from Hacker News

Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival

by adalyz on 7/27/16, 8:20 AM with 437 comments

• by klackerz on 7/27/16, 8:57 AM

  The best thing about Xiaomi is that they support their products very well. Almost all of their phones get security updates each month. That is a rare thing in Android nowadays especially with Motorola announcing that they will stop updating their phones with the new security updates. [1]

  [1] http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/07/motorola-confirms-tha...

• by leonroy on 7/27/16, 5:04 PM

  This quote from Jony Ive really made me feel for the guy:

  “When you’re doing something for the first time, you don’t know it’s going to work. You spend seven or eight years working on something, and then it’s copied. I have to be honest, the first thing I can think, all those weekends that I could have at home with my family but didn’t. I think it’s theft, and it’s lazy.”

  Xiaomi have done this to others. Their new air filter for example basically clones a Japanese design and sells it for a fraction of the price: http://www.gizmochina.com/2014/12/09/xiaomis-air-purifierbor...

• by puranjay on 7/27/16, 8:46 AM

  People shit on Xiaomi here but even imitation requires some level of artistry and finesse. This looks like a good clone of Air, and I haven't seen Acer/Lenovo/Dell manage to do that yet.

• by im_dario on 7/27/16, 9:10 AM

  I don't trust their battery run-times. I was looking for a laptop and finally settled down for a Lenovo Thinkpad 13.

  Thinkpad's battery is 42 Wh with a wifi surfing run-time of almost 7 hours [0], although it being sold as a 11 hours run-time. It hasn't a dedicated graphics chip.

  Xiaomi's battery is 40 Wh and it sports dedicated graphics. Macbook Air's battery is 58 Wh and it has integrated graphics, lasting around 10 hours [1].

  Assuming a similar consumption, Xiaomi's would last less than 7 hours for surfing. But it has dedicated graphics (NVidia 940M) with a consumption (30W) that doubles integrated options (Intel HD in Lenovo and Apple laptops). So, probably it will last 5 or 6 hours of just wifi surfing, even less.

  [0] http://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-13-Ultrabook-Re...

  [1] http://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-MacBook-Air-13-2015-Noteb...

• by dineshp2 on 7/27/16, 4:49 PM

  I was hoping Xiaomi would also launch a version with Ubuntu as the default OS. An i5, 8GB DDR4 Ram, 256GB SSD, backlit keyboard and 10 hours battery backup at $750 sounds like a sweet deal.

  I know Ubuntu can still be installed on the Windows version, but I expect it to be a hacky path with installation issues, getting the hardware to play nice and the backlit keyboard to work, and finally maybe even battery life issues.

  An out of the box solution like the XPS 13 at a lower price point might work.

• by anilgulecha on 7/27/16, 8:41 AM

  If the RAM is user-upgradable, this will make for an excellent dev machine. Given it's a chinese laptop, it will surely not be locked, so Ubuntu will run well as well.

• by Keyframe on 7/27/16, 2:43 PM

  I've been looking for a new laptop recently, but I can't seem to find a good.

  My primary concerns are:

  - not to have open it up and clean from dust. That's what all of my laptops, except Air, suffered from. They get dust inside and then get hot and loud. I move around a lot and it's inevitable. I don't want noise and I want as little heat as possible.

  - Multitouch Trackpad like on Macbook Air. It's wonderful!

  - Long battery life with moderate to high power cpu.

  - Great 13" monitor that you can see what's going on in direct sunlight.

  - As much as possible of internal fast storage.

  - Lots of RAM.

  - Great typing experience. I'm fine with chiklet on Air. It's just fine. I write a lot, more than typical programmers - treatments, instructions, screenplays on a daily basis.

  Currently, only Air fits the bill, but it's getting old.

  So, a high(er)-powered Air 13" with longer battery life and more RAM and disk space and better screen with updated CPU and graphics would be great. I haven't found one. I don't care which OS it runs. They're all the same these days.

• by xbeta on 7/27/16, 8:47 AM

  After using few Xiaomi products, no thanks.

  If I want a Linux dev box, there are other options too.

• by z92 on 7/27/16, 9:26 AM

  There are laptops which are thinner, faster or has better graphics than MacBooks. But as much as I have checked, every one of them falls flat on battery run time comparison.

  If there was anything that comes close to Macbook's 12 hours run time, I would have seriously considered switching.

• by FuNe on 7/27/16, 12:22 PM

  Why windows? Won't that add to the price? Why not a linux "version" for 100$ less?

• by JustSomeNobody on 7/27/16, 2:09 PM

  Macbook Air is more than just hardware. It's hardware and software working together to make the experience.

  I doubt a $540 machine running Windows will match it.

  I very much dislike Windows, but I realize that's just me. Linux on this machine would be awesome.

• by fit2rule on 7/27/16, 8:48 AM

  If it gets full Linux support, i.e. I can blow away Windows and use Ubuntu, then I'm in. This'll be my last macbook ..

• by kas0 on 7/27/16, 8:49 AM

  Every competitor for Apple is a good thing :)

• by d_j_b on 7/27/16, 9:44 AM

  When Windows Subsystem for Linux can run nginx, rails etc reliably, will seriously consider leaving behind MacBook Pro for something like this

• by teekert on 7/27/16, 11:06 AM

  To me, Xiaomi means quality, I have a Xiaomi battery pack, it's very solid and feels high quality. So does my OnePlus3, it seems like Chinese (designed) is no longer synonymous with cheap and low quality. They are ready to take over. They are removing the usp of western (designed) products. Admittedly they do it partly via copying. What is the next frontier for western companies? Responsible design? Environmentally friendly design/manufacturing? The robotic revolution can certainly bring parts of the manufacturing back here without increasing the prices. I'm curious to see how I.E. Apple responds to this trend.

• by blisterpeanuts on 7/27/16, 11:37 AM

  The Techcrunch article reads more like a blog or opinion piece. For example: "...it’ll be interesting to see how many units Xiaomi ships."

  Also, no mention of battery life, which is the sine qua non of laptops. Unless I missed it, and I read the article twice to be sure.

  I'm always sorry when I click on a TC link.

  Here's Engadget's take, and they do mention the 9.5 hour battery: https://www.engadget.com/2016/07/27/xiaomi-mi-notebook-air-l...

• by ForFreedom on 7/27/16, 10:18 AM

  I dont understand why everyone is comparing their products to the Mac/iPhone and then they say "cheap" as $xxx.

  You cant compare a KIA to Bugatti and say cheap as $xxx.

  The point is create a product people speak about and has a value

• by vegasje on 7/27/16, 3:09 PM

  What's the recommended way for US users to get Xiaomi devices?

• by kctess5 on 7/27/16, 8:53 AM

  I am very tempted to try to acquire one. Seems like it would be a great portable development machine.

  For robotics work I always end up wanting a small but decent computer to run my ROS visualizations/algorithms and to make small code edits. This has a decent c/gpu, good battery, small form factor, ssd slot, and isn't ungodly expensive. I usually end up running a VM on my primary development laptop but that is very annoying, a dedicated and less valuable machine would be better.

• by aguki on 7/27/16, 9:35 AM

  There has been a Macbook Air clone （13.3", i3-5005u, 4GB, 128GB) floating around on Taobao for 2400 CNY / 360 USD:

  https://world.taobao.com/item/528554912918.htm#detail

• by jimrandomh on 7/27/16, 2:42 PM

  When looking at laptop specs, the first thing I look at (almost the only thing) is the screen resolution. This is yet another 1920x1080 laptop, which puts it somewhere between "undifferentiated and uninteresting" and "outright disqualified".

• by ptx on 7/27/16, 7:56 PM

  > boy does it look familiar to products belonging to a company that begins with the letter ‘A’

  Hm? "Sony" doesn't begin with "A".

  The colors, the squarish shape and the keyboard (Sony used that style before Apple) look much more like a Sony Vaio than any Apple laptop.

• by dudelemmethink on 7/27/16, 9:35 AM

  This laptop takes a lot of inspiration from Dell XPS' small bezels plus a lot of (what seems like) other similar ID inspirations... I love my XPS, but this is more affordable. Would love to give this a test run. Is this laptop running Windows?

• by dxxvi on 7/27/16, 4:02 PM

  Does it have virus in the firmware that works in both Windows and Linux?

• by mnkmnk on 7/27/16, 10:20 AM

  Will there be heating issues? Such a small form factor with an i5 and dedicated graphics card ought to have thermal throttling issues and with a metal body, become uncomfortable to hold.

• by toni on 7/27/16, 9:51 AM

  Aren't those arrow keys a bit weird? Left and right keys are implemented as standard size keys, while up and down keys are so small and tiny. How do you work like that?

• by mrmondo on 7/27/16, 10:06 AM

  Good on them, the more competition in the market the better both for the top and bottom end alternatives regardless of manufacturer or OS.

• by blkhawk on 7/27/16, 8:41 AM

  looking at it I wonder how good the track pad is.

• by izzydata on 7/27/16, 2:38 PM

  Why does it need to be so thin? I don't really understand this fad of making every so thin that battery life suffers.

• by Ezhik on 7/27/16, 8:41 PM

  Looks really nice. Reminds me of the Surface Book (minus the tablet stuff). Can't wait for the rumored i7 model.

• by mark_l_watson on 7/28/16, 12:32 AM

  I would buy one if avaliable through Microsoft's online store as a crapware free signature edition.

• by alpeb on 7/27/16, 8:58 PM

  Looks awesome, but the OS... There really is a huge market gap for a third, non-tech-savvy friendly OS.

• by sergiotapia on 7/27/16, 10:11 AM

  A bit expensive, considering you can get an $800 13-inch macbook air (the real deal).

• by Giorgi on 7/27/16, 10:23 PM

  Way to expensive for that graphics card. Would expect better prices from Xiaomi

• by orky56 on 7/28/16, 1:23 AM

  Good artists copy, great artists steal.

• by ungzd on 7/27/16, 10:23 AM

  Making it thin does not make it closer to Macbook. I'm sure it even has standard bricky laptop charger and crappy display.

• by tuananh on 7/27/16, 8:36 AM

  How can Xiaomi is not sued yet?

• by jebernier on 7/27/16, 2:10 PM

  Ya, but it runs Windows....YUK

• by hathym on 7/27/16, 9:56 AM

  xiaomi will destroy apple in just few years.

• by tychuz on 7/27/16, 2:53 PM

  It does not run macOS, it's literally oranges to apples.

• by jumasheff on 7/27/16, 12:06 PM

  Hackintosh, please.

• by hochchristoph on 7/27/16, 10:56 AM

  Dear TC: The word's "knockoff" not "rival".