Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air (12.5 & 13.3): Features, Specs and Pricing

Xiaomi is known as the Apple of the East, and product launches such as the one here only make the case stronger.

Meet the all new Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air, which as the name (shamelessly) suggests, is Xiaomi’s Windows-powered ‘alternative’ to the Apple MacBook. The laptop was launched at today’s conference alongside the Xiaomi Redmi Pro.

It even comes with a full metal body, and is smaller and lighter than its inspiration. Xiaomi says that the Mi Notebook Air is ‘13% thinner and has 11% smaller body than the Macbook Air.’

Let’s delve into the specifics a bit. The Mi Notebook Air 12 comes in two screen variants — one with a 13.3-inch full HD display, and another with a 12.5-inch one, with the same resolution.

The Intel Core i5-6200U processor (up to 2.7GHz) along with the NVIDIA GeForce 940MX graphics chip run the show on the first Xiaomi laptop (13.3-inch version), along with 8GB of DDR4 RAM and 256GB SSD storage. All of this for an attractive 4,999 Yuan or $750!

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The 12.5-inch variant is more on the feeble side with an Intel Core M3 CPU, 4GB of RAM, 128GB SSD and no dedicated GPU. What this means is that you don’t shell out too much money (3499 Yuan/$520) and get a couple of hours of extra battery life compared to the 13.3-inch version.

MUST READ: 10 things you need to know about the Mi Notebook Air

Makers claim that the 40Wh battery can hold good for up to 9.5 hours of usage, while an included charger (using the USB Type-C standard) can charge it to 50% (from 0%) in a matter of just 30 minutes. Which is impressive!

The 13.3-inch version of the Mi Notebook Air weighs in at 1.28kg, while the smaller 12.5-inch version does so at 1.07kg.

While it’s clear that the Mi Notebook Air borrows a few design cues from the Apple laptop, it’s surprising that the Mi Notebook Air does not have a glowing Mi logo on the back.

There’s no word on global availability (of course), but the Mi Notebook Air will launch in China on the 2nd of August. Keep reading for more updates on the first Xiaomi laptop!

Update: A video about the Mi Notebook Air.

Disclaimer: We may be compensated by some of the companies whose products we talk about, but our articles and reviews are always our honest opinions. For more details, you can check out our editorial guidelines and learn about how we use affiliate links.

About the author
Yash Garg
Yash is a blogger by profession, builder of things by passion and foodie by birth. You'll usually find him talking about technology, music, travel and the game of cricket on the streets of Pune when not busy writing or speeding his way through the country! Read more on retro handheld gaming on RETRO91

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- ibonprofeno
  July 27, 2016
  Totally agree with you. There’ll be though, a combination of two different keys to get it.
- Hippolyte L
  July 27, 2016
  You can put the laptop in any language on windows ans buy keyboard stickers that make the change seemless !

NextHype
July 27, 2016
Uh, previous leaks were (almost) totally false.
$750 for i5-6200U + GF 940MX + 8GB RAM + 128GB SSD + 40Wh is a pretty good bargain. But we can also buy Lenovo Y700 for the same price : i5-6800 + GF 960M + 8GB RAM + 500GB HDD + 60Wh.
The biggest differences being the weight (1.28Kg vs 2.6Kg) and the after sale support abroad.
- realjjj
  July 27, 2016
  The difference is much much bigger.
  The Lenovo is a proper laptop while this is shiny and much lower perf.
  You don’t quite list the CPU properly but it’s likely a quad core while this is dual core up to 2.7GHz.
  GTX 960M is also more of a proper GPU. The 940 has 384 Maxwell cores, the 960 has 640.
  - Dante
    July 27, 2016
    You dont get it – this is more like an ultrabook – something to compete with mac air , Hp spectre , Dell XPS etc.
    A very light and portable alternative which has a solid build
    Fast ssd etc.
    This will be perfect for people at college or ones having specific needs at a much lower price
    - balcobomber25
      July 27, 2016
      You dont get it. Whatever Xiaomi does realjjj will complain about and make it sound like it is the worst product in the world. He is the biggest Xiaomi hater on this site.
      Don’t try to use common sense with him, it doesn’t work.
      - Dante
        July 27, 2016
  - NextHype
    July 27, 2016
    It seems i was comparing a proper gaming laptop with an all-around lightweight laptop, my bad.
    In the “all-around lightweight laptop” category, nothing’s sold under $1000, and specwise the 13″ model should cost at least $1400 if sold by Dell / HP / Apple /… so this Notebook Air is everything but overpriced.
    It seems you’re not a buyer for this kind of product, and frankly me neither. But now we can have decent computing power in a thin, lighweight package, for a fairly low price, this is becoming interesting.
    BTW, too bad there is no touch screen for any version, this could have disrupted the Core-M tablets market.

realjjj
July 27, 2016
It will never stop being funny that they call it Air. Anyway, low perf, shiny and overpriced as expected.
The GPU is funny too, that’s a product aimed at people that have no idea what they are buying and think that it must be better if it has a GPU. A tiny outdated GPU on 28nm….
Note that the 12.5inch has SATA SSD and DDR3.It’s also thinner and the battery is slightly smaller.
Official specs http://www.mi.com/mibookair/specs/
- balcobomber25
  July 27, 2016
  It stopped being funny about 4 seconds after I read it. It’s not the first to copy Apple’s terminology and it won’t be the last.
Fred
July 27, 2016
- balcobomber25
  July 27, 2016
  - July 27, 2016
    I’d like to disagree here. They do some really nice original stuff. And other comoanies rip Apple off all the time, but that still doesn’t mean it’s a cool thing to do. Where Xiaomi are right now, they need more originality if their dreams of going global are to be ever fulfilled.
    In this specific case, they could’ve just given it a slightly more original name. They’d still be using a similar design, but by calling it the Mi Notebook Air (MiBook Air?), they’re saying they don’t really care.
    - balcobomber25
      July 27, 2016
      I’m not defending Xiaomi here just pointing out its industry wide. Doesn’t make it right but it happens with virtually every company.
      - Fred
        July 28, 2016
        Yes they all do. Even Apple. But Xiaomi more than other.
        There is a difference between disruptive business model and plagiarism business model. Lately it seemed that Xiaomi took some distance with Apple but boom: Here we are back again.
        Xiaomi should take exemple on Asus who is doing lot of efforts to have their own design language.
Sin Noeurn
July 27, 2016
Hello How can I buy it. Nowadays I am in Cambodia. I want to buy it
- July 27, 2016
  Guess you’ll have to wait a couple of weeks, the usual resellers will have it by then I believe.
Ricardo A.
July 27, 2016
- ibonprofeno
  July 27, 2016
  Totally agree with you. There’ll be though, a combination of two different keys to get it.
- Hippolyte L
  July 27, 2016
  You can put the laptop in any language on windows ans buy keyboard stickers that make the change seemless !
NextHype
July 27, 2016
Uh, previous leaks were (almost) totally false.
$750 for i5-6200U + GF 940MX + 8GB RAM + 128GB SSD + 40Wh is a pretty good bargain. But we can also buy Lenovo Y700 for the same price : i5-6800 + GF 960M + 8GB RAM + 500GB HDD + 60Wh.
The biggest differences being the weight (1.28Kg vs 2.6Kg) and the after sale support abroad.
- realjjj
  July 27, 2016
  The difference is much much bigger.
  The Lenovo is a proper laptop while this is shiny and much lower perf.
  You don’t quite list the CPU properly but it’s likely a quad core while this is dual core up to 2.7GHz. -less for the cheaper model.
  GTX 960M is also more of a proper GPU. The 940 has 384 Maxwell cores, the 960 has 640 so two thirds more. With the 960 you can actually play some AAA games at 1080p.
  The Xiaomi is for casual PC users that like shiny things and pay a premium for thin.It’s not for someone that needs a proper laptop and needs computing power.
  If it fits your needs or not, that’s up to you.
- Dante
  July 27, 2016
  You dont get it – this is more like an ultrabook – something to compete with mac air , Hp spectre , Dell XPS etc.
  A very light and portable alternative which has a solid build
  Fast ssd etc.
  This will be perfect for people at college or ones having specific needs at a much lower price
- balcobomber25
  July 27, 2016
  You dont get it. Whatever Xiaomi does realjjj will complain about and make it sound like it is the worst product in the world. He is the biggest Xiaomi hater on this site.
  Don’t try to use common sense with him, it doesn’t work.
- NextHype
  July 27, 2016
  It seems i was comparing a proper gaming laptop with an all-around lightweight laptop, my bad.
  In the “all-around lightweight laptop” category, nothing’s sold under $1000, and specwise the 13″ model should cost at least $1400 if sold by Dell / HP / Apple /… so this Notebook Air is everything but overpriced.
  It seems you’re not a buyer for this kind of product, and frankly me neither. But now we can have decent computing power in a thin, lighweight package, for a fairly low price, this is becoming interesting.
  BTW, too bad there is no touch screen for any version, this could have disrupted the Core-M tablets market.
- Dante
  July 27, 2016
balcobomber25
July 27, 2016
- Joel Ebuka
  July 27, 2016
  Took the words right outta my mouth
- Natsumi
  July 28, 2016
  For those who only write in English, sure… not for the rest.
  - balcobomber25
    July 28, 2016
    For their first laptop they probably figured English was the safest bet. Would have been too costly to produce a keyboard for every country.
    - Natsumi
      July 28, 2016
      I was writing with all these types of laptops/tablets in mind. Some keyboards are shared by countries (although not necessarily the best display), for example, Spain and France (and I think Germany too). But they just don’t want.
      - balcobomber25
        July 28, 2016
        The only company I know of that has a separate keyboard for every country is Asus. The rest I find are hit or miss.

realjjj
July 27, 2016
It will never stop being funny that they call it Air. Anyway, low perf, shiny and overpriced as expected.
The GPU is funny too, that’s a product aimed at people that have no idea what they are buying and think that it must be better if it has a GPU. A tiny outdated GPU on 28nm….
Note that the 12.5inch has SATA SSD and DDR3.It’s also thinner and the battery is slightly smaller.
Official specs http://www.mi.com/mibookair/specs/
- balcobomber25
  July 27, 2016
  It stopped being funny about 4 seconds after I read it. It’s not the first to copy Apple’s terminology and it won’t be the last.
Guest
July 27, 2016
- balcobomber25
  July 27, 2016
  It’s not just Xiaomi they all do it, and so does Apple.
- Yash Garg
  July 27, 2016
  I’d like to disagree here. They do some really nice original stuff. And other comoanies rip Apple off all the time, but that still doesn’t mean it’s a cool thing to do. Where Xiaomi are right now, they need more originality if their dreams of going global are to be ever fulfilled.
  In this specific case, they could’ve just given it a slightly more original name. They’d still be using a similar design, but by calling it the Mi Notebook Air (MiBook Air?), they’re saying they don’t really care.
- balcobomber25
  July 27, 2016
  I’m not defending Xiaomi here just pointing out its industry wide. Doesn’t make it right but it happens with virtually every company.
- Guest
  July 28, 2016
  Yes they all do. Even Apple. But Xiaomi more than other.
  There is a difference between disruptive business model and plagiarism business model. Lately it seemed that Xiaomi took some distance with Apple but boom: Here we are back again.
  Xiaomi should take exemple on Asus who is doing lot of efforts to have their own design language.

Bailey
July 27, 2016
I know i might be the only one but i would love it if this was a Chromebook
as i cant stand windows as you would get access to to the whole playstore
- NextHype
  July 27, 2016
  You still can install Remix OS on this laptop and enjoy Android apps. IMHO the real problem is the lack of touch screen…
- balcobomber25
  July 27, 2016
  Instead of Remix you can also install either Chromium which is what ChromeOS is based off of or you can use any number of ChromeOS clones like Solus. That way you get the wealth of programs/apps that Ubuntu/Fedora (based on what distro you use) offer.
- Natsumi
  July 28, 2016
  I can’t stand chrome os with everything running with internet and super small hd.
Sin Noeurn
July 27, 2016
Hello How can I buy it. Nowadays I am in Cambodia. I want to buy it
- Yash Garg
  July 27, 2016
  Guess you’ll have to wait a couple of weeks, the usual resellers will have it by then I believe.
greg
July 27, 2016
I would have prefer less pretty , more powerful and less expensive .
NextHype
July 27, 2016
- - NextHype
    July 28, 2016
    same specs, same price, but Lenovo has a few decades of experience in building laptops, unlike Xiaomi. And they’ll probably deliver massive batches from start, when xiaomi will struggle to meet the demand.

Muhammad Yasir
July 27, 2016
“it’s surprising that the Mi Notebook Air does not have a glowing Mi logo on the back.”
ok ?? so how useful is that ?!
is it a VITAL FEATURE ?! will it impact the performance of Mi Notebook ??
plz stop nit-picking
- - Muhammad Yasir
    July 27, 2016
    @yash3339:disqus u pissed at me or something ?
  - balcobomber25
    July 27, 2016
    A lot of people on the internet unfortunately dont.
Muhammad Yasir
July 27, 2016
THANKYOU XIAOMI ! THANKYOU SO MUCH FOR FINALLY RELEASE SUPER BUDGET LAPTOPS !
this is IMMENSE and MASSIVE in the PC WORLD !
while not visible atm , this’ll move others to better price their products. a strong subliminal message Xiaomi are sending out to the Laptop/PC segment out there !

balcobomber25
July 27, 2016
The lower priced model is going to make an excellent Ubuntu Air!
- Joel Ebuka
  July 27, 2016
  Took the words right outta my mouth
- Natsumi
  July 28, 2016
  For those who only write in English, sure… not for the rest.
- balcobomber25
  July 28, 2016
  For their first laptop they probably figured English was the safest bet. Would have been too costly to produce a keyboard for every country.
- Natsumi
  July 28, 2016
  I was writing with all these types of laptops/tablets in mind. Some keyboards are shared by countries (although not necessarily the best display), for example, Spain and France (and I think Germany too). But they just don’t want.
- balcobomber25
  July 28, 2016
  The only company I know of that has a separate keyboard for every country is Asus. The rest I find are hit or miss.

bojan radovanovic
July 27, 2016
well, as i writed before (while everyone was thinking that it is gonna come with i7 for 300$ in China), this is just too expencive to order, pay tax and have it without warrenty in any other then China.
“The Intel Core i5-6200U processor (up to 2.7GHz) along with the NVIDIA GeForce 940MX graphics chip run the show on the first Xiaomi laptop (13.3-inch version), along with 8GB of DDR4 RAM and 256GB SSD storage. All of this for an attractive 4,999 Yuan or $750!”
for 600$ i have bought Lenovo Yoga 2, with same spec., but older proccesor, as it was one and half year ago.
Ulti
July 27, 2016
This is actually amazing. Depending on reseller price I might go for one to replace my aging Samsung Series 9 NP900X3G.

Bailey
July 27, 2016
I know i might be the only one but i would love it if this was a Chromebook
as i cant stand windows as you would get access to to the whole playstore
- NextHype
  July 27, 2016
  You still can install Remix OS on this laptop and enjoy Android apps. IMHO the real problem is the lack of touch screen…
- balcobomber25
  July 27, 2016
  Instead of Remix you can also install either Chromium which is what ChromeOS is based off of or you can use any number of ChromeOS clones like Solus. That way you get the wealth of programs/apps that Ubuntu/Fedora (based on what distro you use) offer.
- Natsumi
  July 28, 2016
  I can’t stand chrome os with everything running with internet and super small hd.

Wondercool
July 27, 2016
Fantastic price, I will wait for a month to see the usability reports but I intend to buy the bigger one with the GPU. And it needs to run Linux for me (but no doubt that will be possible). Fantastic too that the SSD is upgradeable. Even the smaller one is a fantastic laptop but 500USD (+ EU tax + shipping) will make it too expensive for a secondary laptop.
Considering you can get QHD tablets for 250 USD (but with Atom), it is clear that Intel is the bottleneck, else we would have had cheaper laptops a loooong time ago
- Fred
  July 28, 2016
  Definitively a no-no for me. I hate to be the man in the meeting room with a Macbook Air wannabe. Some phones and laptops can make you loose a contract. Trust me.
  - Wondercool
    July 28, 2016
    Well it’s for personal use, I ain’t a salesperson so it doesn’t matter to me.
    If what you say is true, you shouldn’t show up with an Apple laptop (the original in your words) in the meeting room either. Apple even has a loud Apple logo on the lid that lights up to show to people that the owner of the laptop is cool 🙂
  - Natsumi
    July 28, 2016
- Natsumi
  July 28, 2016
  I read linux doesn’t run in certain socs and processors…. I don’t know which ones for sure, but some of them are in tablets and think laptops.

greg
July 27, 2016
I would have prefer less pretty , more powerful and less expensive .
NextHype
July 27, 2016
- I can’t see why, care to explain?
- NextHype
  July 28, 2016
  same specs, same price, but Lenovo has a few decades of experience in building laptops, unlike Xiaomi. And they’ll probably deliver massive batches from start, when xiaomi will struggle to meet the demand.
Guest
July 27, 2016
“it’s surprising that the Mi Notebook Air does not have a glowing Mi logo on the back.”
ok ?? so how useful is that ?!
is it a VITAL FEATURE ?! will it impact the performance of Mi Notebook ??
plz stop nit-picking

Guest
July 27, 2016
THANKYOU XIAOMI ! THANKYOU SO MUCH FOR FINALLY RELEASE SUPER BUDGET LAPTOPS !
this is IMMENSE and MASSIVE in the PC WORLD !
while not visible atm , this’ll move others to better price their products. a strong subliminal message Xiaomi are sending out to the Laptop/PC segment out there !

bojan radovanovic
July 27, 2016
well, as i writed before (while everyone was thinking that it is gonna come with i7 for 300$ in China), this is just too expencive to order, pay tax and have it without warrenty in any other then China.
“The Intel Core i5-6200U processor (up to 2.7GHz) along with the NVIDIA GeForce 940MX graphics chip run the show on the first Xiaomi laptop (13.3-inch version), along with 8GB of DDR4 RAM and 256GB SSD storage. All of this for an attractive 4,999 Yuan or $750!”
for 600$ i have bought Lenovo Yoga 2, with same spec., but older proccesor, as it was one and half year ago.

Ulti
July 27, 2016
This is actually amazing. Depending on reseller price I might go for one to replace my aging Samsung Series 9 NP900X3G.
Sansa
July 27, 2016
Will we able to use a non english keyboard?
- Ionut Johnny
  July 27, 2016
  You will be able to connect an external one but I doubt that is ok on a laptop. Lets hope maybe you can choose between global and UK standard keyboard type.
  - Natsumi
    August 13, 2016
    I don’t need a uk keyboard, I need one in my first language!!!! but that never happens…
- Natsumi
  July 28, 2016
  NO, and that happens with ALL tablets/laptops. Welcome to my world… fucked because of the keyboard.
Wondercool
July 27, 2016
Fantastic price, I will wait for a month to see the usability reports but I intend to buy the bigger one with the GPU. And it needs to run Linux for me (but no doubt that will be possible). Fantastic too that the SSD is upgradeable. Even the smaller one is a fantastic laptop but 500USD (+ EU tax + shipping) will make it too expensive for a secondary laptop.
Considering you can get QHD tablets for 250 USD (but with Atom), it is clear that Intel is the bottleneck, else we would have had cheaper laptops a loooong time ago
- Guest
  July 28, 2016
  Definitively a no-no for me. I hate to be the man in the meeting room with a Macbook Air wannabe. Some phones and laptops can make you loose a contract. Trust me.
- Wondercool
  July 28, 2016
  Well it’s for personal use, I ain’t a salesperson so it doesn’t matter to me.
  If what you say is true, you shouldn’t show up with an Apple laptop (the original in your words) in the meeting room either. Apple even has a loud Apple logo on the lid that lights up to show to people that the owner of the laptop is cool 🙂
- Natsumi
  July 28, 2016
  I read linux doesn’t run in certain socs and processors…. I don’t know which ones for sure, but some of them are in tablets and thin laptops.
- Natsumi
  July 28, 2016

Launched: Meet Xiaomi’s MacBook Air alternative, the Mi Notebook Air

Gizchina News of the week

Yash Garg

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