OVERVIEW: Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 13,3 "- a game competitor MacBook

In the spring and summer of 2016, many manufacturers have presented their own vision of a compact version of the MacBook. Xiaomi has announced just two copies: Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 12,5 "and Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 13,3".

The first device is intended to replace the 12-inch Apple laptop is rather a typewriter. We were also in the hands of Flagship got a 13.3-inch version - a full working machine with a top processor and a discrete graphics card. Even steeper than the MacBook Pro 13 ".

Characteristics

Design

What should be a clone? Similar to the original product, and a little better in several ways. In this case, Xiaomi has decided to bet on downsizing. The main weapon was the thickness of the device: it is only 14.8 mm. Thickness MacBook Air - 17 mm. Thus, the thinner laptop Xiaomi Apple solutions by 13%.

Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 13,3 "cut down like a piece of aluminum. Clean lines, very small gaps. But at a certain angle it is easy to confuse with the MacBook: in place even recess for the fingers, which simplifies the raising of the screen. No logo on the cover plays only benefit. If desired, you can paste the bitten apple - is unlikely someone will be able to guess the origin of the laptop.

High-quality assembly. At the top of the cover hidden set of magnets that ensures fixing halves. The hinges are not loose, not squeak. Opening takes place very gently. The screen can be placed at any angle up to 130 degrees.

The frame around the display is much smaller than that of the popular Apple laptops up to 13 inches. By the way, here it is hidden corporate MI icon noticeable during normal operation.

The only non-metallic part of the body was the inside of the cover: the display frame and covered with protective glass. As a result, the screen is glossy, which means it will shine.

The keyboard is almost completely repeats the familiar layout and design of MacBook up to accommodate the power button. The key travel is soft. There are lights but no picture brightness adjustment.

One of the major advantages of the entire MacBook line was the touchpad. Find more convenient virtually impossible - all analogues lose. Xiaomi is no exception. The response speed is very good, depression and touch are processed very well. But with the MacBook does not compare.

Display

For ultrabook 13.3-inch resolution of 1920 × 1080 pixels is not the most modern choice. Many manufacturers equip laptops Retina-screen TVs. Anticipating possible questions, once a reservation: Full HD more reasonable in terms of performance and battery life. Large resolution interfaces allow you to scale efficiently.

Xiaomi has gone on a reasonable compromise, which can hardly be seen with the naked eye. The type of matrix - IPS, screen - glossy. This means that there is no distortion of color, contrast and narrow dynamic range. And excellent viewing angles. The brightness level is quite high, especially in comparison with other laptops in this price range.

Performance

As a platform Mi Notebook Air 13,3 "was selected Intel Core i5-6200U processor with a clock frequency of up to 2.7GHz. Why is not the newest Kaby Lake? The seventh generation of Intel processors is not yet available for most manufacturers, but the cost is too high. And the benefits of her before Skylake not so much. performance increase in processor tests to Kaby Lake is no more than 5-10%. Another advantage of the platform - an updated video card - is leveled by using a discrete graphics card NVIDIA GeForce 940MX with 1GB of memory.

It can be argued that such a choice is not the most faithful, especially for the ultrabook where the integrated graphics are more than enough. The fact that the GeForce 940MX outperforms most integrated solutions, including Intel Iris latest models. Ability to disable the discrete graphics card should appear with the December update drivers. If it is too much - you can use the integrated Intel HD chip.

Thus, Mi Notebook Air 13,3 "can be recommended as effective workstation. Available 384 conveyor discrete cards allow and play, and to draw, and even something to count. Speaking of games: Dota 2 shows about 50 fps.

Device power is that engineers have equipped the laptop with a full cooling system coolers. The design of a successful - the noise of rotating fans is minimal. Wherein the processor is heated to not more than 45 degrees.

But not everything is so rosy. The sale is the only version with 8 GB of RAM. Additional slots for memory there is, so that the expansion should not count. And this despite the fact that the company's engineers have provided a constant need to expand the memory: in addition to the standard SSD 256 GB, you can add another hard drive.

All interfaces are within specification. So, set USB-C runs on USB 3.0 controller, and it can be used for charging laptop and sync to other devices. Full-length classic USB also work on the new standard and supports a high transmission speed. Official information about the type of HDMI not, the translation support 4K video is present.

Wireless interfaces are dual-band Wi-Fi module and Bluetooth 4.1. Provided full compatibility with most devices, even wireless acoustics there are no problems.

Multimedia

In the description of the appearance it was deliberately missed one important point: the location of the speakers. Meanwhile, Xiaomi lures buyer sticker AKG. Indeed, corporate speaker is present. But to enjoy the high quality sound will not work.

The fact that the speaker grille on the rear cover, and they are directed downwards. Any soft surface muffles the sound. Even when the laptop is on his knees, begin distortion.

At steady state the notebook the sound is loud and clear. Low frequencies are mild, they do not suffice. But the middle and upper enough for watching movies and listening to music. In addition, the technology is implemented sound surrounding the user. And, oddly enough for a portable device, it really works.

Runtimes

For a discrete graphics device battery capacity of 40 Wh not record figure. It is more suitable true ultrabook with low power consumption and integrated video.

Despite this, at low brightness of the display in airplane mode, you can work with office documents for nine hours. View the video in Full HD via Wi-Fi burns stored energy in six hours. When capacious calculations using all the hardware capabilities of more than two hours, the laptop will not last.

Not too happy with the situation compensated battery fast charging through the fashionable USB Type-C. To recharge the battery up to 50% is enough only 30 minutes.

Comparison with competitors

Pricing policy makes Xiaomi buyers a blind eye to most of the possible problems. The closest competitors in the offline shops in Russia are more than 80 thousand rubles. Asus, Acer, Dell - all of them are much more expensive and do not always offer a balanced model. In particular, Dell XPS13 with the same parameters will cost the buyer more expensive 100 thousand. MacBook Air 13 is from 80 thousand (as with Intel's sixth-generation - a hundred).

In such circumstances, the cost of Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 13,3 "looks much nicer. Suffice it to install the Russian version of Windows 10, Home, or Ubuntu, and hands will be a great competitive device with high performance and a pleasant design.

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