Review of the laptop Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 13.3 2018

The question of which company to choose a laptop for yourself is no longer worth it if you look for budget, and not only, devices for aliexpress. You just need to carefully study the qualitative characteristics, advantages and disadvantages, and choose the necessary device, taking into account the purpose for which it is bought. Knowing what characteristics are needed, and what they mean and give, you can purchase a laptop for gamers or a premium device at an affordable price. But even there now there are popular models and brands that are constantly improving the functionality of each new product. One of the novelties of 208 Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 13.3 will be discussed in this article.

How to choose a laptop

The rating of sold laptops is no longer determined by quality, since the main modules and components are purchased from manufacturers that have already proven their popularity of models. The best-selling product is the one that most fits into the category of choice of the majority of users. An important factor is the ratio of price and quality and the availability of quality parameters and characteristics. Of course, not unimportant role is played by high-quality assembly and design.

Therefore, a review of gadgets will help answer questions about how to choose and which company is better to give preference to.

Important factors that few people pay attention to

But in vain! What to pay attention to? On the technology of production of basic instruments and the possibility of expanding or using interchangeable units and assemblies. Especially when expansion is needed. Standard models are usually released with these features. The equipment quickly "gets old", programs "overgrow" with additions and updates. Expandability is very important. As well as the production technology itself, which in turn leads to the efficiency of devices and equipment components. And cost-effectiveness for a portable portable device is very important.

SSD drives

Now quite relevant is the possibility of using solid state drives. It is known that the hard drive resource is much lower than, for example, the laptop itself. Here, the type of hard disk plays an important role, but still its speed parameters lag behind the times. Solid state drive (on integrated circuits) - SSD drive is more "long-playing", but not only.

What is more important in a laptop? Speed ​​with low consumption.On a hard disk, some simple operations require time to repeatedly write and read from the main disk to RAM and vice versa. Most of the time is spent searching for the desired track by the mechanical head of the hard disk. Delays entail the inclusion of additional services, and this - to a greater number of operations. Failures in such cases cannot be avoided, and this leads to even longer delay times. To the so-called "glitches". And also to the appearance of system garbage.

SSD drives have low latency and high speed performance. This qualitatively affects the work of all services and programs. This difference in work is clearly visible when opening, for example, a video file. If the OS is installed on a hard drive, then when you open folders on another drive of the same drive, the computer will “think” for a few seconds, and sometimes Explorer restarts. Then, when opening a video file, it will “think”, then the player window will be drawn, and only then playback will begin.

If the OS is installed on an SSD drive, then any folder on this drive always opens immediately. The video file is opened and played immediately, unpacking of video codecs occurs at lightning speed, imperceptibly to the eyes. What about file transfers? Media files up to 100 MB are sometimes transferred without the transfer window appearing. The speed is also enough to keep the laptop warm during games. In general, the work of a laptop on a hard drive is fundamentally different from working on a solid state drive. The Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air laptop has such an SSD drive, as well as the ability to replace it with another one with more memory.

Processor process

Intel is constantly improving its products, and in particular processors.The development and serial production of processors such as Kaby Lake-R, with a 14+ process technology, is intended for laptops. These are 4-core processors that support multithreading.

They have a power consumption of just 15 watts, while the performance increase is 40% compared to its predecessor Kaby Lake, consuming 15 and 28 watts. There, the reduction in consumption was achieved by reducing the clock frequency, but here there is an increase in performance due to the technical process. The clock speed of processors for the Kaby Lake-R laptop is 1.6 - 1.9 Ghz, in turbo mode 3.4 - 4.2 Ghz. This increase is clearly visible in applications that use multithreading.

Specifications of Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air

CPU

As already noted, the Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air laptop has a 4-core Kaby Lake-R processor with 8 threads. Intel Core i5 8250U / i7 8550U from the 8th generation processor line. L2 cache is 1 MB, L3 cache is 6 MB.

GPU

Integrated graphics UHD Graphics 620, whose manufacturers assure support for HDMI 2.0. The laptop has an Nvidia GeForce 940MX (1 GB, GDDR5) graphics card.

Ultrabook has support for video resolution 1080p, with a frame rate of up to 60 Hz, also 4K, with a frame rate of up to 30 Hz. It has the ability to output digital video to a monitor or TV.

Memory

RAM

The laptop in question has single-channel memory. It has a non-removable DDR4 memory stick with a capacity of 8 GB. It operates at a frequency of 2133 MHz. I would like to note that this type of memory is 15% faster compared to DDR3, while having 10% less power consumption. This memory is enough for the normal operation of the Windows 10 Home operating system.

Persistent memory

The Samsung PM951 NVMe MZVLV256 SSD is installed as the main drive. Its volume is 256 GB. The maximum speed of reading information is 1.5 Gb / s.

For a portable portable PC, this is enough even to install 2 Windows OS. You can split the drive into 2 disks: C, 50 GB in size and D, about 200 GB in size. It is possible to replace it with a larger SSD drive, 480 GB, 500 GB, 1 TB.

Display

The 13.3-inch laptop has a 170⁰ viewing angle and a matte screen with LED backlighting. The type of screen matrix is ​​TFT IPS, with a resolution of 1920 × 1080 - this is 166 pixels per 1 inch. It has an ultra-thin bezel, 5.59mm thick, measuring 765.24mm by 293.76mm. At just 5.59mm thin, this screen features Full HD resolution, accommodating 1.8 times more detail than conventional HD displays.

Another advantage of this model is ultra-strong Corning Gorilla Glass 3. It has high scratch resistance, 7H is a strength indicator and class B endurance.

Sound

The device has a Realtek ALC298 sound card. There is also a stereo acoustic set of 2 Infinity speakers. Their power is 2.5 watts. Such power can provide good audibility to a large living room without additional speakers. The headphones support the Dolby Atmos standard, there is an output for a 3.5 mm wired jack.

touchpad

Its rectangle measures 110×65mm and has a fingerprint scanner embedded in the top right corner. The scanner does not interfere with the use of the trackpad, the cursor remains manageable in this place. The touchpad has a couple of built-in buttons that duplicate the right and left mouse buttons. The touchpad driver software recognizes all common gestures.

Accumulator battery

The device has a Li-polymer battery with a capacity of 40 W / h. Notebook Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 13.3 is quite economical, and charging a new battery for a normal user is enough for almost 10 hours. If you “sit” on the Internet with the screen on and the volume control halfway, then the charge is enough for 6-7 hours. Games and programs that use a video card in their work will “land” the battery even faster. However, these are good options anyway.

You can charge it in 2 modes: 5 Volts / 2 Amperes; 20 Volt / 3.5 Amp. The first mode is designed for collaboration and recharging. For example, installing an operating system or working with programs such as energy-intensive games, video editors, converters, etc.

In fast charging mode, a discharged battery can be “filled” by 50% in half an hour, by 87% in an hour. To fully charge the battery, the charger will have to work a little more than 2 hours. It is recommended to work with a well-charged battery. In the case of the operation of energy-intensive programs, it is better for the laptop to be connected to the adapter in the first charging mode.

Interfaces

The described device has the possibility of expanding the memory, there are 2 PCIe slots for an SSD drive. The first one already has a 256 GB solid state drive installed. The second one is free, has the M.2 SATA type with a data transfer rate of up to 3 Gb / s. There is also a slot for a video card.

One USB C is designed to charge a laptop from an adapter in the 1st charging mode (5V, 2A). Through the second USB C connector, you can charge external devices. Both of these interfaces can be used to send images to an external monitor or projector.Another 2 USB 3.0 connectors that support laptop fast charging can be used for data transfer. All USB connectors in the device can operate at speeds up to 5 Gb / s, if the technical data of the peripheral allows it.

There is an HDMI interface, as well as a round audio output with a diameter of 3.5 mm. There is also a much-needed SD card reader, such as SDHC and SDXC.

From wireless interfaces: Wi-Fi, version 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac, operating at frequencies of 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz; Bluetooth version 4.1.

Other characteristics

The built-in video camera contains 1 megapixel. The device has a slot for a video card, so an Nvidia GeForce 940MX (1 GB, GDDR5) or NVIDIA GeForce MX150 (2 GB GDDR5) video card, or another suitable for the characteristics, can be installed.

The laptop has a fingerprint scanner that can be used as a key to lock / unlock the machine. This laptop model does not have an optical DVD drive, the manufacturers decided to completely abandon their use. The keyboard is equipped with butterfly switches. The keys have a white LED backlight. Recommended OS Windows 10 Home.

Operating temperature range of the device: from 5⁰С; up to 35⁰С, can be stored in the temperature range: from -15⁰С; up to +45⁰С. In this case, the humidity of the air, without condensation, should be from 5% to 90%. In case of violation of the rules and conditions of operation and storage, service centers have the right to refuse to carry out warranty service. Which is carried out if the serial number of the device matches the serial number of the service form and the serial number indicated on the sales receipt.

Design

Although the appearance of the laptop "mows" under the Apple, there are no logos on the screen cover of the folded device. Only when the screen-lid of the laptop is opened, a small “mi” flaunts at the bottom of the display frame - the Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air logo. Fine details of the screen cover and the main body of the device speak of the high technology of the model. Stylish and strict contours of a monotone color and the absence of various kinds of advertising inscriptions and abbreviations emphasize the seriousness of the brand and manufacturer.

One wide loop, which is approximately 2/3 of the entire width, holds the screen cover of the device firmly. Opens to an angle of up to 120⁰ with one hand easily, without the need to hold the other. The fixation of the lid is quite rigid, so it does not shake when holding the laptop, for example, on your lap, which is very convenient.

However, it should not be placed on a soft surface, since the cooling holes are only on the bottom cover of the device. And they are made in the form of one wide strip of mesh holes and 2 small rectangular meshes closer to the edge of the opposite side. These holes are also used for the speaker system. Therefore, they should not be closed when placing the laptop, for example, on a soft blanket or pillow.

Model Features

The main feature of this model was the energy-intensive Kaby Lake-R chip and SSD drive. Well, the screen has increased to 13.3 inches written in the title. Almost everything else was in the predecessors, but still in practice this is a completely different device. Windows 10, for example, after unlocking with fingerprints, boots in 13 seconds.

• High efficiency and processor performance;
• Advantages of an SSD drive;
• The presence of slots for a video card and a drive, the possibility of expansion;
• Good screen viewing angle and high resolution;
• Thin;
• Good folding device design.

• some models do not have a card reader;
• lack of Russian letters on the keyboard;
• Glossy device screen;
• There is no separate connector for charging from the battery.

Depending on the processor used and some peripherals, the Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 13.3″ 2018 laptop can cost from 55,450 rubles to 61,400 Russian rubles. Here, the price of delivery and the commission of the store may also affect.