Xiaomi recently unveiled its first laptops. The Mi Notebook Air comes in two flavors: a $750 model with a 13.3 inch display and premium specs, and a less powerful $525 model with a 12.5 inch display.

Both laptops are thin, light, and reasonably low priced considering their spec sheets. And both look like a sort of cross between a MacBook and an Asus Zenbook.

But what do they look like under the hood? Now that the first Mi Notebooks have begun shipping (in China, at least), the first teardown photos are available.

mi notebook air teardown

Web sites including GeekBuying and Technizine have posted photos showing what the notebooks look like when you open the case, and Sami Luo has posted an unboxing and teardown video.

Here are a few things I learned from the teardowns:

  • The 12.5 inch model has a 4,866 mAh, 37 Wh battery.
  • There’s a 5,107 mAh, 39Wh battery in the 13.3 inch model
  • The M.2 SSD should be easy to upgrade or replace in either notebook.
  • RAM, meanwhile, does not appear to be upgradeable.

While the Mi Notebook Air 12.5 inch and 13.3 inch laptops are only available in China at the moment, exporters including Geekbuying and Banggood are already taking pre-orders for folks willing to pay a premium to have them shipped internationally.

The going rate seems to be about $609 – $619 for the 12.5 inch model with a Core M3-6Y30 processor, 4GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage and $910 for the 13.3 inch model with a Core i5 Skylake processor, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage.

At those prices though, you might be better off looking for a good deal on an ultrabook from Asus, HP, or Dell.

 

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13 replies on “Xiaomi’s first notebooks get the teardown treatment”

  1. please do the teardown for the screen, As i need to replace the screen for dead-pixel issue.

  2. At what expected rate will xiaomi will sell their laptops in India
    and when it will launch in India.

  3. For that jacked off china online re-seller price, it is no longer cheap/value for money to buy Mi notebook for international buyers.

    They forget that profit margin for notebook already super thin nowaday as we got many competitor china brands that selling ultrabook at very darn cheap price.And those greedy china online re-seller still thinking they can rip off their international customers with their outrageously jacked off pricing for Mi notebook ? They better think twice !!!

    If china re-seller don’t want to reduce their price then might as well buy locally from other reputable brands like Lenovo idepad or thinkpad, HP, or Dell, etc. All those brands have the same price range for their ultrabook with better local warranty support.

    But again i cannot control a lot of ignorance buyers outside LOL. if they want to buy at those expensive international price then so be it.

    I bought a couple of redmi Note 3 pro before and i can feel that Xiaomi build quality for their products are quite good, only big problem with their local support, if Xiaomi can provide international warranty then probably they can become the best brands in the world.

    And yeah, if our beloved chairman Lei Jun read this post, Xiaomi still got big problem with maintaining their supply for their customers. No stocks = bad news, normally customers need fast so they got no choice but buy other brands.

  4. If they provide (bundle) tested Linux compatible drivers (Ubuntu at least), I would be interested. ALL the mainstream laptop manufacturers today make it impossible (or nearly impossible) to get factory tested Linux drivers for their products.

  5. Hmm, through those resellers it’s £720 for the 13.3″ model before VAT. That’s XPS 13 money. If xiaomi expanded their store in this country it’d be great to cut out the resellers, as is all they sell are batteries and headphones.

  7. Hi,

    Don’t think Xiaomi is very good quality.

    I’m using redmi 2 prime, and even though it is low price. I’m facing Lot of problems with the phone.

    Poor signal
    Sometimes no signal at all.
    Display problem in two of my phones.
    Even mobile data is off, phone is using mobile data.

    1. Dear, if you have an issue with ur phone, go to local Mi India service center and ask for help instead of hating against the beloved brand here. Thank u

      1. Hi Lei Jun,

        I never expected you would reply to this Message.

        First, I want to thank you for bringing good mobile phones for very cheap.

        I like your brand. That is why I brought 3 Redmi Phones. One for me, one for my Dad and one for my wife

        Please improve the quality, I usually hate china company electronics.

        Actually signal problem, I face in all 3 of my phones.
        Mobile data problem is listed in the forums, but it was not solved.

        I will take my phones to service center.

        1. India has always had mobile data problems and signal problems. Your redmi phones are likely using the same qualcomm snapdragon chips that most other phones are using.

          1. One thing, I don’t hate Xiaomi Brand. I like Xiaomi Brand.

            I’m talking about this problem.

            https://en.miui.com/thread-1758…
            https://en.miui.com/thread-1710…

            Check this threads.

            It is phone problem, not network problem.

            I used samsung and iPhone without these problems.

            I lost my phone balance.

            And the other problem is, either one sim is not showing networking most of the times. I have to restart the phone or switch off and on aeroplane mode.

          2. So it sounds like a software problem. Doesn’t mean Xiaomi is bad. Even Google Nexus phones have software issues.

Comments are closed.