Xiaomi sure knows how to target its competition and hit them where it hurts. The company recently made a bevy of announcements which included the new Xiaomi Mi A1 smartphone, which the company had no problem comparing to the iPhone 7 Plus, the Mi Mix 2 and now a new Notebook that will take on Apple’s MacBook Pro.
The new Mi Notebook Pro will directly compete with the Apple MacBook Pro. It is meant to be a cheaper affair, run on Windows and Xiaomi has been forward about competing with Apple’s own offering in its promotional posts online, which compare the two devices and the advantages that the Mi Notebook Pro will offer over the MacBook Pro.
This will be Xiaomi’s second outing in the Notebook space, after the company launched the successful Mi Notebook Air in 2016. This time around, the company will be offering better specifications for the cost that should make it a more appealing option than its competitors in the price bracket which it unveiled in Beijing earlier today.
The 15.6-inch laptop will have a similar design to the MacBook Pro, but will have a better selection of ports, which include two USB-A ports, two USB-C ports, HDMI and an SD Card slot as well. Impressively, the laptop works a little similarly to Apple’s offering, starting with the trackpad, which has a kind of Force Touch feature that is also found on the MacBook Pro. There is also a fingerprint scanner on the top right corner of the trackpad, making it also compatible with Windows Hello. The screen is a glossy, 1080p panel, and may not be the best for productivity or for heavy users, but at the price-range and the performance, should make for a satisfying daily driver.
The laptop will be made available only in China for now, and for the cost of $850, buyers will get an Intel Core i5 processor with 8GB of RAM. For $1070, the spec-sheet accommodates for 16GB of RAM and NVIDIA’s entry-level GeForce MX150 GPU. Xiaomi claims that the latter combination makes the Mi Notebook 40 percent more powerful than last year’s iteration.
As reported by Engadget, the keyboard is also impressive, with a 1.5mm key travel. On-board, are also a pair of capable Harman Infinity speakers, an aluminium chassis. It also features a 60Wh battery and supports quick charge, offering 50 percent of charge in just 35 minutes. The device will, like its predecessor, be available only in China and will start going on Sale on September 15.
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