Operating System & Software: Windows 11 Home | Microsoft Office Home and Student 2021; Graphics: Intel...
User reviews
★★★★★
I'm writing this review after about 4 months of usage, so it's based on a mixture of the purchase criteria/comparisons and actual usage. I wanted a no-frills laptop which was powerful but inexpensive. I looked at the Dells and Lenovos within the sub-60k price range but finally settled on this. Two and a half months later, no regrets.You need to be clear what you want and what you’re getting because this config won’t satisfy everyone. Given below are my criteria for choosing this and a comparison of how this fares against the others I looked at.CPU – Wanted an 11th gen i5 and this one has an i5-11300H – not G – so it has adequate power for the next few years.RAM – I wanted either upgradeable 8GB RAM with a free slot or on-board 16GB. Through the years, my experience has been that buying a budget config laptop and doubling its RAM after a year or two really extends its life. Today, that means buying 8GB and upgrading to 16 later. Well, this one has 16GB out of the box so it should last a few years.Graphics card – This doesn’t have an external NVIDIA card. So if you’re editing videos, playing graphics-intensive games or programming neural nets, then don’t go for this.Touchscreen – Didn’t want to spend money on this. I’m fine with a good quality trackpad. If you want a touchscreen, you’ve got to either raise your price point or compromise on something else (RAM, screen quality etc) at this price point.Screen Brightness - I wanted a screen bright enough to work outdoors in the afternoon and pretty much everything from the standard brands fell short on this front. My reading of the market (as of June 2022) is that you have to spend 80-90k+ on the more standard brands to get that kind of screen. But I’ve used this laptop outdoors in the afternoon quite often and there’s no issues, even on a bright afternoon.Screen Resolution, Clarity, Contrast, Viewing Angles etc – Let’s be clear, this is not an OLED screen. You want the best of those, go for an ASUS. But it is high res and sharp. Viewing angles are great and so are colours. The best feature is that this screen has matte finish. None of those irritating ambient reflections in sunlight which a clear glossy screen is prey to. If you want to sit outdoors and work (browsing , editing, spreadsheets, presentations, coding etc), this is a great screen. What it is not great for is watching movies. Nothing like a clean, glossy OLED screen with muted ambient lighting for watching Netflix.Sound – It’s adequate but nothing great to write home about. As I said, this laptop is not your best choice for media consumption.Ports – My laptop is normally plugged into a monitor, keyboard, mouse, power and speakers at my desk. As a result, it’s a bit of a pain to unplug and reattach so many cables every time. Which is why I was keen on Thunderbolt 4. The thought of simply unplugging one wire and walking off with the laptop was very attractive. A good USB 4 hub is expensive, so I haven’t bought one yet, but it’s no.1 on my to-buy list. Many brands seem to think that Thunderbolt 4 is a premium feature, meant only for laptops which cost 80k+. For a non-premium guy like me it’s fortunate that Xiaomi included it in this laptop.Looks and Durability – It’s an all metal body which looks sleek. As for durability, the metal body should prevent damage from minor falls. But the least durable parts of a laptop are the trackpad and the hinges – and I have no way of telling whether these will last or not. So no idea about this.All in all, if you’re looking for a portable, inexpensive (I got this for 55k with exchange), laptop for work and regular use, this was the best available in June 2022 at this price point. You can use it in your balcony/garden, plug it back in very conveniently at your desk and the config should last 3-4 years easily. But if you’re a teacher (or need a touchscreen for other reasons), video editor, gamer or an avid consumer of streaming services, then choose something better suited to those purposes.
★★★★☆
Received delivery yesterday, it’s good laptop, look wise it’s cool.Performance no problem so far. Will post another review later.2 serious issues- webcam and speakers.
★★★★☆
Laptop is packed with good amount of specifications at the given price point. Look and feel is sturdy. Good battery backup and multiple task handling capabilities.
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