Compelling alternative to a Macbook Air or Dell XPS 13.
Main selling points are: -discrete NVidia Graphics -Samsung SM951 NVMe SSD (Read 2150MB/s, Write 1200MB/s, 90k/70k IOPS) -2 x M.2 2280 slots so additional SSD can be installed (SATA3 or run both SSD at half speed if other slot has NVMe due to CPU bus constraints)
Xiaomi Air 13 Laptop Windows 10 Intel Core i5-6200u Dual Core 2.3GHz 13.3 inch IPS Screen 8GB RAM 256GB NVMe SSD Front Camera Bluetooth 4.1 HDMI
Xiaomi Air 13 With a vivid screen and adaptive display technology, this laptop brings your photos and videos to life. It comes with high performance dedicated graphics card with dual SSD expansion. It also has a full-sized keyboard with backlit keys, all the ports you need. Customized AKG speaker with Dolby Audio Premium Surround Sound allows you enjoying music, movies and games better.
Discrete Graphics: GeForce GT 940MX
Microsoft Windows 10 Home OS Windows 10 brings back the popular Start Menu from Windows 7 and introduces new features, like the Edge Web browser that lets you mark up Web pages on your screen Intel Core i5-6200u Dual Core 2.3GHz, Up to 2.8GHz Ultra-low-voltage platform and dual-core processing provide maximum high-efficiency power to go. Intel Turbo Boost Technology delivers dynamic extra power when you need it 13.3 inch IPS Screen with 1920 x 1080 Resolution The 1920 x 1080 resolution boasts impressive color and clarity and IPS technology provides wide viewing angles 8GB DDR4 RAM for Advanced Multitasking Substantial high-bandwidth RAM to smoothly run your games, photos and video-editing applications, as well as multiple programs and browser tabs all at once 256GB SSD Storage Capacity Provides room to store pictures, videos, music and more New USB Type-C Port With its transmission speed 10 times faster than the traditional USB 2.0. The USB plug is reversible. You can connect it to the phone in whichever way you want HDMI Output Designed with standard HDMI slot, supporting 4K output and easy to show PPT, you can connect it to TV, monitors or projectors, creating your personal home theater 7.4V/5400mAh 40Wh Battery Supports Fast Charging Large capacity helps you free from shortage of power and frequent charging trouble and delivers long battery life without the fan Front Camera for Photos and Face-to-face Chat 1.0MP front camera lets you capture memorable moments or chat with friends Bluetooth 4.1 Interface Syncs with Compatible Devices Wirelessly transfer photos, music and other media between the computer and your Bluetooth-enabled cell phone or MP3 player, or connect Bluetooth wireless accessories
All comments (128)
woldranger
17 Aug 17#1
I'm sure for the money, it's a great device. But spending £500+ on a Gearbest purchase? You've got to be kidding!
BadBrainz to woldranger
17 Aug 17#2
Agreed I'm after this sort of device for travelling and I love Xiaomi stuff. But like hell am i spending that on a Chinese import. I wish someone here would start stocking them.
jeffjack
17 Aug 17#3
Looks amazing, might take a punt. Most items fall below customs fees but how about this?
Lowtrawler
17 Aug 17#4
Not in the market at the moment but would consider taking a punt in future. What's the keyboard layout, presumably no £ sign above the 3? Any other differences?
BadBrainz to Lowtrawler
17 Aug 17#5
US keyboard and Chinese plug are the only thing I can see out of the ordinary. Notebook check gives it a very favourable review.
Lowtrawler
17 Aug 17#6
Thanks, techadvisor also have favourable review, although battery life is much less than you might expect, only about 60% of the time on an XPS. That's probably a killer for me.
BadBrainz to Lowtrawler
17 Aug 17#7
Being USB c would it be chargeable from a power bank?
Agharta to BadBrainz
18 Aug 17#23
In theory yes but do power banks have enough juice? I presume you'd need a very hefty one.
rapid111111 to BadBrainz
18 Aug 17#25
Looked into that for my xps. Something about the power bank needing to be 20V and 3a which most power banks don't do. The ones that do it are about £120 and are difficult to find.
Does that even charge USB type C devices which seemingly this uses for charging? Not 100% if this laptop uses Type C for charging.
BadBrainz to Agharta
18 Aug 17#34
100% uses usb c for charging
Dodge62 to BadBrainz
18 Aug 17#35
That's the laptop, not the power pack, in case anyone else was wondering. The power pack does NOT have USB-C. It's also massive by the look of the pictures!
CampGareth to rapid111111
18 Aug 17#32
You need a USB-PD capable battery pack (Power Delivery, the official way to run more than 5V over a USB connection). The packs that do support it are expensive but worthwhile since they're close to 100Wh and can put out 30W which would charge my XPS 13 in about 2 hours.
After reading all the reviews I'm actually considering this. What are the delivery times like from gearbest?
pgilc1 to BadBrainz
18 Aug 17#13
Typically around 2-3 weeks.
BadBrainz to pgilc1
18 Aug 17#14
Even through DHL?
REAL_DEAL to BadBrainz
18 Aug 17#15
Customs would be all over it m8
BadBrainz to REAL_DEAL
18 Aug 17#16
Should I try and change it to normal shipping then? What sort of percentage customs charge would I be likely to get?
danj303 to BadBrainz
18 Aug 17#17
DO NOT USE DHL! You're guaranteed to be charged customs fees. With regular shipping, its probably likely to slip through.
BadBrainz to danj303
18 Aug 17#20
I realise this now but I've already put the order through and getting hold of gear best is a nightmare. I'm trying to find out what the customs charges will be?! Whether it's worth the hassle of me trying to contact them.
What is the value for VAT? The value for VAT is the declared value of the goods plus the transport costs to the country of destination plus the Customs Duty.
Example of Duty calculation Goods = 2 special edition CD sets Value of goods £80 + Transport to the UK £35
Total value for Duty £115 x 3.5% Duty = Total Duty payable £4.02
Example of VAT calculation Value of goods £80 + Transport to the UK £35 + Duty charges £4.02
Total value for VAT £119.02 x 20% = Total VAT payable £23.80 Therefore the total import Duty and VAT charges payable on import of these goods would be £27.82.
rapid111111 to BadBrainz
18 Aug 17#24
They're giving you the scare and a lot of misinformation. It will take around a week to deliver. There will be something to pay but it's a small amount. You should be able to go into your account and cancel if you changed your mind within a day.
Countyforever to BadBrainz
18 Aug 17#40
Bought a phone from them recently. Shipped on Monday and delivered on Saturday of the same week. I was impressed and very surprised.
chrome95
17 Aug 17#9
Think it works out cheaper from Banggood when using topcashback
With 6.3% cashback, it comes out to around £510 - £515
nascent
17 Aug 17#10
good luck with customs fees
BadBrainz to nascent
17 Aug 17#11
Just took the plunge and bought it. What are the customs fees likely to be?
pgilc1 to BadBrainz
18 Aug 17#12
I bought a Xiaomi Mi Mix from Banggood for £425. It got through customs no problem with nothing to pay.
drtesseract
18 Aug 17#18
Half height enter key is a deal breaker!!
must_resist___purchased
18 Aug 17#19
Any recommendations for an alternative from a UK seller? Similar in terms of form factor (up to 14") build quality and specs. Accept will probably cost a little more, missed the Asus deal off ao on here a while ago and haven't seen anything similar come up since apart from this
Dodge62
18 Aug 17#22
No duty on "Portable automatic data-processing machines, weighing not more than 10 kg, consisting of at least a central processing unit, a keyboard and a display".
So you'd be liable for VAT at 20%, plus any collection fee.
Any idea how difficult it will be to install the English version of Windows?
ClarkyCat
18 Aug 17#30
I bought this a couple of weeks ago - paid the extra $15 insurance and standard delivery.
Took a week to arrive, it's a fantastic laptop.
You can type the £ sign with shift + Right Alt + 4 - .i.e. the same as typing the $ sign, but hold the right Alt button as well.
BadBrainz
18 Aug 17#33
So I've changed it to standard deliver but kept the insurance just to be on the safe side. So those power banks should do two charges I would imagine? That's pretty good! What about 12v cigarette socket chargers? I'm going to be traveling in my van no mains.
CampGareth to BadBrainz
18 Aug 17#36
I don't have any links for you but if it supports USB-PD it'll charge the laptop. I'm sure amazon has something.
The linked 50000mAh pack you mean? Yeah that looks like a old solution for older laptops, things that don't talk to their power supplies. As an added bonus that one couldn't be taken on planes since it's above the 100Wh limit! Wheeee!
Picard123
18 Aug 17#37
The Xiaomi Air line of laptops are excellent (apart from the thermals under load) but this is not the one to get as its the older 13" model with the older 940MX GPU. It's been superceded by the 1030/MX150 based GPU model which is alot more powerful:
Personally, I'd wait for the next gen of Xiaomi's laptops as hopefully they will have ironed out the heat issues by then.
BadBrainz to Picard123
18 Aug 17#38
Depends on your usage I suppose. There's always going to be a better machine for more money I believe the 2017 model is almost £300 more. I want this as a light machine to travel with. To write my blog, get online, Skype, do some research, some photo editing, and watch Rick and Morty. No need for me to spend £300 I don't have to do any of that.
Picard123 to BadBrainz
18 Aug 17#39
Don't get me wrong - these are great machines and a terrific example how a Chinese manufacturer can produce a genuinely 'premium' machine with their first attempt. All I'm saying is that the 2nd generation design is likely to be even better as Xiaomi are still pretty new to the laptop market.
The price of the 2017 model will also drop over the next 6-12 months as they're always at a (very) high price upon release for some reason.
BadBrainz
18 Aug 17#41
What shipping method did you choose?
BadBrainz
18 Aug 17#42
Fair one. Yeah I can't wait 12 or even 6 months I'm leaving in 2! Fingers crossed it will fit my needs.
Countyforever
18 Aug 17#43
I used their standard shipping. To be honest, I was really surprised at the speed of delivery. Having read a lot of comments about choices of delivery it seems the best choice is standard shipping and is most likely to avoid customs charges.
BadBrainz
18 Aug 17#44
Yeah that's what I've now gone for. Gearbest actually sent me an email saying they had stopped my order because I was likely to incur charges with DHL and offered me standard or expedited. For all the trash talk about them that's pretty decent service so far. Watch this space....
abaxas
18 Aug 17#45
Old model with a next to useless GPU.
Newer version with a mx150 is the one to go for.
Picard123
18 Aug 17#46
The GPU is hardly 'next to useless'. It's no AAA title gaming machine but it's still much better than any machine with integrated graphics.
The bigger issue with this machine is how hot the CPU/GPU gets under load. Other than that, it's a lovely ultraportable laptop.
abaxas
19 Aug 17#47
the issue is the newer model will play almost every game out there at 30+ fps. The 940mx wont.
Picard123
19 Aug 17#48
No chance. Certainly not at 1080p.
Performance of the MX150 is only ~7% more than the 950m.
On something like GTA V or FO4, you'll be having to lower the resolution or crank down the details.
abaxas
19 Aug 17#49
Ermmm it's a 940MX in this model nbot the 950M.
It's like a downclocked 730 vs a downclocked 1030.
Having owned a 730 with 1gb GDDR5 (mostly for Elite dangerous). I can say that you'll struggle with most modern games even at lower resolutions.
getknk
19 Aug 17#50
There's another brand in Gearbest called as "Airbook". Have anyone purchased it? How's the quality?
ra11
19 Aug 17#51
Is spec ok for oculus?
qtweeder
19 Aug 17#52
amazon.co.uk/gp/…9H2 ravpower 26800 USB C version should, best power bank i have owned, and that is a fair few - via the usb-c port should give plenty enough power via PD
minimoney
19 Aug 17#53
The 'spec missed out ....'and more back doors than a council estate'
drtesseract
19 Aug 17#54
If you are worried about import duty and want an exact price, you can get it from Lightinthebox for £578.68 Including shipping insurance and import cost insurance (if you do get charged you can claim it back).
Horrorwood
19 Aug 17#55
I am not sure if you could make a worse comparison if you tried.
Geforce GT 730: Kepler based card.
Geforce 940mx: Maxwel based card and clocked much higher.
As long as you are playing on low settings then a 940mx is fine:
I assume most people that buy a 13.3" slim portable laptop are not buying it for AAA competitive gaming, but I am sure it will be fine for 90%+ of people.
Also this should be the GDDR5 940mx which is quite a bit faster than the DDR3 version.
Picard123
19 Aug 17#56
Don't think you understood my post. We're talking about the revised Air . Look at the benchmarks. Performance is only slightly more than the 950m ~ 7%
abaxas
19 Aug 17#57
That's actually incorrect. The gt 730 with GDDR5 is a maxell based part. (nothing there are three different version of the 730)
rapid111111
19 Aug 17#58
Those both don't charge the XPS 13. It needs to be 60W. Also says it in the description
fishmaster
19 Aug 17#59
I've worked on this laptop for a customer. You need to buy a Windows key. The key embedded in the MSDM table in the BIOS, will only activate Chinese Windows 10.
tightar5e
19 Aug 17#60
Surely you can just change the region once it's installed and activated? I doubt it Geo-locates, on activation. Once installed and activated, you then just install a UK/US Version over the top, if you really need to. (Maybe its the modified chinese Windows 10 version that doesn't activate via US Servers, activates with an MS authorised 3rd party behind the Chinese Firewall).
Buying an laptop with dedicated Nvidia Graphics is always better than buying a laptop with Intel integrated graphics, because Nvidia offer 7-8 year driver support. Intel, you're lucky to get half that.
Picard123
19 Aug 17#61
Seems to be the DDR5 version (unless there are DDR3 versions around as well).
Are you using a US keyboard layout in Windows? If you switch it to UK you might be better off. Then Shift + 3 will presumably give you the £ char.
Tarquin8484
19 Aug 17#63
Of course the next gen. will be better. And the gen. after that will be even better. Also more expensive. I'm not sure what point you're making.
Tarquin8484
19 Aug 17#64
So post a deal and let's see how warm it gets.
usman330
19 Aug 17#65
488 if you pay in cny and use a zero commission currency card like monzo. Can still use PayPal too
usman330
19 Aug 17#66
Is this the one without the fingerprint reader.
fishmaster
19 Aug 17#67
You can read Chinese can you? I suppose you could use Google Translate camera feature and work it out or install another English version on another PC and copy the menu options.
BadBrainz
19 Aug 17#68
There are loads of guides online to change to the English version of Windows. I checked this before I bought it. I don't see why there should be a problem?
winchman
19 Aug 17#69
I've also seen on a couple of websites that this only comes with Chinese version of Windows, there are no language options. So, yes you will need to buy another license with English, cheap enough on ebay.
634miyamoto
19 Aug 17#70
What kind of stupid comany names their product "Air", you pay for something you get for free? Oh wait that fruit company sells Air as well...
Picard123
19 Aug 17#71
2nd gen for practically every product - whether iPhone, 1st laptop product etc - is the sweet spot as they've used the 1st gen product as a development mule to learn from and mature the product. Later revisions may be incrementally better in terms of design but not much so as the product is already mature and the manufacturing processes refined. Laptops are very mature products. This is already a good product - there's not much to refine. The only thing missing is the better heat dissipation and a finger reader or Win Hello. You don't need several generations for that to be sorted out, just one.
Dangerous_Dave2k
19 Aug 17#72
Speakers in the wrong place - just about ok on a desktop replacement but a problem on a portable.
CampGareth
19 Aug 17#73
Eh? I have a USB-PD charger on my desk that's only 45W and it powers my XPS 13 under the worst of load (full brightness, CPU maxed out). Have you tested that 60W-only claim yourself?
As for their description saying no popular laptop models... there's a turbulent history here which makes me think it's just the legal department covering their behinds.
See this review for what happens when you try to charge an XPS 12 off the RAVpower charger. In short it advertises 5v 3A, device agrees to draw less than that and charging begins. A moment later the battery pack re-advertises and now says it can do 20v 1.5A, which the device agrees to switch to. 20 minutes later the battery pack gets stuck and needs a hard reset, after that it advertises 5v 0.05A only and stays that way. I suspect that's because the battery pack overheats and safeties kick in which would also explain why these packs have disappeared from amazon twice for about a month each time, they were being redesigned.
Talking about the 9350 right? On both the links you sent it states explicitly that it's not meant for the XPS 13.
So I imagine even if it may work its being operated past its capacity which is dangerous. RAV has been especially pointed out for this.
BonzoDogDooDaa
20 Aug 17#75
Won't buy from gearbest ever again l got charged £17 customs fees on a £70 Gretel a6 phone
wilc
20 Aug 17#76
totally agree with you lol, next one will always be better, price of old one will drop, and it happens all over again lol
abaxas
20 Aug 17#77
I've been checking the prices of this device for months. Then the new model pops up to make things more complex :P
If I see the 12.5 version of this for sub £400 I'll probablyt post it as a deal.( but not if from aliexpress)
Picard123
20 Aug 17#78
Ali is Amazon Marketplace - all depends which seller you're buying from. I've used HK Goldway before to buy several phones. They've been excellent. Don't know about other sellers though.
CampGareth
20 Aug 17#79
The Benson link is from a wall charger so different product (that is terrible behaviour though, you don't advertise you can speak French and then catch fire if someone asks you to). The Reddit link is from someone who doesn't know how USB-PD works.
Ravpower's website doesn't mention that the battery pack only works with certain devices, it only says: "Type-C port is incompatible with the type-C cables / chargers of the Huawei P10, Huawei Mate 9, as well as OPPO and OnePlus phones."
Anker's website mentions it, but the statement is weird if you think about it for a moment: "Incompatible with HTC 10 and HP Spectre and Dell XPS 13 Will not charge MacBook Pro, Samsung W700 or Lumia 950 at full speed"
So it'll charge a MacBook Pro (slowly), the device that famously comes with an 87W charger, but it won't charge an XPS 13 or HP Spectre? So is the XPS 15 fine? Is a chromebook pixel fine? Why won't it charge a specific model of mobile phone at full speed?
I think what I'm saying is USB charging beyond the simple 5V stuff is a mess and because of that manufacturers are saying and doing weird things. You need to think for yourself and be willing to return products. Personally I'm going to buy the RAVPower one at the end of the month. If it's overheating that's something I can test for, report, and then fix myself.
duckative
20 Aug 17#80
Only certain power banks will work, they are usually much more expensive
ismaildeals123
20 Aug 17#81
you would have to be really stupid to spend this much with gearbest one problem with the pc and you can kiss your money goodbuy the aftercare with this comoany is a joke
geordibbk
20 Aug 17#82
Thanks op, was unaware of this model.
ResveZ
20 Aug 17#83
You have to be kidding... This is short of being anywhere near the minimum (gtx 960).
SalmanOrange
20 Aug 17#84
Not going to pay 500 odd quid for a fake MacBook Air voted cold
hcc27
20 Aug 17#85
Great price for the specs.
I'm waiting for the Civiltop Air or the Onda Xiaoma21 to come down a bit in price. It's only an Apollo Lake, but has a metal unibody, full HD screen, fingerprint reader, and actually looks and feels almost identical to the MacBook. Reviews are very positive.
Amazing how FAST China is progressing now.
BadBrainz
20 Aug 17#86
So in summary can someone recommend a powerbank and a 12v in car charger that will charge this efficiently or not? Or is it a bit of a grey area?
Not sure if this helps anyone, but I bought this laptop a couple of months back through gearbest. I paid using PayPal, also paid a little extra for insurance, took 2-3 weeks to arrive. Delivered by DHL and paid £18 for customs.
The machine is great, it doesn't have the build quality of an Apple product but it's fantastic for its price. Recently added an extra SSD drive in the second slot. Dual-booting on separate drives - Windows 10 on primary, Arch Linux on secondary. The combination of various ports is really useful.
Not tried charging from power bank, but will try and report back
Awaken
21 Aug 17#89
How about a Thinkpad Carbon. Very fast, very slim, very good battery life, very well built (actually is carbon fibre), 14" screen, lovely keyboard and rather cheap refurb.... I'm up to about 80 of these in the fleet of refurb thinkpads I manage for a group of charity schools and they're proving fast and reliable :smile:
You can find cheaper - but it's worth paying more for one with the beautiful WQHD IPS touch screen display :smile:
Conall122
21 Aug 17#90
How did you get away with paying so little in customs. 2.5% duty + 20% vat puts the custom fee around £120.
must_resist___purchased
21 Aug 17#91
Ooh, they look really good. Will have a closer look, definitely a lot of laptop for the money. Thanks for the heads up, hadnt considered a refurbished biz machine
Do like how much better the business laptops are screwed together, in my experience. Although slightly out off by the fact I've worked at the kind of places these laptops come from and they're sometimes not shown a lot of love
Awaken
21 Aug 17#92
Well, I manage about 220 thinkpads, varying models, all bought refurbished. The majority tend to arrive in great condition, though I think that's more about the thinkpads ability to resist damage than careful treatment! They've also held up really well under school conditions too, in their second lives.
Grading matters, you do need to read and check photos to see exactly what you're getting - though it's usually made pretty clear - the company selling that one I've actually bought in bulk from and they're honest. Don't forget if you buy something unseen you have the right to return under distance selling regulations - bigger refurbers like tier1 have a lot of stock to shift and have no interest in having it bounce back due to dishonest descriptions.
With regards the Carbons specifically, a lot are B or C grade due to pressure marks on the screen - and these are what we've mostly bought. None of the end users even seem to have noticed, lol, and certainly none have commented!
lowercase
21 Aug 17#93
I think this site is owned by Gearbest
Ambrozz
21 Aug 17#94
They marked the parcel as a 'power adapter' and somehow got away with it
SalmanOrange
21 Aug 17#95
I said 500 odd quid, and just because I shared a deal in the past doesn't mean I bought it
Ambrozz
21 Aug 17#96
Ok, after praising Gearbest with this post, I found out something from my colleague just now...
He ordered the same machine several weeks ago, it arrived last week and he opened it today to find that only the user manual was in the box! The box wasn't damaged, just missing the most expensive bit!
BadBrainz
21 Aug 17#97
Well let's hope he was just unlucky as I can't afford to get ripped off.
BadBrainz
21 Aug 17#98
Mines been shipped I've got my tracking info i shall update whether I get an empty box, or charged by customs.
efem
21 Aug 17#99
i've ordered number of items from gearbest, almost everything was xiaomi, All items arrived as expected ( except 1 item which has arrived today after sitting 4 weeks in customs waiting for clearance ). Recommended to order everything tracked and "slow" delivery, as only this last item took 5 weeks to arrive.
karlbnz
21 Aug 17#100
Yes, but your tablet was £200. The point being that this is no more a fake macbook air than an android tablet is a fake ipad. It has completely different components, case, OS, and built by the world's fifth largest smartphone manufacturer. Hardly a "fake".
harrison1258
22 Aug 17#101
Only £517.41 if you use the code 'GBAir13'
BadBrainz
24 Aug 17#102
Tracking tells me its landed in the UK. Now I've just got to hope it isn't an empty box... :joy:
BadBrainz
24 Aug 17#103
Took 4 days to arrive unscathed. Sexy bit of kit.
iibdii
27 Aug 17#104
U should borrow a one plus cable from someone and try that with any high powered usb socket. That's fastest charging cable in market
iibdii
27 Aug 17#105
Any update on custom and windows please I'm really tempted just can't be bothered by windows Also how's battery life
BadBrainz
27 Aug 17#106
Well it's still at home in its box as I'm away for the weekend so can't comment on Windows or battery yet. Went straight through without getting caught in customs though.
retrend
27 Aug 17#107
If you get stung on the true value of this with customs it's gonna be a sore one. Still OK value but a hefty bill.
GGMI
5 Sep 17#108
How you getting on with it? Which warehouse did you order from and what couriers?
BadBrainz
5 Sep 17#109
Absolutely love it. Screen is beautiful. It runs smooth. Gets a bit hot under load but I knew that and battery could be better but I knew that too. Ordered it from China on standard delivery. I ended up getting a mate to put English windows on it because I found that bit a pain. I could have done it myself but I was unwell and didn't have the patience.
GGMI
6 Sep 17#110
Hmm to be honest all the things you have mentioned are the things putting me off. The battery could be the deal breaker for me. I think I will find that annoying.
BadBrainz
6 Sep 17#111
I'm getting about 6/7 hours on 30%/40% brightness. I'm never going to be far from a lower source and it charges very quickly. So whilst slightly annoying I can handle it.
GGMI
6 Sep 17#112
Hmm, it's frustrating as I really really like it except for the 3 things you mention.
I bought a dvr system with 4 cameras was around $400 and much larger packet by dhl duty was £19 so if u keep 40/50 for import duty u should be alright
BadBrainz
6 Sep 17#115
Yeah don't sent it by DHL either just pick to have insurance with it and take the free delivery option.
Dealmessiah
6 Sep 17#116
Wouldn't trust Bangsh!te as far as I could throw them. Lost out on a purchase with them. Trusting a £500+ purchase on an import from one of these sites is madness, I tell you.
stuartc74
6 Sep 17#117
Good value but basically no warranty. Good luck.
hetro0
6 Sep 17#118
I had this Laptop delivered in 10 days, Awesome bit of kit.
stickyapple
7 Sep 17#119
Anyone know if you can run MacOS via a VM like Virtualbox on this?
andysubaru
8 Sep 17#120
I've had one of these for just under a year and its been great. Battery life is very good, with wifi off I managed 12 hours of watching videos on medium brightness, web browsing and a bit of photoshop and wordprocessing I usually get about 6-7 hours, editing 4k 100mb/s video and rendering I get about 1 hour 30 minutes. The battery will charge from flat to full in a just over an hour, it does charge via USB C but I don't think you'd be able to charge it via a powerbank as its 20v charging.
Also worth noting it has a second hard drive slot which. My dad bought the same laptop at the same time, he put a 500gb M2 SSD in his as he wanted extra storage (6 screws to take the bottom cover off then just slot the drive straight in. I bought a smaller drive as I just wanted to run OSX on dual boot with windows. The only thing that isn't compatible with OSX is the built in wifi so I just have to use a USB wifi dongle.
At that price these are a steel. I opted for DHL and did pay customs. I can't find my original email now but I think it was somewhere around ETA JUST FOUND IT I PAID £18 (my dad shipped by the slower shipping method and didn't pay any. Gearbest actually contacted me after I'd selected DHL to make me aware that I'll probably have to pay import duty and asked me if I wanted to change to the slower shipping method but I needed it in a hurry so wasn't bothered)
andysubaru
8 Sep 17#121
I tried running in a VM but it wasn't very usable so I stuck a secondary M2 SSD in and did a proper install. It was a bit of a steep learning curve to understand how to install it but am glad I stuck with it as it runs great, only thing that doesn't work is built in wifi so you need a USB wifi dongle. I run mainstage 3 and Logic on it and it runs great. I just get a startup screen asking if I want to boot to windows or OSX and goes straight in.
andysubaru
8 Sep 17#122
I had to pay £18 for mine (shipped via DHL I ordered one for my dad too who wasn't in such a hurry to get it so selected standard shipping and he didn't pay any)
Raydar81
11 Sep 17#123
Blame Hansel!
hetro0
13 Sep 17#124
Loving mine for all the reasons you have quoted :smile:
m14x74
14 Sep 17#125
Any idea if there is an extra memory slot to take it up to 16gb ?
andysubaru
14 Sep 17#126
Memory is soldered unfortunately so no chance of upgrading that. Second hard drive slot is good though, my dad put a 500gb one in his and took it fine
m14x74
15 Sep 17#127
Have never ordered from GB before, if you select the free standard delivery when it gets over here is it delivered by royal mail or some other company like yodel ?
Is it safer to use PayPal or credit card ?
andysubaru
18 Sep 17#128
Sorry only just seen this. I ordered via paypal with both (as I wanted to use paypal credit on one of them). From memory it was a normal courier that delivered rather than royal mail
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Opening post
Main selling points are:
-discrete NVidia Graphics
-Samsung SM951 NVMe SSD (Read 2150MB/s, Write 1200MB/s, 90k/70k IOPS)
-2 x M.2 2280 slots so additional SSD can be installed (SATA3 or run both SSD at half speed if other slot has NVMe due to CPU bus constraints)
Xiaomi Air 13 Laptop Windows 10 Intel Core i5-6200u Dual Core 2.3GHz 13.3 inch IPS Screen 8GB RAM 256GB NVMe SSD Front Camera Bluetooth 4.1 HDMI
Xiaomi Air 13
With a vivid screen and adaptive display technology, this laptop brings your photos and videos to life. It comes with high performance dedicated graphics card with dual SSD expansion. It also has a full-sized keyboard with backlit keys, all the ports you need. Customized AKG speaker with Dolby Audio Premium Surround Sound allows you enjoying music, movies and games better.
Discrete Graphics: GeForce GT 940MX
Microsoft Windows 10 Home OS
Windows 10 brings back the popular Start Menu from Windows 7 and introduces new features, like the Edge Web browser that lets you mark up Web pages on your screen
Intel Core i5-6200u Dual Core 2.3GHz, Up to 2.8GHz
Ultra-low-voltage platform and dual-core processing provide maximum high-efficiency power to go. Intel Turbo Boost Technology delivers dynamic extra power when you need it
13.3 inch IPS Screen with 1920 x 1080 Resolution
The 1920 x 1080 resolution boasts impressive color and clarity and IPS technology provides wide viewing angles
8GB DDR4 RAM for Advanced Multitasking
Substantial high-bandwidth RAM to smoothly run your games, photos and video-editing applications, as well as multiple programs and browser tabs all at once
256GB SSD Storage Capacity
Provides room to store pictures, videos, music and more
New USB Type-C Port
With its transmission speed 10 times faster than the traditional USB 2.0. The USB plug is reversible. You can connect it to the phone in whichever way you want
HDMI Output
Designed with standard HDMI slot, supporting 4K output and easy to show PPT, you can connect it to TV, monitors or projectors, creating your personal home theater
7.4V/5400mAh 40Wh Battery Supports Fast Charging
Large capacity helps you free from shortage of power and frequent charging trouble and delivers long battery life without the fan
Front Camera for Photos and Face-to-face Chat
1.0MP front camera lets you capture memorable moments or chat with friends
Bluetooth 4.1 Interface Syncs with Compatible Devices
Wirelessly transfer photos, music and other media between the computer and your Bluetooth-enabled cell phone or MP3 player, or connect Bluetooth wireless accessories
All comments (128)
Something about the power bank needing to be 20V and 3a which most power banks don't do.
The ones that do it are about £120 and are difficult to find.
accessories.euro.dell.com/sna…BVT
On amazon you can get 50000 mah for £110
amazon.co.uk/gp/…3LR
E.g. This Anker one or This RAVpower one
From DHL website - dhl.co.uk/en/…tml
What is the value for VAT?
The value for VAT is the declared value of the goods plus the transport costs to the country of destination plus the Customs Duty.
Example of Duty calculation
Goods = 2 special edition CD sets
Value of goods £80 + Transport to the UK £35
Total value for Duty £115 x 3.5% Duty = Total Duty payable £4.02
Example of VAT calculation
Value of goods £80 + Transport to the UK £35 + Duty charges £4.02
Total value for VAT £119.02 x 20% = Total VAT payable £23.80
Therefore the total import Duty and VAT charges payable on import of these goods would be £27.82.
It will take around a week to deliver. There will be something to pay but it's a small amount.
You should be able to go into your account and cancel if you changed your mind within a day.
Link: banggood.com/Xia…12S
With 6.3% cashback, it comes out to around £510 - £515
So you'd be liable for VAT at 20%, plus any collection fee.
Any idea how difficult it will be to install the English version of Windows?
Took a week to arrive, it's a fantastic laptop.
You can type the £ sign with shift + Right Alt + 4 - .i.e. the same as typing the $ sign, but hold the right Alt button as well.
The linked 50000mAh pack you mean? Yeah that looks like a old solution for older laptops, things that don't talk to their power supplies. As an added bonus that one couldn't be taken on planes since it's above the 100Wh limit! Wheeee!
Personally, I'd wait for the next gen of Xiaomi's laptops as hopefully they will have ironed out the heat issues by then.
Depends on your usage I suppose. There's always going to be a better machine for more money I believe the 2017 model is almost £300 more. I want this as a light machine to travel with. To write my blog, get online, Skype, do some research, some photo editing, and watch Rick and Morty. No need for me to spend £300 I don't have to do any of that.
The price of the 2017 model will also drop over the next 6-12 months as they're always at a (very) high price upon release for some reason.
Newer version with a mx150 is the one to go for.
The bigger issue with this machine is how hot the CPU/GPU gets under load. Other than that, it's a lovely ultraportable laptop.
Performance of the MX150 is only ~7% more than the 950m.
notebookcheck.net/NVI…tml
On something like GTA V or FO4, you'll be having to lower the resolution or crank down the details.
It's like a downclocked 730 vs a downclocked 1030.
Having owned a 730 with 1gb GDDR5 (mostly for Elite dangerous). I can say that you'll struggle with most modern games even at lower resolutions.
ravpower 26800 USB C version should, best power bank i have owned, and that is a fair few - via the usb-c port should give plenty enough power via PD
Including shipping insurance and import cost insurance (if you do get charged you can claim it back).
Geforce GT 730: Kepler based card.
Geforce 940mx: Maxwel based card and clocked much higher.
As long as you are playing on low settings then a 940mx is fine:
I assume most people that buy a 13.3" slim portable laptop are not buying it for AAA competitive gaming, but I am sure it will be fine for 90%+ of people.
Also this should be the GDDR5 940mx which is quite a bit faster than the DDR3 version.
Buying an laptop with dedicated Nvidia Graphics is always better than buying a laptop with Intel integrated graphics, because Nvidia offer 7-8 year driver support. Intel, you're lucky to get half that.
notebookcheck.net/Xia…tml
As for their description saying no popular laptop models... there's a turbulent history here which makes me think it's just the legal department covering their behinds.
See this review for what happens when you try to charge an XPS 12 off the RAVpower charger. In short it advertises 5v 3A, device agrees to draw less than that and charging begins. A moment later the battery pack re-advertises and now says it can do 20v 1.5A, which the device agrees to switch to. 20 minutes later the battery pack gets stuck and needs a hard reset, after that it advertises 5v 0.05A only and stays that way. I suspect that's because the battery pack overheats and safeties kick in which would also explain why these packs have disappeared from amazon twice for about a month each time, they were being redesigned.
plus.google.com/+Be…Ph7
And here
reddit.com/r/D…50/
Talking about the 9350 right?
On both the links you sent it states explicitly that it's not meant for the XPS 13.
So I imagine even if it may work its being operated past its capacity which is dangerous. RAV has been especially pointed out for this.
If I see the 12.5 version of this for sub £400 I'll probablyt post it as a deal.( but not if from aliexpress)
The Reddit link is from someone who doesn't know how USB-PD works.
Ravpower's website doesn't mention that the battery pack only works with certain devices, it only says: "Type-C port is incompatible with the type-C cables / chargers of the Huawei P10, Huawei Mate 9, as well as OPPO and OnePlus phones."
Anker's website mentions it, but the statement is weird if you think about it for a moment: "Incompatible with HTC 10 and HP Spectre and Dell XPS 13
Will not charge MacBook Pro, Samsung W700 or Lumia 950 at full speed"
So it'll charge a MacBook Pro (slowly), the device that famously comes with an 87W charger, but it won't charge an XPS 13 or HP Spectre? So is the XPS 15 fine? Is a chromebook pixel fine? Why won't it charge a specific model of mobile phone at full speed?
I think what I'm saying is USB charging beyond the simple 5V stuff is a mess and because of that manufacturers are saying and doing weird things. You need to think for yourself and be willing to return products. Personally I'm going to buy the RAVPower one at the end of the month. If it's overheating that's something I can test for, report, and then fix myself.
one problem with the pc and you can kiss your money goodbuy
the aftercare with this comoany is a joke
This is short of being anywhere near the minimum (gtx 960).
I'm waiting for the Civiltop Air or the Onda Xiaoma21 to come down a bit in price. It's only an Apollo Lake, but has a metal unibody, full HD screen, fingerprint reader, and actually looks and feels almost identical to the MacBook. Reviews are very positive.
Amazing how FAST China is progressing now.
Or is it a bit of a grey area?
I don't mind if its a matter of expense
Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (2016) £199 with CODE!! @ Tesco
I paid using PayPal, also paid a little extra for insurance, took 2-3 weeks to arrive. Delivered by DHL and paid £18 for customs.
The machine is great, it doesn't have the build quality of an Apple product but it's fantastic for its price. Recently added an extra SSD drive in the second slot. Dual-booting on separate drives - Windows 10 on primary, Arch Linux on secondary. The combination of various ports is really useful.
Not tried charging from power bank, but will try and report back
ebay.co.uk/itm…zsd
You can find cheaper - but it's worth paying more for one with the beautiful WQHD IPS touch screen display :smile:
Do like how much better the business laptops are screwed together, in my experience. Although slightly out off by the fact I've worked at the kind of places these laptops come from and they're sometimes not shown a lot of love
Grading matters, you do need to read and check photos to see exactly what you're getting - though it's usually made pretty clear - the company selling that one I've actually bought in bulk from and they're honest. Don't forget if you buy something unseen you have the right to return under distance selling regulations - bigger refurbers like tier1 have a lot of stock to shift and have no interest in having it bounce back due to dishonest descriptions.
With regards the Carbons specifically, a lot are B or C grade due to pressure marks on the screen - and these are what we've mostly bought. None of the end users even seem to have noticed, lol, and certainly none have commented!
He ordered the same machine several weeks ago, it arrived last week and he opened it today to find that only the user manual was in the box! The box wasn't damaged, just missing the most expensive bit!
The point being that this is no more a fake macbook air than an android tablet is a fake ipad.
It has completely different components, case, OS, and built by the world's fifth largest smartphone manufacturer. Hardly a "fake".
Also how's battery life
Hmm, it's frustrating as I really really like it except for the 3 things you mention.
COLD
The battery will charge from flat to full in a just over an hour, it does charge via USB C but I don't think you'd be able to charge it via a powerbank as its 20v charging.
Also worth noting it has a second hard drive slot which. My dad bought the same laptop at the same time, he put a 500gb M2 SSD in his as he wanted extra storage (6 screws to take the bottom cover off then just slot the drive straight in.
I bought a smaller drive as I just wanted to run OSX on dual boot with windows. The only thing that isn't compatible with OSX is the built in wifi so I just have to use a USB wifi dongle.
At that price these are a steel. I opted for DHL and did pay customs. I can't find my original email now but I think it was somewhere around ETA JUST FOUND IT I PAID £18 (my dad shipped by the slower shipping method and didn't pay any. Gearbest actually contacted me after I'd selected DHL to make me aware that I'll probably have to pay import duty and asked me if I wanted to change to the slower shipping method but I needed it in a hurry so wasn't bothered)
Is it safer to use PayPal or credit card ?