Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival • Hacker News Board

Re: Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival

#121

Post by leaveyou » Wed, Jul 27, 2016, 10:43 AM UTC

pestaa wrote: post #48

klackerz wrote: post #26

The best thing about Xiaomi is that they support their products very well. Almost all of their phones get security updates each month. That is a rare thing in Android nowadays especially with Motorola announcing that they will stop updating their phones with the new security updates. [1] [1] http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/07/motorola-confirms-tha...

I have a Xiaomi Redmi 1S phone. It has not received any update of any kind in the last 3 years, it's still running on Android 4.3.

That's because you probably bought the phone from a re-seller who re-flashed a "custom global ROM" (compiled by who knows who) which does not receive OTA updates because it's not compatible with the official releases. This is what happened to me. After noticing that I don't get the updates for a while I started to investigate and I re-flashed one of the official ROMs from http://en.miui.com/download.html.

Re: Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival

#122

Post by kolinko » Wed, Jul 27, 2016, 10:44 AM UTC

mi_sucks wrote: post #90

I am pretty sure you are one of those online fanboys/shills who pop up everywhere to defend MI. Forget about security, HOW MANY PHONES OF MI can do ENCRYPTION, HOW MANY PHONES EVER DID ENCRYPTION. settings->security->encrypt == this option is absent from all phones. MI phones is not even run true android

Downvoted for the speech style. "You're one of those online fanboys...".

Read up on nonviolent communication, man!

Re: Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival

#123

Post by CalRobert » Wed, Jul 27, 2016, 10:45 AM UTC

aoloe wrote: post #24

puranjay wrote: post #8

People shit on Xiaomi here but even imitation requires some level of artistry and finesse. This looks like a good clone of Air, and I haven't seen Acer/Lenovo/Dell manage to do that yet.

What are you misssing in a Dell XPS 13?

Not sure, but maybe I say that because I'm a happy Sputnik (xps 13 w/Ubuntu) owner.

Though to be honest there is a small issue with coil whine in very quiet settings. I hear Dell has addressed this in newer models.

Re: Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival

#124

Post by vacri » Wed, Jul 27, 2016, 10:46 AM UTC

Trundle wrote: post #55

josteink wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This looks like a good clone of Air, and I haven't seen Acer/Lenovo/Dell manage to do that yet. Clearly it's not a cheap product, but the Lenovo Thinkpad Carbon X1 is razor thin, high powered, well built, and very good looking. Maybe I'm missing something?

An Air clone to me would have a metal body as that's a pretty defining characteristic.

Carbon Fibre isn't a good enough 'tech wank' material?

Re: Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival

#125

Post by MichaelGG » Wed, Jul 27, 2016, 10:46 AM UTC

turnip1979 wrote: post #113

MichaelGG wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, nothing comes close to ThinkPads. I dislike Lenovo a lot and would ditch them at first chance. No vendor wants to be that chance though. (Proper keyboard, 3-physical-button pad/point, not too hot, etc.) I'm not too concerned about Superfish - that was only the consumer junk, right? The BIOS-Windows-auto-install stuff was more concerning. But hey, little choices. Lenovo is certainly incompetent - look a…

What thinkpad would u get today? I looked into the T460 but (a) they seem to have many variants within the same model and (b) I saw too many negative reviews online.

The T440p was bulky, hot - total shit. The graphics were super weak, and the screen was utter junk. Dunno if the newer ones are considerably better; they probably fixed a lot.

The X250 is pretty good, though you get a keyboard at random and will need to replace the part (always get next business day warranty) if you get one of the junk ones. Otherwise it's a nice laptop - I've not seen anything I like more (though it could be better, of course; a 3:2 screen for starters).

I've used a T450s, and the keyboard feels fantastic on it. At 3K res it'd probably real nice. Unless you need a specific CPU/GPU, stick with the X260/T460s (s for slim). Perhaps compare reviews to the X250/T450s to see if it got worse?

Assuming you don't need high-end power (like quad core), it's more of a preference if you want a small 12" or a larger screen. I dock my X250 and it seems fine, even driving a higher-pixel external monitor. I'd go for the X260, but if software support was better for hiDPI I might consider the T450s. (If they had centred keyboards without numpad, maybe even a 15" model.)

Edit: FWIW when using it in laptop mode, I run CPU throttled to 50% or less to keep it cool. I have the cheaper i5-5200U option and it's fine for emacs/VS/browsing. At full power it can play Dolphin emulator Smash Brothers Brawl and Melee at full speed, but just barely.

Re: Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival

#126

Post by MichaelGG » Wed, Jul 27, 2016, 10:47 AM UTC

ThePhysicist wrote: post #115

turnip1979 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What thinkpad would u get today? I looked into the T460 but (a) they seem to have many variants within the same model and (b) I saw too many negative reviews online.

The T460p is a very good deal if you want something light, powerful and extensible for a very good price. You can get a version with a quad-core i7, dedicated Nvidia graphics card and 3k display for about 1400 USD. Combined with a three-year guarantee it's a very good deal I'd say, and much better than what most other manufacturers (including Dell and Apple) offer for this price. I also own an X1 Carbon, which is a g…

How's the heat on the T460p? Can you use it for light work without the keyboard heating up at all?

Re: Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival

#127

Post by hex20 » Wed, Jul 27, 2016, 10:48 AM UTC

anilgulecha wrote: post #4

If the RAM is user-upgradable, this will make for an excellent dev machine. Given it's a chinese laptop, it will surely not be locked, so Ubuntu will run well as well.

This image from their website would suggest it's not. http://c1.mifile.cn/f/i/16/mibookair/design/design-mainboard...

Re: Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival

#128

Post by Razengan » Wed, Jul 27, 2016, 10:48 AM UTC

d_j_b wrote: post #118

unixhero wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not run Linux on the metal?

Because the power management never quite works as it should

Neither does Windows' power management come close to the hours/work you can squeeze out of OS X on a Mac.

Re: Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival

#129

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jul 27, 2016, 10:49 AM UTC

anilgulecha wrote: post #4

If the RAM is user-upgradable, this will make for an excellent dev machine. Given it's a chinese laptop, it will surely not be locked, so Ubuntu will run well as well.

[deleted]

Re: Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival

#130

Post by vacri » Wed, Jul 27, 2016, 10:50 AM UTC

Fuxy wrote: post #50

puranjay wrote: post #8

People shit on Xiaomi here but even imitation requires some level of artistry and finesse. This looks like a good clone of Air, and I haven't seen Acer/Lenovo/Dell manage to do that yet.

Acer/Lenovo/Dell can't risk getting sued by Apple. Xiaomi is a Chinese company they don't care since if they ever do get sued the Chinese court will always side with the Chinese company. The again if the clone works just as well as the original I don't really care but this would have been a really good chance to copy and improve.

Well, if we're talking copies, then Airs are just a scaled-up version of the eeepc - same 'sharp wedge' shape (that is apparently why Lenovo X1s are being called clones of Airs).

The eeepc was the thing that proved there was enough interest for a low-power-but-mobile computer, which ended up turning into the tablet market. Crappy build quality, but people went berserk for them.