Powerful and stylish Xiaomi Mi Notebook 15.6 lite: advantages and disadvantages

We would like to present to your attention the Xiaomi Mi Notebook 15.6 lite, released by Xiaomi in September 2018, which is a simplified version of the Xiaomi Mi Notebook Pro laptop and is positioned as a budget option.

This device can safely boast of both external and internal indicators. In our review we will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the new laptop and show the differences between Xiaomi Mi Notebook 15.6 lite and Xiaomi Mi Notebook Pro.

Design

Looking at this laptop, the first thing that catches the eye is the elegant and sophisticated design, the subtlety of its execution. This can be judged by the rounded corners, which are no longer new, but at the same time they look quite solid.

The case is only 19 mm thick and weighs 2.18 kg. With a diagonal of 15.6 inches, this gadget is very light and compact. There are also several color options, namely black and white.

The body is equipped with an all-metal coating made of aluminum. This coating can protect the surface from accidental scratches and dents caused by minor bruises.

Screen

Opening the device, we see a 15.6-inch Full HD screen with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels.

The display is of the type LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), or, as the people say, LCD (liquid crystal). The advantages of this type of screens include good focusing, excellent brightness and image clarity.

Also, the screen is equipped with a matrix with IPS technology, which allows you to increase the viewing angle (without color loss, fading or distortion) up to 178 degrees and provides excellent color reproduction.

By "excellent color rendering" is meant the ability of the matrix to reproduce colors in such a way that they are as close to natural as possible. Talk about it, really deep black and snow-white white, colors.

Watching movies, photos on such a screen turns into a sheer pleasure.

To prevent damage, the display is equipped with an Edge to edge protective glass. It completely repeats the shape of the display, but at the same time, it does not affect the color and quality of the monitor in any way. It can easily protect your laptop screen from scratches and other damage of a similar nature. Also, this glass protector has an anti-reflective and oleophobic coating.

Keyboard

The device features a full-size keyboard with an embedded numeric keypad, just like a desktop PC keyboard. The distance between the keys is 1.5 mm, which provides very convenient and, if necessary, fast, work on it.

There is also a built-in, large enough 5.9-inch touchpad. It copes well with multi-touch actions (pressing with two or three fingers at the same time).

Main technical characteristics

CPU

One of the main differences between Xiaomi Mi Notebook 15.6 lite and Xiaomi Mi Notebook 15.6 Pro is the processor. Instead of the intel Core i7, which is built into the Xiaomi Mi Notebook 15.6 Pro, the Xiaomi Mi Notebook 15.6 lite is equipped with an Intel Core i5 processor, which is slightly inferior in its capabilities to that of its predecessor. But don't be upset, because this is a simplified version, which means less performance, but also a more affordable price.

Since Xiaomi Mi Notebook 15.6 lite is a device that is intended to occupy a budgetary niche in the market, Xiaomi provided us with several complete sets of gadgets with different processors, not very different from each other in performance, but quite different in price. And more specifically:

• Intel Core i5 8250U-4 Gb-128 SSD-1 TB-MX 110, price - $ 610;
• Intel Core i5 8250U-8 Gb-128 SSD-1 TB-MX 110, price - $ 655;
• Intel Core i7 8550U-8 Gb-128 SSD-1 TB-MX 110, price - $ 727.

Albeit small, but the variety will allow everyone to choose something for themselves. Xiaomi has seriously aimed to make this device as budget-friendly as possible.

In the CIS countries, you can rarely find Xiaomi Mi Notebook 15.6 lite with an Intel Core i7 8550U processor, so most often you will come across models with an Intel Core i5 8250U.

In short, this processor performed very well in various tests, characterized by:

• Architecture - Kaby Lake R;
• The number of cores and threads - 4-8;
• Base frequency - 1.6 GHz;
• Turbo Boost - 3.4 GHz;
• Power consumption - 15-25 w;
• Integrated GPU - Intel UHD Graphics

The cooling system, which consists of a pair of powerful coolers and two heat pipes, is good news. Such a cooling system will easily save your iron from overheating.

Video card

As for the discrete video card, there are slightly fewer options than in the case of the processor. All are equipped with the same, namely NVIDIA GeForce MX110, 2 Gb. DDR5. Less commonly, you can find the Xiaomi Mi Notebook 15.6 lite model with NVIDIA GeForce MX110, 8 Gb. DDR5.

Not to say that this video card is super-productive. She will hardly be able to "drag" the games of 2016. At best, they will run on minimal settings, at worst, they will not start at all.

If you use Xiaomi Mi Notebook 15.6 lite for office work, watching movies, listening to music, chatting in messengers, social. networks, etc., then such a lack will not be felt.

The technical characteristics of the video card are as follows:

• Architecture - Maxwell;
• Clock frequency - 965-993 MGz;
• Memory type (on this device) - DDR5;
• Memory speed - 1800 MGz;
• DirectX - DirectX 12.

Memory

The Xiaomi Mi Notebook 15.6 lite has a 1TB hard drive.

There is also a 128GB SSD.

This amount of memory can not but rejoice, because not every "simplified version" of various laptops can boast of so much memory on the hard drive and the presence of an SSD.

Another difference between Xiaomi Mi Notebook 15.6 lite and Xiaomi Mi Notebook 15.6 Pro is that there are no free slots in it, with which it would be possible to increase the RAM on this device.

Ports and connectors

A typical laptop assortment of ports and connectors. The Xiaomi Mi Notebook 15.6 lite has everything an average user needs:

• 2 USB 3.0 Type A ports;
• 1 USB 0 port;
• Regular 3.5 headphone port:
• Port for fast gigabit Enthernet;
• Slot for reading SD memory cards;
• HDMI port for displaying display on TV screens or other devices (also with HDMI ports).

The device also has a wireless connection:

• Bluetooth 4.1;
• Wi-fi 802.11ac.

But, unfortunately, there is no 3G and 4G LTE, which, in fact, is a small loss.

Sound

Built-in 3W speakers are responsible for sound reproduction. In principle, such a speaker power can be attributed to the merits, because it is comparable in power to a good portable speaker.

A pair of speakers with support for Dolby Audio technology, which in turn makes the sound not only better quality, but also more spacious.

With such sound quality, watching movies, TV series or videos, as well as listening to music, will definitely appeal to you.

Battery

The device has a 40 W / h battery. As Xiaomi stated at the presentation, such a battery is able to withstand about 8 hours of continuous operation.

In fact, 8 hours of charge is enough if the laptop is constantly in sleep mode.For when watching movies or spending time playing games, at best, if it is enough for 4-5 hours.

operating system

This device has licensed Windows 10. Which, in turn, has a lot of advantages, or to be more precise, then:

• Free upgrade to new versions;
• 24/7 support from Microsoft;
• Licensed software;
• Fewer errors and stability.

Advantages and disadvantages

• Easy;
• Convenient;
• Compact;
• Nice to the touch;
• Opens easily and smoothly with one hand;
• Excellent build quality, no squeaks, crunches or backlash;
• Excellent screen (clarity and brightness of the picture);
• Convenient full-size numeric keypad with numeric keypad;
• Large touchpad;
• Large amount of hard disk and SSD memory;
• High quality and surround sound;
• Excellent cooling system.

• Weak processor;
• Discrete video card, sharpened only for office work;
• Unreasonably high cost;
• Difficulties with the official purchase of a device in the CIS;
• Let the coating and all-metal, but the base is plastic;
• Not the best quality plastics we get when buying a laptop for this price;
• The lid bends slightly;
• Lack of upgrade options;
• Lack of Russian keyboard layout.

Outcome

As a result, we can say that Xiaomi Mi Notebook 15.6 lite, with all its merits and laudatory reviews, is still a little overrated. The price-quality ratio of this device is not too adequate, because under the beautiful cover, there is a rather modest hardware. You can find a huge number of analogues that will surpass the performance of the Xiaomi Mi Notebook 15.6 lite, and at a lower price.

The lack of upgrade options is also frustrating. In this device, due to the design features, it is impossible to change or add anything.

To purchase this device in the CIS, you will have to look carefully in local stores, and it is far from the fact that you will not waste your time. Or order from China or Amazon, which is easier, but you have to say goodbye to the warranty.

The processor is not bad here, however, you still can't play games on it because of the unsuccessful video card. However, if you use this gadget for office work or for other tasks that do not require a high load on the processor, then the Xiaomi Mi Notebook 15.6 lite will cope with everything perfectly.

But what really pleases is that Xiaomi technology has begun to acquire its own style, moving away from attempts to copy popular devices, which, of course, is a big plus.