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Xiaomi’s first laptop is a Macbook Air rival

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

#321

Post by Keyframe »

overcast wrote: post #311
Keyframe wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work on film and television. My work consist of writing a lot (A LOT) of text and emails and spending a lot of time in Photoshop and Premiere. Sometimes even After Effects. Also, I'm mostly not around power outlets and am carrying the damn thing in my hands around. Air is really where it's the sweet spot for me - considering build and weight. I had several HP pro ones before (two different models), but they didn't…

You're just expecting too much out of an ultra lightweight form factor. You can't get the power you request, out of a laptop designed for maximum portability.

But I did with MBA. I can write for a whole day, almost, edit videos and do fast compositing works on it all on the go. I would like an updated model, and there isn't one. If there isn't one by the end of the Autumn, I will get another manufacturer. Just looking for which. Surface Book seems to be the likely candidate.

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

#322

Post by nimrody »

fizzbatter wrote: post #290
nimrody wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Xiaomi MI3 (international version) is almost two years old and now got automatically upgraded to Android 6.0. (No doze support and it revoked my root access but still nice!).

No doze? Any idea why? Seems like an odd thing to be missing (and an awesome feature to boot)

No idea. There's an app that's supposed to test for doze and it says "hw sensors: ok" (or similar) but "config: off". Like it's configurable somewhere but wasn't enabled by Xiaomi.

My guess is that Xiaomi already has a similar feature (perhaps less sophisticated) called "Autostart". Most app aren't allowed by default to wake up in the background and kill your battery. Only some (e.g., whatsapp) are whitelisted and, of course, you may whitelist additional apps yourself.

Overall, I'm happy with the battery usage of my Mi3. I prefer the Xiaomi Apple-like UI over Google's standard -- but that may be just a habit...

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

#323

Post by hcal »

clmckinley wrote: post #222
hcal wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that a troll? Linux has tons of native applications in just about every category. It is absolutely packed with alternatives. I don't use Linux daily anymore, but I almost never had an issue finding programs for what ever task I wanted to accomplish. More often then not the problem was a glut of choices.

Yes lots of alternatives, you can argue that there is an alternative for virtually everything that is available if you are willing and know how to find it. This is the same argument that Windows Phone (ironically) make, but most people want the same programs that all of their friends run. Computers and most other electronics are appliances to most people they just want them to work without any thought.

It is fair to say that certain software doesn't run (or run well) on Linux. It is also fair to say that most people don't want to learn how to use new software especially when they already know something else that works.

I think however, it is misleading at best to say that it doesn't have many native apps.

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

#324

Post by zdkl »

dpark wrote: post #257
zdkl wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On some of the models you're describing the motherboard is soldered to the chassis, that makes changing the HDD a bit perileous. Apart from that point I echo the sentiment. These are (were?) great little laptops for the price point/form factor

> On some of the models you're describing the motherboard is soldered to the chassis Ew. What purpose does that serve?

Afaict, it only teaches you a good lesson about voiding warranties and looking before prying the whole thing apart. (Almost destroyed mine opening it up to clean up the airways)

Not much otherwise.

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

#325

Post by keithpeter »

jonathankoren wrote: post #299
keithpeter wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What was stopping you from listening to music and printing at the same time? Never seen that one (USB mono laser printer/bog standard mp3 tracks to play).

It had something to do with device drivers not loading. It was stupidity. It was also 2003. The printer is a classic linux desktop experience. CUPS wouldn't recognize the printer, not even as generic postscript or something, or maybe it did, but wouldn't take advantage of its high resolution because binary blobs being evil or some other high horse. Either way, binary blobs figure into this. So I had to actually buy a…

Best of luck with it all. 13 years is some staying power!

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

#326

Post by [deleted] »

nullcipher wrote: post #289
leonroy wrote: post #286

This quote from Jony Ive really made me feel for the guy: “When you’re doing something for the first time, you don’t know it’s going to work. You spend seven or eight years working on something, and then it’s copied. I have to be honest, the first thing I can think, all those weekends that I could have at home with my family but didn’t. I think it’s theft, and it’s lazy.” Xiaomi have done this to others. Their new ai…

I don't know if he actually said that but isn't all innovation incremental? I understand he put his heart and soul into it, but there has been tons of people who have worked equally hard before him to get to where he got (Apple itself copied it's UI from Xerox). Apple has also blatantly copied and consumed many companies in the past. There is so much code copied around these days. This is all just the way it is and h…

[deleted]

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

#327

Post by spyder »

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.

ASUS ZenBook 3: https://www.asus.com/Notebooks/ASUS-ZenBook-3-UX390UA/

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

#328

Post by paganel »

leonroy wrote: post #286

This quote from Jony Ive really made me feel for the guy: “When you’re doing something for the first time, you don’t know it’s going to work. You spend seven or eight years working on something, and then it’s copied. I have to be honest, the first thing I can think, all those weekends that I could have at home with my family but didn’t. I think it’s theft, and it’s lazy.” Xiaomi have done this to others. Their new ai…

If it's got the same functionality and the same design as the Japanese product but only "sells at a fraction of the price" compared to the original product then they must be doing something better than the Japanese.

It's either lower wages, better productivity or both, either way, it's better for us, consumers, which now have additional money to spend on other products and services which further enrich our lives (where additional money = Price of the Japanese product - Price of the Chinese product).

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

#329

Post by xiaomai »

zghst wrote: post #309
kbrwn wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"...I think it’s theft, and it’s lazy." Not reinventing the wheel is a great business strategy. Everyone copies everyone in the tech space. Apple didn't invent lightweight laptops.

No but Apple innovated and made them a thing, after the Macbook Air, the PC industry scrambled to release ultrabooks (a new category then), after trying to push horrible netbooks on people.

Netbooks were actually great. I loved mine. It had 11 hours of battery life (this was around 2007 or 2008 when typical pc laptops were getting 2-4 hours). A lot of my classmates liked their netbooks too. The ultrabook is also fantastic, but much more expensive (I'm typing this on a $2000 ultrabook, my netbook was $200).

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

#330

Post by al_chemist »

cptskippy wrote: post #219
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...

The worst thing about Xiaomi is their invasive software. In order to use a Mi Fit band you have to create an account with them and grant their app every permission under the sun. I love their hardware, it's a frugal premium grade that's hard to come by. I just wish it were more open and their software wasn't so questionable.

That's interesting, because when I've got my Xiaomi Mi3 I've compared it with my Samsung Galaxy Tab. Mi3 was rooted, had almost no crapware and allowed me to pick what permissions app gets. On the other hand Tab required Samsung Account and rooting it voided guarantee.

Mi Band vibrates on incoming connection, sms and apps so maybe that's why it requires permissions to phone, sms and notifications.

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