Xiaomi launched the Mi Notebook Air last year, offering a notebook that's thinner and lighter than the MacBook Air. The company rolled out an updated variant with Kaby Lake chipsets and a fingerprint scanner, and Xiaomi is now setting its sights on the MacBook Pro with its latest laptop, the Mi Notebook Pro.
The Mi Notebook Pro is constructed out of magnesium alloy, and features a 15.6-inch 1080p display with narrow bezels and a Gorilla Glass 3 coating. The panel goes up to a maximum brightness of 300 nits, 72% NTSC color gamut, as well as 170-degree viewing angles.
You can configure the Mi Notebook Pro with either an eighth-generation Core i5 8250U clocked at 3.40GHz or a Core i7 8550U clocked at 4.0GHz. Both models come with a dedicated video card in the form of the NVIDIA GeForce MX150, which has 2GB of video memory. You can also select between 8GB or 16GB of dual-channel DDR4 RAM, and the notebook comes with a 256GB SSD.
If you're looking to extend the storage, there is a slot for an NVMe SSD. Other details include 2x2 Wi-Fi ac, 1MP webcam, two Harman Infinity speakers, and a 60Wh battery that has a touted battery life of just over nine hours. Xiaomi also designed a custom cooling solution that results in 40% better heat dissipation.
The Mi Notebook Pro has dimensions of 360.7 x 243.6mm x 15.9mm, and weighs 4.3 pounds (1.95 kilos). With the current-gen MacBook Pro getting rid of the SD card reader, Xiaomi was eager to point out that the Mi Notebook Pro does include an SD card slot, along with two full-size USB 3.0 ports in addition to two USB-C ports and an HDMI out.
The keyboard is backlit and has a 1.5mm travel, which Xiaomi says should mimic the feel of a mechanical keyboard. The notebook also has Windows Hello integration and runs Windows 10. Like earlier Xiaomi notebooks, the Mi Notebook Pro is bereft of any branding on the lid — the only branding you'll see is a Mi logo at the bottom of the screen.
The Mi Notebook Pro will go on sale in China for ¥5,699 ($840) for the variant with the Core i5 and 8GB of RAM. The version with Core i7 and 8GB of RAM will retail for ¥6,399 ($940), and the model with Core i7 and 16GB of RAM will be up for sale for ¥6,999 ($1,030). It's unlikely the notebook will be available outside of China.
What do you guys make of the Mi Notebook Pro?
