The same exquisite and different 7-generation Core! New Xiaomi Notebook Air Experience Evaluation
Xiaomi and Notebook Computer
Speaking of it, Xiaomi and laptop are quite predestined.
As early as 2013, there were rumors that Xiaomi would enter the notebook market, and the rumors became more and more true. Later, Lei Jun couldn’t hold the inquiries of enthusiastic fans and personally denied Xiaomi’s plan to get out of the notebook.
Of course, everyone knows what happened later. On July 27, 2016, Xiaomi fulfilled his wish of rice noodles, not only released notebooks, but also two models, a 13.3-inch ultra-thin performance book and a 12.5-inch ultra-thin book, which sold 220,000 units in three months.
Recently, with the advent of the 2017 Rice Noodle Festival, two notebooks that have been released for more than half a year have finally ushered in an upgrade. Today, what we are going to experience is the new millet notebook Air 12.5 inch, which has just updated the 7th generation Core. How does it perform?
Appearance: Exquisite and concentrated in a small body with great texture.
↑ ↑ ↑ The author holds a new version of Xiaomi notebook Air 12.5 inch 4G+256G gold version.
↑ ↑ ↑ The appearance of the upgraded Xiaomi notebook has not changed, and there is still no Logo on the A side. The advantage is that Xiaomi officially provides many stickers to decorate. More importantly, in the use environment where the brand is determined, it avoids being asked "Why not buy apples".
↑ ↑ ↑ Front of fuselage
Xiaomi notebook adopts all-glass cover and full fit, which means that the B side of the whole notebook is a whole piece of glass, and the sense of integration is excellent. In addition, the ultra-narrow frame of 5.71 mm on the left and right, although the screen is only 12.5 inches, still brings a very shocking impression. The display effect of IPS wide-angle hard screen with 300 nits brightness is also excellent.
All-glass cover, full mirror fit, interest screen aesthetics, the screen of Xiaomi notebook completely continues the look and feel experience of mobile phone screen. It can be said that it is difficult to find a notebook B side that is more pleasant than Xiaomi notebook in the same price product.
↑ ↑ ↑ The full-size keyboard of Xiaomi notebook has a slightly shorter 1.3 mm keystroke, moderate rebound feel and soft impact, but after all, it is ultra-thin and acceptable.
In addition, the key width of Xiaomi notebook is wide, which is not easy to be typed by mistake, and the stress is very uniform. There will be no inclination of the key cap. Generally speaking, the performance is acceptable, and it is a keyboard that can be assured that the words will not make people crazy.
In addition, it is worth mentioning that the C side of the notebook except the keyboard is sandblasted, and the large-area metal matte feel brings a sense of exquisiteness that is difficult to express in words. The integrated glass touchpad embedded in it brings a smooth touch and a better pressing feel.
↑ ↑ ↑ The power button is in the upper right corner of the keyboard.
↑ ↑ ↑ The only shortcoming on the keyboard is that the direction keys are narrowed down.
↑ ↑ ↑ At the bottom of the fuselage, there is an AKG speaker on the left and right. According to the actual measurement, the speakers on the left and right sides will not be blocked by the desktop, and the sound volume is large enough to be full. In addition, Xiaomi notebook has reserved SSD card slot, which can expand the hard disk capacity.
↑ ↑ ↑ On the left side of the fuselage is an HDMI interface and an earphone interface.
↑ ↑ ↑ On the right side of the fuselage are USB3.0 interface and Type-C interface.
↑ ↑ ↑ Very mini charging head, up to 45W ultra-high power, officially claimed to charge half in half an hour.
Generally speaking, the A side of Xiaomi notebook without Logo brings more personalization possibilities, and the C side of the metal matte and the glass touchpad form a complete feel experience.
Excellent screen performance, fully covered and fully fitted glass and narrow bezel design are even more reminiscent of the experience of mobile phone screen.
Although the body of the 12.5-inch notebook is small, the texture concentrated in it does not fall at all. Small and exquisite are just the right adjectives for the Xiaomi notebook Air 12.5 inch.
Performance: 7th generation Core! The ultimate performance of M3-7Y30
The biggest difference between the new version of Xiaomi notebook Air 12.5 "and the old version is that the processor has been updated, from the previous six-generation Core M3-6Y30 to the seven-generation Core M3-7Y30. What’s the difference between them?
In terms of parameters, the two processors are also dual-core four-thread, 14nm technology, belonging to Skylake and Kaby Lake families respectively. The biggest difference is that the core frequency and the core graphics card have been updated.
↑ ↑ ↑ It can be seen that M3-7Y30 has improved the minimum and maximum CPU frequency, and updated the core graphics card with higher frequency. So what is the performance of this 7th generation Core?
In this paper, the author selected three kinds of testing software: wPrime, Cinebench and 3DMark.
The test scores of Air 12.5 inch of the new and old Xiaomi notebooks are as follows (for the convenience of comparison, some test results have been changed in units, for example, unit 10 = 1/10 of the original value, and unit 100 = 1/100 of the original value):
↑ ↑ ↑ (wPrime, the lower the two items, the better) It can be seen that M3-7Y30 is about 5%-10% higher than M3-6Y30 respectively in these three tests.
↑ ↑ ↑ In the GPU test, M3-7Y30 scored about 5%-28% higher than M3-6Y30 respectively.
Judging from the performance of the test software, the overall performance of M3-7Y30 is much higher than that of M3-6Y30. Since M3-6Y30 is a processor with fairly balanced performance and power consumption, M3-7Y30 is undoubtedly a God U.
So what is the actual application performance?
The author selected Hearthstone (a card game) and League of Legends (one of the most popular MOBA games) to test.
In the test, both the old and new models can run hearthstone in full frame at 1080P resolution and medium image quality.
While running League of Legends at 1080P resolution and medium image quality, the frame number of the old model is kept at around 40-50, and the new model can be kept at around 45-58, which is in line with expectations.
In the process of daily use, whether in Summoner Canyon, bilibili to watch the barrage, web page to brush Weibo, and table document processing, there is no jam, and the overall performance is very smooth, and the performance meets the daily needs.
Endurance: the workplace is heavy! All-weather office entertainment
Xiaomi notebook Air 12.5-inch battery capacity is 37Wh, which supports 1C fast charging. The maximum power of the charger is 45W(15V/3A, 20V/2.25A) as standard, and it also supports USB PD and Qualcomm QC2.0 fast charging protocol. The charging test is as follows:
↑ ↑ ↑ From 10%, Wi-Fi link, after charging, the computer will automatically adjust to the highest brightness, and the screen will light up all the time (due to recording needs).
It can be seen that the 45W charger is really terrible. Even if the screen is bright at the highest brightness, the notebook basically keeps the speed of 10% to 90% in 10 minutes, and it takes 130 minutes to charge, which is much faster than some mobile phones called fast charge nowadays.
In the endurance test, the author selected five test items to simulate daily use: web browsing (native browser, 10 web pages backstage, unlimited Weibo brush), document processing (WPS three-piece full open), video (bilibili full-screen barrage video), Hearthstone Legend and League of Legends. The specific performance is as follows:
↑ ↑ ↑ Each of the five tests took half an hour, totaling 2 hours and 30 minutes, and finally 49% of the power remained.
↑ ↑ ↑ It can be seen that in the five tests, web pages, documents and videos also consumed 8% of electricity for half an hour, and League of Legends, a big power consumer, consumed 16% of electricity for half an hour.
If it is estimated in this way, the new version of Xiaomi notebook Air 12.5 inch can run continuously for more than 3 hours, and the legend of Hearthstone for more than 5 hours has no pressure for daily use.
Summary: Xiaomi notebook with exquisite external charm, which should not be missed.
The new version of Xiaomi notebook Air 12.5 inch still inherits the appearance of its predecessors. Under the compact body, it contains a pleasant full-coverage glass screen, narrow frame design, large-area metal matte palm rest, smooth and easy-to-use glass touchpad, and exquisite inside and outside the body, which reflects Xiaomi’s thinking about notebook design.
What’s even more surprising is that the addition of the 7th generation Core M3-7Y30 makes its internal force more profound, and it is comfortable for both daily life and entertainment. All-weather battery life and 45W super fast charge also prove that it is so reliable.
Although the price of the new millet notebook Air 12.5 "is higher than that of the old one, it is light, exquisite, surging and reliable, which still proves its unique advantage in the ultra-thin notebook at the same price.
Postscript: Why should Xiaomi open a "grocery store" when the rice cooker comes out of the computer tomorrow?
It seems that some mobile phone companies are "doing nothing" to do computers across borders. Normally, peers like OPPO and vivo do some mobile phone accessories at most, and rarely go out of the mobile phone circle, while Xiaomi ran directly to the next door and brought out two laptops.
↑ ↑ ↑ Xiaomi. com is full of goods.
It’s not just notebooks, toys, towels, pillows, walkie-talkies, Xiaomi TVs ranging from 9999 yuan to Xiaomi magazines in 0.2 yuan. Only you can’t think of it, and you can’t do it without Xiaomi.
In fact, there are more than 103 kinds of goods on Xiaomi’s online, and Xiaomi’s super "grocery store" is well deserved, but it is reasonable to say that this job is so profitable. Why is Xiaomi the only one doing "grocery store" now?
↑ ↑ ↑ Every object that once burned all over the streets.
Because opportunities are also accompanied by risks, do you remember Vanke, who was once valued at $3 billion and had 13,000 people? It is because of the blind expansion of sales categories that inventory backlog and supply chain crisis eventually reduced to only 180 employees.
In other words, just because you have it doesn’t mean you can sell it.
So how does Xiaomi do it?
1. Enter the market to incubate challengers
Except for a few products made by Xiaomi himself, Xiaomi generally chooses entrepreneurial teams/small companies to cooperate (that is, Xiaomi eco-chain enterprises).
For example, Huami Technology behind mi band is a joint venture between Huaheng Technology and Xiaomi, while Zimi Technology behind Xiaomi’s mobile power supply is an entrepreneurial team that Xiaomi has been incubating since 2012.
↑ ↑ ↑ In addition to Xiaomi, Leijun’s Shunwei Capital also often invests in eco-chain enterprises.
Xiaomi, who has an investment team (Leijun’s Shunwei Capital) and experience, will provide financing for the partners and solve the most difficult financial problem of the small team very generously. How generous? The vice president of Xiaomi Ecological Chain once said: "Money is not a problem".
After selecting some non-monopoly/hot-spot/low-Internet industries, Xiaomi supported eco-chain enterprises to launch products and directly challenged the big brother of the industry.
2, the price butcher cost performance is king.
Remember the horror dominated by Xiaomi’s price/performance ratio? In 2014, when the price of smart bracelets was higher than that of 300 yuan, mi band, which sells 79 yuan, released it, and then swept the market all the way. In 2015, it sold 12 million pieces, and Huami Technology also became the second wearable device company in the world.
↑ ↑ ↑ In 2016, Xiaomi still ranked second in the wearable device market share, accounting for 15% of the global market share, according to IDC statistics.
It makes sense that new players can’t get the lowest price and production quota of the supply chain because of their size and risk, but Xiaomi relies on his own right to speak in the supply chain to lower the cost for his younger brother and ensure the output (usually millions).
The huge amount ensures the rapid decline of marginal costs, and enterprises can cover costs and even profits as soon as possible, which leads to a very terrible result. Ecological chain enterprises can make big money even at very low prices.
For example, mi band, who just mentioned selling 79 yuan, revealed at the end of 2015 only one year later: "We have a net profit of tens of millions every quarter."
↑ ↑ ↑ Virtual standard to 1 million mA charging treasure
More importantly, Xiaomi does not simply pursue low prices, and Xiaomi also pursues quality at low prices. The most outstanding representative should be Xiaomi mobile power supply. In the case of virtual standard, cottage and fraud prevailing in the whole industry (in 2014, 32 batches of products were all unqualified by CCTV), the first generation of Xiaomi mobile power supply relied on solid materials such as Deyi chips and LG batteries to reshape the whole market by itself, and finally occupied 80% of the domestic market share.
↑ ↑ ↑ In October 2016, Xiaomi officially announced the sales of mobile power.
Of course, because of different industries, the characteristics of different Xiaomi eco-chain products are different, but compared with competing products at the same price, most Xiaomi products generally have better performance or quality, which is one of the reasons why Xiaomi eco-chain products are prosperous.
3, traffic is king +15 artifact Xiaomi net
With the product, the price and the output, how can we sell the product next?
This may be a problem for other enterprises, but it is not difficult for Xiaomi. Why pinch it? Because Xiaomi has a +15 artifact in his hand — — Xiaomi net.
↑ ↑ ↑ Xiaomi. com has become the eighth largest e-commerce company in the world, from Internet Retailer’s Global 1000 Report: Innovation of Global E-commerce Retail.
As a website that only sells Xiaomi mobile phones at the beginning, Xiaomi.com has become the eighth largest e-commerce website in the world (the third largest in China) after several years of development. What is the concept of selling things on Xiaomi.com?
Take a chestnut as an example. You can imagine that there is only one brand of rice cooker under the classification of JD.COM rice cookers.
Moreover, not only the traffic of Xiaomi. com, but also the word Xiaomi alone represents the traffic. In the past two years, when Xiaomi was the hottest, any news, events and advertisements related to Xiaomi could get a lot of exposure (it declined in the past two years).
↑ ↑ ↑ From 2012 to 2015, Xiaomi’s Baidu index was almost the sum of Apple, Samsung and Huawei.
Thanks to Xiaomi trademark (now Mijia) and Xiaomi. com, eco-chain products are always displayed under huge traffic, which directly contributes to the achievement that 16 of Xiaomi eco-chain companies have an annual income of over 100 million yuan, 3 have an annual income of over 1 billion yuan, and 4 have a valuation of over 1 billion US dollars.
All in all, from the investment and incubation of start-ups and teams to the final product being put on Xiaomi. com, Xiaomi’s "grocery store" has formed a set of effective processes and mechanisms, and the dazzling variety of "groceries" has also become an important supplement to Xiaomi’s mobile phone and condensed into an important moat of Xiaomi.
↑ ↑ ↑ Xiaomi Home’s dazzling array of eco-chain products
Although Xiaomi has been hit by the recovery of offline market in recent years, Xiaomi has developed a distinctive "new retail" model — — That is, the mode of moving the "grocery store" to the offline Xiaomi home, and the "groceries" of eco-chain enterprises have naturally become the vanguard of Xiaomi to move towards and stand firm offline.
Lei Jun has always admired an American supermarket — — Costco, Costco’s most famous features are low prices and fine products, which will limit the profit of selling goods to no more than 14%. In addition, the goods it sells are a small number of carefully selected products. Relying on low prices and fine products, Costco finally became the second largest retailer in the world after Wal-Mart.
There is no doubt that the thriving Xiaomi "grocery store" is the Costco in Xiaomi’s heart.