Xiaomi has entered a new sector in the market with the launch of the RedmiBook 15. Although previous Xiaomi laptops have circulated in the market, not through official channels.
As the first laptop, Xiaomi is back to the original, which is a low -priced product. . It’s cheap for laptops that use 11th-generation Intel Core i3 processors.
How is the achievement? Let's take a look at the reviews below.
1. Design
The body of the RedmiBook 15 is made of polycarbonate material with a dark gray color, or Xiaomi calls it Charcoal Gray. The design is minimalist, only the Redmi writing is quite visible and the words ‘Power Your Creativity’ are barely visible.
The keyboard is chiclet style and oversized. comfortable when using typing with travel keys far enough. The spacing between the keys is quite sparse, and since this 15-inch laptop doesn’t have a numeric keyboard, the typing position is in the middle of the laptop.
The touchpad is quite large and also responsive to touch, and is also located in the center of the laptop. This means that the chances of pressing the touchpad while typing are very small.
Despite having a large body due to its 15 -inch screen, this laptop is quite lightweight. It weighs 1.8 kg. Comfortable enough to carry, also because the body is quite thin (19.9mm). The charger is also not too big, though still uses the old design, which is connected to two cables - one to the AC power socket and the other to the laptop.
It’s a bit unfortunate that the Xiaomi RedmiBook 15 doesn’t use a USB-C port for its charger, as currently many laptops use that port. The use of a USB -C port for chargers - if using the Power Delivery standard - will make it easier for users as they don’t have to carry a lot of chargers, as they can use the charger for mobile phones.
But the connection is quite complete. Such as 3.5mm combo audio port, two USB 3.0, one USB 2.0, HDMI port, RJ45 port for LAN and Kensington key. Interestingly, Xiaomi provides an SD Card reader, which in our opinion is much more useful than a card reader for micro SD.
2. Presentation
One of the things Xiaomi is fighting for from the RedmiBook 15 is the processor, the Intel Core i3-1115G4, which has two cores and four strings, a clock speed of 3 GHz, and 6MB of cache. As the name suggests, this is the 11th generation Intel Core processor, the latest to date.
The GPU is integrated, namely Intel UHD Graphics, as well as 8 channels DDR4 single channel RAM and 256MB SATA SSD storage. The benchmark results from the RedmiBook 15 are quite satisfactory, for example the Cinebench R23 which got a score of 1048 for a single core and 2027 for multiple cores, and the PCMark10 with a score of 3949.
Storage, while still SATA, is pretty good. The read speed when tested on CrystalDIskMark was 561MB / s and its write speed was 497.21MB / s. Of course it’s still lower than NVMe SSD storage, but again, at this price it’s still affordable.
With a score like this, the use of standards such as browsing, Office (Word, Excel, and the like), or video conferencing (Zoom), can run smoothly without feeling any delay. Even for photo processing using Photoshop is quite smooth.
While not intended for gaming, we wanted to know if this RedmiBook 15 could also be used for fun. Of course the game options tried must also ‘know yourself’. Don't expect to play AAA games on a laptop worth Rp 6 million.
The game we tested was CS: GO, which can get frame rates above 60fps, even above 90fps. Of course with the lowest settings and 720p resolution.
Similarly with the Genshin Impact, also with the lowest settings including lowering the Resolution Scale, the frame rate obtained can exceed 60fps. Affordable enough for a laptop not meant to play games.
Her body temperature is quite comfortable when the laptop is launched as a benchmark or playing games. The body temperature around the WASD button is at 40 degrees, but there is no excessive temperature on the Enter key, around 33 degrees.
The operating system packaged in the sales package is Windows 10 Home, and Xiaomi promises the RedmiBook 15 can be upgraded to Windows 11 for free.
How about a battery? When we use it for daily purposes, such as browsing, chatting via the WhatsApp Web, occasionally watching via YouTube and Netflix, also doing video conferencing using Zoom, the battery can last around 8 hours. Then charging the battery from empty takes about 2 hours via the 65W charger in the sales package.
3. Screen
The RedmiBook 15 uses a TN panel with FHD resolution and supports DC Dimming, which can adjust the screen brightness level but remain flicker -free (screen flicker). This TN panel doesn’t have the same point of view as the IPS panel, but it seems that for a laptop at this price, the panel selection still makes enough sense.
Oh yes, the screen is also matte, aka not glossy. As a result, the color will not be as clear as a laptop with a glossy screen, but this matte screen is more comfortable to use in places with a lot of light due to less picture reflection.
The screen bezel is not too thin, but also not too thick. The left and right bezels are sleek, but the top and bottom bezels are thick. Of course, in this price class, it’s hard to expect a thin screen bezel on all sides.
4. Conclusion
The RedmiBook 15 does bear a heavy burden as it carries the big name Xiaomi, which is already famous for its cheap handsets but with qualified specs. Still, it seems that Xiaomi is still experimenting with its first official laptop on the market.
There are a few things that are pretty unfortunate, the charger port is not USB-C and the screen is not IPS. But then again, this laptop, is also one of the cheapest Windows 2021 laptops. So in fact the lack is pretty natural.
Perhaps they are doing this to reduce the selling price of their laptops, and target a market for school students who, when these laptops are released, will still have to undergo distance learning, aka online.
Oh yes, one of the selling points of the RedmiBook 15 is the product warranty, which is 2 years for hardware, 1 year for batteries, and has 40 service center points worldwide.
