given that this is new and we know Apple has (desperately needed) new models coming.

Several things:

- in Europe prices always included VAT unless you say VAT is not include. So you must assume the price includes VAT

- The Uk 'stills' belongs to the EU but they have special conditions. You can buy things in UK but some items cannot be exported legally from UK to other countries. So you have to go to UK, buy the item there and them come back with it. You cannot get the item shipped to any EU country.

- The prices in UK have gone down by 20% and companies hasn't adjusted the prices yet. So £749 is 842€ now but it wasn't that price before Brexit. It was more close to 999€. You might expect the prices adjust to the real devaluation of the £

So, as I said we whish we have MacBook Air for 800€ because here it is 999€

It seems I was right with the UK prices: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/10/28/apple-hikes...

Not quite. The 256GB MBA 13" costs RMB 7,788. The Mi Air 13.3" costs RMB 4,999, but it is a much better specified machine - twice as much RAM, a higher res screen and a discrete GPU.

http://www.apple.com/cn/shop/buy-mac/macbook-air http://www.mi.com/mibookair/

I think the 13.3 should be compared to the MBP and the 12.5 to the MBA.

I was just thinking this morning how my ideal laptop would be an exact replica of my Macbook Pro 13, but with a sensible keyboard and Windows 10.

This gets so close. It even has a real honest to jeebus Delete key. But then it punts on pageup/pagedn/home/end, leaving them as the terrible modified arrow keys that ruin Macs for me.

Fix that (and give it 32gb ram and a 1TB hard drive like a real computer) and I want one.

Didn't you just describe the Lenovo x1 carbon?

The ctrl key also seems in a bad place if you're the kind of person who uses keyboard shortcuts a lot e.g. ctrl-c, ctrl-x and ctrl-v will all involve significant hand movements to achieve.

Remapping CAPS LOCK as CTRL is the first thing I do when setting up a new laptop.

ME TOO. CAPS LOCK IS THE KIND OF KEY YOU REALLY ONLY NEED TO HIT ONCE EVERY TIME YOU RESTART. THE CONTROL KEY IS USED MUCH MORE FREQUENTLY.

Why do you need to hit the CapsLock key when you restart?

YOU'RE RIGHT. I SHOULD SCRIPT THAT.

No, the control key is in exactly the right spot. Don't use a finger to hit the control key, use the meat of your hand. This only works if control is in the far corner.

That's even more impossible, especially if I want to do something like ctrl-z to undo, or ctrl-shift-z to redo.

Is anyone else irrationally worried about Chinese backdoors in this product?

You'd never know what the Chinese government is up to until we get a major Chinese wikileaks dump.

We would be, if it was officially for sale anywhere outside of China...

About the same as for the USA backdoors in every day hardware.

8GB only is a dealbreaker. Also would have loved a Thunderbolt. Hope they sell a lot of this and release a pro version or similar

As an aside, do folk run Linux on a Mac ?

Writing this reply from Kubuntu on a MBP.

Do you have any issues with battery life compared to OSX?

Yes. Battery life is about 1/4 as good as on OSX.

It also has issues waking up from sleep.

It also has issues going to sleep. I've pulled a hot laptop out of my backpack many times.

Given how satisfied I am by my other Xiaomi products, I think I will replace my Macbook Air with this.

Low res screen and only 8GB of RAM, kind of a deal breaker for me.

165 PPI is low resolution? That's almost the same as a 4K screen @ 27 inches. Would you call that low resolution? That's "retina" at a 21 inch (53 cm) viewing distance.

Once you hit "retina", increasing the resolution provides rapidly decreasing benefits.

http://isthisretina.com/

Would you use a laser printer that prints at 165 PPI?

Edit: Rather than vote the question down, what's a reasonable answer? I work with text all day and would love for my display to produce text as sharp as my laser printer does.

DPI & PPI aren't directly comparable. Displays have three display elements per pixel, and printers have a considerable amount of random variation.

They aren't directly comparable, but they are comparable. A 500 DPI printer is going to produce better text on an A4 page than a 1 PPI A4 sized display, right?

Do you think text on your 165 PPI display is as sharp as even a low end laser printer?

My 175 PPI screen is sharper than a 300 DPI laser printer, and way sharper than 300 DPI ink jet printer.

The display I'm looking at now 163 PPI and I wish it were sharper.

My phone is 424 PPI and that feels about right to me.

You can display more information using 4K @ 27 inch than 1080p @ 13.3, so not sure what is your point? I have 4k 27 inch monitor as well and can easily see pixels.

Curious about your 'low res screen' comment - 1080p on a 13.3" screen seems plenty to me!

I agree. Not quite "retina" but almost too high DPI for unscaled Windows.

Windows scaling has gotten good enough where it'd be a deal-breaker for me to purchase a notebook without a "retina" screen. Especially when you're talking about a notebook pushing $1000.

I think that depends very much on the suite of apps you use. There's plenty of apps where the scaling is rather broken and seriously takes away from the experience.

It is passable for a phone, but if you do something more productive than browsing the web or watching youtube, 1080p is definitely not an economical use of the space. QHD+ is absolute minimum in terms of how much information you can display.

QHD+ (3200x1800) is, IMHO, absolute overkill on 13" screen and have only one purpose - to show "mine is better than yours" numbers in the spec list.

As a comparison, MacBook Pro, the laptop that invented "retina" laptop display, have 2560x1600 on 13". I dare you to spot the difference between 13" MacBook Pro and any current Windows laptop with crazy high resolutions when the fonts are the same size.

BTW, 15" MacBook Pro have 2880x1800 (still below QHD+), and 12" Macbook have "strange" resolution of 2304x1400 - Apple cares about the battery life and packs reasonable number of pixels on the screen. Other manufacturers probably don't have so much weight and confidence in their products, and packs any available high-res display into laptops. But let's don't confuse bad logistic and sloppy manufacturing with economical use of display and battery.

>> As a comparison, MacBook Pro, the laptop that invented "retina" laptop display, have 2560x1600 on 13"

It's an effective 1280x800 from the factory, and elements on screen are too big to be effective. Adjusting the slider over to an approximated 1440x900 is a must.

2880x1800 (what the 15" comes with) would be perfect for the 13" model, which would give a higher effective resolution with not artifacts.

I think it is down to ones ability to see. My travel-work laptop has QHD+ screen and I can easily see pixels from normal working distance. 1080p screen could definitely give me "90s experience"

So you had a laptop in 90s with 1080p? Tell us more please!

I think you take things too literally. But in the 90s I had a computer connected to analogue TV which was pretty blurry, that means you couldn't see pixels at all ;)

1080p on a 13.3 inch supports as much text as I can reasonably read on that size. Any higher resolution would just draw more battery and result in me having to scale up to compensate. And I have "perfect" vision.

If I'm doing something "more productive"/work I just connect more monitors. Resolution is only relevant up to a point, then screen size takes over.

I'm honestly unsure if I can even spot the difference between 1080p and 1440p on a 5.5" phone in a blind test (ironic phrasing). Have you tried?

I would love to have higher resolution on screens 24" and up without paying out the nose for 4k (1440p is reasonable in pricing), but the escalating resolutions in phones in recent years was just ridiculous, and fortunately it seems to have stopped now, and OP3 at least stopped at 1080p and focused on other hardware.

Spotting the difference between 1080 and 1440 on a phablet is one thing, but if you can't see a world of difference between 1080 and 1600 on a 13 at a typical laptop distance your vision is not perfect.

I didn't say I can't see the difference, I said I can't use the difference.

I used to think it wasn't that big of a deal until I started a new project where they require me to use their dell laptop with a 1080p 13" screen. When I went back to my 15" retina the difference is just astounding and my eyes are not what they once were. The font smoothing on a higher-density display really make it like reading a (backlit) book.

Sure, that I can actually agree with. But I might argue that it actually plays to my point. Getting to use that smoothing means that you actually upscale the text from "traditional" pixel size, meaning you don't actually fit anything more on the screen, but the content you do fit just looks better. The parent I responded to argued that there was too little real estate, which I disagreed with.

Small fonts are smoothed as well

I owned one of the 2014 or 2015 Macbook Pro 13" thingies. Its effective resolution was 720p. That information density is so low that I couldn't use it. Using the full resolution, things were too small. Anything in between was unusable since the GPU couldn't render the OS animations smoothly.

Is your eyesight just so good that you can use the non-scaled versions?

There's a wide range of scaled resolutions with the retina MBPs. I usually go somewhere in the middle to high resolution space. My brain can't handle the jaggies I see when I use my MacBook Air 13" now.

About two years ago or so, when I bought a 13" MBP, they had an intermediate resolution setting. But the OS started to lag und stutter when I switched between virtual desktops (I think it's called workspace). I believe this is because they render at double the effective resolution and then scale down. Therefore, the intermediate settings are the most taxing for the GPU.

I couldn't find a way to disable the animations and since I use virtual desktops a lot and the usual effective 720p resolution is almost comically large, it all added up to be a dealbreaker for me and I returned it.

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