Xiaomi Notebook Air Tear Down
The thin and light notebook category just got a new entrant in the last week. It was none other than Xiaomi, who made not one, but two new Mi Notebooks official, with one being at 12.5″ while the other being at 13.3″, amidst many rumors spiralling around Xiaomi laptops since the last several years. Today we have the 12.5″ Mi Notebook Air with us, so lets have a short overview of xiaomi Notebook Air tear down. We will also have a teardown, yeah you heard it right, the first teardown of the new Mi Notebook, to see how its made inside.
Overview-
On first impressions of Xiaomi Notebook Air tear down, the Mi Notebook Air feels very sleek and beautiful. The similarities with the MacBook Air are inevitable, but Xiaomi have taken the best of the MacBook and have also implemented their own tweaks, which makes the Mi Notebook Air a class apart from the MacBook. For starters, the aluminum used in the Mi notebook feel of a better quality when compared to Apple, along with the fact that the lid of the Mi laptop is plain, which feels classy when compared to the ugly logo found in the MacBook.
The Mi Notebook Air also has more ports when compared to a MacBook, with the left of the device having a full size HDMI port and a 3.5mm jack, while the right side of the device having a USB type-C as well as a normal USB port. The display resolution is 1080p and the Mi Notebook Air 12.5″ model is powered by a Core m3 processor with 4GB RAM and 128GB SSD storage. The keyboard also feels good to type on and the touchpad works great with its glass surface.
Teardown-
Opening the Mi Notebook Air is done through the screws at the bottom of the device. Unscrewing them, the bottom panel moves away, and we find the mainboard and the battery. The bottom part of the device feels very nicely built and though being a metal panel, does not bend easily.
We find the main logic board to be of an unusual shape, though its probably done to cram more components in a smaller frame. We find the processor and RAM are fused together and are covered using a heat sink, with the heat pipe running in between. This confirms the fact that the Mi Notebook Air has liquid cooling, which allows to laptop to perform at its best even at higher workloads. We also find the ribbon connectors for the different peripherals like the display, keyboard, trackpad, battery as well as the speakers. There is also a M.2 slot for connecting the SSD with the mainboard. The board also has the HDMI as well as the USB ports soldered on to them on the left and right side of them respectively.
The battery of the Mi Notebook Air is made by LG Chemicals, as evidenced by the sticker on the top of the battery. It is a 4866 mAh unit providing upto 37Wh of power which is enough for the given specifications. The battery comes in an unusual shape to fit the given space as well as comes in a metal guard to protect against bending.
The speakers, which are custom made by AKG, flank the edges of the board. The presence of 2 speakers further confirm the fact that Xiaomi, does, in fact, use a stereo solution for the audio needs of the laptop. The good thing about the Mi Notebook Air is that the SSD are not soldered to the mainboard and is connected using a standard M.2 connector. The Mi Notebook Air comes with a top-of-the line Samsung 128GB SSD, which ensures that performance is fast.
Removing the mainboard, we find the underside of the keyboard s well as the trackpad, along the with the connector for the display. The overall build of this panel feels substantial too, and we did not hear any creaking or bending sounds from the device in the Xiaomi Notebook Air tear down.
The Mi Notebook Air 12.5″ is being sold in China for $750 with release in other core Xiaomi markets to be done soon enough. What do you think about the device? Comment below!
