Lei Jun discusses Xiaomi Drone, Notebook, Processors and more

Xiaomi are normally quiet about what they have in the pipeline, which makes a recent live video broadcast from Xiaomi’s Lei Jun all the more interesting.

Normally Xiaomi are quite good with keeping their new products a secret, but over the past few months we have seen the Beijing based company more open about up coming products. Over the past few months we had seen official images of the Redmi 3 before launch, Xiaomi Max in videos ahead of launch and even Lei Jun himself has modeled a Mi Band 2 in grainy leaked photos posted to social media.

But that was all the tip of the iceberg! In a recent live video stream Lei Jun took questions about possible upcoming Xiaomi branded products and gave a few insights to what we might and might not see from the company.

To make things easier to digest we’ve taken each product or product feature, mentioned and labeled it how Lei Jun reacted to them. Some seem to be 100% on track while others might not launch after all:

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Xiaomi Drone – Launching soon
Mi Band 2 – Launching next month
Xiaomi chipset – Top secret/no comment
Xiaomi notebook – Top secret/no comment
Xiaomi VR – In development
Curved displays – Coming Soon
Wireless charging – Coming Soon
Dual cameras – Possible
Split screen feature – Coming
Xiaomi Robot – Being considered
Mi Note 2 – Top Secret

So a drone, 2nd generation Mi Band, VR headset, curved displays and wireless charging are what we can look forward to in the coming months from Xiaomi. From the details we guess the Mi Band 2 and Drone will launch at around the same time, and that a curved panel and wireless charging will be features on the Mi Note 2.

As for products I’m most interested in, well I am kind of interested in the Xiaomi Drone (the app was leaked earlier today), and the possibility of a Xiaomi Robot is kind of cool too, although I’m not sure what its function would be.

Which up coming Xiaomi products do you find the most intriguing?

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Andi

“Xiaomi notebook – Top secret/no comment”: THIS is relevant to my interest 🙂

realjjj
May 16, 2016
In the end what matters most is how you do it.
Nobody needs another notebook,another VR dock or another 8×53 SoC.
A Linux on ARM notebook would be interesting but it’s a waste of resources for Xiaomi to enter the PC market no matter what they do.
A SoC with A72 or better, used in 80% of their phones would be a big deal. Second gen next year and even the low end would transition to firts gen SoC then.They could provide better perf than others in mid and low and save some money.
Any VR headset that is not a dock would be more interesting than a dumb dock. Even if it would suck, at least they learn how to do a better one next time.
A robot has to be by Ninebot: “Our ultimate goal for the future is to make robots”
https://www.techinasia.com/founder-chinas-ninebot-bought-segway-patents
http://www.engadget.com/2016/01/05/the-new-ninebot-segway-is-an-adorable-robot-helper/
- balcobomber25
  May 16, 2016
  Most Xiaomi users I know are very interested in a Xiaomi notebook, so apparently there plenty of people that need one.
  - realjjj
    May 16, 2016
    That’s because, just like you, they don’t give it much thought.
    In PC the margins are tight and we already have lots and lots and lots of options. A Xiaomi notebook might not even be close to competitive. If they do a retail per cost ratio similar to their phones that’s not gonna be good enough, others are already doing better.
    For Windows the SoC landscape is not favorable either. Core M is absurdly priced , you pay a huge premium for a thin and slow PC AMD’s Stoney Ridge is a bit weak and budgety while their 14nm APUs will only arrive next year.Remains to be seen how the new Atom does but it’s can’t be fast enough to undermine Core M.
    They could do a nice laptop with Linux on ARM and offer a lot better value while pushing their own MIUI on this platform too but they don’t have the balls for it.
    There is nothing to look forward to if they do Wintel, nothing at all.
    - Muhammad Yasir
      May 16, 2016
      come on man … who the hell uses Linux and ARM laptops for GENERAL PURPOSES ?
      you don’t think xiaomi is going to cater to the dev/professional section of the computer segment , do you ? they NEED the GENERAL , NAIVE Public to embrace their devices … which’ll result in MOAR sales and MOAR revenue ! thats why they ABSOLUTELY need to make something of an All rounder Laptop which can do ALOT of things , including play AAA games at respectable settings YET with a price tag that leaves every other manufacturer (Razer , Alienware , ASUS(ROG)) in panic and fear !
      i for one , am excited for a Xiaomi Laptop with atleast haswell i5 CPU , Polaris or Pascal GPU , atLEAST 8 GB ram and win 10 Premium Edition 64 bits so we can GAME ON IT ! and use it for other purposes too !
      - realjjj
        May 16, 2016
        Sorry but you don’t know the PC market at all.
        Lets start with Linux on ARM. The entire point is that nobody is doing it and that’s why there is the opportunity to disrupt. If you don’t go Intel and Windows you can save a lot of money on costs and can offer more value than anyone can.
        Lets take Core M , it’s both the absolute worse solution and the most likely to be used by Xiaomi. You get a tiny die with only 2 cores at low clocks and a GPU that is too weak for games , yet it’s 50-60% of the chip – for no good reason, it’s that way only for Intel to charge more. For all that ,you pay a HUGE premium because it is low power and because there is no competition since AMD messed up in 2011 with their Bulldozer core- they’ll have a new core late this year. I’m sure you’ve notice that Core M PCs have a 200-300$ premium, it is because of Core M and you get crappy CPU perf and a pointless GPU.
        Huawei launched it’s convertible at 699$ and up and it’s not worth the money even at 500$. It’s just very poor perf per $.
        http://cdn.overclock.net/f/f4/500x1000px-LL-f43a1272_2ckda9.jpeg
        If they don’t do Core M and they have a normal laptop,it’s just a normal laptop and in PC the margins are way tighter than in phones. You think they’ll be able to reach a better price than others but they won’t. PCs are sold close to cost often enough. The best price you can hope for is similar to what the China tab guys offer for these kind of machines but it’s more likely the pricing will be about 100-200$ higher. A surface clone, given costs (about 450$ to make) and Xiaomi’s usual pricing would likely be at at least around 600- 650$.
        In gaming laptops most try to milk it and prices are high but it’s very unlikely they’ll do a gaming laptop.The rumors are some convertible or a Macbook clone so a modern Netbook not a gaming laptop.
        With Linux on ARM they could offer decent perf,nice battery life and save a lot by not paying the Intel premium and for Windows. As an additional upside they would get to push their own UI and app store, services and so on. Using Windows is like Apple using Android Wear, just crazy.Their entire business model revolves around the ecosystem.
        
        Muhammad Yasir
        May 16, 2016
        “PS: I know a lot more about PCs than about phones, better not get me started:P”
        come to think of it , im studying computer engineering … so it might be in my benefit to get you started 😀 !
        you argument is really nice … but i think u mixed up the Core M somewhere in there. Believe me , i HATE core m as much as u do. i just want them to make a traditional PC laptop with a twist that can unsettle the market AND at the same time offer us some good benchmarks for general purpose computing. we don’t need netbooks man .. they’re basically machines for browsers. pretty much heretics in the computer field. I understand how dear Android is to Xiaomi but having the mainstream windows OS could be beneficial to them , no ? its like they’ll learn both sides of the trade… be proficient in a wider field of the market.
        what good is Linux on ARM , man ? who uses Linux 🙁 ? i have never used it … is it even fit for consumer level adoption ?
        maybe i don’t know the PC market so well … and maybe there’s some drops in sales and stuff. but thats been the norms. Desktops and mainstream PCs have ALWAYS been touted to go defunct but they have been standing strong for over 2 decades now and i expect them to continue for a long time now unless something equivalent , not comparatively weaker comes along. You can’t kill PC gaming you know ? its immortal… consoles cannot achieve the same level of visual detail as any PC. its a billion dollar industry. i get it that people love mobility but they can never dethrone the mainstream PC … ever. its only wise if Xiaomi atleast try their hand in this. who knows what they might gain from this.
        
        realjjj
        May 16, 2016
        They can’t do give you half the price,there is no room in PC to do it, unless they do something different.Margins are tight. Core M is the most likely to be used, as mentioned the rumors are convertible or Macbook clone and that means lower power so Core M.
        Android is Linux, ChromeOS is Linux,you can make a Linux that’s easy to use. I assume you know Photoshop? Have you tried GIMP? There is a Windows version and it’s free and open source ofc. Have you tried LibreOffice? Try GIMP and LibreOffice on Windows at least, better than to pirate PS and MS Office.You can do just fine with a Linux desktop. Gaming is more limited but that’s an opportunity to push games from your own store and work with devs.
        I’ll address the PC market in another comment.
        
        realjjj
        May 16, 2016
        There is no long term upside from doing PCs , the PC is gone.
        )In 2010 the PC market was some 346 million units, last year some 276 million units- as per IDC.
        The traditional PC is just a form factor, phones and tabs and glasses are PCs too.
        A lot of people don’t need a PC, they had one for email and web browsing but they are getting used to do that on phones. The installed base is declining even in developed markets. A lot of kids are growing up doing everything on phones and they are fine with it.A lot of people in developing markets get online for the first time with a phone and they might never feel the need for a PC.
        The decline in PC is a bit misleading. Consumer PCs have been declining a lot harder than the average while business PCs sales are holding better.
        Businesses do need PCs but even there you can connect a mobile device to a screen and keyboard and have decent perf, if you have the OS- no OS for now and this is not that important as it is a bit late for such a solution. Using a thin or terminal client is another alternative for businesses and education.
        So the PC is declining and now lets see how we kill it.
        Maybe next year we see phones with foldable screens. Hopefully it’s not gonna be a notebook with the display on the inside and you have the screen wrapped around the body. The implementation might suck at first and the cost will be high but sooner or later someone will get the implementation right and prices will start to be ok. That means that you got a 5 inch phone that turns into a 7 inch tab. Pricing will make this tech a bit unpractical in tabs at first so tabs will take longer.The PC can’t exactly follow, the keyboard takes a huge amount of volume and would mean an extra fold. You can’t design a good laptop with a fodable screen and the cost would be a major problem too.
        Phones that become tabs and tabs that become bigger tabs will mean that mobile devices become significantly more capable and more comfortable for certain tasks that some users still prefer the PC.Additionally , it would make the phone market more exciting , push users to spend their money on a new phone not a new PC.
        Ok so this happens from 2017 to 2020. In practice it might take longer if folks mess up the implementation at first and prices stay way high for long. Just on this the PC market could be as low as 150-160 million units by 2020.
        By 2020 hopefully glasses start to take off. Think HoloLens but way more advanced ( you know Magic Leap? https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2E1x3l45YUO2eOhRv-A7lw )
        With glasses you can have a mix of virtual and actual hardware (like 6 virtual screens and a real keyboard) and in the end glasses will kill off PCs. It will be incredibly difficult to get all the hardware inside a very thin frame ,we need a hell of a lot higher efficiency. maybe with monolithic 3D ICs or something nuts like diamond http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1329663
        Pretty hard to predict when glasses get to good enough to kill the PC, phones , TVs and so on. I do hope that glasses take off soon and maybe by 2025 they are great and will be the only PC we need.
        
        Muhammad Yasir
        May 16, 2016
        damn … you ripped me apart there :/
        but you honestly think VR and some glasses will replace Desktop PCs wholly ? we will play all the AAA games by wearing some glasses ?
        thats it ?
        
        realjjj
        May 16, 2016
        And after that we get contact lenses and then maybe inject something in the eyeball. ofc at some point wireless communications with the brain will make a lot of things possible.
        Glasses would still be PCs, more or less. Just a different form factor.
        Will take time , in glasses you need very high res, high FPS and no lag so we need 1000 times higher efficiency and the tech needs to evolve a lot.
        PCs used to be an entire room and few believed in personal PCs.,they argued that nobody needs one.
        Today HoloLens is ” garbage”, low perf and heavy as hell but at some point the world will manage to shove everything into a normal frame that’s comfortable enough.
        PC gaming can’t be replaced today as we are far from photo realism even at normal resolutions but other form factors don’t need to beat desktop in perf. In theory mobile GPUs could somewhat match consoles next year and that’s not bad. The screen is tiny and that’s a problem but ARM , Google and the mobile folks in general are hopeful that VR glasses will help them with the screen size limitation. So mobile games could start being interesting for folks that still prefer console and PC. Then, the software development activity matters.If devs start to focus less on PC and console, it will matter.
        Cloud gaming could be a factor , in theory you can make a game that even a desktop with 4 high end GPUs can’t run and stream it to any device. Cloud gaming would be harder for glasses due to lag, you can’t afford any with glasses but maybe 5G starts to enable that from 2020 and beyond.
        PC gaming is fine for now , we got 4k screens becoming affordable , VR glasses starting to be sold (at crazy prices . Monitors with variable refresh rates,no flicker , FinFET GPUs, HBM and GDDR5X are all making PC gaming rather exciting today but it won’t last forever as other form factors become good enough and then surpass it.
        
        Muhammad Yasir
        May 16, 2016
        wow … you got me worried for a moment…
        i have no issue with Desktop evolving to Glasses as long as we still have AAA games that the likes of me and you enjoy.
        its all right then. as long as we still have games that keep minds fresh and hearts happy … im all for the advancement !
        
        Lazar Prodanovic
        May 16, 2016
        Me by you should reconsider changing the school. Everyone uses Linux from this server to you typing on Android phone. Arm needs a larger adaption & better strategy to win but don’t worry Intel is afraid. We are heading to the Era when general purpose cores will be less & less important & special & multi purpose accelerators will be. More & more important. The thing that lags the most is software.
        Muhammad Yasir
        May 16, 2016
        wait … are you talking about my University by the name of ‘school’ ?
        
        Lazar Prodanovic
        May 16, 2016
        May 16, 2016
        come on man … don’t be so harsh…
        how much did u learn by Third Year of YOUR B.E Programme ?
        ok i admit i did not no much about Linux … but that doesn’t mean what im studying is hopeless. everybody has humble origins … pretty sure even you did when you were my age.
        and its NOT easy nor affordable to change graduate schools in PAKISTAN as it is ELSEWHERE
        
        Lazar Prodanovic
        May 16, 2016
        I won’t be so harsh. I elaborated why & what kind of the SoC we really need couple of comments above & I do know couple of folks who run advanced (University) computing projects that are aimed at contributing to it but they certainly can’t do it if they don’t have a tools to do it.
        I never met any 3rd year computer programmer or engineer that didn’t work with Linux and I met a lot of them (students).
        As much as I did read you wanted a laptop to play games on & not do programing with.
        
        Muhammad Yasir
        May 16, 2016
        yea well you’re more than welcome to come here … i’ll give you the low down on how’s everything going here.
        that said , im not exactly a good programmer. i took the Degree cos i like computer hardware more … GPUS , CPUS , Rams … those kind of things. Computer Architecture is an interesting course if you think about it but i absolutely abhor programming , but thats because im quite poor at it. pretty sure i’ll love it when i get better at it. I admit tho … Linux is like really hard from my POV , so it’ll take some time to get accustomed to that. you might have been a geek or coding wiz , which is why you like it and worked with it from your infancy.
        maybe im a bit of a late learner …but we all get there , don’t we ? some early .. some after a while.
        Maybe you could mentor and advise me somewhere down the lane … btw what have you studied ?
        Lazar Prodanovic
        May 16, 2016
        They can save up to 200$ per laptop just by using homegrown SoC & Linux.
      - Lazar Prodanovic
        May 16, 2016
        You would be surprised but their is a lot of people who would like a cheap good Linux laptop & their is lot of market for it; from China (that actually supports linux) to educational Chrome book market along with lot more. It would be a nice productivity/multimedia platform & their is always Android to trow in a bit of gaming.
        
        balcobomber25
        May 16, 2016
        A lot of retailers in Southeast Asia offer cheaper laptops with Ubuntu instead of Windows and they are becoming more and more popular. Not to mention Steam is heavily investing in Linux gaming.
        Lazar Prodanovic
        May 16, 2016
        Yes & their is emerging need from both developer’s & for science purchases for a heterogeneous ARM SoC with a nice expandable bord that culd be equipped with a range of accelerators (but mainly for SoC containing them as bus latencies are to big). Naturally all of this in nice & not expensive user friendly package & I don’t think their is any better than traditional laptop. Purposes? Pretty much much everything I can think of; from advanced algebra to the visual computing & pretty much every aspect of future computing. But it would really need to be equipped with a range of accelerators & all on the same die (ASAP, FPGA, GPU, crypto blocks…). We do need to find a much more efficient computing soon as possible or the power consumption (mainly in server’s) will eat all power sources that we have. This would be a ideal tool to do it (develop optimal models & develop a larger scale system’s). Thing Intel is doing with limited availability (to biggest partner’s only) of Xeon’s with integrated FPGA’s simply won’t cut & what better way to beet them then providing something that they can’t (at the same cost) & in new & still architectural undefined space that will certainly make a new tire.
        Lazar Prodanovic
        May 18, 2016
        This certainly represents a large step into the right direction concerning most of the things I elaborated in other coment.
    - Lazar Prodanovic
      May 16, 2016
      Yes a home grown true octa A72 core SoC for a laptop with decent Rogue GPU & Ubuntu would be a nice one along with core boot support. I don’t think they will deliver but it would be nice.
  - Muhammad Yasir
    May 16, 2016
- Muhammad Yasir
  May 16, 2016
  @realjjj:disqus , y u say this man ? just imagine if they make a REALLY CHEAP and good Laptop capable of handling games and stuff !
  even better if they have the thunder bolt capability to support External GPUS !
  that’d be HEAVEN FOR US !
  - realjjj
    May 16, 2016
    You seem to be needing a desktop. Best hope there is for AMD Zen to be good so wait for Q4 this year and see what their 8 cores CPU offers. For laptop, again best hope is from AMD, in theory they could make an APU in 2017 that is good enough for 1440p or Oculus, it wouldn’t be very cheap though as it would need to be a rather big chip.
    Intel is already milking it hard but they are going into the next gear and will try even harder. They are cutting costs, cutting some products and they’ll try to milk some niches extra hard. If AMD doesn’t become competitive to keep Intel in check, the PC market is gonna get much worse as Intel will keep pushing prices up.
    - Muhammad Yasir
      May 16, 2016
      I know man … look , i hate intel for their premiums just like i hate NVIDIA for overly expensive GPUS… but they’re the best options atm.
      im Hopeful for AMD’s Zen and Polaris … but we need something that not only works well , but also costs better. atm , a mid-range gaming PC is quite expensive… since AMD have failed to live up to any expectation w.r.t current architectures. I just hope their GPUs and CPUs are good enough to give NVIDIA and Intel a run for their money … so we can FINALLY have a fairer price for the main components in the Market.
      im also trying to collect money for the desktop :p
      - realjjj
        May 16, 2016
        To be fair Nvidia has been providing very nice perf gains with every gen, even if they were stuck on 28nm for a long time. AMD in GPU was competitive enough too when it comes to perf and price but they suffered in power.The GPU market wasn’t as one sided as the CPU market.
        For gaming it depends on what you need. 1080p in desktop will be fine with a Polaris 11 and that one is bound to cost 150$ or less. If you want 1440p or VR or 4k , ofc it costs more.I was hoping that GPUs that are good enough for VR (Oculus or Vive) would get close enough to 200$ this year . We’ll see soon.
        GPU prices are more complex than CPUs. You have the actual GPU, the GDDR ( not cheap), the board and then the AIB partners that need to make a buck.
        
        Muhammad Yasir
        May 16, 2016
        im a 1080p guy… a $150 Ploaris 11 GPU from AMD will be able to max out everything on AAA titles of 2017 at FHD and STABLE 60 fps (drops of 10 fps , going down to 50 fps in intensive situations is acceptable) ?
        realjjj
        May 16, 2016
        Is it worth aiming for 60 FPS? I’m ok with 30 min FPS. Anyway, we don’t have much info on Polaris 11 but it seems likely to be targeted at 1080p but in PC 30 average FPS is the usual target. It hopefully is above 30 average but highly doubt it does 60 in the most demanding games.
      - realjjj
        May 23, 2016
        AMD might have leaked the 8 cores Zen die http://www.overclock.net/t/1600907/zen-summit-ridge-die-shot-leaked
        Best i can tell from that image, i expect the die size to be between 99 and 131mm2. Intel’s Skylake dual and quad are some 98 and 122mm2, with GPU ofc.So AMD should have no problem offering 6 and 8 cores without GPU at same price Intel does 2 and 4 with GPU . If they want to ofc.
        
        Muhammad Yasir
        May 24, 2016
Mesterio
May 16, 2016
I think we are all waiting for Xiaomi Laptop. We want a windows macbook equivalent at a very competitive price. Why anyone hasn’t really tried is beyond me.
- Muhammad Yasir
  May 16, 2016
  exactly … im in full agreement with you !
  would be even better if it doubles as a mid-range GAMING Laptop !
  would love to have one loaded a GTX 1060 or r9 480x with 8 GB ram , i5-6500k (the mobile version) , win 10 64 bit and the works to put us into a good position !

Muhammad Yasir
May 16, 2016
Cheap GAMING Laptop PLEASE !
im stuck with a Potato for years now !
i really wanna play AAA games !
XIAOMI Plz …
- lol
  May 16, 2016
“Xiaomi notebook – Top secret/no comment”: THIS is relevant to my interest 🙂
wolvie
May 16, 2016
Again problem with those Xiaomi gadgets that good and cheap (affordable) are THEY ALWAYS RUN OUT OF STOCK !!!!
Only those which are not popular they always got stock and normally more premium so price will be expensive. Especially when sold via china online re-seller. Just see the Mi MAX where they jack off the prices 60% from original price. C’Mon man, 60% mark up is ridiculously greedy.
- balcobomber25
  May 16, 2016
  Resellers aren’t jacking up the price to be greedy, they do it to make a profit on the device. Xiaomi doesn’t partner with many re-sellers in China, so most of them are paying full price for each Xiaomi device. Brands like UMi, Elephone, Meizu etc have retail partners they work with and sell devices to them for a much lower price, allowing them to not have to mark them up as much.
  To find the cheapest prices use sites like Kimovil.

realjjj
May 16, 2016
In the end what matters most is how you do it.
Nobody needs another notebook,another VR dock or another 8×53 SoC.
A Linux on ARM notebook would be interesting but it’s a waste of resources for Xiaomi to enter the PC market no matter what they do. Sadly Xiaomi will just do Wintel and that’s worse than pointless, it’s against their own interests.
A SoC with A72 or better, used in 80% of their phones would be a big deal. Second gen next year when the low end would transition to first gen SoC and they use their own in all their devices..They could provide better perf than others in mid and low and save some money overall. If all they got is 8xA53 , the world has too many of those as it is and doesn’t make much financial sense for them to do it.
Any VR headset that is not a dock would be more interesting than a dumb dock. Even if it would suck, at least they learn how to do a better one next time.
A robot has to be by Ninebot: “Our ultimate goal for the future is to make robots”
https://www.techinasia.com/founder-chinas-ninebot-bought-segway-patents
http://www.engadget.com/2016/01/05/the-new-ninebot-segway-is-an-adorable-robot-helper/
It is early and highly unlikely that Xiaomi or Ninebot have defined the product.It’s not easy to figure out what you need to make something that can sell. There are a few options but creating a new category is hard for anyone, even more so for someone not used to innovate and take risks.
- balcobomber25
  May 16, 2016
  Most Xiaomi users I know are very interested in a Xiaomi notebook, so apparently there plenty of people that need one.
- realjjj
  May 16, 2016
  That’s because, just like you, they don’t give it much thought.
  In PC the margins are tight and we already have lots and lots and lots of options. A Xiaomi notebook might not even be close to competitive. If they do a retail per cost ratio similar to their phones that’s not gonna be good enough, others are already doing better.
  For Windows the SoC landscape is not favorable either. Core M is absurdly priced , you pay a huge premium for a thin and slow PC AMD’s Stoney Ridge is a bit weak and budgety while their 14nm APUs will only arrive next year.Remains to be seen how the new Atom does but it’s can’t be fast enough to undermine Core M.
  They could do a nice laptop with Linux on ARM and offer a lot better value while pushing their own MIUI on this platform too but they don’t have the balls for it.
  There is nothing to look forward to if they do Wintel, nothing at all.
- Guest
  May 16, 2016
  @realjjj:disqus , y u say this man ? just imagine if they make a REALLY CHEAP and good Laptop capable of handling games and stuff !
  even better if they have the thunder bolt capability to support External GPUS !
  that’d be HEAVEN FOR US !
- Guest
  May 16, 2016
  i need a gaming one
- Guest
  May 16, 2016
  come on man … who the hell uses Linux and ARM laptops for GENERAL PURPOSES ?
  you don’t think xiaomi is going to cater to the dev/professional section of the computer segment , do you ? they NEED the GENERAL , NAIVE Public to embrace their devices … which’ll result in MOAR sales and MOAR revenue ! thats why they ABSOLUTELY need to make something of an All rounder Laptop which can do ALOT of things , including play AAA games at respectable settings YET with a price tag that leaves every other manufacturer (Razer , Alienware , ASUS(ROG)) in panic and fear !
  i for one , am excited for a Xiaomi Laptop with atleast haswell i5 CPU , Polaris or Pascal GPU , atLEAST 8 GB ram and win 10 Premium Edition 64 bits so we can GAME ON IT ! and use it for other purposes too !
- realjjj
  May 16, 2016
  Sorry but you don’t know the PC market at all.
  Lets start with Linux on ARM. The entire point is that nobody is doing it and that’s why there is the opportunity to disrupt. If you don’t go Intel and Windows you can save a lot of money on costs and can offer more value than anyone can.
  Lets take Core M , it’s both the absolute worse solution and the most likely to be used by Xiaomi. You get a tiny die with only 2 cores at low clocks and a GPU that is too weak for games , yet it’s 50-60% of the chip – for no good reason, it’s that way only for Intel to charge more. For all that ,you pay a HUGE premium because it is low power and because there is no competition since AMD messed up in 2011 with their Bulldozer core- they’ll have a new core late this year. I’m sure you’ve notice that Core M PCs have a 200-300$ premium, it is because of Core M and you get crappy CPU perf and a pointless GPU.
  Huawei launched it’s convertible at 699$ and up and it’s not worth the money even at 500$. It’s just very poor perf per $.
- realjjj
  May 16, 2016
  If they don’t do Core M and they have a normal laptop,it’s just a normal laptop and in PC the margins are way tighter than in phones. You think they’ll be able to reach a better price than others but they won’t. PCs are sold close to cost often enough. The best price you can hope for is similar to what the China tab guys offer for these kind of machines but it’s more likely the pricing will be about 100-200$ higher. A surface clone, given costs ( 450+$ to make) and Xiaomi’s usual pricing would likely be at at least around 600- 650$.
  In gaming laptops most try to milk it and prices are high but it’s very unlikely they’ll do a gaming laptop.The rumors are some convertible or a Macbook clone so a modern Netbook not a gaming laptop.
  With Linux on ARM they could offer decent perf as A72 is pretty fast ,nice battery life and save a lot by not paying the Intel premium and for Windows. As an additional upside they would get to push their own UI and app store, services and so on. Using Windows is like Apple using Android Wear, just crazy.Their entire business model revolves around the ecosystem.
  PS: I know a lot more about PCs than about phones, better not get me started:P
  Edit: With Core M you can play things like Dota 2 at 768p , not AAA titles at native res or even decent res. It’s a phone SoC grade GPU and that’s utterly unfit for Windows games.
- realjjj
  May 16, 2016
  You seem to be needing a desktop. Best hope there is for AMD Zen to be good so wait for Q4 this year and see what their 8 cores CPU offers. For laptop, again best hope is from AMD, in theory they could make an APU in 2017 that is good enough for 1440p or Oculus, it wouldn’t be very cheap though as it would need to be a rather big chip.
  Intel is already milking it hard but they are going into the next gear and will try even harder. They are cutting costs, cutting some products and they’ll try to milk some niches extra hard. If AMD doesn’t become competitive to keep Intel in check, the PC market is gonna get much worse as Intel will keep pushing prices up.
  BTW DRAM is cheap nowadays, a 4GB DDR4 stick must be some 13$ now, PC makers offer a lot of DRAM because users don’t know how cheap it is so they can charge a nice premium for a machine with 16GB of RAM.
- Guest
  May 16, 2016
  “PS: I know a lot more about PCs than about phones, better not get me started:P”
  come to think of it , im studying computer engineering … so it might be in my benefit to get you started 😀 !
  you argument is really nice … but i think u mixed up the Core M somewhere in there. Believe me , i HATE core m as much as u do. i just want them to make a traditional PC laptop with a twist that can unsettle the market AND at the same time offer us some good benchmarks for general purpose computing. we don’t need netbooks man .. they’re basically machines for browsers. pretty much heretics in the computer field. I understand how dear Android is to Xiaomi but having the mainstream windows OS could be beneficial to them , no ? its like they’ll learn both sides of the trade… be proficient in a wider field of the market.
  what good is Linux on ARM , man ? who uses Linux 🙁 ? i have never used it … is it even fit for consumer level adoption ?
  maybe i don’t know the PC market so well … and maybe there’s some drops in sales and stuff. but thats been the norms. Desktops and mainstream PCs have ALWAYS been touted to go defunct but they have been standing strong for over 2 decades now and i expect them to continue for a long time now unless something equivalent , not comparatively weaker comes along. You can’t kill PC gaming you know ? its immortal… consoles cannot achieve the same level of visual detail as any PC. its a billion dollar industry. i get it that people love mobility but they can never dethrone the mainstream PC … ever. its only wise if Xiaomi atleast try their hand in this. who knows what they might gain from this.
- Guest
  May 16, 2016
  I know man … look , i hate intel for their premiums just like i hate NVIDIA for overly expensive GPUS… but they’re the best options atm.
  im Hopeful for AMD’s Zen and Polaris … but we need something that not only works well , but also costs better. atm , a mid-range gaming PC is quite expensive… since AMD have failed to live up to any expectation w.r.t current architectures. I just hope their GPUs and CPUs are good enough to give NVIDIA and Intel a run for their money … so we can FINALLY have a fairer price for the main components in the Market.
  im also trying to collect money for the desktop :p
- realjjj
  May 16, 2016
  To be fair Nvidia has been providing very nice perf gains with every gen, even if they were stuck on 28nm for a long time. AMD in GPU was competitive enough too when it comes to perf and price but they suffered in power.The GPU market wasn’t as one sided as the CPU market.
  For gaming it depends on what you need. 1080p in desktop will be fine with a Polaris 11 and that one is bound to cost 150$ or less. If you want 1440p or VR or 4k , ofc it costs more.I was hoping that GPUs that are good enough for VR (Oculus or Vive) would get close enough to 200$ this year . We’ll see soon.
  GPU prices are more complex than CPUs. You have the actual GPU, the GDDR ( not cheap), the board and then the AIB partners that need to make a buck.
- realjjj
  May 16, 2016
  They can’t give you half the price,there is no room in PC to do it, unless they do something different.Margins are tight. Core M is the most likely to be used, as mentioned the rumors are convertible or Macbook clone and that means low power so Core M.
  Android is Linux, ChromeOS is Linux,you can make a Linux that’s easy to use- Chrome is way easy to use, that’s why folks buy Chromebooks for kids and parents. I assume you know Photoshop? Have you tried GIMP? There is a Windows version and it’s free and open source ofc. Have you tried LibreOffice? Try GIMP and LibreOffice on Windows at least, better than to pirate PS and MS Office.You can do just fine with a Linux desktop. Gaming is more limited but that’s an opportunity to push games from your own store and work with devs. Granted , at first, gaming shouldn’t be the main target for a Linux on ARM PC.
  https://www.gimp.org/downloads/
  https://www.libreoffice.org/
  I’ll address the PC market in another comment.
- realjjj
  May 16, 2016
  There is no long term upside from doing PCs , the PC is gone.
  In 2010 the PC market was some 346 million units, last year some 276 million units- as per IDC.
  The traditional PC is just a form factor, phones and tabs and glasses are PCs too.
  A lot of people don’t need a PC, they had one for email and web browsing but they are getting used to do that on phones. The installed base is declining even in developed markets. A lot of kids are growing up doing everything on phones and they are fine with it.A lot of people in developing markets get online for the first time with a phone and they might never feel the need for a PC.
  The decline in PC is a bit misleading. Consumer PCs have been declining a lot harder than the average while business PCs sales are holding better.
  Businesses do need PCs but even there you can connect a mobile device to a screen and keyboard and have decent perf, if you have the OS- no OS for now and this is not that important as it is a bit late for such a solution. Using a thin or terminal client is another alternative for businesses and education.
  So the PC is declining and now lets see how we kill it.
  Maybe next year we see phones with foldable screens. Hopefully it’s not gonna be a notebook with the display on the inside and you have the screen wrapped around the body. The implementation might suck at first and the cost will be high but sooner or later someone will get the implementation right and prices will start to be ok. That means that you got a 5 inch phone that turns into a 7 inch tab. Pricing will make this tech a bit unpractical in tabs at first so tabs will take longer.The PC can’t exactly follow, the keyboard takes a huge amount of volume and would mean an extra fold. You can’t design a good laptop with a fodable screen and the cost would be a major problem too.
  Phones that become tabs and tabs that become bigger tabs will mean that mobile devices become significantly more capable and more comfortable for certain tasks that some users still prefer the PC.Additionally , it would make the phone market more exciting , push users to spend their money on a new phone not a new PC.
  Ok so this happens from 2017 to 2020. In practice it might take longer if folks mess up the implementation at first and prices stay way high for long. Just on this the PC market could be as low as 150-160 million units by 2020.
  By 2020 hopefully glasses start to take off. Think HoloLens but way more advanced ( you know Magic Leap? https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2E1x3l45YUO2eOhRv-A7lw/videos )
  With glasses you can have a mix of virtual and actual hardware (like 6 virtual screens and a real keyboard) and in the end glasses will kill off PCs. It will be incredibly difficult to get all the hardware inside a very thin frame ,we need a hell of a lot higher efficiency. maybe with monolithic 3D ICs or something nuts like diamond http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1329663
  Pretty hard to predict when glasses get to good enough to kill the PC, phones , TVs and so on. I do hope that glasses take off soon and maybe by 2025 they are great and will be the only display we need.
  PS: I am a desktop user, i overclock my shit and i do game on PC and never cared about consoles but that’s no reason to be subjective. It is what it is.
  Edit: if glasses get delayed, stretchable screens will be a thing too in mobile but those would be nicer in shape shifting glasses.Lets say glasses that turn into a bracelet when you take them off.
- Lazar Prodanovic
  May 16, 2016
  Yes a home grown true octa A72 core SoC for a laptop with decent Rogue GPU & Ubuntu would be a nice one along with core boot support. I don’t think they will deliver but it would be nice.
- Lazar Prodanovic
  May 16, 2016
  You would be surprised but their is a lot of people who would like a cheap good Linux laptop & their is lot of market for it; from China (that actually supports linux) to educational Chrome book market along with lot more. It would be a nice productivity/multimedia platform & their is always Android to trow in a bit of gaming.
- Lazar Prodanovic
  May 16, 2016
  They can save up to 200$ per laptop just by using homegrown SoC & Linux.
- Lazar Prodanovic
  May 16, 2016
  Me by you should reconsider changing the school. Everyone uses Linux from this server to you typing on Android phone. Arm needs a larger adaption & better strategy to win but don’t worry Intel is afraid. We are heading to the Era when general purpose cores will be less & less important & special & multi purpose accelerators will be. More & more important. The thing that lags the most is software.
- Guest
  May 16, 2016
  im a 1080p guy… a $150 Ploaris 11 GPU from AMD will be able to max out everything on AAA titles of 2017 at FHD and STABLE 60 fps (drops of 10 fps , going down to 50 fps in intensive situations is acceptable) ?
- Guest
  May 16, 2016
  damn … you ripped me apart there :/
  but you honestly think VR and some glasses will replace Desktop PCs wholly ? we will play all the AAA games by wearing some glasses ?
  thats it ?
- realjjj
  May 16, 2016
  And after that we get contact lenses and then maybe inject something in the eyeball. ofc at some point wireless communications with the brain will make a lot of things possible.
  Glasses would still be PCs, more or less. Just a different form factor.
  Will take time , in glasses you need very high res, high FPS and no lag so we need 1000 times higher efficiency and the tech needs to evolve a lot.
  PCs used to be an entire room and few believed in personal PCs.,they argued that nobody needs one.
  Today HoloLens is ” garbage”, low perf and heavy as hell but at some point the world will manage to shove everything into a normal frame that’s comfortable enough.
  PC gaming can’t be replaced today as we are far from photo realism even at normal resolutions but other form factors don’t need to beat desktop in perf. In theory mobile GPUs could somewhat match consoles next year and that’s not bad. The screen is tiny and that’s a problem but ARM , Google and the mobile folks in general are hopeful that VR glasses will help them with the screen size limitation. So mobile games could start being interesting for folks that still prefer console and PC. Then, the software development activity matters.If devs start to focus less on PC and console, it will matter.
  Cloud gaming could be a factor , in theory you can make a game that even a desktop with 4 high end GPUs can’t run so you run it in the cloud and stream it to any device. Cloud gaming would be harder for glasses due to lag, you can’t afford any with glasses but maybe 5G starts to enable that from 2020 and beyond.
  PC gaming is fine for now , we got 4k screens becoming affordable , VR glasses starting to be sold (at crazy prices) . Monitors with variable refresh rates,no flicker , FinFET GPUs, HBM and GDDR5X are all making PC gaming rather exciting today but it won’t last forever as other form factors become good enough and then surpass it,if not in raw power then in the quality of the experience and convenience.
- balcobomber25
  May 16, 2016
  A lot of retailers in Southeast Asia offer cheaper laptops with Ubuntu instead of Windows and they are becoming more and more popular. Not to mention Steam is heavily investing in Linux gaming.
- Guest
  May 16, 2016
  wow … you got me worried for a moment…
  i have no issue with Desktop evolving to Glasses as long as we still have AAA games that the likes of me and you enjoy.
  its all right then. as long as we still have games that keep minds fresh and hearts happy … im all for the advancement !
- Guest
  May 16, 2016
  wait … are you talking about my University by the name of ‘school’ ?
- Lazar Prodanovic
  May 16, 2016
  Yup.
- Lazar Prodanovic
  May 16, 2016
  Yes & their is emerging need from both developer’s & for science purposes for a heterogeneous ARM SoC with a nice expandable bord that culd be equipped with a range of accelerators (but mainly for SoC containing them as bus latencies are to big). Naturally all of this in nice & not expensive user friendly package & I don’t think their is any better than traditional laptop. Purposes? Pretty much everything I can think of; from advanced algebra to the visual computing & pretty much every aspect of future computing. But it would really need to be equipped with a range of accelerators & all on the same die (ADSP, FPGA, GPU, crypto blocks…). We do need to find a much more efficient computing soon as possible or the power consumption (mainly in server’s) will eat all power sources that we have. This would be a ideal tool to do it (develop optimal models & develop a larger scale system’s). Thing Intel is doing with limited availability (to biggest partner’s only) of Xeon’s with integrated FPGA’s simply won’t cut & what better way to beet them then providing something that they can’t (at the same cost) & in new & still architectural undefined space that will certainly make a new tire.
- Guest
  May 16, 2016
  come on man … don’t be so harsh…
  how much did u learn by Third Year of YOUR B.E Programme ?
  ok i admit i did not no much about Linux … but that doesn’t mean what im studying is hopeless. everybody has humble origins … pretty sure even you did when you were my age.
  and its NOT easy nor affordable to change graduate schools in PAKISTAN as it is ELSEWHERE
- realjjj
  May 16, 2016
  Is it worth aiming for 60 FPS? I’m ok with 30 min FPS. Anyway, we don’t have much info on Polaris 11 but it seems likely to be targeted at 1080p but in PC 30 average FPS is the usual target. It hopefully is above 30 average but highly doubt it does 60 in the most demanding games.
- Lazar Prodanovic
  May 16, 2016
  I won’t be so harsh. I elaborated why & what kind of the SoC we really need couple of comments above & I do know couple of folks who run advanced (University) computing projects that are aimed at contributing to it but they certainly can’t do it if they don’t have a tools to do it.
  I never met any 3rd year computer programmer or engineer that didn’t work with Linux and I met a lot of them (students).
  As much as I did read you wanted a laptop to play games on & not do programing with.
- Guest
  May 16, 2016
  yea well you’re more than welcome to come here … i’ll give you the low down on how’s everything going here.
  that said , im not exactly a good programmer. i took the Degree cos i like computer hardware more … GPUS , CPUS , Rams … those kind of things. Computer Architecture is an interesting course if you think about it but i absolutely abhor programming , but thats because im quite poor at it. pretty sure i’ll love it when i get better at it. I admit tho … Linux is like really hard from my POV , so it’ll take some time to get accustomed to that. you might have been a geek or coding wiz , which is why you like it and worked with it from your infancy.
  maybe im a bit of a late learner …but we all get there , don’t we ? some early .. some after a while.
  Maybe you could mentor and advise me somewhere down the lane … btw what have you studied ?
- Lazar Prodanovic
  May 18, 2016
  This certainly represents a large step into the right direction concerning most of the things I elaborated in other coment.
  http://www.apical.co.uk/2016/05/18/arm-acquires-apical-a-global-leader-in-imaging-and-embedded-computer-vision/
- realjjj
  May 23, 2016
  AMD might have leaked the 8 cores Zen die http://www.overclock.net/t/1600907/zen-summit-ridge-die-shot-leaked
  Best i can tell from that image, i expect the die size to be between 99 and 131mm2. Intel’s Skylake dual and quad are some 98 and 122mm2, with GPU ofc.So AMD should have no problem offering 6 and 8 cores without GPU at same price Intel does 2 and 4 with GPU . If they want to ofc.
- Guest
  May 24, 2016
  can you explain in layman language , please 😀 ?
  im still a kid…
Mesterio
May 16, 2016
I think we are all waiting for Xiaomi Laptop. We want a windows macbook equivalent at a very competitive price. Why anyone hasn’t really tried is beyond me.
- Guest
  May 16, 2016
  exactly … im in full agreement with you !
  would be even better if it doubles as a mid-range GAMING Laptop !
  would love to have one loaded a GTX 1060 or r9 480x with 8 GB ram , i5-6500k (the mobile version) , win 10 64 bit and the works to put us into a good position !
Guest
May 16, 2016
Cheap GAMING Laptop PLEASE !
im stuck with a Potato for years now !
i really wanna play AAA games !
XIAOMI Plz …
- Guest
  May 16, 2016

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