Xiaomi Mi Book Air hands on

Xiaomi launched their Mi Book Air, their first laptop, only a few weeks ago and just last week they released the smaller of the two laptops in silver in a limited run. Luckily for us shop.gizchina.com have their ear to the ground when it comes to the latest tech and they have been quick to snatch the device up and get one to me.

The Mi Book Air I have is the 12.5-inch version with integrated graphics which costs 3499 Yuan in China. I have this version simply because it’s the only one available, but the compact laptop will make a great travel device for work.

The 12.5-inch Mi Book Air offers a larger display over the smallest Apple Macbook Air, but physically they are very similar in size. This is due to the much narrower bezels around the 12.5-inch Xiaomi panel.

Build is also different to the Macbook Air, rather than being CNC machined from a single piece of alloy, but rather made in two pieces. This doesn’t detract from the looks of the Mi Book Air, but it does give a less sturdy, lower quality feel.

The differences continue in the ports on offer with the Xioami getting a full size HDMI plug, USB type C, standard USB and 3.5mm headphone jack. The lack of SD port is a real shame for me, but as most modern cameras offer a WIFI connection I’m sure it’s something we can learn to live without. Opened up the Xiaomi Mi Book Air has a near full size keyboard with bright backlighting. There is only an option to turn the backlight on or offer, rather than varying the degree of brightness, but it’s a lovely feature to have.

On the hardware front, the Xiaomi Mi Book Air has AKG audio and a very high quality set of speakers on the underside. Compared to my wife’s Macbook Air (which is an older model) the Xiaomi has way better audio. The 1920 x 1080 display is also much brighter and offers a crisper visual experience.

On the performance side of things the 12.5-inch Xiaomi Mi Book Air has 4GB RAM, 128GB memory, and Intel Core M3 chipset with integrated GPU. This isn’t going to be a gamers laptop, but for someone like me who wants to blog, browse the web and edit photos, the Mi Book Air offers plenty of grunt.