Xiaomi Launches The Mi Notebook Pro

Xiaomi has launched the Mi Notebook Pro in China at the Mi Mix 2 event along with the Mi Note 3. The launch of the Mi Notebook Pro saw Xiaomi take a sly dig at Apple MacBook Pro while boasting about its several ports, a better keyboard, fingerprint sensor and the Windows 10 operating system. The Mi Notebook Air, that launched in 2016 was a cheaper competitor to the MacBook Air and its 2017 iteration has targeted the more expensive Apple laptop.

The nomenclature of the Mi Notebook Pro is very similar to the MacBook Pro, has a 15.6-inch 1920 x 1080 px display and the top-end variant is powered by an 8th generation Intel Core i7 processor with up to 16GB RAM and a Nvidia GeForce MX150 graphics chip. Xiaomi claims that because of what’s under the hood, the Notebook Pro will be 40% faster than the Notebook Air from 2016. The laptop has a full-metal unibody design and 7 integrated ports. The new Notebook Pro includes a fingerprint sensor housed inside the trackpad, three-in-one SD card support, a total of 7 USB-C and regular USB ports, a headphone jack and a full HDMI slot. The speakers are custom-built and powered by Harman.

The Mi Notebook Pro as of now looks like a China-only product, just like the Mi Notebook Air. The Pro variant is also a little more expensive than its Air sibling.

• Intel i5/8GB of RAM – 5599 RMB (Rs. 55,000 approx.)
• Intel Coffee Lake i7/8GB of RAM – 6699 RMB (Rs. 62,000 approx.)
• Intel Coffee Lake i7/16GB of RAM – 6999 RMB (Rs. 68,000 approx.)

Even though Xiaomi wants to pit the Notebook Pro against the Apple MacBook Pro, there are enough Windows powered laptops in a similar price bracket with top-end specifications. There is no word right now whether the Notebook Pro will launch in the global markets or not hence, how much of a threat the Xiaomi laptop will be to the MacBook Pro is yet to be seen.