Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 12.5inch VS Mi Notebook Air 13.3inch Review

Xiaomi has finally announced its own notebook, named Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air, which is divided to two version, Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 13.3 and Mi Notebook Air 12.5inch on July 27. 13.3inch notebook focuses on thin and light design and high-end GPU, but 12.5inch designed for portability, equipped with Intel Core m3-6Y30 processor. When they released, we may be confused which one to buy, although 13.3inch notebook is attracted more at the first time with GeForce GT 940MX GPU. We will share with you about its contrast between them.

Design

In view of design, this two notebooks have no obvious difference, they both use blasting process of aluminum alloy, and no logo on the front design, the only difference between them is that Xiaomi Mi notebook air 12.5 is smaller than Mi notebook air 13.3.

Therefore, MI Notebook Air 12.5 is lighter much than MI Notebook Air 13.3. MI Notebook Air 13 has 1.28kg weight, but 12.5inch has 1.07kg. In addition, 13.3inch has 14.8mm thickness, but 12.5inch has 12.9mm thickness.

Never underestimate this kind of minor difference, which means you can take your Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 12.5 into your bag freely, although it has not come with touch screen, Mi notebook air 13.3inch with micro bezel design has not only brought excellent visual effect, but also reduce the size, enabling it to be like a 11.6inch notebook.

Compared with MI Notebook Air 13.3 besides the size, other specs like 1920×1080 screen resolution, 800:1 contrast, 300nit brightness, 170 viewing angle.

Due to the size, Mi notebook Air 12.5inch keyboard looks more compact, but the keys have no difference from 13.3inch. In addition, the touch panel size narrows obviously, but no difference in experiencing from 13.3inch.

Xiaomi Mi notebook air 13.3inch is similar to other notebooks on the market comes with two USB 3.0 ports, one HDMI ports, 3.5mm earphone jack, and a USB Type C for charging. But Mi notebook air 12.5 simplified a left USB 3.0 port, keeping a HDMI and earphone port. The controversial earphone jack in 13.3inch notebook has been more suitable for users in 12.5inch notebook adjustment. The main reason is that the mainboard is a little narrow, which has no space for earphone jack.

It will have no much effect to reduce a USB port, because Xiaomi has a USB Type C adapter at 149 yuan, $25, it includes a USB3.0, a HDMI, a USB Type C which can meet daily needs. But it makes us a little disappointed that it has no SD card for expansion.

On its back, Xiaomi mi notebook air 12.5 is powered by Intel Core m3-6Y30 processor with lower power consumption, no electric fan and cooling port, the overall cooling port uses the internal aluminium foil and aluminum alloy, so the back looks more simple.

Performance

In hardware, they have big difference. Xiaomi Mi notebook air 13.3 is powered by Intel Core i5-6200u processor, RAM 8GB DDR4 and 256G PCIE port SSD, NVIDIA GeForce 940MX GPU.

But Xiaomi mi notebook air 12.5 uses Intel Core m3-6Y30 processor, RAM 4GB and 28GB SSD, Intel HD Graphics 515 GPU, the heat consumption only has 4.5W, and the scene design consumption low to 3W, the highest frequency will not be over 7W, so as to control heat strictly.

Intel Core M is the ultra low power consumption series of Intel. Due to very low heat, so it doesn’t come with electric fan, and MacBook Air 12inch also uses this kind of Core M processor with low power consumption, and low heat. But it has much gap with Intel Core i5-6200u processor.

RAM 4GB 128GB SSD is the entry level for a notebook, Xiaomi Mi notebook Air 13.3 uses PCIE port, but MI Notebook Air 12.5 uses M2 port, so they have much difference in test score, especially the reading speed.

No electric fan design without fan noise has higher requirement for cooling,such as playing 1080p video, opening many webpages, downloading. When CPU is full loaded, the CPU temperature shows 68 degrees, GPU 59 degrees. It’s in the normal range, which is in the same level of 13.3inch version.

As for battery life, it is said 12.5inch version has 11.5 hours battery life, higher than 13.3inch with 9.5 hours. In real test, we adjust the power mode as balance, screen brightness is 50%, 30% volume, wifi connecting, starting chatting tool, then playing 1080p video from the notebook itself, using the notebook normally, opeing Edge browser, word software to do office work. Under the full battery, it has 88% off after 30 minutes, so we can estimate it can support from 6 hours to 6.5 hours battery life, but the whole test is under heavy use. It can support longer time under light use.

Conclusion

Xiaomi mi notebook Air 12.5 has lower performance than mi notebook air 13, but it comes with lighter and more compact design. And its price is lower than xiaomi air 13. Although the performance belongs to entry level, it can meet our daily use like searching the Internet, doing office work, watching tv, playing games, etc.  Besides, they have no fundamental difference.

But we recommend choosing Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air 13.3, which has higher performance, although it’s a little more expensive than MI Notebook Air 12.5. Because we would like to spend more money on a high-end notebook for our daily use.